John Oliver's 'Riff-Raff' Returns To Yankee Stadium, Fans Take In The Game Dressed As Dragons
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The riff-raff returned to Yankee Stadium on Thursday.
Two fans dressed in dragon costumes, one purple, one green, sat in the premium seats behind home plate. They got the tickets from HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' after agreeing to dress differently than the usual upper-echelon clientele in that location.
Oliver launched the contest this week in response to comments made by Yankees COO Lonn Trost that some fans who paid full price to sit in premium locations were uncomfortable sitting next to fans who scored the ticket for a fraction of the face-value cost from an online reseller.
"Wow! He's saying rich people couldn't bear to sit next to people who aren't as rich, which would be offensive if you were talking about the opera, much less a sports whose primary fashion statement is the goatee," Oliver joked on an episode of his show that first aired Sunday night.
Watch the John Oliver segment here:
Oliver then announced the show had purchased six premium seats behind home plate — two each for the first three games of this season — and was having a contest.
"There will be riffraff in those seats," Oliver said. " … We will sell them to you for just 25 cents apiece on one condition: You must dress like you have never sat in a premium location before."
He asked contestants to tweet a photo of what they would wear to the game with the hashtag "#IHaveNeverSatInAPremiumLocation."
The first winners were identified by Newsday as John Welch and Joe Spilo, of Yorktown. They took in the game dressed as Ninja Turtles.
During Wednesday night's game against the Houston Astros, two women dressed up as unicorns and another two dressed up as Katy Perry's sharks from her Super Bowl halftime appearance.
The Yankees got in the spirit on Thursday, posting a freeze frame of the dragons on the scoreboard as the featured fans of the game along with the message "Thanks, John Oliver. Everyone is welcome at Yankee Stadium."
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