NYC NOW - The High Price of Being a New York Sports Fan

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

WNYC arts and culture editor Matthew Schnipper joins Janae Pierre to talk about the US Open, rising New York Liberty ticket prices and what it costs to be a sports fan in the city right now. Also discussed are Dolly Parton’s legacy and some of the best ways to spend the final days of summer across New York City. Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail]. Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty   Episode Notes: A summer surge in ICE arrests in NYC and NJ, mostly of people with no criminal history NYC families get reprieve in fight over trans youths' medical records People in NY keep climbing into manholes. Police aren't sure why. We joined the US Open ball crew for a day. It's harder than it looks. Liberty tickets are becoming more expensive. Some longtime fans say they're paying the price. More on Dolly Parton: Celebrate Dolly Parton in New York this weekend with dancing and drag New York City works 9 to 5, then lights up pink for Dolly Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. What do the U.S. Open and the New York Liberty Games have in common? Apparently, both sporting events are pricing out everyday New Yorkers. We'll get into that and more on our biweekly arts and culture check-in. But first, here's a few headlines we're following. There's been a summer surge in ICE arrests in our area, mostly of immigrants without criminal records.

ICE agents arrested over 900 people in New York City and over 2,000 people in New Jersey. Those numbers are based on ICE data obtained by the deportation data project and analyzed by WNYC. A spokesperson for Homeland Security disputes the findings and says the Trump administration continues to pursue criminal immigrants. LGBTQ advocates are closing the week with a little breathing room in their fight over medical records for the city's young trans patients. An appeals court refused to pause an order blocking the Justice Department from obtaining access to that information. The ACLU says the decision is tremendous relief, but the underlying legal fight continues. You know what else continues? These manhole sightings, and I am intrigued.

The latest sighting happened early Thursday morning on Long Island. Nassau County police say several people were spotted going into a manhole at the intersection of Guantanah and Jerusalem Avenue. This happened days after a manhole sighting near Penn Station, and it was all over social media. The NYPD confirmed five people climbing out of a manhole on West 31st and 7th. I wonder what's going on down there. Are the teenage mutant ninja turtles throwing a big party in their sewer home? I guess I missed the invite. Anyway, the NYPD hasn't made any arrest. Neither has Nassau County Police. It's unclear whether the incidents are connected. For more on all these stories and the latest in New York City News, visit our news site Got the Mist.

All right, let's hop into the show. It's time now for our biweekly arts and culture check-in with WMYSC's Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schniffer. Welcome to the show, Matt. Thanks for checking in, Janay. How's it going? It's going good. You're looking good. Back from vacation thing.

Yeah, that's that vacation glow. That's what it is. That's, yeah, and you know what? I did a lot of sunscreen. I got to say, still got tan. Oh, never mind. I'm tan, but I had a good time. It was nice to be on vacation.

I spoke to you, I think, from the beginning of vacation. And it got better. And then I'd say the very end, toddler meltdown situation. It was like maybe this was one extra day, one day too long. Yeah, one day too long. It's like, okay. I hit the beach a lot. I read a Cape Cod murder mystery.

That was great. Pick shells with my daughter. Saw a little fish. Saw seals? You ever seen a seal? Yes. Funny. Fantastic animal.

Yes. What's your best seal impersonation? Kiss from a rose a little thing. Yeah, I went to the beach and I saw seal. Actual seal. Well, I'm glad you had a good vacation. Thank you so much for coming in studio and putting a smile on my face, Matt. A delight to see you, as per usual.

You know, it's been a bummy week for me. I'm sorry. Earlier this week, news broke about Dali Parton's death. Yes. Man, a true legend. A real goat, greatest of all time. Long, fulfilling life will be missed. Were you a fan?

Yeah, of course. You know, it's funny. I've been talking to, you know, a couple of friends this week. You know, were you a fan? Everyone's like, yes. Yeah, I'm not going to pretend like I was the most in-depth, knows everything about her musical life. Sure, neither me.

But I think it's one of those people where it's like, oh, without even realizing it, you're like, wait, I knew a lot. I loved 9 to 5 when I was growing up. Oh, yeah. Like, I was like, get them, dab me, get Tabby Coleman. You know, like, it was such a fantastic movie and she was a real icon. When I was growing up was the bodyguard era with I was Always Love You. And then it was like, wait, she wrote that, you know?

