April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Some of the luxuries of the New York Yankees’ new $1.5 billion ballpark come at a price that even the team’s managing general partner says is too high.

The Major League Baseball team opened the new Yankee Stadium yesterday with a workout in front of community groups and season-ticket holders, some of whom might have been sitting in overpriced seats, Hal Steinbrenner said.

He added that any business that had known where the economy was going when prices were set more than a year ago would have done things differently.

“There’s no doubt small amounts of our tickets might be overpriced,” Steinbrenner said at a news conference. “We’re continuing to look into that.”

The comments caught one fan by surprise as he sat behind home plate in one of his four $325 seats watching the first baseball event in the stadium’s history.

“Did he say that? Oh, my God,” said Jason Nestor, a 56- year-old pharmaceutical consultant from Rockland County, New York, and a season-ticket holder since 1984.

Premium Legends Suites seats, those closest to home plate, were priced from $500-$2,500 as part of season-ticket packages when the team began selling them in 2008. Some of the seats remain available for single games, with the price rising to $2,625, according to the team’s Web site.

Nestor, whose seats are in the 18th row, turned down the Yankees’ first sales pitch of $850 for seats about 14 rows closer to the field, which come with unlimited food.

‘Lots of Hot Dogs’

“For $500 a ticket, I’d have to eat an awful lot of hot dogs,” he said in an interview.

The Yankees have sold the equivalent of 35,000 full-season ticket packages and pricing for “the vast majority of them seems to be right on,” Steinbrenner said.

He defended the grandeur of the 52,325-seat stadium and its opening during the deepest economic slump since the Great Depression.

“We started building this 2 1/2 years ago, and there’s no doubt times were different,” he said. “I don’t see this as ostentatious or flashy. I see it as classy.”

When first laying eyes on the stadium, the word many people uttered -- from fans to players such as pitcher Joba Chamberlain -- was “unbelievable.”

For the team, the move across the street from the old Yankee Stadium means a clubhouse and lockers significantly bigger than before.

Clubhouse Comfort

A replica of the frieze, the iconic columned facade that topped the original stadium and parts of the ballpark renovated in the 1970s, also lines the clubhouse. Each locker is equipped with a computer that will deliver scheduling and practice notes as well as an Internet connection.

“You feel spoiled,” pitcher Andy Pettitte told reporters.

Players will enjoy a chef to cook them breakfast along with world-class whirlpools and training equipment. Like the fans, most players have further exploration to do.

“There’s so many places to go that you’re going to play hide and seek with yourself,” Chamberlain said.

First baseman Mark Teixeira’s first season in Yankee pinstripes will have him playing across the street from his favorite ballpark when he was playing for the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels.

“It was my favorite stadium to come to as a visitor, but when you come in here it makes you forget about the nostalgia a little bit,” Teixeira told reporters.

Monument Park

The stadium concourses are lined with oversized photographs of top moments from the Yankees’ 26 championship seasons. Monument Park, which immortalizes Yankee greats and top events, was moved from the old stadium to just beyond the center-field fence.

The Yankees will play exhibitions against the Chicago Cubs today and tomorrow, while the regular-season home opener is April 16 against the Cleveland Indians.

Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, the pilot who landed his U.S. Airways jet on the Hudson River in January, will throw the ceremonial pitch before the April 4 game.

Fans yesterday spent little time in their seats, snapping photos around every corner and checking out services such as the Hard Rock Cafe, which opened yesterday, and the Tommy Bahama’s bar one of the concourses.

Fruit Stand

Amid the grandeur of the spotlessly clean ballpark -- a spilled order of cheese fries was a singular eye sore -- the items that may have turned the most heads cost just $1.50.

Many people stopped at the stadium entrance behind home plate to take photos of a fruit stand -- the only one in the ballpark. The apples, pears, oranges and bananas, each $1.50, seemed like a novel idea for stadium fare to most. Vendor Joe Fajar preferred to think of them as a reflection of the old Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923.

“Maybe back in the ‘20s and ‘30s they used to sell fruits, apples and all that stuff, because they didn’t have all that packaged stuff,” said Fajar, a Bronx native. “So this is coming right back to it, full circle.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 3, 2009 00:00 EDT