Two years ago, Starbucks contracted like a dieter’s waistline. The grinding sound of blenders spitting out frappés and the cash register cha-ching heard during the chain’s meteoric rise during the early 2000s was replaced by silence in 600 locations.

The Seattle-based coffee giant went from having a location on nearly every upscale suburban corner to having quite a few less.

On Sunday night at Yankee Stadium, there were plenty of empty seats to be had with great sightlines visible on the ESPN telecast.

Never mind the fact that archrival Boston was in town, which ESPN plays up as the greatest rivalry in all of sports. Never mind that there was enough drama with the Yankees — the Jorge Posada fiasco over his demotion in the lineup to ninth — to fill up three tabloids and others to spare.

No one cared to show up. Granted, the seats that were empty were seats priced for potentates, oil sheiks, internet billionaires, captains of industry and stars of stage and screen. And heaven knows there are a lot less of those with this economy.

And Wednesday, ticket sales for the NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway were revealed to be worse than last year, promising plenty of empty seats masquerading as fans at one of the Sprint Cup’s most prestigious races.

So how are these three different events connected? As Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign said, it’s the economy, stupid.

These are luxury items. Coffee that rings up at $3 and more. Tickets for baseball games that go for $400 and more. NASCAR races where the cheapest ticket is $60 and up, not including the cost of parking.

There are a lot fewer people are demanding these things. MLB’s attendance is down this season. So is NASCAR’s, which has been on wane for the past few years.

There’s lots of reasons for this attendance trend. But a big one is right in front of you in your living room.

High definition TV has cut into the need to “be there” and see sports live. When you can pay a thousand dollars or a little bit more for a 50-inch flat screen with a useful life measured in years and hundreds of games, why would you spend that amount of money to sit in seats in the House that Steinbrenner built for several billion dollars? The quick answer: you won’t.

The business model of charging premium prices for sporting events, which in the 1880s were intended to entertain the lower classes, is a dead one in this new economy where more than nine percent of the population is out of work and even more have given up looking.

Big-time sports salaries that drew a shrug a few years ago now give fans pause. Bankrolling a multi-millionaire’s over-inflated guaranteed salary by paying the gross national product of Ghana for one night of baseball or a NASCAR race isn’t most people’s way of spending their hard-earned cash.

As for the NFL, this trend will make the backlash of a prolonged labor stoppage even worse. With the two sides headed for a stalemate of back-and-forth in the courts, the season likely won’t start on time. And that’s going to leave a mark the league won’t be able to remove for years.

The market won’t support this business model of premium prices for much longer. If you doubt it, look at your favorite team’s website. Plenty of good seats are still available.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.