She wrote that. She wrote that, I think, the same day that she wrote Jolene when she was in her 20s. It's just a crazy amount of talent. Yeah. And I've learned a lot about her philanthropy, you know, and her work to get books out to people in the last throughout her career. and how important she said that was actually to her. And that's what she wanted to be really remembered for. I think she's just, she's pretty fantastic.

Yeah, you mentioned her philanthropy. Let's continue to talk a little bit more about Dolly P. Because, you know, her career extended far beyond just music, right? And she even touched Broadway here in New York City. Yeah, you know, and it's a little unfortunate because she has an autobiographical musical that's going to be starting in the beginning of next year, which is just Dolly, a true original musical. It actually is going to be opening what would have been her 81st birthday. So that's happening on, it's January 19th, 2027. And Sharedy is a Tony Award nominee

for writing the score for 9 to 5 in musical, which was something that I started in 2009. I just think she's great, you know. I mean, Instagram, it's been interesting to see, like, the tributes came in from everywhere. Oh, yeah. I have enjoyed them thoroughly. Mom Donnie. You know, one thing I thought was funny, Mom Donnie posted some photos with a, a Getty watermark. I was like, Mom Donnie's even like, I got to get the right shot.

I don't care about the watermark. I was like, this is real fans. Yeah. Yeah, doing their thing. Yeah. Yeah, rest in peace. RIP. And I'm sure that show

that's coming out early January is going to be so fantastic. Looking forward to that. Yeah. This weekend, I feel like Instagram is going to be filled with people going to Lucinda's or Skinny Dennis,

like some of the country bars in the city. And I feel like paying some serious tribute. Karaoke this weekend is going to be nuts. I have to find a karaoke. I definitely have to find a karaoke. You know, Matt, I can sit here and talk about Dolly all day, but we're actually here to do the arts and culture check in to check in on the stories that are coming out of your desk.

And I want to start with the U.S. Open because Fan Week is underway currently. Have you been out there yet? I haven't. You know, I've only been once to the U.S. Open. I went for the first time last year. So I'm hoping I will get to go out this year because it was one of those things you do it once. It's like you like to go back. Yeah.

But no, I haven't been out yet. Have you? I haven't been out yet. We'll see. I have a bunch of U.S. Open bucket hats that I am excited to wear for the next two to three weeks. That's cool. You know, it's funny. When I went last year, I was thinking about it.

Well, you live in New York. You'll meet people there are like, oh, I'm coming to the city. So I got to go to Ellis Island. I got to the Statue Liberty. I got to go to the Empire State Building. And you're like, I don't do any of those things. Those aren't New York things. The U.S. Open, that's like a touristy thing that's also a New Yorker's thing.

Yeah. I was like, this hits for everybody. And I was like, that's actually a thing that makes it if you live there, it's close. But it's really kind of far out from the center of the city. But convenient if you get on the train. Yeah. But it's not, you know, it's not like hopping over, you know, to 23rd Street to do something. Yeah.

You know, going to Italy. I don't know. You got to a little bit of a commitment. So I was like, this is a thing that is quintessentially New York for all people, the visitors and like and residents. So I liked it. I love that kind of ability to mingle with a whole ton of different types of folks. Yeah. You know, we talked about the U.S. Open a couple months ago when registration was open for folks interested in being part of the ball crew.

Do you remember this? Of course. Yeah, you have to pass a quiz. Yeah, we took the quiz. Yeah, it's like the written part of your driver's test or whatever. Yeah. But one of your reporters, Sonia, she put out a story this week looking at who is actually part of that ball crew. Yeah, so the ball crew are.

the people who stand against the wall, you know, stone silent and throw the balls to the players and grab the balls when they kind of fly away and really make the game happen. It takes a lot of training and Sonia went out there to watch the training, but not just that to participate in some of it herself. She was part of it? She was. She got outfitted in the full polo look. No, did she get to keep the clothes? I think she did, yes. But she said it was really hard. You know, you have to be able to kind of very silently. and very elegantly roll a ball to a player away, you know, without any hops. She's like, she could not do that.

You need to be able to very directly get them a ball and bounce it to them at waist height. You need to be able to move with sort of quickness, but then just, you know, get snap back into place. So she did some of it, and she was like, this is hard. I'm going to go watch the other people doing it. So she has a story up on Gothamist about her experience doing that. And we have some great photos of that. I think the third or fourth photo down actually has so... I want to see videos of Sonia training.

