New Yankee Stadium - by HOK Sport

[ZippyTheChimp]

Great writers at the Every Sport Possible Network

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http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Polluted_parkland_in_Yankees_trade/4298.html

Polluted parkland in Yankees’ trade

Appraisals ignore facts contained in city documents

by patrick arden / metro new york
SEP 5, 2006

SOUTH BRONX — Now that the old-growth trees have been felled and the earth-moving machines have started to dig up Macombs Dam Park, what will the residents surrounding the $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium project be left with for replacement parks?

Polluted land, according to city and federal documents.

Under the current stadium are two 15,000-gallon oil tanks, which were found to be leaking, and soil in all of the replacement parkland contains “semi-volatile compounds and/or metals at concentrations exceeding [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] Cleanup Objectives,” noted National Park Service executive Jack Howard when he signed off on the city’s park-swap plan.

Though the contaminated land is cited in this NPS go-ahead as well as the city’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, it’s not mentioned in any of the appraisals performed to comply with federal and state laws.


Backroom deal

Under the Land and Water Conservation Act, proposals to convert federally funded parkland must be OK’d by the National Park Service. But after meeting with state, city and Yankee representatives, the NPS decided to rely on the city’s environmental impact statement instead of preparing its own assessment.

In an e-mail detailing an early June 3, 2005, conference call with the state’s office of parks, Howard wrote the city would be made “fully aware” of “the compliance responsibilities associated with the conversion process,” particularly “appraisal requirements.”

The state then insisted the city’s Parks Dept. go back twice to get new appraisals, though it never had to share them with the NPS.


Fine print

These appraisals ignored the contaminated land, in apparent violation of federal law.

According to Section D-3 of the federal Uniform Appraisal Standards, “It is improper ... to estimate the market value of a property assuming it is free of contamination when there is evidence, by the past use of the property or by the appraiser’s inspection thereof, that contamination may exist.” Appraisers can’t “make an assumption that corrupts the validity of the value estimate.”

In putting a price tag on the replacement parkland under the current Yankee Stadium and on the Harlem River, the final appraisals use the same language: “We are not aware of any environmentally hazardous or toxic substances on or near the subject site.”

That’s boilerplate language, explained Michael H. Evans, a fellow of the American Society of Appraisers, but it is misleading when the contaminants had their own chapter in the city’s project statement.

“These factors absolutely have an effect on the land’s value, and if the appraiser doesn’t mention them, that’s not right,” he said. “If it’s a known thing, and there’s been any report saying the property is tainted, appraisers must identify it’s there. The appraisal is made subject to that land being cleaned up. It can get very, very expensive.”

The state’s parks office accepted these appraisals, but it did not return repeated calls seeking an explanation for why the contamination was not factored into the final value of the land.

The replacement parcels are priced at $4.5 million more than Macombs Dam Park. “But they’re clearly not the same value,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “We knew they didn’t have the same usefulness or location. The city is swapping tennis courts surrounded by trees for a polluted area far removed from the community.”

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http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/City_has_money_for_park_cleanup_but_not_sure_how_m uch/4438.html

City has money for park cleanup, but not sure how much

by patrick arden / metro new york
SEP 12, 2006

BRONX — Critics of the new Yankee Stadium have long complained that the project resembled a shell game.

The $160 million promised for replacement parks, for instance, will cover the demolition of the current stadium, the building of site infrastructure, including new sewers and water mains, and the planting of 8,000 saplings in various locations. Now it’s known that kitty will have to pay for the cleanup of the polluted replacement parkland too. How much that will ultimately cost taxpayers remains unknown.
“We always knew that there was going to be some remediation cost,” said Parks Dept. planner Joshua Laird last week. “We established a healthy contingency budget to deal with unknowns, and the remediation costs will be coming out of that budget.”

How much?

“We still don’t have a number, because the site is still being investigated,” he said. “It’s partly what’s on the site, and partly how we design the site that dictates how much it’s going to cost us to clean it. If we’re going to areas that are going to be covered with paving, they don’t need to be remediated to the same level as a site that will be used as a lawn kids may be playing on.”

Will the cleanup affect the schedule to replace the parks, beginning in 2010?

“We don’t know yet,” Laird said. “Until we have permits or are further down the pike with [the state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation] in terms of what they’re going to require, we don’t know how we’re going to fix it. But for the moment, we’ve not changed our delivery date.”

Some critics are troubled by this uncertainty. The cost of the 1970s stadium renovation was put at $24 million, but the tab came in above $100 million. What about this plan?

Dan Steinberg of Good Jobs New York has projected taxpayer subsidies for the stadium will exceed $400 million.

“Considering this project was rushed through on the Yankees’ terms, it’s not surprising the city doesn’t have all the information yet,” he said. “There could be significant cost overruns.”

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http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2006/14/c6157.html

Structal secures $40 million contract to supply steel structure for new Yankee Stadium

BOUCHERVILLE, QC, Sept. 14 /CNW Telbec/ - Structal-Heavy Steel Construction, a business unit of Canam Group Inc. (TSX: CAM), located in Point of Rocks, MD, announced today that it has secured a CAN$40 million contract from Koch Skanska for the fabrication of the structural steel that will beused to build the new Yankee Stadium in New York. The total cost of this construction project is estimated at US$800 million (CAN$900 million).

The new Yankee Stadium, with a seating capacity of 51,800, will be built across from the existing Yankee Stadium at the intersection of 161st and 164th Streets and Jerome and River Avenues. The new ballpark is expected to open in the spring of 2009, just in time for the start of the baseball season.

"We are delighted to be associated with such a prestigious project as the new Yankee Stadium," said Structal president Luc Pelland. "It attests to Canam's expertise as well as to its proven record of building large-scale projects such as sports facilities, convention centers and airports and successfully carrying out major projects simultaneously." Charlie Watson, president of Structal's U.S. division, added, "We were a part of Skanska's team previously for the Patriots' Stadium in New England. Securing this contract is a recognition of our talent and commitment to customer satisfaction.

"Fabrication of the structural steel components will begin in December 2006, mainly at our St. Gédéon and Point of Rocks plants, and end in December 2007.

Technyx, a business unit of Canam Group that provides outsourcing services in the industrial detailing sector, will be producing the shop drawings of the new Yankee Stadium for Structal-Heavy Steel Construction. Jean Thibodeau, president of Technyx, pointed out that the drawings will be based on a 3D model. "This is a first for Technyx," he said. "This partnership will ensure better integrity of data transferred from the engineering phase to the shop fabrication phase of the project. The trend toward integrated technologies throughout a construction project is innovative in our industry and will certainly change our practices in the future.

"Koch Skanska, a division of Skanska, is a world-class company recognizedfor its complete range of services in the construction industry. Koch Skanska's main office is located in Carteret, New Jersey.

Structal-Heavy Steel Construction is specialized in major and complex projects that include engineering support, design-build and project management.

In recent years, Structal and Canam Group Inc. have been associated with many other eminent construction projects in North America, including thePatriots' Stadium in New England, the Eagles' Stadium in Philadelphia, the Newseum in Washington, DC, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, theConnecticut Convention Center, the Niagara Falls Casino, Lester B. PearsonInternational Airport in Toronto, Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, aswell as a number of aluminum smelters and office towers.

Canam Group Inc. is an industrial company operating 11 plants specializedin the design and fabrication of construction products and solutions. The company, which employs close to 3,000 people in Canada, the United States,Romania and India, also has joint ventures in Mexico, France, Saudi Arabia,the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

[NYguy]

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1121/photo151lx2.jpg



And so it begins...

