BOSTON -- The most expensive tickets in baseball are going up in price.

The Boston Red Sox, with the smallest stadium and second-highest payroll in the majors, announced plans Friday for an overall 7 percent increase in ticket prices next season. The price increase will affect about half of Fenway Park's 34,297 seats.

''We walk the fine line between the need to increase revenues and the goal of keeping tickets affordable,'' said Larry Lucchino, the team's president and chief executive officer.

''It's a difficult balance. We obviously need revenue to compete with our Goliath to the south,'' he added, referring to the New York Yankees, who finished 10½ games ahead of the second-place Red Sox in the American League East this season.

The Red Sox payroll this season was $110,249,535, second only to the Yankees' $133,429,757.

Fenway's high prices and cramped quarters -- it's also the oldest stadium in the majors -- were behind a push to build a new park next door to the old one. But the new ownership, which acquired the team earlier this year, has said it would prefer to renovate the park on the current site and is expected to release plans to do so soon.

About 400 bleacher seats will be reduced from $18 to $10, the first $10 seats at the ballpark since 1998.

But the already pricey seats closer to the infield will cost even more. Field, loge and infield roof box seats will increase from $60 to $65 for season ticket holders who renew by Dec. 16, and to $70 on a single-game basis.

Infield grandstand seats will fall from $44 to $39 for season-ticket holders, but remain the same for others. Right-field box and right-field roof seats will increase from $32 to $34 for season ticket holders and to $37 for single-game buyers.

''We also believe that fans should not bear the sole burden of revenue enhancement,'' Lucchino said. ''Tickets are only part of the equation. That's why you see new, aggressive methods of revenue generation. You see new television agreements, concessions options, and ballpark signage. Yet there too, we walk another fine line between raising revenue and protecting traditions.''