She's looking stressed. Wow. It's like, can you get this ball? You know, it's like she's not an outfielder. You know, she's a reporter, man. So most of the people she found out who were on the ball crew are actually teens, which does make some sense. And she spoke to one teenager who had flown into Florida to try out and she got on. And they do get paid, right?

They get paid. I forget exactly what it is. I mean, they get paid, but they also get to stand on the court watching the game, which is. you know, pretty cool. Yeah. I know that a lot of people go out of their way to put on the best look for the U.S. Open. Yes. And a lot of people want that vintage look that everyone won't have on.

Where can folks get that? It's funny because last year my friend was like, I want a green hat. There's no green hats. We found like one guy who had a green hat and he was like, well, that's only for the membership suite kind of thing where like, can we get a green hat? He's like, no. You know, every year they kind of make a different array of stuff. It may not be the exact thing you're looking for. You know, and we went on eBay and, you know, you found a green hat from a couple years ago.

How much? The best place, I don't know. Not too, too much. I mean, they make a lot of this merch, so it's not crazily expensive. I mean, right now is basically the worst time to buy vintage U.S. Open merch because everyone is looking for it. Yeah. But there is a decent amount. Look, I think the thing that you want to do, in my opinion, go on eBay, type in U.S. Open, type in 1991, type in U.S.

Open 1992, 93, make your little keywords because they, you know, they date most things, I should say. And you can kind of go through a history of design by looking year by year on eBay at the U.S. Open merch. So if you want some like kind of crazy coffee house style 90s stuff, Andre Agassi, like, you know, neon color stuff early 90s, you can get that. You can get this sort of slightly gauche graphic design around 2003, like trying to look sort of mature. graphic design, but kind of like, you know, now looks deeply dated. It's really looking at kind of a history of sportswear. I love that. Go online, see what you can find. The one thing I will say is there is also a golf event called the U.S. Open. We don't want that merch. Don't get fooled.

But if you want, there's two shops I would check out. There's Procell, which is a kind of quintessential vintage store. Where's that? It's on Delancey and Essex. And they have already been posting some of their U.S. Open merch. They are in person only. So they have a kind of. So they have a great Instagram, but if you want to grab something, you got to go in the shop. Okay. And there's another shop in Greenpoint called Fantasy Explosion. And they put up a U.S. Open 2001 shirt, which is kind of this sepia brown with, I think it's the Brooklyn Bridge or the Manhattan Bridge and the Twin Towers. Speaking of the U.S. Open, we know that being a part of this crowd is a bit pricey.

Yes. However, Mayor Zoramandani announced this week the sale of. 1,000 discounted tickets. I was in the queue. Do you know what number I was? 10 billion. 342,000 something. I mean, I appreciate it.

And I love, the mayor loves the lottery system. Yes, he does. That's great, you know. And he's done this now. He did this with the World Cup. They were doing the drops with the jerseys. And he just had, you know, diplomatically show up and we'll have these. And it's great.

The effort is great. A thousand tickets, you know, right. And as you said, 300,000. people are getting them. This is not a problem. It's like, you know, I love these ideas. It's like, thanks, Mom, Donnie. You fixed everything.

Like, you know, I don't know that this is totally a solution. It's a nice thing. It looks great online to be able to say he's done it. But a thousand tickets at $100 is not really going to fix anything. If anybody listening has gotten tickets, let us know how the seats were. Yeah, let us know. Yeah. This is our biweekly arts and culture check-in with WMYC's Matthew Schia.

You just heard us talking about the U.S. Open, but after the break, we're going to hop to another sport and talk about why that seems to be just as pricey. Stay close. We're back with our bi-weekly arts and culture segment with WMYC's Matthew Snipper. Can we hop over to another sport really quickly? So the New York Liberty recently punched their ticket to the WMBA playoffs. Man, I mean, I'd say buy a hair, but we're not here to be sportscasters right now. We're actually here to talk about how pricey their tickets are now. I think the six year in a row that they've been in the playoffs, I believe.

Yeah, they're doing it good for them. The season is still ongoing, but, you know, the playoffs won't start until the end of September. But, you know, in the spirit of discussing pricey tickets to sporting events, that's one thing folks have noted this season for the Liberty. Have you been to a Liberty game, Matt? Not this season, but yes. It's a vibe. Yes.

