NEW YORK — The New York Yankees are reclassifying more than a quarter of their ritzy Legends Suite seats next season, and slashing prices on many of the remaining tickets by up to $1,250.

A total of 538 seats along the foul lines will be called the Champions Suite and will no longer have access to the duplex restaurant behind home plate, according to the team’s 2010 premium seat plan.
Those seats cost $500-$1,000 this year as part of full season tickets, but will sell for $300-$500 next year. They still will have waiter service and access to lounges down each foul line with free food to take to the seats and soft drinks.
Their removal leaves 1,357 seats in the Legends Suite. Yankees president Randy Levine declined comment on the changes. Managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said last month the team will review pricing each year.
After there were rows of empty seats during the Yankees opening homestand in the $1.5 billion ballpark, the Yankees in late April cut the price of 48 first-row seats from $2,500 to $1,500 and lowered 68 others from $1,000 to $650. The Yankees also gave additional free tickets to those who had bought the pricey seats.
Legends Suite seats behind the plate, which fetched $850-$2,500 this season, will cost $650-$1,250 next year, while seats behind the half of the dugouts nearer to home plate and the section just to the plate side will go for $800-$1,500.
New York said $25 per game will be added to each seat for partial season plans. Prices are expected to be more for individual ticket sales.
In addition, the Yankees cut the price of some seats in the Delta Sky 360 Suite, in the second deck behind home plate. Front-row seats there were slashed from $750 to $550 last April and will be reduced to $475 as part of season plans next year. The rest of that section, which includes waiter service, will go for $300-$325.
For non-premium seats, the Yankees announced last month that 3,400 tickets behind home plate in the lower deck will be cut from $325 to $235-$250 per game as part of season plans for next year.
Overall, the Yankees said last month that 41,928 of 50,086 seats will have the same season price as this year, and 6,454 will drop. The remainder, 1,704 non-premium seats, will increase from $100 to $125.