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aYUO4aNE6a6o&refer=germany

Hochtief Awarded EU486 Million Yankee Stadium Order (Update1)

By Sheenagh Archey and Ross Larsen

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Hochtief AG, Germany's biggest construction company, won a 486 million-euro ($617 million) order to replace New York's iconic Yankee Stadium with a smaller but more luxurious baseball park.

Turner Corp., Hochtief's U.S. unit, has already begun work on the 50,800-seat stadium for developer Tishman Speyer after providing feasibility studies and estimates, the Essen-based company said in a statement today. Work is to be finished before the start of the 2009 season.

Yankees boss George Steinbrenner and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig broke ground on the new project on Aug. 16. Located in the Bronx next to the 1923 original, the new park will recreate features including the facade and an art deco frieze that rings the outfield seats.

"It's a fantastic contract and we're happy to have it,'' Hochtief spokesman Christian Gerhardus said today. "It's always a great honor to do this type of project. Our U.S. subsidiary has the ability and the necessary knowledge.''

Hochtief is the world's biggest builder of sports facilities, Gerhardus said. The company and its subsidiaries have completed more than 500 projects over 40 years, including work at New York's Madison Square Garden sports and entertainment venue and the Flushing Meadows tennis complex. It also refurbished and managed three stadiums used in the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany.

Fewer Seats, More Suites

The new Yankee Stadium will have about 7,000 fewer seats than the original, while tripling the number of luxury suites to 60. Funded through the sale of about $950 million of municipal bonds, the project also features restaurants, shops and a hotel.

The current stadium is the third-oldest in Major League Baseball after Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field. Home to a franchise that won a record 26 World Series with players including Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, the park will be used by youth league and softball teams after most of the stands are torn down.

"No stadium can equal the hallowed sports history that has been made at Yankee Stadium,'' Selig said at last month's groundbreaking ceremony.

The New York Mets, who play at 42-year-old Shea Stadium in Queens, are also poised to begin work on a new ballpark to be located on a site adjoining their existing home.

Shares of Hochtief have gained 26 percent so far this year as the builder expands into services such as toll roads and the operation of schools and airports and the German construction industry shows signs of emerging from a decade-long slump.

To contact the reporters on this story: Sheenagh Archey in Frankfurt at sarchey@bloomberg.net (sarchey@bloomberg.net); Ross Larsen in London at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net (rlarsen2@bloomberg.net).

Last Updated: September 20, 2006 10:10 EDT

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http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/09/22/afx3037280.html

AFX News Limited
Skanska wins orders worth 607 mln skr for work on new Yankee Stadium in NYC
09.22.2006, 04:17 AM

STOCKHOLM (AFX) - Skanska AB said it has won two orders from Turner Construction worth a total of 607 mln skr connected with the construction of the new Yankee Stadium to be built in Bronx, New York.

The first order is worth 65 mln usd or 487 mln skr, and involves the furnishing and installation of the stadium's entire structural steel frame, which will be set in concrete, and also for a steel and metal deck.

The second order is for piling and is worth 16 mln usd or 120 mln skr.

Both contracts will be included in third-quarter order bookings.

The steelwork will begin in 2007 and the new Yankee Stadium is scheduled to be completed for the start of the 2009 season.

The pile work is a separate contract and is expected to be completed in 5 months from now.

The exterior of the new stadium will replicate the original stadium's facade. The new Yankee Stadium will house 51,000 fans, slightly less than the old stadium, but in better comfort, the company said.

stockholm@afxnews.com

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http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/news.cms?id=14816

Skanska wins $81M of Yankee Stadium contracts
by NewYorkBusiness.com (ctymkiw@crain.com?subject=Skanska wins $81M of Yankee Stadium contracts)

Skanska USA Civil, the Queens-based unit of Swedish construction firm Skanska AB, said it has received contracts worth $81 million to help build the New York Yankees' new baseball stadium.

Under the contracts, Skanska will build the entire structural steel frame for the new Bronx stadium. Skanska will also supply the piling to the stadium, which will be built adjacent to the original Yankee Stadium, the company said.

Work on the structural frame, which will involve 13,000 tons of structural steel, will begin next year and is to be completed by the start of the 2009 baseball season.

Today’s announcement marks the latest area construction project for Skanska. In January, it was part of a joint venture that won a $1.1 billion contract to build a rail transit hub at Ground Zero and in December, it won a $97.9 million contract to rebuild and expand a train facility in Morrisville, N.J.

Skanska also renovated the original Yankee Stadium in 1970.

Manhattan-based Turner Construction, a unit of Germany’s Hochtief AG, won a $615 million contract earlier this week to build the new 50.800-seat stadium, slated for completion in 2009. The project carries a total cost of $800 million.

The New York Yankees clinched their ninth consecutive American League East title this week.

[lofter1]

Reclaiming the Snapshot Seen ’Round the World


http://www.mapsites.net/gotham/webpages/justinspiegel/shotheardroundtheworld.jpg


NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/nyregion/29homer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
By COREY KILGANNON
September 29, 2006


Rudy Mancuso is 85 and lives alone in a rental apartment on the Lower East Side. He uses a cane and moves slowly. But 55 years ago, on October 3, 1951 (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/1951/1951_story.htm), Mr. Mancuso had the split-second timing to snap a photograph of one of the great moments in sports: “The shot heard ’round the world.”


The photograph of the home run hit by Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants in the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds to steal the National League pennant from the Brooklyn Dodgers and set off pandemonium in New York became iconic — Thomson swinging the bat, the ball sailing above the Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca as it soared out of the park.


The photograph has been published countless times and is still being sold by photo archives and on eBay, but there is no mention of Mr. Mancuso.

“I’ve never made a dime on it, never any credit,” said Mr. Mancuso, who said he did not get the photograph copyrighted.


Although news agencies are often credited with taking the photograph, Mr. Mancuso has no doubt that it was snapped by him. And now a new book on the Thomson home run, “The Echoing Green (http://www.amazon.com/Echoing-Green-Untold-Thomson-Branca/dp/0375421548): The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard ’Round the World” by Joshua Prager (Pantheon, 2006), offers evidence backing up Mr. Mancuso’s longstanding claim.


Mr. Mancuso grew up a Giants fan on the Lower East Side, played high school baseball and said he tried out unsuccessfully for the Giants. He became a printer and also worked as a wedding photographer to support his wife and two young sons in their $19-a-month apartment on Eldridge Street.


In 1951, he and the rest of New York were riveted by the three-game series between the Giants and the Dodgers to decide who would play the Yankees in the World Series.


By the third and decisive game, Mr. Mancuso said, he had received an authoritative and specific photo assignment.


“God told me Bobby was going to win it with a homer in the ninth,” he said. “There’s no doubt. I was chosen to take that picture.”


On Oct. 3, 1951, Mr. Mancuso said, he rode the subway to the Polo Grounds carrying a Busch camera he had bought for $300 to use for wedding portraits. His ticket put him in the upper level directly behind the press box. He had only brought two exposures with him and used the first one early on, taking a snapshot of the Yankee right fielder Hank Bauer, who was sitting nearby.


Mr. Mancuso set the camera on top of the press box until the bottom of the ninth when Thomson came to bat.


“Like I said, I knew it was going to happen, so I pulled the paper strip out that protected the exposure and put the focus on the furthest it would go. I put the focus on infinity.”


“I heard the crack of the bat and snapped the picture,” said Mr. Mancuso who made a batch of prints and said he took one to The New York World-Telegram and Sun the next day.


“They took it inside and then came back out and said: ‘We can’t use it. It’s old news,’ ” he recalled. “I think they took a picture of it and it got spread around, because it got to be all over the place. I should have copyrighted it.”


Then he went to Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. When Thomson arrived, Mr. Mancuso said he offered him the picture for $10, but Thomson declined. Mr. Mancuso tried to sell the picture on Staten Island, where Thomson lived, but no one seemed interested.