It's a vibe. Can we just talk about, though, how pricey these tickets are? Yes. You know, so Amanda Rosson on staff here, she did a piece about how much they have increased in the last, in the 30 years they've been a franchise. You know, the WMBA was not a popular league for a long time. And its followers were mostly women. It was often very popular with queer women. and they were able to go get tickets.

You could get season tickets for not a lot of money consistently. And now, look, like in the last, you know, five, eight, ten years, that really women's sports has exploded. We have this, you know, everyone watches women's sports. Yeah. I see a lot of people wearing those shirts and those hats. And I think that is a good thing. But ticket prices have just, I don't want to say they've gone through the roof,

but they have really, really, really gone up. And the team is aware of it. You know, when she was talking to the team, they said, we still want to have a seat for everybody, but you might need to move a couple rows back, which I thought, oh my gosh. More like a section back. I mean, it's really, in a lot of ways, you know, I don't use this word lately, but it really is about kind of a gentrification of this. You know, the original fans are people who said, yes, I'm dedicated. I'm paying attention when other people are not. This is something that is for me.

And as it has become a mainstream, you know, a much more mainstream part of culture, and people go, oh, I want to. part of that. You know, they want to hop on a bandwagon, which, look, I don't blame them. It's a great bandwagon to hop on. The prices have really exploded. And so if this was sort of your thing in the past, and now you've gone, oh, well, now I need to go to the upper bowl seats, just to even be able to go. That's kind of a bummer. You know, when they said, hey, for people who've been a long time season ticket holders, they're reducing it to make sure their prices don't go up by more than 25 percent a year, which is still a lot. That's a lot. That's a lot. You know, so, you know, the team is aware of it. I'm sure they're also, like, very happy to be making money.

Right. But there are some people I think we're getting left in the lurch. Yeah. Man, that's something to think about. I hadn't thought about the gentrification piece of this. So you're saying that the original fans are basically being priced out. Yep. And the kiss cam doesn't go all the way up there. The only reason you go to a game is going on the kiss cam. Be on the kiss cam. Come on. But no. Seriously, I know all of this is because of the new CBA and the fact that these women are bringing in the bread now. And I'm happy for them. I really am. Yeah, sure.

I agree. I wonder if Mayor Mumdani's going to set up a lottery for the WNBA. If you're listening, feel free to steal that idea. Come on. But more than a thousand tickets, please. More than a thousand tickets. Way more than a thousand tickets. Speaking of Miram Dani, we did a summer recap on our previous episode, but as the summer nears its end,

I know that Mayor Mumdani is encouraging New Yorkers to still be outside and explore everything that the city has to offer in. He and his team put out a social media post recently listing things to get into in each borough. And I thought it would be cool, Matt, if you and I just go through some of them together. Yeah, does Momdani have good taste? Does he giving good recommendation as of what you can do? I think so. Let's see. Let's see.

Let's see. Hold on. I'm going to pull up the post here. All right. We'll start with the Bronx. We're going in blind. So we got to see. Yeah. This is the Is Mom Dani Cool test?

Okay. I'll take a burrow and you'll take a burrow. I did just close my eyes, but this is a podcast. I close my eyes, be like, okay, I'm not looking. All right, we have chess crew in the Bronx. I love chess. Outdoor chess in the Bronx. Join chess enthusiasts in learning to play or getting some practice in.

That's cute. This is for teens. That sounds nice. Yeah. There's a teen crafter noon. That's cute at the Baychester Library. You can also do movies under the stars. That's for anyone.

Sounds great. And Saturday Night Lights. You can register to play a little basketball, tennis, or even volleyball at a community center in your neighborhood. Sounds nice. Yeah. This is cool. Very nice, wholesome. Wholesome is how that sounds.

Yeah. That's the Bronx. That's the Bronx. The Bronx keeping it wholesome in the Bronx. Okay. You want to read you Brooklyn here? Yeah. You can do, oh, there's a board game cafe at the live.

brand Flatbush. Okay. Movies under the stars, they're playing wild robot in Irving Square Park. Never saw that. It's on Saturday at 8. I'll be with Spike Lee. You'll be with Spike Lee? You heard it.

What does that mean? I'll be with Spike Lee. He has a party this weekend. Oh, okay. Is it like just you and him or? No, it's me and all of Brooklyn. That sounds fun. Yeah, it's the Brooklyn loves MJ party that he puts on every year.

