Yankee Stadium [I] Demolition

[stadiumbuilder]

When will you people realize that baseball is a business, its not a sunday rec league. At least they kept the team in the Bronx. To some you fans they are questioning being a Yankee fan over this, you are pathetic.

To the people who run the team, it's a business. BUT, they need to run their businesses in a way that pleases the fans, because to us, from our perspective, it is still just a game. You know what's actually pathetic? The third sentence of your post. "To some you fans they are questioning being a Yankee fan over this...." Huh?

[ncyankeefan]

thanks for the spelling lesson...fixed it

[Gary Dunaier]

When will you people realize that baseball is a business, its not a sunday rec league. At least they kept the team in the Bronx. To some you fans they are questioning being a Yankee fan over this, you are pathetic.

It may be a business but it's not a business like other businesses are... for one thing, baseball is exempt from anti-trust regulations so, with few exceptions, that business is the only game in town (no pun intended).

Even Donald Trump has to comply with anti-trust regulations that the Steinbrenners do not.

So there's a little more of an obligation on the part of the baseball owners to give something back to the fans who are providing them with all the revenue they're getting. Because in the end, the only reason the Steinbrenners are making all this money is because you, and thousands and thousands of others like you, are willing to pay to see Alex Rodriguez ("A-Rod") and Derek Jeter and others play baseball.

[ncyankeefan]

Yes....and for the last 15 years they have put a good product on the field, that is mainly what I care about.

[GordonGecko]

Yes....and for the last 15 years they have put a good product on the field, that is mainly what I care about.

That's what most fans care about, even if greedy scum sucking pigs like Hank, Hal, Randy, & Lonn (HaHaRaLo) make out like bandits

[IPO]

RYS was the #1 revenue producing stadium in baseball. Fenway #2. There was not an economic need to replace it.

A convicted felon x2 who's a bully wanted a new toy at the taxpayer expense to make even more money because he could not win on the field against teams with a 4-1 payroll advantage.

He's making so much money he's crying poverty with one face asking for more tax exempt bonds and the same week spends 500m on three baseball players with the other.

Meanwhile half the fans are as bad as he is always wanting to take from someone.

Why didn't the felon cut his payroll down to 100m and leave the taxpayers alone? He had to have his new toy stadium.

That's right it would look like the eighties and early nineties where the place was a ghost town unless it was to give a standing ovation to the felon being suspended from baseball again.

[IPO]

That's what most fans care about, even if greedy scum sucking pigs like Hank, Hal, Randy, & Lonn (HaHaRaLo) make out like bandits

I think what makes me laugh most about you is on one hand you have no problem with them robbing everyone blind by any means necessary.

Until it reaches your wallet, then you change your tune and it's not just business.

[IPO]

Everybody has to realize that the replacement of this structure is a choice the Yankees made. The old stadium was not worn out or structurely unsound. The Yankees wanted a new facility more conducive to revenue generation. They have taken a chance, walking away from the old building, they'll loose some people in the process and they don't care. If they considered Yankee Stadium replacable, they'll certainly feel that a percentage of disgruntled fans are replacable too.

This was a choice the taxpayers had made for them in back room deals without a public vote to finance this disgrace. The Convicted Felon took what chance? Robbing everyone blind and subtracting construction from his revenue sharing while Levine runs to the city council in January crying give us more handouts while they handed out 500m in new baseball contracts?

Who cares if they win or not any year, sooner or later without a salary cap they will buy another title against franchises with a 4-1 payroll advantage and the entitlement generation will pay to see the show.

And the show goes on without Yankee Stadium, like the fans everything is replaceable and expendable. YS was a place the felon wanted out of for decades. That's just another disposable part for him like Steiner just wants his money to carve up the place.

[Rob R]

It's going to be extremely heartbreaking to see the old lady go, and if I had to draw an analogy, it would be this:

She was still relatively young (50 years old) but was severely and mind-bogglingly neglected for years. Then, in '74-'75, some butcher, who should get his license revoked, tried experimental treatments, but it was too late; he rendered her unrecognizable. She was transformed into a tacky, 1970's interpretation with an unsightly concrete, spiral structure now standing where the once-regal Gate 4 once stood, with her most defining attribute - the frieze, stripped away by thieves in the night, with the top half of her torso completely demolished, and in it's place, was replaced by the unaesthetic, unpleasing back of the upper deck, with concrete, spidery-looking columns vertically dissecting it, and a 1970's style bowl that took away all of her character and distinguishing features.