Mr. Mancuso said that he gave a copy to the Giants public relations office and that it appeared in the Giants yearbook in 1952.


“If Rudy had properly gotten the rights to that picture, he would have easily made tens of thousands of dollars from it,” said Mr. Prager, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, who was first approached by Mr. Mancuso in 2001 at a public discussion of the home run.


Mr. Mancuso, who said he no longer had the negative or the camera, gave the photograph to Sylvania Electric Products to use in an advertisement. Mr. Prager, in researching his book, found a May 1952 advertising insert on eBay called Sylvania News that had the Thomson photograph and a credit line: “Cover photo courtesy of Rudolph Mancuso.”


Mr. Mancuso, who gets by on Social Security, put on a suit and tie and a Stetson hat recently and went to the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Montclair, N.J., to attend a discussion between Thomson and Branca moderated by Mr. Prager.


Mr. Mancuso brought a camera to shoot Mr. Thomson, this one an aging 35-millimeter Yashica with a plastic flash fastened with Scotch tape. Mr. Thomson and Mr. Branca posed with him for a photograph, but both had little to say to him.


Mr. Prager said he never confirmed the source who ordered Mr. Mancuso to take the picture.


“God wasn’t available for comment,” he said.


Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company


http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0375421548.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V64440443_.jpg

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First images of stadium construction via Stadiumpage (http://www.stadiumpage.com/) (From September 13):

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[NYguy]

Its a little bittersweet knowing there are only 2 years left at the stadium. But its refreshing to see work starting on the new stadium.

[Schadenfrau]

My friend has been taking photos of the progress on the new stadium every morning on his way to work. I'll have to ask him to send me a few so that I can post them for you guys.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/458260p-385461c.html

Park plan runs afoul of joggers

Track relocated to sidewalk

By BILL EGBERT

The plan to replace the park facilities being dug up for the New Yankee Stadium is off on the wrong track, locals charge.

While the law requires the alienated parkland eventually to be replaced with comparable facilities, city officials also promised the community "interim facilities" would be available during the long period of construction.

But the running track in Macombs Dam Park, fenced off weeks ago as the project got underway, has been replaced by spray-painted markings on the sidewalks around Mullaly Park directing joggers to run around the block.

"Is this some kind of sick joke?" fumed Lukas Herbert, a member of Community Board 4 who voted against the controversial stadium plan. "Or is this 'running course' for real? If it is for real, then we have a real problem."

The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the stadium project promises that "a temporary track for the local residents would be created and available throughout the construction period."

The parkland replacement plan outlined in the FEIS promised a 15-foot-wide, cinder-surface track around baseball fields to be built on what is now a parking lot northeast of the existing stadium.

Instead, local residents got a half-mile route spray-painted on the sidewalk with a cheery sign declaring, "Now you can enjoy walking or jogging on the new measured path around the northern section of Mullaly Park."

Not only is a cement sidewalk no replacement for a proper running surface, but Herbert pointed out that the "path" is also located just a block from the new stadium construction site.

"When the dust gets started, with those dump trucks lined up along the road," he said. "Would it really be a good idea to go for a jog right there?"

The stop-gap measure has done little to dampen local discontent, said Herbert, which boiled over at the community board's Sept. 25 meeting.

"Even the people who supported the stadium plan think this is completely over the top," said Herbert.

First Deputy Commissioner for Parks Liam Cavanagh agreed, saying, "We don't consider that an adequate replacement" but rather "a means to encourage people to maintain their fitness regimen" until the interim track is ready next spring.

Cavanagh said the city couldn't begin creating the replacement parks until the stadium project was approved this summer, and now Parks must go through a time-consuming procurement process before the work can get started.

"We're doing everything we can to expedite this," he said.

[B]Originally published on October 4, 2006

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/10032006/news/regionalnews/dems_bx__chief___im_graft_dodger_regionalnews_heat her_gilmore____and_leela_de_kretser.htm

DEMS' BX. CHIEF: I'M GRAFT DODGER

By HEATHER GILMORE and LEELA de KRETSER


October 3, 2006 -- Bronx Democratic boss José Rivera yesterday insisted he had never abused his power - after learning he was the subject of an FBI probe of real-estate dealings in the borough.

"I have never used or abused my position," a shocked Rivera said outside his University Heights home. "This is the first I have heard of this."

The veteran state assemblyman said he learned of the Public Corruption Unit investigation in yesterday's Post.

Rivera said his only dealings with developers in The Bronx had occurred through city administrators in charge of real-estate projects.

"I've never dealt with developers personally," he said. "These projects have been done with the knowledge and the assistance of the city."

Sources told The Post that a Manhattan federal grand jury had handed down subpoenas for government and business records as it looks into Rivera and a well-known party lawyer, Stanley Schlein.

Schlein, who has worked as a Democratic lobbyist and advocate for development projects in The Bronx, has also denied any knowledge of the investigation.

Both Schlein and Rivera were involved in lobbying for the approval of plans for the new, $1 billion Yankee Stadium.

A Yankee spokeswoman declined to comment, but sources close to the team said that the new stadium wasn't part of the probe and that they hadn't received any subpoenas.

The pair also worked together to lobby for approval of a $1.5 billion water-filtration plant underneath Van Cortlandt Park. As part of the waterworks deal, The Bronx stands to get $240 million for its parks.

A spokesman for the city's Department of Environmental Protection did not respond to The Post's inquiries as to whether the department had received a subpoena for records or if it was a subject of the probe.

Rivera said he had no business relationship with Schlein and had not discussed the federal probe with him.

"I have not spoken to him, but I think he is just as surprised as I am," Rivera said.

Spokesman Michael Nieves said the assemblyman had also advocated for the $40 million redevelopment of the Terminal Market.

Nieves said neither he nor the assemblyman had a clue as to which deal or deals the federal grand jury was probing.

"It would be wrong for us to try and predict which one it is," Nieves said.

Rivera said all three developments had helped revitalize The Bronx.

"I haven't done anything wrong," he said. "They are good projects, and they create jobs."

heather.gilmore@nypost.com

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http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/parks/20061026/14/2009

Yankee Stadium/Parks Exchange Underway

by Anne Schwartz
October, 2006

In mid-August, city workers fenced off Macombs Dam Park and part of Mullaly Park in the Bronx, chopped down hundreds of large trees, and turned over the three-block site to the Yankees for the construction of a new stadium and VIP parking. For people who live and work in the surrounding neighborhood, the loss of their leafy community park, with its heavily used running track and baseball and soccer fields, was heartbreaking.

“It was a great joy to me to look out the window and see people using that park,” said one woman, who asked not be named because she worked for the city and feared retribution from the Bronx political machine. “That park was used every single day, even in the snow. The kids played there; the older people went around the track. It was a very lovely place for people to be.”

In exchange for removing 20.8 acres of parkland from public use, the city has committed to spend $160 million over the next four years on 24.5 acres of new recreational facilities and open space.

Many in the community opposed the swap (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Parks/2060321/14/1795), saying it shortchanged residents by taking a large, open space surrounded by mature trees in a residential community and replacing it with sports fields and courts in several locations further from where people live. The plans include a track and artificial turf soccer field on top of a parking garage.

Joshua Laird, assistant commissioner for planning at the parks department, said, “We think the community is going to get really greatly improved recreational facilities in a community that needs that.” But he also said, “The hardest aspect of this project for us is seeing those trees go. Our basal area formula will allow us to replace the functioning of the trees, but there’s just no way to replace the grandeur of a mature oak tree.”

Construction of the stadium is on schedule, but the building of the promised interim and replacement parkland has gotten off to a slower start. Now residents are wondering when – and if – the new parks will be built.

