This is the scene at the new Yankee Stadium

And they're not even out of the playoff race yet.

Going into the 2009 season, the New York Yankees were coming off their worst season in 16 years. It hadn't been since 1993 (not including the strike-shortened '94 year) that the Bronx Bombers didn't play in October.

But with a new roster, including AJ Burnett, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees were $400 million closer to another playoff appearance. Teixeira, in particular, was a big acquisition not just because of his track record with the Angels, Braves and Rangers, but also because New York was moving to the new Yankee Stadium. The writing on the outfield walls claims it's only 318 feet to the left field fence and 314 to right, but after just a few games, clearly, the new Yankee Stadium plays much shorter than that and for a strong switch-hitter like Tex, he could hit 40 by the All-Star Break. Heck, a drunk Joba Chamberlain could go for 20 and would celebrate by carrying Yogi Berra around the clubhouse like Pedro Martinez did with Nelson de la Rosa.

But despite spending nearly a half a billion dollars on the free agent trio and a staggering $1.5 billion on the new ballpark, the Legends Suite seats pictured above are pretty empty. And no, that isn't the Florida Marlins section of Yankee Stadium.

We are the better part of a month into the 2009 baseball season and the Yankees are leading baseball in home attendance, averaging 44,502 people per contest. The only problem with that number is that the Stadium seats 52,325. So six games in, New York is sitting at about 85 percent capacity.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that those empty seats in the photo above range from $500-$2,625 apiece. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that opponents have scored 50 runs in six games (though to be fair, 32 of those runs came in two games). Either way, when you have 1,895 seats to fill and you're not close to that, something has to change. Doing quick math, the average of the seats (assuming it works out that way, but this is an estimation, so stay with me) is $1,600 and if they sold out, the Yanks would make $3,032,000 per game from those seats. If they were able to sell out every game, that's $245,592,000, or almost what they owe Teixeira, Sabathia and Burnett over the next several seasons.

Instead, according to the picture anyway, they aren't selling half of those. Apparently, it's not as enjoyable for New Yorkers to hurl insults at Cody Ransom with A-Rod shelved to begin the season. But there are factors to blame beyond just the price and quality of the team.

Smart fans (fans of the visiting team most likely) sit in the section behind those field seats for $375 a crack. Sure, it doesn't come with all the amenities that the expensive ones do (cushioned seats with teak arms (whatever those are), in-seat wait service, concierge service, private restrooms (and you though that extra $2k was going to waste) and all-inclusive food and beverages), but it's virtually the SAME EXACT VIEW OF THE GAME.

And here's the kicker: "Exclusive access to the bi-level Legends Suite Club and two Legends Suite Dugout Lounges, helps make the Legends Suite the most coveted ticket in sports."

Yeah, that's directly from the site to purchase these tickets.

Most coveted ticket in sports? It's not even the most coveted ticket in its own place!

Talking with Brandon Hansen at Just South of North, he brought up a good point: People are more apt to buy tickets if they think they're exclusive. Seeing hundreds of empty seats isn't going to want to make people pony up thousands of dollars. However, if the seats were constantly sold out, spectators would be more willing to pay more, thinking they were getting in on something great (even though those thoughts would be wrong, since in the end, it's still a Yankees game).

New York management is realizing the same thing and is considering lowering the prices in the section, which would be...sane. Judging by the picture, the Yanks would be lucky if half those seats were filled. Playing ball in a city with so much "mystique" (gag me), you're going to sell out the place unless tickets are so outrageously priced, people can't justify sitting, or can't afford to sit, in the front row.

Not that I want the Stadium to attract fans, because seeing the Yanks fail when it should be so easy to succeed is always nice, but they should have butts in every seat 81 times a year with that roster and that new facility. When they don't, they're doing something very wrong.

Listen: at this point, you could go to Fenway Park, Safeco Field or just about any other park in the country (Toronto included, especially considering the exchange rate) and sit in similar seats for a few hundred bucks, as opposed to New York's $2,625. This means that, while you don't get your own restroom or wait service, you can spring for all the beer and food you want and still walk out with hundreds of dollars more than you would at Yankee Stadium.

And, like at the Stadium, there's a decent chance you're walking out after seeing New York lose.

So after watching the league beat the Yankees 73 times last year and another six to kick things off in 2009, it's a different kind of nice to see them beating themselves, which is exactly what they're doing in their so-called "premium seats."