In addition, the earth that all past legends stood on, was no longer, as they dug up enough soil that future players would actually be playing in the old lady's "basement."

But, the team kept winning there, and most of us are too young to visit her prior to the disgraceful face-lift, so it was still home to us, the only Yankee Stadium some of us knew, our love for her unconditional. But it's best for the old lady to rest in peace; she suffered for too long. Let's remember how beautiful, refined and regal she once was, before she went under the knife. That's how she probably would want to be remembered. But, some of us aren't too superficial so she'll forever leave us with fond memories, no matter how she looked during her slow death.

[IPO]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_groups_study_blasts_city_for_park_construction_lags.html#ixzz0FxvvZxAG&A

Group's study blasts city for park construction lags

BY Bill Egbert

Tuesday, May 19th 2009, 4:00 AM

While the Yankees scoop teaspoonfuls of dirt from their old stadium to sell for upwards of $80 each, the community that lost its parks to the new stadium are still waiting for a ballfield of their own.

With the demolition of the House that Ruth Built expected to take nearly a year and a half, it will be late 2010 before work can even begin on Heritage Field, the park to replace most of the ballfields swallowed up three years ago to make way for the $1.5 billion new Yankee Stadium.

None of the replacement parks have yet been completed, despite city promises most would be done by now.

A new report from NYC Park Advocates blasts the city as putting the interests of the wealthiest team in sports before the needs of one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country.

"This administration did everything possible to service the Yankees, including ignoring the law and treating the community's replacement parks as an afterthought," said Geoff Croft, head of NYC Park Advocates.

The Parks Department countered that the replacement parks are being built as quickly as laws and regulations allow.

Most of the replacement parkland is being built atop new parking garages still not completed.

New Macombs Dam Park, being built on a garage still under construction, was supposed to be finished before Opening Day, according to the stadium project's Final Environmental Impact Study. It now will not be completed until next year.

Even parks that didn't have to wait for garages to be built or a stadium to be torn down are years behind schedule.

In May 2008, Community Board 4 was told construction would begin that June on two small replacement parks across River Ave. from the old stadium, and would be complete by this spring.

But in February, the Parks Department revealed it had found a large fuel tank under one of the park sites - a former gas station. The removal will delay the start of work until the fall.

Croft blames the flawed impact study and cites testimony by Assistant Commissioner Liam Kavanagh at a City Council hearing last June: "The project was not funded or approved, and we didn't have resources to do that kind of in-depth investigation analysis testing that one would do for a fully funded project."Parks responded that the testimony was "referring to Yankee park projects, not specifically to River Ave. parks."

[bandit12]

I know this will not be a popular statement...but from all the pics I have seen and from when I visited in the early 90's...there didn't seem to be many "nice" buildings around the stadium. Most were run down and some were just downright dumps. They will be left but a building with more historical significance than anything else in NYC (other than maybe the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building) will be destroyed.

In the future...if I have the opportunity to go back to NYC and see a sign like this on an ordinary building (which I am sure went through renovations just like YS). I will just shake my head.

[yankies4life]

I know this will not be a popular statement...but from all the pics I have seen and from when I visited in the early 90's...there didn't seem to be many "nice" buildings around the stadium. Most were run down and some were just downright dumps. They will be left but a building with more historical significance than anything else in NYC (other than maybe the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building) will be destroyed.

In the future...if I have the opportunity to go back to NYC and see a sign like this on an ordinary building (which I am sure went through renovations just like YS). I will just shake my head.

Its unfortunate but the old place lost a lot of the history when they renovated it. I mean, honestly, it wasnt the same place. I was not alive to ever see the original but just from photos and from what ive heard from people, it never looked the same. The only thing that was the same from the old park was the structure and thats it. It isnt the same place where Babe and Mickey hit tape measure shots. Or the same place were Roger Maris hit number 61 or where Joe D hit during his 56 game hit streak. It wasnt the same place were the original Iron man played his entire career and gave the most famous speech in sports history.