LONG-TERM PROMISES

The park department’s plan (http://www.nycgovparks.org/s0ub_your_park/nyy_stadium/html/nyy_redevelopment.html) calls for parks and fields on several sites:

tennis courts and an esplanade on the now-derelict waterfront
an artificial turf soccer field and a running track on top of a new parking garage
three ball fields on the site of the old Yankee Stadium
several passive park areas and paved plazasTo replace 400 large, old trees that were cut down, the city expects to plant about 8,000 smaller trees, most outside of the immediate neighborhood.

The parks department has said it will finish the detailed plans for the new parkland in consultation with the community. Laird said that community outreach has begun with several recent visits to community board meetings, and that the department will be hiring a community liaison person for the project.

The new parks and playing fields are scheduled to be completed a year and a half after the Yankee’s new stadium opens for the 2009 baseball season.

COMMUNITY FEARS

An interim track and a number of temporary fields are supposed to be in place before the permanent facilities are completed. But some promised deadlines already have not been met. City officials did not deliver on their promise to construct a temporary running course around two ball fields next to Yankee Stadium by the time construction started, for example. And, according to the environmental impact statement, by the fall of 2006, there was supposed to be a track and soccer/baseball field on a parking lot ultimately destined for a four-story parking garage; city officials now say they hope to complete the field by next spring, weather permitting.

All this has fueled the fears of residents who already feel betrayed by the Bronx borough president and other local politicians who fast-tracked the parkland takeover despite neighborhood opposition. Many don’t believe that the city will end up building all the replacement parks, especially the fields in the old Yankee stadium.

“My fear is that they’ll have cost overruns, find asbestos in the old stadium—blah, blah, blah—and they won’t be able to do it,” said JJ Brennan, a resident who founded Save Our Parks (http://www.saveourparks.info/), a neighborhood group that has brought a lawsuit to stop the stadium. “No money is allocated right now. That part is not supposed to happen until after 2009. There will be an election before then, and we’ll have a whole new slate of politicians who can do whatever they want.”

Hector Aponte, parks department Bronx borough commissioner, says that such fears are unfounded. “At some point, people have to realize that the city is acting in good faith,” Aponte said. “All the people who were so critical of the Croton filtration plant are starting to realize that we are improving parks all over the place. There are naysayers who never believe anything. They have to give us some time. To say it’s not going to happen, when the Yankees just started construction in August, I don’t think that’s fair.”

WHERE DID THE SPORTS TEAMS GO?

When the Yankee Stadium redevelopment plan was up for approval, the parks department said it would help teams that used the park find other places to play, giving priority for the closest fields to youth teams. Aponte said that his department met with representatives of all the youth leagues that play in the park last spring and explained that there was going to be a shortage of fields. “Maybe a month ago, we sent out letters to all permitted people and made calls to let them know if they wanted alternate space to contact the permit office,” he said.

It is hard to tell whether or not all teams have found alternative places to play. The soccer coach at a local Catholic school said his team didn’t find a new home field although other teams in his league did. The school’s track team has not found a track for practice, so they have been using the sidewalks and the street.

According to Aponte, even without the loss of Macombs Dam Park, there would be a shortage of playing fields in the Bronx because so many fields are being renovated with mitigation money from the filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park. “The good news is that we’re renovating. The bad news is there are not enough fields,” he said. “We’ve asked teams to cooperate and share space. Up to now there haven’t been complaints.”

CONSTRUCTION WOES

In a continuation of what some residents say is the Yankee’s history of disrespect for the largely black and Hispanic local community, the stadium construction is proceeding despite violations affecting the health and quality of life of residents. “Construction is still going on before 7 a.m. and on Saturday when the buildings department said they would not issue any more after-hours permits,” said Joyce Hogi, who lives across the street from the former park. A recent visit to the site found that trucks were not being washed down before leaving the site as required. It had recently rained, and Jerome Avenue was covered with mud. Residents said that when the weather is dry, the air is filled with dust. The neighborhood already has some of the highest asthma rates in the city.

“If you see what they’re doing with construction, they are already not doing what they promised,” said JJ Brennan. “Everything’s been a bait and switch with us.”

Asked about these complaints, Alice McGillion of Rubenstein Associates, spokesperson for the new Yankee Stadium, said, “The Yankees are in full compliance with all the construction rules and regulations.”

STILL FIGHTING, OR COMPLAINING

Save Our Parks, which has battled the project with few outside allies, sued unsuccessfully to block the stadium’s construction. It continues to press its lawsuit charging that the National Park Service did not conduct a thorough review before approving the project. The approval of the federal agency was required because Macombs Dam Park had received federal funding for improvements.

“If a conversion request comes through for a non-park use, such as the Yankees taking over Macombs Dam Park, it has to meet the criteria that it be of equal usefulness, accessibility and value, and we feel it is not,” said Hogi. At this point, it is too late to stop the stadium’s construction, she conceded. “What I’m hoping for -- this is as a private citizen -- is that we will get more parkland back. This community does not need four parking garages.”

Mary Blassingame, a former member of Community Board 4, which represents the area, led the board’s opposition to the stadium plan, and was later removed from her committee chair by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. She said, “What I’m hearing from the community is that people who were against the project, but weren’t reacting too much, are very, very upset now. People got really shocked when they saw the devastation.”

Anne Schwartz, in charge of the parks topic page since its inception in 1999, is a journalist who specializes in environmental issues.

[Transic]

http://therealestate.observer.com/2006/11/yankees-say-not-so-fast.html

Yankees Say: Not So Fast
FILE UNDER: Stadiums (http://therealestate.observer.com/stadiums/)

The Yankees are planning to make a big announcement next Wednesday about what they are doing for their Bronx neighbors, just as some of those neighbors are wondering what happened to the goodies promised six months ago. (http://therealestate.observer.com/2006/04/the-bronxs-ransom.html)

More than six months after the agreement was signed and two months after the groundbreaking (http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/63316), is it too early to complain about lack of progress?

In April, Bronx City Council Members, the Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and the Yankees agreed to a "community benefits program" in return for City Council approval of the new stadium (http://therealestate.observer.com/2006/04/yankeegate.html). The agreement stipulated that the signatories would form a construction advisory committee to oversee building and would meet "not less than once a month ... for the duration of the project." Bid packages for minority and locally owned contractors would be prepared "as soon as practicable." Plus, a "fund advisory panel" was supposed to be established "upon the commencement of the project" which would govern a nonprofit in charge of doling out $800,000 donated by the baseball team annually.

"From our point of view, this stuff should be further along than it is," said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, explaining that the Yankees had no trouble getting construction underway quickly. (Macombs Dam Park and part of Mullaly Park, where the new stadium will go, are now closed off (http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/parks/20061026/14/2009), and it will take years to build their replacements.)

City Council Member Joel Rivera (http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=44)said that the advisory board and nonprofit were still being formed but that an update would be given at next week's Bronx Chamber of Commerce banquet (http://www.bronxmall.com/com/chamber/), which just so happens to be honoring Yankees President Randy Levine. Council Members Maria Baez (http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=43)and Maria Del Carmen Arroyo (http://www.nyccouncil.info/constituent/member_details.cfm?con_id=88)did not return calls while a spokesperson for Carrion (http://bronxboropres.nyc.gov/)referred calls to the Yankees. "We are making great progress and we are well over our targets in terms of hiring and contractors," a Yankees spokesperson said. "We are in the very early stages and we will not release specifics."

If they want to set up that nonprofit in time for Wednesday's announcement, there is still time. Eamon Moynihan, a spokesman for the New York State Department of State, said that the normal turnaround for incorporating nonprofits is six days. "But you can pay extra to get it done sooner."

