Let’s get our minds off the Coronavirus health pandemic for a while.
The Old Yankee Stadium was closed in 2008 for the new corporate Yankee Stadium.
Do you believe the original House That Ruth Built should have remained, just a little upgrade, or do you think it was time for a new stadium?
Bear in mind that the “old” Yankee Stadium was largely no longer the original House That Ruth Built after 1973, anyway.
The Yankees closed the original stadium in 1974 for a two-year renovation project (the Yankees played at Shea for the '74 and '75 seasons). While the outer shell of the original stadium remained after the renovation, the interior and the field itself were extensively redesigned and rebuilt.
I think the success of Wrigley and Fenway after extensive incremental improvement and modernization makes a compelling case in favor of that. I suspect that in time it will become glaringly obvious that the Yankees had all the wrong priorities when they built a new park and that the changing baseball landscape will render it’s features obsolete.
Hey, I love Fenway and see many games there each year. But it’s a pit, and I could see getting a new stadium in Boston. There’s just so much modernization you can to a place like that.
There are some good seats at Fenway Park, and some amazing seats, but there are many, many more bad ones. There are far too many where it’s basically impossible to see the game from your seat. People can’t give away some of tickets. Any grandstand seat behind the first couple of rows? No thanks. Bleachers? No way. Right Field Box seats? Fuck off. The concourse is a nightmare to navigate. I’ve seen people wait in lines so long that they miss multiple innings (promise the kid ice cream at the ballpark and you’ve fucked yourself).
They’ve sunk a bunch of money into improving and expanding the park but it has all gone to the expensive seats. The cheaper seats (most of which aren’t at all cheap) are small, uncomfortable, and often have obstructed views. They’re not even honest about which seats have obstructed views. The seat has to literally be behind a post to be labeled obstructed. The seats next to those ones aren’t obstructed although they are nearly as bad and much of the field is obstructed by the same post.
Build a new one. It can have the monster and the same dimensions but fix the seating. Keep Fenway Park as a museum if you want to. People would pay a lot more to be able to walk on the field during the tours, which you can’t do now (except for VIP tours, which cost too much for most people).
I’ve attended ten or so Yankees games a year every year (but one) since 1997.
While there are some things I would have done differently in the new Stadium, there are many ways that it is better than the old. In the old stadium the bleachers (which were a dump) weren’t connected the rest of the park - in NYS you can walk all around the stadium. The concourse on the top level (where I usually sit) is much wider and better laid out.
If only they’d get rid of Jersey Mike’s as the cheesesteak vendor. The previous one (replaced three of four years ago) was so much better.
Yes, everything is more expensive, but that’s progress.
Note that I’m not considering the question of whether the team should have gotten so much public money for the stadium, just how the experience is as a ticket holder.
Which features?
Old Yankee Stadium was something of a dump; narrow hallways, short ceilings, really steep bleachers. Easily the least comfortable and convenient stadium I’ve ever seen a baseball or football game in.
Outside of the history in the place, there wasn’t much to recommend it.
Isn’t the difference between Wrigley/Fenway and Yankee Stadium the location?
I live in Wrigleyville and I’m well aware that the neighborhood wasn’t as upscale as it is now, but it’s been a decent area of Chicago for many years. I believe the same for Fenway.
But wasn’t the Bronx an absolute shit hole for many years? Fires nearby burning during Yankees games?
It was a great place from a history point of view but really was not a pleasant stadium at all by modern standards, and by all accounts was costing a fortune to keep in shape good enough to not have anyone hurt. There was no reason to keep it once they were committed to building one that retained the nice parts of the old.
The current Yankee Stadium is a much better place to watch a game. There isn’t much of an argument against that.
I still have a residual crick in my neck from a Red Sox game years ago, when I tried to follow the action from a right field corner seat.
You’re right about Fenway. There are some truly dismal seats there, seats which have no damn excuse to be terrible like anything down the line beyond the first base bag. But my point was more about revenue and appeal. Fenway is still selling out and it’s become an absolute cash cow.
Wrigley is much the same in that it’s a way for the Ricketts to absolutely print money and fortunately for the fans, Wrigley doesn’t have terrible sight lines and generally feels comfortable and fan friendly compared to Fenway. It even holds up favorably to many newer parks like Comsikey, Miller, Busch and Coors.
