Lonn Trost and Yankees cry uncle on StubHub; will allow electronic tickets

Remember the whole to-do this winter about how the Yankees came up with their own ticket exchange system with Ticketmaster, snubbing StubHub? And how the only way Yankee fans were going to be able to print out electronic tickets on the secondary market was with the Yankees Ticket Exchange? And that because of this, StubHub was going to have to open up a location by Yankee Stadium for fans to get their tickets before the game (a move the Yankees fought in court)?

Well, guess what? The Yankees have cried uncle on StubHub, folding like a cheap suit on the electronic tickets issue. They will now allow fans to print electronic tickets from StubHub and other secondary market sites from a window of 48 hours to three hours before the game. Oh, and that three-hour window before the game also applies for the Yankees' own ticket exchange, so it's not like you can get the tickets any later from them. This is a huge, huge concession on the Yankees' part, and it takes away the need for StubHub to have that location by the Stadium. After all, if fans can print out tickets at home in that time frame, they won't need to go to a StubHub office to do so.

If a Yankee tree falls in the forest...

Only thing is, nobody in the mainstream media seems to have noticed that the Yankees have made such a big concession. But blogger Bob of BobsBlitz.com did. He wrote about how Yankee bigwig Lonn Trost, who talked last month on Mike Francesa's WFAN radio show about how fans would no longer would be able to get e-tickets from StubHub, has changed his tune.

Yet Trost won't admit that the Yankees have changed their tune and reversed policy. He tried to act like this was the deal all along, and denied that this was a change in policy, even though Francesa kept on asking him about this. (Click here to see the video.) Granted, fans cannot download and print out the tickets before that 48-hour time frame unless they use the Yankees' official ticket exchange, but that really isn't a big deal for most people.

So why did Trost and the Yankees change their mind? Bob's Blitz sums it up on what has happened since Trost's February pronouncement:

A little over a month later fans have been bombarded with Yankee ads for season and single tickets. Banners, radio, TV. 24/7 -- why? Because they can't sell anywhere near the amount of tickets they forecasted internally. And the one way to, they hope, increase the worst sales they've seen in over a decade? Allow StubHub users to print tickets during a window of 48-3 hours before game time.

You know, sorta like a partnership.

Oh, and then lie about the 02/12/13 conversation to Mike Francesa to cover up the change of course due to the poor sales.

Yep. I've noticed the Yankee internet banner ads everywhere. I have also noticed that there are plenty of tickets available, even for opponents like the Red Sox and Mets, on Yankees.com, and that discount sites like Goldstar.com are offering half-priced tickets for the Yankees.

And don't forget that if tickets are not sold on secondary markets, or if would-be season ticket holders won't buy tickets because they are afraid they won't be able to resell them in those markets, that this means those seats will be empty. This not only looks bad on TV, but it means fewer sales at the concession and souvenir stands. So after all the smearing we heard from the Yankeeland front office this winter, insinuating that StubHub was the reason for everything bad facing the Yankees, now the team has caved on letting them sell those tickets.

I have to wonder when anybody in Yankeeland will ever face any accountability for making such bad decisions. Picking a fight with StubHub, who is an official partner of MLB, never seemed to make any sense. Yet the front office has spent more time on that this winter than with coming up with a coherent plan for this team's future. And the NYC sports media doesn't seem to notice -- or care. Shocking.