-Matthew Schuerman

[Transic]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=a_r5hcomyX5I&refer=home

Yankees' 'Voice of God' Dreams of Opening New Stadium at Age 98

By Mason Levinson

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- For more than half a century, Bob Sheppard has greeted visitors to his workplace the same way: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Yankee Stadium.''

The 96-year-old says he wants to keep on doing it when the New York Yankees move to their new ballpark in 2009.

Sheppard, the Yankees' public-address announcer, has worked at the Bronx ballpark for 56 seasons and almost 4,500 games, speaking with perfect diction and dignified, emotion-free ease while introducing baseball players from Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

Along the way, he picked up the nickname "The Voice of God,'' and Sheppard says he intends to return next season and wants to be at the microphone when the Yankees' new $955 million stadium opens. He'll be 98 years old.

"It would be a dream come true,'' says Sheppard. Though he missed last season's first home series with a hip injury, his health is good and his performance steady.

"Health permitting, it would be our dream as well to have him here as we move into the new facilities,'' says Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost. "He brings professionalism and nostalgia to the ballpark.''

As for the nickname, "I think it's an exaggeration,'' Sheppard says, vaguely attributing the moniker to Rusty Staub, a major-leaguer from 1963 to 1985.

Sheppard, a retired speech professor, has a contract that runs through 2007. When he began working for the team, he was paid $15 a game. While he won't disclose his salary now, his son Paul, who handles his business affairs, says it's a "very safe bet'' that Sheppard is baseball's highest paid public-address announcer.

Postseason Streak

Sheppard has worked 121 postseason games at Yankee Stadium.

"When you think of Yankee Stadium, he's the first thing that comes to mind,'' says Jeter, the Yankees captain. "It's not right playing here unless he's the one that's announcing.''

Sheppard gained fame for what he calls his "clear, concise, correct'' style of introducing batters: "In center field, No. 18, Johnny Damon, No. 18.''

He announced his first Major League Baseball game on opening day, April 17, 1951, introducing a Yankee team that included Mickey Mantle in right field, Joe DiMaggio in center field, Yogi Berra behind the plate and Phil Rizzuto at shortstop. Boston Red Sox center fielder Dom DiMaggio, Joe's brother, was the first major-leaguer Sheppard ever introduced.

"The new stadium is the thing that moves him at this point,'' says Herb Steier, Sheppard's best friend and driver for the past 15 seasons.

Reggie Jackson

Steier, who himself is almost 80, has logged more than 75,000 miles (121,000 kilometers) since taking the wheel for their 33-mile, one-way journey between the Bronx ballpark and their Baldwin, Long Island, homes.

On the only reserved table in the Yankees' press dining room sits a placard bearing Sheppard's name. On the wall behind his seat, there is a photo of him with one of his favorite players, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. There's also a shot of former organist Eddie Layton, with whom Sheppard shared the table until Layton's retirement after the 2003 season. Layton, who worked from the booth next to Sheppard's for 38 seasons, died Dec. 26, 2004.

Sheppard himself was a collegiate athlete, playing varsity football and baseball for St. John's University in New York City. He graduated in 1932.

Slips of the Tongue

Cranes, trucks and heavy-lifting equipment have been in motion at the new stadium site since August. The 51,000-seat building will rise in Macombs Dam Park, near the current stadium. It won't have the history that Sheppard has witnessed across the street.

When Roger Maris hit his then-record 61st home run in 1961, Sheppard was in his booth overlooking home plate. He was also behind the microphone when Jackson slammed three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, and when Don Larsen struck out Dale Mitchell in 1956, completing the only "perfect game'' in World Series history, retiring all 27 batters he faced.
Not every moment has been perfect.

In an early 1980s game, Sheppard introduced Yankees relief pitcher Shane Rawley, then watched Rawley give up a triple on his first pitch.
"What relief pitching,'' Sheppard exclaimed, forgetting to turn off his microphone.

Soon after, the hand switch was replaced by a foot pedal.

Where Am I?

In 1976, Sheppard worked an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium, then hustled to the opening of Giants Stadium for his second job as the New York football Giants' announcer, a position he held from 1956 until his retirement in 2005.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Yankee Stadium,'' he said at the new football venue in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

"If you live long enough, you make mistakes,'' says Sheppard, who's made few enough that the Yankees want him to open their new park.

"They want me,'' Sheppard says. "I just hope I remember where I am.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net (mlevinson@bloomberg.net).

Last Updated: November 14, 2006 00:02 EST


The latest images from Stadiumpage (http://www.stadiumpage.com/) (November 10):

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http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Yankee_foes_strike_out_again_in_court/5745.html

Yankee foes strike out again in court

by patrick arden / metro new york
NOV 16, 2006

MANHATTAN — A federal judge yesterday ruled against Bronx community groups that sued the New York Yankees and city, state and federal park agencies to stop the new stadium project’s use of public parkland.

Plaintiffs Save Our Parks and the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality had lost a previous bid in state court to stop construction crews from cutting down 377 mature trees in Macombs Dam and John Mullaly parks. Lawyers chose to take the fight to federal court, believing a stronger case could be made that the various properties meant to replace the lost parkland did not comply with the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. This requires that parks receiving federal funds can be replaced only with “recreation properties” of equal value, usefulness and location.

Though ruling just on the “narrow question” of whether the National Park Service OK’d the project in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald nevertheless noted the previous “opportunities for public review and challenges to the project.”

The community groups presented evidence in court that showed the NPS assisted in the conversion process more than a year before officially approving the swap, yet Buchwald believed “NPS acted appropriately as a neutral and objective decisionmaker.” She also discounted arguments that the replacement parkland would not be available to residents during construction and that the parcels were polluted, finding the burden of clean up was “borne solely” by the government.

“We’re disappointed,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Baker. “We’re reviewing the decision, and we’re considering our options.”

----------------------------------------------------------

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/In_Bronx_hurry_up_and_wait/5744.html

In Bronx, hurry up and wait

No new parks — or garage developer — for Yanks’ project

by patrick arden / metro new york
NOV 16, 2006

BRONX — Attorneys for the New York Yankees successfully argued in state court that the team’s financial future depended on starting construction immediately to open its new ballpark by 2009.

But while the Yankees quickly seized parkland, other parts of the project remain behind schedule, according to a timeline issued last June to potential developers of the stadium’s parking garages. The timeline was obtained by Metro through the Freedom of Information Act.

According to this timeline, put together by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, one temporary track was supposed to have opened in July, and construction was set to begin in October and November on another interim track, a temporary ballfield and tennis courts on a waterfront “esplanade.”

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion assured reporters just before the stadium groundbreaking, “Over the next few months, there will be a new track and there will be new fields — artificial turf baseball fields, soccer fields — right in the immediate vicinity of the new stadium.”
So far those promises have not been kept. As recently as two weeks ago, the Parks Dept. promised Community Board 4 construction would begin in November, but apparently contractors have not been solicited. “We have not bid out anything yet,” said Parks Dept. spokesman Warner Johnston. The first park facilities won’t be available until the spring.

Considering the urgency of the Yankees’ pleas, it’s disconcerting to see the project slow down, said Dan Steinberg of Good Jobs New York. “It was to the detriment of the planning process that the project was fast-tracked,” he said.

Nowhere is that as evident as in the plans for the four new underground parking garages, an especially important part of the project because a sizable chunk of the replacement park acreage is supposed to end up on top of them.

The cost of the parking garages went up twice over the course of the approval process. Last March the price tag was put at $320 million; $70 million of that is covered by the state, with the stipulation that the remaining $250 million be “borne by the garage operator and/or the City.”