Luxury suites and premium seating mostly. Also to a lesser degree the indoor-like finishings throughout much of the concourses. The ultra-premium tickets never really sold that well and I see no reason to think that that market will get better in the future. Baseball is only going to get more nostalgic as fans age up, so the generally antiseptic vibe and lack of history in the new building will work against it when balanced against upkeep.
It’s still strong, to be sure, but they’re not selling out every game anymore. I’ve been at games where the published attendance is north of 35,000 and there were less than 20,000 in the stands. After last season, selling off Mookie, and firing Cora amidst the cheating scandal, I think paid attendance will continue to slide.
I’ve been getting calls and emails from the Red Sox season ticket department trying to get me to buy a season ticket package. I can’t see why I would commit to buying tickets at face value when on many days I can get a ticket for as little as $9 (including fees) from Stubhub. You can buy the cheapest ticket and then sit in the good seats because there are always lots of empty seats, even when they announce that paid attendance is a sellout.
Concrete bleachers which were poured by Thomas Edison’s company and had started crumbling around 1990. Building an entirely new stadium likely was more cost-effective than repairing all that old concrete.
The only way the old stadium could have remained would have been as a museum.
Didn’t the Yankees have to take a few weeks’ worth of games on the road at one point because of a fallen piece of concrete?
The stadium needed major structural fixes. The replacement made sense.
The short answer is that it was time for a new stadium. The longer one is below. I wrote this for a blog I had years ago, about my first, and only, trip to the old stadium.
BURN YANKEE STADIUM TO THE GROUND
It is an historic night at Yankee Stadium. My first time ever, and for nothing less than the opener of a Yankees/Red Sox series. I’m with my friends Dave and Bill and my brother Chris. All Yankee haters. It is going to be a special night and I am psyched. Go Sox!
It is a long subway ride to the stadium. It is rush hour and packed, the air conditioning is not working, and we are delayed for about 20 minutes for a “police action.” But we make it about ten minutes before game time. On the way in, we see a guy in a Red Sox T-shirt pass a couple of hot dog vendors on a break. They tell him that he cannot wear the shirt in the stadium, that he has to either take it off or turn it inside out. He believes them and goes back to discuss it.
Ignoring this omen of idiocy, we make the long, steep climb to the next-to-last row and find some fans in our seats. But they assure us they are in the right seats, and since we’re unfamiliar with the stadium we take their word for it. We take the empty seats to the left of them to wait for an usher for a definitive ruling.
As soon as we sit down a tarp is rolled out onto the field as a light rain starts, but one advantage of sitting in the upper rows is an overhang that protects you. I’m sure the game will begin soon, and Game six of the Nets/Celtics playoff series is showing on the big screen over the scoreboard. But this turns out to be no fun at all, because there is a rabid Celtics fan sitting directly in front of us. He stands up and screams every time anything, or nothing, happens in the game, alternating between “NETS SUCK” and “YANKEES SUCK.” When the Net fans counter his taunts with, what else, “CELTICS SUCK,” he says “Sixteen titles, baby, sixteen titles,” ignoring the fact that the last title was almost almost 20 years ago. And his sense of the relevance of history is selective, because when the Yankees fans say “1918! 1918!” he says, “Ancient history, baby! New century, new dynasty.”
I needa beer and on cue I see a beer man coming up the steps. I walk over to the aisle, show him my ticket and ask if we are in the right section. He says, “I don’t know what section this is.” This guy has the attention span of a flea, because even though I am sitting on a step directly in front of him, he keeps serving other people. Finally, after ordering three times, I get a beer. I return to my seat and have been drinking for no more than two minutes when I see a yellow-jacketed security guard with a cel phone calling me over to the aisle. I go over and he says to me, “WHAT PART OF NO ALCOHOL DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND!”
I’m truly baffled and ask him what he means. He says “THIS IS THE NO ALCOHOL SECTION!” “LOOK AT YOUR TICKET, BUDDY!” I do, and it says, in tiny letters, “No Alc.”
Well I probably would not have realized what that meant if I had read it, but you can be assured that the next time I attend a baseball game (or a concert, or the movies) I will study my ticket stub. Because Yellow Jacket tells me, “IF I SEE YOU HERE AGAIN WITH A BEER I WILL THROW YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE.”