Oh, yeah. This Saturday. I have thoughts about that. All right. South Floop Derby. Annual Block Party featuring gravity-powered vehicles made from recycled materials. That's not my vibe. An open-source gallery.

Gravity-powered vehicles? Is that like when you're riding downhill on a bike? What does that mean? I don't know. Go and report back. And it's a derby? That doesn't sound safe. I'm going to say I would have put more information here.

Okay. And then same deal, Saturday lights in different places around Brooklyn. So everyone gets a movie. You get a movie. You get a movie. You get a movie. I think, I don't know. I mean, I'm not a teen, maybe board game.

I feel like chess outside in the Bronx is more fun than board game cafe. Yeah. And I feel like I can beat a teen in chess. You do? Yeah. I mean, I don't think I could beat the teen who shows up for chess, like a chess night. Okay. And then, look, in Manhattan, there is the, what?

The Great Yogurt Feud. I could skip that one. Join James Beard Award winning host, Dan Pashman, and reporter Liza Rothstein, as they explore the history of Bulgarian yogurt, enjoy yogurt samples and performances. So good on that. Yeah, I don't love, I mean, I'm interested in this, but I don't think I'm going to it. That's my feeling. Yeah.

Yeah. I feel like Mom Donnie, if he's recommending some stuff to do, it's got to be very PG. Ah. He can't tell you to do something that involves alcohol. or... Well, I mean, he did in the bar crawl. Yeah, that's true, actually. But I guess every post can't be...

Go to this bar, go to this bar, go to this bar. Do you think he's cool? Do you think he does cool stuff? I don't know. You know, I... I can't answer that. I think his mom is cool. His mom's probably cool.

Yeah. And I think his wife is probably cool. But, like, you know, if you look at, like, the Obama, like, here's all the books I read or the music I listen to where everyone's like, well, he got a cool person to write that for him. This feels like a list. that Mom Donnie wrote himself. Where he's like, chess, it's going to be so fun. Board games at the library.

Come on. Everybody's going to have the greatest end of summer of all time. At least it's authentic. Yeah. Yogurt feud. Listen, be you, Momdani. Exactly. I'll see you at the yogurt feud, dude.

Yeah. Yeah, be you. I support it. I support it. So many cool things you can still get into while the sun is shining out there. So I mentioned Spike Lee's B.K. Love MJ Party. that happens every year at Fort Green Park.

Oh, yes, okay. That's happening this weekend. What are you getting into? Actually, I'm going to go to Saturday. There's a free show with Tagabow, which is a band called They Are Gutting a Body of Water. Tagabow is playing with the Thurston Moore group. Thurston Moore is the legendary guitar player for Sonic Youth and then Dinosaur Jr. is headlining. So that, I mean, I've already saw it.

It's free with an RSVP, but the RSVPs are already sold out. I am sure a trillion people are just going to show up. Everyone who didn't get a ticket to the U.S. Open. That's right. They're all trying to go see Tagabow. But Tagabow is great, actually. I really like that band. So I'm going to go see them, Thurston Moore, a legendary New Yorker who now lives in London.

So it's cool. He's coming back and playing outside in the city. I was like, can I bring a toddler to this? I don't know yet. I've been trying to figure out if that's going to be a thing. That's a life-changing thing for a small child or something that is loud that will make me have to leave after. 12 minutes. Yeah.

You don't want to do that. So we'll see. But great show, great lineup, free. You're supposed to have an RCP. Do that, do that. Not on the Mom Dani list. Could have been. Could have been.

Go to the yogurt feud if you want to. And by the way, the Dinosaur Junior concert is happening Saturday at TVI. That's a live music venue out in Ridgewood, Queens. Also happening this weekend, there's the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, and that's happening. in the neighborhoods that he called home during his time in New York City. So that's East Village in Harlem. That's going to be a vibe, too. Really big Charlie Parker fan.

Do you think anyone who's like Gen Z knows who Charlie Parker is? No. Shout up Phil Scha. Google, Google Charlie Parker. Yeah, please do. It's New York City. So, you know, there's a lot to do these days. And read, of course.

And you can check out all these stories that Matt and I talked about. filed on our news site Gothamist. That's WNYC's Arts and Culture editor, Matthew Schnipper. Thanks, Renee. As always, thank you, Matt. And thank you for listening to NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.