Though the city began looking for a developer in 2005, one has not been found. EDC spokesman Jorge Montalvo insisted the city won’t foot the bill : “They will be ready to designate a developer sometime early next year.”


Naming rights

• Both new baseball stadiums for the Mets and the Yankees are properties of the city, but in lease agreements the city handed over to the teams all stadium revenues, including those from naming rights.

• The Yankees have said its stadium’s name won’t change, but parts of the ballpark may receive corporate sponsorship, according to team president Randy Levine. Steinberg said, “Considering the teams are benefiting from taxpayer subsidies, we should have at least negotiated to split naming-rights revenue, which has been done in other cities.”


Shifting cash

The unfinished business disturbs Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates.

“Obviously the Yankees were in a hurry to start construction to pre-empt the community’s lawsuit,” he said.

Croft noticed a draft of the team’s community partnership agreement with Bronx elected officials had expressly set aside $100,000 to maintain the new parks. In the final pact, though, that money was rolled into the $800,000 fund that Bronx politicians have promised to dole out to community nonprofits borough-wide.

“It’s telling that they took away the only money specifically designated for the impacted area,” Croft said. “The Yankees and the electeds really did a number on that community.”

According to Carrion spokesperson Anne Fenton, “The thinking was, if this is a city park and the city is going to take care of it, instead of putting money into that when it’s already getting done, take the money —$100,000 — and put it into the big fund for community programming, little leagues, whatever the community wants.”

[Transic]

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/003097.php

Yankees Build Giant Dustbowl in Bronx
By Neil deMause | November 21, 2006

These days, it takes longer than usual to walk to Geneva Hester's apartment at 1001 Jerome Avenue, because you have to maneuver around a pile of burning asphalt. The pyre is being tended by a small phalanx of construction workers hired to erect the new Yankees stadium where Macombs Dam Park stood for the last century, and it completely blocks the sidewalk, forcing pedestrians into the roadway.

"It takes a long time to get across the street," says Hester, who's lived in her building for 35 years. Sometimes, she says, she has to yell to get the attention of the truck drivers who start rolling in at 6 a.m., obstructing sidewalks and crosswalks alike. More often, she and her neighbors in the Highbridge section of the Bronx just cross in the middle of the block, dodging the cars pouring off the nearby Macombs Dam Bridge.

Traffic, though, isn't the biggest complaint of Jerome Avenue's residents about the stadium project, now entering its fourth month and not scheduled for completion until 2009. No, that would be the dust.

"When you walk out of the building, you get hit with the dust," says Donna Johnson, who lives next door to Hester at 1005 Jerome, an Art Deco colossus ornamented with terra cotta bas-reliefs. "If you've washed your car, the next morning, it's covered with mud." The dust comes not just from the former parkland being excavated, she notes, but from the remains of the massive boulder at the park's west end that was pulverized by workers after the Yankees' groundbreaking in August. "There was one point, I felt like I had a shard from the rocks in my eyes—it didn't come out for a couple of days."

Hester, whose 8th-floor window has afforded her a view of Macombs Dam Park and a distant slice of the Yankee Stadium bleachers—"If they hit a home run, I can hear the cheers, but you have to run to the TV to see who hit it," she says—now looks out onto a vast construction pit swarming with workers. The bam-bam-bam of a pile driver punctuates every thought. Since construction began, she's kept her windows shut tight to keep out the swirling dust. Rain helps clear the air, she says, but then backs up from debris-clogged sewers and create enormous puddles.

Touring the north end of the construction site along 164th Street, where a few remnant tennis courts will soon give way to a multi-story parking garage for Yankees players and execs, Hester notes, "I don't walk on that side because the rats are so fat." Since construction began, she says, overflowing trash cans and blowing debris have been the routine. "I'm from the old school, where you teach your kids to pick up your garbage."

It was just such worries that led Community Board 4 to argue last fall that the city should either rebuild the stadium in place, or move it south and west, away from the residential neighborhoods to the north, where asthma is already at epidemic levels. Those suggestions were summarily dismissed by the Yankees, however—team president Randy Levine insisted the current stadium couldn't be expanded without knocking down the elevated 4 train that runs behind a small stretch of the right-field bleachers—in favor of replacement parks for the old stadium site and at other scattered locations far from where residents are concentrated. Temporary ballfields were promised in the interim, but as Metro New York (http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/In_Bronx_hurry_up_and_wait/5744.html) reported last week, the city has yet to begin soliciting bids to build them.

Also behind schedule are the four parking garages the city intends to build for the Yankees. The state has put up $70 million toward construction, but the balance, now estimated at $250 million, is supposed to come from private developers, and after a year of searching, the city has yet to find anyone willing to take on the project. The Bloomberg administration insists it will select a developer early in 2007, but given that the proceeds from Yankee parking pencil out at a little over $10 million a year (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2005/11/latest_yankees.html), less $3 million a year in rent payments to the city, it's hard to see why any developer would cough up a quarter-billion dollars for garages when you could get a better return by putting the money into savings. This could help explain rumors that one of the garages (possibly Garage C, slated for mapped parkland north of the Macombs Dam Bridge approach currently used by the Yanks as surface parking) will be scrapped. That would make it cheaper for a developer, but also potentially put the city further in the hole if it then can't charge as much for rent.

Add in the $45 million (http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061029/NEWS05/610290340/1021) that the MTA now says it will cost to build a new Metro-North station to serve the Yankees, plus the cost of a new pedestrian overpass to span the station (negotiations regarding the cost are "ongoing" between the city and MTA, a Parks Department spokesperson said), and it seems certain the total cost of the Yankees project to city and state taxpayers will be well over $325 million (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2006/03/recrunching_the_1.html). Not too shabby for a project that Yankees exec Steve Swindel promised last year would be built with "no public subsidies."

Posted in Stadium Developments

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[Transic]

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/477412p-401664c.html

Parks' path to confusion

Activists irate over lost track

By BILL EGBERT

A "misunderstanding" about the city's temporary replacement for a running track dug up to make way for the new Yankee Stadium has led to charges of broken promises and even perjury from community members.

Shortly after the running track around Macombs Dam Park was fenced off for the stadium's construction, local Community Board 4 member Lukas Herbert noticed a jogging path stenciled on the sidewalk around Mullaly Park.

Outraged over what appeared to be the Parks Department's idea of a replacement track, he contacted the Daily News, which led to City Councilwoman Helen Foster (D-Highbridge) demanding an explanation from Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Benepe responded that the stenciled route was a "walking path," not the replacement for the running track.

"In fact, Parks will be building a rubberized all-weather track on Lot 1 as the temporary replacement for the Macombs track," Benepe wrote in a Nov. 9 letter. "This track will be completed by spring of 2007."

The letter said that Herbert had "misunderstood the purpose of the 'walking path.'"

But Herbert counters any misunderstanding was understandable, since the agency had offered assurances a replacement running track would be available when construction began.

And these assurances were given not just to the community but to a judge in state court.

When Judge Herman Cahn ruled against groups seeking a temporary restraining order to delay construction in September, he did so partly on the basis that "an exercise running course is to be available at all times during the construction," according to his written decision.

"So if the sidewalk 'walking path' is not the 'exercise running course,' then where is it?" asked Herbert. "Maybe Adrian Benepe doesn't have his facts straight. Either that, or his agency lied to a judge."

Parks' Assistant Commissioner for Planning Joshua Laird said the earlier plans for a cinder track around two nearby baseball fields were scrapped because it would cut into the outfield and backstops.

"We put [the cinder track plan] out there in good faith," said Laird.

The initial construction timeline would have closed the ballfields next spring, but a change allowed them to remain open another full season, so Parks opted to keep the fields at the expense of the cinder track.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, who previously said his support of the project depended on Parks providing interim replacements for all facilities, admitted frustration with the "bureaucratic quagmire." "This really should have been fast-tracked," he said.