I can live with an alcohol-free section, but it was an innocent mistake, and I wasn’t belligerent or loud in any way. I don’t need this attitude! And why is the beer man selling beer in a no alcohol section?
But I slink away, to the other side of the railing, where beer drinking is not forbidden. But I’m too upset, and decide to go down for a smoke. The first thing I see when I get downstairs is a NO SMOKING sign and my worst fear is realized. SMOKING IS PROHIBITED ANYWHERE IN THE STADIUM. I can enjoy a game without a beer OR cigarettes, but not both. This can’t really be true, there must be little corners where people smoke, like at Shea. But after the incident with Yellow Jacket I’m worrying that it may actually be enforced throughout the stadium.
So I wander through the maddening crowd. It is jam packed in the narrow ailes and the going is slow. It is also humid as hell. After about twenty minutes, I wander down multiple ramps, and thank God I do find a “smoker’s section.” I finish my beer, smoke half a pack of cigarettes, and return to my seat.
The rain has stopped, the Yankees have taken the field, and I’m ready to enjoy some baseball. Unfortunately, so is the bozo from Boston. He is now waving around a huge YANKEES SUCK sign. He stands up about every thirty seconds and, with slow deliberate motions, pans the sign in a semicircle to the Yankee fans, all the while screaming the same subtle message. I resist the urge to tell him to shut up.”
There is a promising beginning to the first as Ricky Henderson gets an infield hit and then Garciaparra (on an 0-2, two out hit and run) lines one over the left fielder to score Henderson. But in fact he doesn’t score, as the ball bounces over the wall for a ground rule double. Henderson returns to third, and the next Bosox batter strikes out to end the inning.
Now the Boston fan is getting into trouble. Another Yellow Jacket, from the aisle, is on him about the “obscenity” of the sign, and the fact that it is now causing heated arguments between him and Yankee fans. it is starting to get ugly. And the guy shouts, “You cannot show a direct causation between this sign and their anger. You should read David Hume’s ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.’"
Huh? David Hume? At a Yankees game? I look around for Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner.
Soriano doubles to start the Yankee first, but then it starts to rain again. This time it is a downpour, and it looks like it will be a long one. So once again I descend, this time with Dave, into hell. But what else are we going to do, I can’t drink and by now I’m starving. But first I need another cigarette. Should be easy enough, but somehow we take a wrong turn and can’t find the smokers, and we go in circles for a while.
Finally we find them, smoke up, and now to get some food. But I have no cash and so we go in search of an ATM. Even if I can find one the lines at the concession stands are so long it will take forever to be served. But there is no choice, and so once again into the breach, and finally we find one.
THIS ATM IS NOT IN SERVICE AT THIS TIME.
That’s it! Game called on account of bullshit! We climb back up the mountain to tell Bill and Chris. It is still pouring, the game will surely be cancelled after an hour or so, and no way am I hanging around listening to the nut from Boston until that happens. I can’t even conceive of it. When we get to our seats, he is having a conversation with the first Yellow Jacket. As pleasant a conversation as you will ever hear. They are both all smiles and I am seething.
I resist the urge to get arrested. I get a beer from a licensed Yankee beer man and almost get thrown out. And this guy can wave a billboard around and try to start a fight with half the stadium with no problem.
DAVID HUME SUCKS.
So we’re out of there. Bill and Chris decide to stay, and Dave and I make our way through the crowd one more time and catch the subway back to my neighborhood. When we arrive the rain has stopped (of course!) and the game has resumed. We find a bar to watch the rest. It turns out to be a great game, and the Red Sox finally win. Dave and I enjoy it while sipping “Texas-sized” frozen margaritas.
For several years now, Steinbrenner has been threatening to move the Yankees to another stadium. Baseball purists and historians have decried this. Tear down Yankee Stadium? I used to be on their side.
No more. Yankee Stadium is antiquated, there are not enough facilities, and there are long lines for everything. Burn it to the ground and scatter the ashes on the former sites of Ebbetts Field, The Polo Grounds, Connie Mack Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Forbes Field…Boston should do the same with Fenway, and the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry can continue in the new century in modern stadiums.
I’m going to stay away from any ballpark for a while. From now on I’ll watch the games in a comfortable chair, with a frozen margarita, and some civilized company.
You should have bought the beer then pretended to stumble and dump it all over the bozo.