You're Outta Here: Yankees Discontinue Print-At-Home Tickets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York Yankees fans are crying foul over the team's new ticketing policy.
The Yankees announced that they are doing away with print-at-home tickets.
A team spokesperson told CBS2's Tracee Carrasco the change is about "consumer protection" because "the use of print-at-home tickets was plagued with fraud."
"Print-at-home paper tickets (PDFs) are being discontinued so as to further combat fraud and counterfeiting of tickets associated with print-at-home paper tickets (PDFs)," the team said on its website.
Instead, on top of the hard stock ticket, the team is now offering fans the ability to receive mobile tickets on their smartphone.
"Some people aren't smartphone friendly," one Yankees fan told CBS2.
For those fans who primarily buy their tickets off of StubHub at the last minute, this is a huge blow. That service primarily uses print-at-home tickets for its customers.
"A lot of people that I know, they print them out," one fan told CBS2.
There are those who believe the organization is trying to shut out fans from buying on StubHub, and instead getting tickets directly from the Yanks or the team-controlled Yankees Ticket Exchange.
The Yankees have previously criticized StubHub due to people selling tickets below face value, despite MLB having a relationship with the ticket service.
Team president Randy Levine told the New York Post in 2012 that StubHub has hurt the organization's gate totals.
"We believe there are serious issues with the StubHub relationship," Levine said at the time. "We are actively reviewing more fan-friendly alternatives for next year."
Some fans took to social media to vent their frustration with the new policy.
The Yankees home opener takes place on Monday, April 4 against the Houston Astros.
CBS2 has reached out to the New York Mets to see if they will be adopting the same practice.