Originally published on December 6, 2006

[Kroy Wen]

So much complaining going on via the media. Meanwhile, it looks like the construction is off to a swift start.

Some of the complaints have merit- the running track for example. But most of it seems to be simple bitterness against some 'dark force' come to destroy the lives of a few in the neighborhood. So it really must be asked- would they prefer putting up with this for a couple years (as many NY'ers do throughout the city as the future is forged), or having the Yanks pull stakes and move somewhere else entirely? You can't make a cake without breaking eggs.

NY'ers complain about everything ('I have to keep my windows closed/My car got dirty' etc)- and the media soaks it up. It's in our DNA.

[lofter1]

Anyone who doesn't complain and demand action when public officials lie to them doesn't deserve to be called a New Yorker.

Gotta try and keep the Crooks and Liars in line.

[Transic]

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_016140605.html

Yankee Stadium Expected To Host 2008 All-Star Game

(CBS/AP) ST. LOUIS Busch Stadium in St. Louis will host baseball's All-Star game in 2009.

The 2007 All-Star game is scheduled for July 10 in San Francisco and the 2008 event is likely to be played at New York's Yankee Stadium, which is slated to be in its final season.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig made the announcement Monday night at the 49th annual dinner hosted by the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

"There can't be a better baseball town in America," Selig said.

The decision, which was expected, gives St. Louis its first baseball All-Star game since 1966. The old Busch Stadium hosted the Midsummer Classic that year.

The new Busch Stadium opened last April, across the street from the site of the old Busch, and the Cardinals went on to win the World Series in their first season in their new ballpark.

Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said the 2009 All-Star game will help the team put the finishing touches on its new $365 million stadium. The team expects groundbreaking this summer on a "ballpark village," featuring shops and restaurants in the adjacent lot where the old Busch Stadium sat.

"It really is a big deal for the Cardinals and St. Louis," DeWitt said. "It's been a long time for the city. This will cap off our new park and by 2009 the ballpark village will be in great shape."

Back in October, during the NL championship series, Selig said it was very likely that St. Louis would be granted the 2009 showcase.

__________________________________________________ _____________

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2732682

Sources: Yankee Stadium to host '08 All-Star Game

By Buster Olney
ESPN The Magazine

Yankee Stadium will be the site of the 2008 All-Star Game, sources in baseball said, in the last year of the ballpark.

The new Yankee Stadium is scheduled to open in 2009, and old Yankee Stadium closed, 86 years after the ballpark was first built in 1923, and 33 years after the ballpark was remodeled on the same site in 1976. With the All-Star Game slated to be in an AL park in 2008, officials chose Yankee Stadium for the site, believing it to be an appropriate way to usher out the historic building.

The All-Star Game has been held in Yankee Stadium three times previously, the last time in 1977.

An announcement on the selection of Yankee Stadium is expected in the days ahead, perhaps next week, with Major League Baseball coordinating with the Mayor's office in New York.

Next summer's All-Star Game will be played in San Francisco, and on Monday night, Commissioner Bud Selig formally announced that the 2009 All-Star Game will be played in St. Louis.

__________________________________________________ __________

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/487117p-410130c.html


Revised Board 4 tries to seek peace

By BILL EGBERT

Members of Bronx Community Board 4 will start 2007 with a prayer for unity and, after 2006, they'll need it.

At the last full board meeting of a year wracked with controversy over plans for a new Yankee Stadium, Board Chair D. Lee Ezell won approval to start meetings with a prayer for "brotherly love, professionalism and respect."

The board, which serves Mount Eden, Concourse and Highbridge, has been at a slow boil since last spring, when Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión purged several members who had opposed the new Yankee Stadium project.

"This is the direct result of the borough president's decision to exact punishment for us voting against the Yankee Stadium project," said board member Anita Antonetty, who also served as the board's recording secretary until she resigned that post in October.

Carrión pushed hard to rally support for the deal that would anchor the Bombers in the Bronx. But many members of Board 4 thought the deal to hand over two popular local city parks to the world's richest sports franchise shortchanged the local community, so the board voted against endorsing the plan.

While the vote was nonbinding and the stadium plan easily won city approval, the rebuke embarrassed the borough president, for whom the Yankees deal was a long-sought triumph.

In a "my way or the highway" move, Carrión nixed four board members who were up for reappointment - three who voted against the stadium as well as then-Chairman Abe Rasul, who voted for it, but was reportedly dumped for failing to deliver the full board.

"There was a leadership void at the time," said Ezell of the board that faced the stadium decision. "Then Save Our Parks [an ad hoc group started by community activists to oppose the stadium] stepped in and some on the board followed them onto the streets."

Ezell said she believes more concessions could have been achieved by working with the city and the Yankees organization rather than through the adversarial tactics of Save Our Parks.

After Carrión elevated Ezell to the board chair and the board's new leadership slate was approved in a contentious meeting, Antonetty locked horns with Ezell over the minutes.

Antonetty said that Ezell asked her in a private meeting to change the minutes, which led to her decision to resign as recording secretary.

But Ezell said Antonetty had included quotes as long as four pages from members opposing the stadium plan - resulting in a 27-page document. "The minutes are a supposed to be a summary of the meeting," said Ezell, "not a transcript."

Originally published on January 10, 2007

[ZippyTheChimp]

Ezell said she believes more concessions could have been achieved by working with the city and the Yankees organization rather than through the adversarial tactics of Save Our Parks.I thought so in the beginning. Unfortunate.

[Transic]

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1169012259261930.xml&coll=1

Yankees Stadium likely site for 2008 All-Stars

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

BY DAN GRAZIANO
Star-Ledger Staff

At some point, baseball commissioner Bud Selig is all but certain to announce that the 2008 All-Star Game will be held at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees know this. The commissioner's office knows this.

What they don't know is when that announcement will be.

Officials with the Yankees and with the commissioner's office, all of whom requested anonymity so as not to upstage Selig's eventual announcement, said yesterday that there had not yet been a final decision and that no announcement was being planned.
Everybody expects Yankee Stadium to be the site (one of the officials said he was "99 percent certain"), but an Internet report that yesterday claimed it as news represented no new developments in the situation since last summer.

It's possible the topic will be discussed at an owner's meeting that takes place tomorrow, and that Selig will make the announcement soon. But as of yesterday afternoon, Selig had no plans to be in New York next week.

With the Yankees' new stadium scheduled to open in 2009, the team wants to hold the 2008 game as a "farewell" for the current ballpark.

This year's All-Star Game will be at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Selig announced Monday that the 2009 game would be at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Dan Graziano may be reached at dgraziano@starledger.com

__________________________________________________ __________

Major League Ouch! - Transic

http://www.nysun.com/article/46801

Good Riddance to the House Ruth Didn't Build

By TIM MARCHMAN (http://www.nysun.com/authors/Tim+Marchman)
January 17, 2007

http://www.nysun.com/images/grey_pixel.gif http://www.nysun.com/images/clear_pix.gif
Yesterday, ESPN (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=ESPN+Inc.)'s Buster Olney reported that, according to his sources, Major League Baseball (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Major+League+Baseball) will soon announce that the 2008 All Star Game will be played in the Bronx (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=The+Bronx), in Yankee Stadium (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Yankee+Stadium)'s last season. As a symbolic hail and farewell to the stadium, it can't come soon enough. Good riddance!

One can only hope that neither baseball nor the Yankees will maintain the absurd pretense that the park where Derek Jeter (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Derek+Jeter) plays is the same one in which Babe Ruth (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Babe+Ruth), Joe DiMaggio (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Joe+DiMaggio), and Mickey Mantle (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Mickey+Mantle) played. It isn't, and an All Star Game being played in a park that was built a couple of years before I was born will be about as much a goodbye to "The House That Ruth Built" as playing a game in Prospect Park (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Prospect+Park) would be a goodbye to Ebbets Field.