It did have history of course, Reggie's 3 HR World Series game, 2001 World series, Chamblises walk off and the world series celebrations. You can argue that it had as much history as the original place, but someone said it somewhere else. Deconstruction of this place has been going on since the original renovation. Now, after so many years later, the deconstruction will continue for good this time.

[toefer]

I was watching this DVD/documentary last night, and by the end I felt a little mad and a little sad that the old stadium is actually being torn down. There's a part with Randy Levine talking about the new stadium, and how the new stadium would be an exact replica of the old one, but with modern amenities surrounding it. Ok, that part ended up being semi-true (we all know the wall dimensions are not exactly the same). But then he mentioned how the outside would be exactly like the old stadium, so that when you walk up to the stadium, you see exactly what Babe Ruth saw.

Um, nope.

Sure, it definitely looks a lot more like the old stadium than what RYS looked like, but to say it looks exactly the same is a bit of a stretch.

But aside from that, if Levine is selling the new stadium as being just like the old stadium, doesn't he understand how important the old stadium is to a lot of people? He's essentially saying "I know you like this thing, but I'm going to tear it down, and I'll be sure to give you a new one that looks a lot like it.", as if the physical appearance is all that matters to people.

And then if you look at all the things that happened in the stadium over the years, even just in the last 10 years, you can't help but feel like there was a bit of crazy magic in that place. Whether it was Cone's perfect game on Yogi Berra day, Game's 4 and 5 of the '01 World Series, Game 7 of the '03 ALCS, or anything else. How crazy is it that the first time in history that the pope ever came to the US, he gives mass at Yankee Stadium, of all places?

Anyway, I understand baseball's a business, and I can't blame them for wanting to build a new stadium, I just wish that there was more consideration given to the old place, which had become such a huge part of history. Ideally I think they should've gutted out the old stadium, and built a new one around the existing field. I'm sure they could've found a place to play their home games again for a season or two.

The problem is they wanted to cram so much unnecessary stuff into the new place (all the restaurants) that the shape of the stadium became bloated, and couldn't have fit in the footprint of the old one.

If Levine really wanted us to see what Babe Ruth saw, he'd have rebuilt the old stadium on the same site of the old one. Start with that idea, and plan around it. Instead it seems like they figured out how they could make the most money, and they figured they'd keep the field dimensions and throw the old-ish looking shell around the whole thing, to pass it off to people as just like the original stadium.

Finally, MP just doesn't seem the same. To me, in the old stadium, you'd get chills thinking "wow, all these guys have played here", whereas now you see them and think "oh, all these guys were Yankees".

Overall I don't have anything against the new stadium, other than the prices of some seats. I'm sure once the old stadium is torn down and you realize there really is no going back, it will be easier to move on and get fully behind the new place, but it still seems like it will be years before the new place really feels like home.

[yankies4life]

I was watching this DVD/documentary last night, and by the end I felt a little mad and a little sad that the old stadium is actually being torn down. There's a part with Randy Levine talking about the new stadium, and how the new stadium would be an exact replica of the old one, but with modern amenities surrounding it. Ok, that part ended up being semi-true (we all know the wall dimensions are not exactly the same). But then he mentioned how the outside would be exactly like the old stadium, so that when you walk up to the stadium, you see exactly what Babe Ruth saw.

Um, nope.

Sure, it definitely looks a lot more like the old stadium than what RYS looked like, but to say it looks exactly the same is a bit of a stretch.

But aside from that, if Levine is selling the new stadium as being just like the old stadium, doesn't he understand how important the old stadium is to a lot of people? He's essentially saying "I know you like this thing, but I'm going to tear it down, and I'll be sure to give you a new one that looks a lot like it.", as if the physical appearance is all that matters to people.

