Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- New York Yankees season-ticket holders with the best, most expensive seats might lose them for this year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The event is being held at Yankee Stadium on July 15, and baseball will hold about 17,000 seats for its business partners.

Some fans who pay as much as $275 a game for field-box seats for the entire season may be relocated to different locations in the 56,935-seat ballpark, even upstairs in seats that usually sell for as little as $20. Those who don't have a package that includes all 81 home games might be shut out.

``If you have a seat behind the dugout and MLB takes it, how can I sell it to you?'' said Lonn Trost, the Yankees' chief operating officer.

Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president for business, said the ``custom and practice'' at All-Star games is for full season-ticket holders to be ``accommodated with a choice of seats,'' without being guaranteed their usual spot.

Baseball awarded the Yankees the All-Star Game to honor the final year of Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923. The franchise is moving next year into a $955 million ballpark being built across the street.

The Yankees for 2008 have sold 36,000 full-season- equivalent packages, which represents 81-game deals and partial season tickets combined. New York drew a club-record 4.26 million fans last season.

Full-season buyers received a letter last month stating the league and the team ``will use commercially reasonable business efforts to offer all ticket licensees an opportunity to purchase, subject to availability, (as determined by MLB and the Yankees, from time to time) a ticket license for the events during the MLB All-Star Summer '08.''

League Control

Trost said in an interview that Major League Baseball had the final say.

``We have nothing to do with the All-Star Game,'' he said. ``MLB controls it all. It's their game, it's their money, it's their pricing. We don't have a say about anything.''

Prices for All-Star tickets haven't been set. Tickets for last year's game in San Francisco ranged from $150 to $285, and the Giants allowed season buyers to purchase tickets for their seats for the event.

``It was critical to us to make sure our season-ticket holders are taken care of,'' Giants spokesman Staci Slaughter said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Sessa in New York at dsessa@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 7, 2008 12:12 EST