Spectator Sports

Baseball

With two baseball teams in town, you can catch a game almost any day, from Opening Day in April to the beginning of the playoffs in October.

For information on pricing and availability of tickets for the Metropolitans, call the Mets Ticket Office at tel. 718/507-TIXX (507-8499), or visit http://newyork.mets.mlb.com. Also keep in mind that you can buy game tickets (as well as logo wear and souvenirs, if you want to dress appropriately for the big game) at the Mets Clubhouse Shop, which has a midtown Manhattan location.

New Yankee Stadium is across the street from the old one (Subway: C, D, 4 to 161st St./Yankee Stadium). NY Waterway offers baseball cruises to games; call tel. 800/533-3779, or visit www.nywaterway.com for more info. For single-game tickets, contact Yankee Stadium (tel. 718/293-6000; http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com) or go to the team’s clubhouse shop in Manhattan. Serious baseball fans check the schedule well in advance for Old Timers’ Day, usually held in July, when pinstriped stars of years past return to the stadium to take a bow.

You can also buy Mets and Yankees tickets by contacting Ticketmaster (tel. 800/745-3000; www.ticketmaster.com), visiting the stadium on the day of the game, or trying online resale sites such as StubHub (www.stubhub.com).

Yanks & Mets Settle Into Their New Homes -- Not just one, but two brand-new Major League Baseball stadiums opened in New York (New York) in 2009. The New York Yankees’ spanking-new Yankee Stadium opened for business, and pleasure, on April 16, when the Bronx Bombers lost to the Cleveland Indians, 10–2 (ouch!). The Yankees recovered (and how!) to win their first World Series in a decade in 2009.

The new ballpark, which cost over $1 billion, is a stone’s throw from the old. The reviews of the new stadium have generally been strong, with expected grumblings about the prices for seats and food. Ownership—that is, the Steinbrenners—has retained much of the style of the old stadium. The field dimensions are the same, for example (though home runs have been flying out in great number, a trend that seems to be continuing). But the seats are wider, there are more restrooms (1 for every 60 fans vs. 1 for every 89 in the old) and, overall, as the New York Times reports, “the new stadium does provide the baseball version of upward mobility.”

And now you have the opportunity to buy sushi along with your classic Nathan’s hot dog. The prices for seats? The new stadium was built when asking $900 for field level seats didn’t seem like such a reach. By the time it opened, fans complained loudly (and successfully) about the high ticket prices, and some of them, at least, came down.

The Yankees had better luck with their new stadium than the Mets did in theirs. Across from where Shea Stadium used to stand, the Mets now occupy Citi Field. The old stadium, built in 1964, has been razed. The new stadium opened on April 13, 2009, when the Mets hosted the San Diego Padres. They lost, 6–5. That trend continued through much of the 2009 season, as the Mets failed to make the playoffs.

Inside Citi, there are 15,000 fewer seats than Shea, but, as with Yankee Stadium, the seats are wider, there is more legroom, and there are more restrooms. The start of the 2010 season saw the opening of the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum at Citi Field, which features artifacts, interactive exhibits, and memorabilia of great moments in the franchise’s history, including the famous ball hit by Mookie Wilson that Bill Buckner booted in game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

While the field dimensions are not precisely the same as at Shea, they’re close. Some fans have complained about the sightlines and that the new stadium doesn’t honor the past Met stars and glory as prominently as it should, though the praise for the Jackie Robinson Rotunda has been universal.

The Mets’ and Yankees; Staggered (and Staggering) Ticket Prices --  For the 2011 season, ticket prices at new Yankee Stadium started at $15 for the bleachers (and as little as $5 for obstructed view seats), and you can purchase bleachers tickets in advance; other single-game ticket prices, when purchased in advance, range from $22 to $29 for grandstand seats, $48 to $80 for terrace seating, $57 to $150 for main level seats, and $95 to $325 for field-level seats. If purchased on the day of the game, add from $1 to $50 to the cost of the ticket.

At Citi Field, the Mets have a staggered pricing plan that charges different rates based on the visiting team and the time of the year, from the highest-priced “Marquee” games (the Yankees series), to the low-end “Value” games (early- and late-season contests). “Promenade Reserved” is the lowest-priced seating, ranging from $12 to $36; there are nearly 40 categories of seating, the most expensive being $440 for Delta Club Platinum for a Yankees’ game.

Minor-league Baseball

Minor-league baseball coexists with "the Show" in the boroughs, with the Brooklyn Cyclones, the New York Mets’ minor-league farm team, and the Staten Island Yankees, the Yanks’ minor leaguers. Boasting their very own waterfront stadium, the Cyclones have been a major factor in the revitalization of Coney Island; MCU Park sits right off the boardwalk (Subway: D, F, N, Q to Stillwell Ave./Coney Island). The SI Yanks also have their own playing field, the Richmond County Bank Ballpark (RCB Ballpark), just a 5-minute walk from the Staten Island Ferry terminal (Subway: N, R to Whitehall St.; 4, 5 to Bowling Green; 1 to South Ferry). What’s more, with bargain-basement ticket prices (which topped out at $17 for the Cyclones, $16 for the Yanks in the 2010 season), this is a great way to experience baseball in the city for a fraction of the major-league hassle and cost. Both teams have a rabidly loyal fan base, so it’s a good idea to buy your tickets for the June through September season in advance. For the Cyclones, call tel. 718/449-8497 or visit www.brooklyncyclones.com; to reach the SI Yanks, call tel. 718/720-9265 or go online to www.siyanks.com.

Basketball

There are two pro hoops teams that play in New York at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue, between 31st and 33rd streets (tel. 212/465-6741, or 800/745-3000 for tickets; www.thegarden.com or www.ticketmaster.com; Subway: A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 to 34th St.). The New York Knicks (tel. 877/NYK-DUNK [695-3865] or 212/465-JUMP [465-5867]; www.nba.com/knicks) are the NBA team from NYC, and their tickets (when bought at the box office) range from $13 to $3,085. The WNBA’s New York Liberty (tel. 212/564-9622; www.wnba.com/liberty), who traded for All-Star Cappie Pondexter just before the start of the 2010 season, occupy MSG from late May through September. Tickets for the Liberty (which are playing in Newark’s Prudential Center during the massive renovation of MSG through the 2013 season) start at $10 and go up to about $260 for courtside seats, with plenty of good seats available ranging from $10 to $35.

Football

Both the New York Giants and the New York Jets play in the New Meadowlands Stadium, which opened in 2010. Located not in New York City—though (unsuccessful) efforts were made to build a stadium here—but in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Note: This stadium will host the Superbowl in 2014, the first cold-weather stadium ever to host this classic. Ice

Hockey

NHL hockey is represented in Manhattan by the New York Rangers, who play at Madison Square Garden, Seventh Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets (tel. 212/465-6741; http://rangers.nhl.com or www.thegarden.com; Subway: A, C, E, 1, 2, 3 to 34th St.). Rangers tickets are hard to get, so plan well ahead; call tel. 800/745-3000, or visit www.ticketmaster.com for online orders. Ticket prices range from about $42 to $290.