And then if you look at all the things that happened in the stadium over the years, even just in the last 10 years, you can't help but feel like there was a bit of crazy magic in that place. Whether it was Cone's perfect game on Yogi Berra day, Game's 4 and 5 of the '01 World Series, Game 7 of the '03 ALCS, or anything else. How crazy is it that the first time in history that the pope ever came to the US, he gives mass at Yankee Stadium, of all places?

Anyway, I understand baseball's a business, and I can't blame them for wanting to build a new stadium, I just wish that there was more consideration given to the old place, which had become such a huge part of history. Ideally I think they should've gutted out the old stadium, and built a new one around the existing field. I'm sure they could've found a place to play their home games again for a season or two.

The problem is they wanted to cram so much unnecessary stuff into the new place (all the restaurants) that the shape of the stadium became bloated, and couldn't have fit in the footprint of the old one.

If Levine really wanted us to see what Babe Ruth saw, he'd have rebuilt the old stadium on the same site of the old one. Start with that idea, and plan around it. Instead it seems like they figured out how they could make the most money, and they figured they'd keep the field dimensions and throw the old-ish looking shell around the whole thing, to pass it off to people as just like the original stadium.

Finally, MP just doesn't seem the same. To me, in the old stadium, you'd get chills thinking "wow, all these guys have played here", whereas now you see them and think "oh, all these guys were Yankees".

Overall I don't have anything against the new stadium, other than the prices of some seats. I'm sure once the old stadium is torn down and you realize there really is no going back, it will be easier to move on and get fully behind the new place, but it still seems like it will be years before the new place really feels like home.

i totally agree, but ive already moved on and i know some others have as well. the only way to fully convert all those who still havent and still see the old place and say, why cant we go back there? all the yankees have to do is win a world series at the new place as soon as possible. thats it. thats how you knows this place is home. when the winning continues here. sure you would like something special to happen here like a perfect game or a cycle, but the yankees have always been about winning and clinching the world series in this new building is sooooo important right now.

and yes, they couldve done another renovation of the old place but where were we gonna play? citi field? the new home of the mets? i recall hearing that steinbrenner hated playing in shea during the first renovation, how in the world would the organization feel during a second in this new age. im just curious if there ever was a thought to renovate the old place and what they wouldve done. i would love to see those blueprints if there are any.

[toefer]

i totally agree, but ive already moved on and i know some others have as well. the only way to fully convert all those who still havent and still see the old place and say, why cant we go back there? all the yankees have to do is win a world series at the new place as soon as possible. thats it. thats how you knows this place is home. when the winning continues here. sure you would like something special to happen here like a perfect game or a cycle, but the yankees have always been about winning and clinching the world series in this new building is sooooo important right now.

and yes, they couldve done another renovation of the old place but where were we gonna play? citi field? the new home of the mets? i recall hearing that steinbrenner hated playing in shea during the first renovation, how in the world would the organization feel during a second in this new age. im just curious if there ever was a thought to renovate the old place and what they wouldve done. i would love to see those blueprints if there are any.

True. Some magical wins would help too, to get the feeling that if the mystique and aura were real, that it carried over. This weekends games were good, but only Friday's really felt like a surprising win. If the game is tied after the top of the 9th, I always assume the Yankees will win, so Saturday and Sunday's games weren't as amazing to me. Plus it was the Twins. Not to say they're a bad team, but if the Yankees could do that to Boston later this season, it would be even better.

As for the logistics of renovating RYS... I'm not sure how it'd work. Obviously the only legitimate options seem like Citi and Shea, but if Shea had to be torn down right away, then Citi is the only option. I would've let the Mets play a season or two in their new stadium first, and enjoy it on their own, before starting renovations on YS, and bringing the Yankees in to share the place.

It's just a different time in sports, I guess. Of course the new stadium will have it's share of great moments, but now with free agency, there will be fewer and fewer people that seem like Yankee legends, and instead just feel like the Yankees rented talented players for a few seasons. And by switching stadiums, you lose a lot of that connection between the old guys and the future. Sometimes I fear Jeter, Mo and Po will be the last ones we have for a while. But who knows, Maybe A-Jax and Montero will be big things 10 years from now. Maybe people will stop saying Joba should be in the 'pen, and he develops into a star starter.

Anyhow, it's not really a big deal. It's just baseball, right?