That many people don't realize this is a testament to short memories and a testament to the power of the Yankees brand and its association with tradition and nostalgia; it's nonetheless true. In 1974 and 1975, Yankee Stadium was destroyed. The facade was removed, the columns and pillars supporting the upper deck were removed, the dimensions were changed, wooden seats were replaced with plastic ones, the press box and clubhouses were remodeled, luxury boxes were built, and so on. It was a new park in everything but name, and a rather ugly one. The changes were made at taxpayer expense to ensure profits for a privately held entity, and their general effect was to make the park uglier and a worse place for most people to watch baseball.

People with the cash to sit in luxury boxes got a better deal, but everyone else got the shaft. Look at a picture of the first Yankee Stadium, and you'll note that as in Wrigley Field (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Wrigley+Field) or Fenway Park (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Fenway+Park), people in the upper decks are perilously close to the field. That's because a park that incorporates columns and pillars can support decks extending much closer to the action. One that removes those elements, as the new Yankee Stadium did, has to recess the upper decks. This is why you need binoculars to watch a game from those seats these days; it does prevent the odd field-level seat from being stationed behind a girder, though, and thus ensures convenience for the high-paying few at the expense of the comparatively low-paying many.

Looked at this way, the park at 161 Street is less a shrine to the Yankees' dynastic qualities and more of a ridiculous reminder of how baseball teams manage to rip off cities. For no evident reason, the city destroyed a perfectly good ballpark it owned, built a new one for $180 million in 2005 dollars, and then signed it over to a plutocrat. In the process, the city destroyed something of great historical and aesthetic value and replaced it with a bowl of concrete so impractical it would barely last more than 30 years.

Of course the city is making the same mistake all over again. The new, new Yankee Stadium, which will swallow up 22 acres of parkland and replace it with Astroturfed garage rooftops and the like, will seat spectators even further from the action than the old, new Yankee Stadium, and the cost looks to run close to a billion dollars, with most analysts estimating that the public will subsidize roughly $400 million of it — all this for a project of no discernible benefit to anyone other than the Yankee organization. Probably in 2039, it will host an All Star Game while everyone grows misty about how Babe Ruth played there.

Like anyone else, I have countless wonderful memories of great times I've had watching baseball at the stadium; it isn't a ballpark in the same sense that Wrigley Field is, but the quality of a ballpark is far less important than what goes on there (people manage to get sentimental over Shea, for Pete's sake), and mostly what's gone on at Yankee Stadium is great baseball. It's still always worth keeping in mind that when anyone involved with baseball starts talking a lot of bosh about history, tradition, and the heritage we share, what they mean is that they want to spend your money to make more money for themselves, and that when Major League Baseball decides to celebrate the past, it's because they think they can sell it. An All Star Game in New York City (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+York+City) will be pretty great. The certain-to-come YES Network (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Yankees+Entertainment+%26 +Sports+Network+LLC) special in which Michael Kay (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Michael+Kay) cries while preaching about how Whitey Ford and Andy Pettitte (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Andy+Pettitte) toed the same slab of championship destiny, and how one can breathe in that destiny by making a last trip to the hallowed ground in the South Bronx (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=South+Bronx)? Not so much.

tmarchman@nysun.com (tmarchman@nysun.com)

[TallGuy]

Yankee Stadium was not destroyed during the renovation. About 2/3rds of the current stadium is original!

[Transic]

http://www.longislandpress.com/?cp=46&show=article&a_id=10800

Far From All-Star
Yankee Stadium No Match For Mid-Summer Classic
Josh Stewart 01/18/2007 2:33 pm

Sure, it sounded nice when we heard the news. Reportedly, the 2008 Major League Baseball All Star Game will be played in Yankee Stadium, a tribute to the House that Ruth Built, a proper sendoff before the Bombers move into their new digs in 2009.

In theory, it’s a lovely idea. But look a bit closer and it seems that as emotionally stimulating as the plan is, logistically it’s far from a winner.

Now, we all know that a trip on the 4 Train to The Bronx is one of the prime destinations for tourists. But those are people who generally travel to the Big Apple to catch lots of sights. They go to the Yankees-A’s game on Tuesday because the good tickets to Hairspray were only available for Wednesday. They may choose a matinee game so they can get some sleep before trying to get their "40 and Fabulous" poster, or whatever, on The Today Show.

In other words, a person generally doesn’t take a baseball trip to New York. They take a trip to New York, and when they have a chance, they see a baseball game. And those who do go spend only a very concentrated amount of time in and around Yankee Stadium. And the Stadium, glorious and historic as it may be, is best taken in small doses.

I’ve long said that Yankee Stadium in the hours before, during and after a game is the safest place to be in New York, which is ironic since it’s not in one of the safest areas in general. The reason for the healthy police presence is obvious: If someone visiting from Oklahoma got stabbed during a botched mugging, CNN would have a field day, and one of the top-five reasons to visit New York would suddenly be seen as unsafe, thereby crippling the tourism industry.

But when you have to provide that kind of security just to guarantee everyone’s wellness, is that the place you want to have All-Star festivities? People who would come for it would want to walk around, see the area around the Stadium, be close to the event the entire time. But there’s no river walk, no strip of nice restaurants. There is a lot of graffiti, and that’s about it. How many times can you walk into a bodega for a pack of Lucky Strikes before it gets old?

Sure, the powers-that-be will try to spruce things up, have one of those Fan Fest-type areas where you can see how your fastball registers and such. But as currently constructed, there isn’t anything there that can keep the area from being more than some sweaty T-shirt shops and bars you wouldn’t take a loved one into.

The whole reason the Yankees are building a new facility (well, besides making a ton of money) is to have the type of modern stadium with urban amenities surrounding that makes a baseball fan want to hang around in the immediate area. That’s the type of atmosphere an All-Star fan wants.

It would’ve been better to open the Stadium in ’09, let the infrastructure develop around it and then have the All-Star Game in the Bronx around 2014.

As is stands, the ’08 All-Star Game will be a bit, uh, gamey.


You can contact Josh Stewart at jstewart@longislandpress.com.

[ZippyTheChimp]

What is this guy talking about?

All Star fans?

I've never been much interested in All Star games, or Pro Bowls. All MLB and Fox Sports care about is if the Stadium will sell out. Is there any doubt?

The media focus will be the closing of baseball's most historic place.

Only baseball fans need apply.

[JYanks26]

New renderings for the New Yankee stadium are up...you can finally see in these renderings what the stadium will truly look like...
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/ballpark/new_stadium.jsp

2008 all-star game is a great send off for Yankee Stadium no matter what architectural aspects from the orginal still remain...anyone who writes otherwise does not know baseball..

[lofter1]

I guess there won't be no spittin' in that swank new corporate office complex -- oops, I mean baseball stadium ...

[antinimby]

After seeing those new renderings, I can say it's not very exciting.

I don't see it aging well either.

A definite disappointment.

[Eugenious]

After seeing those new renderings, I can say it's not very exciting.

I don't see it aging well either.

A definite disappointment.

I would characterize it as cheap-corporate imitation of classicism.

[antinimby]

Does anyone else noticed how water-downed the latest renderings looked compared to the earlier ones (which was nothing to write home about either)?

[lofter1]

Is the facade pre-cast concrete-type material?

Or stone?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Limestone and granite.

[ablarc]

^ At least the materials are good. On such a big building, how can they afford it? And is it a good investment (of taxpayer money) if the building is replaced in thirty years? Stadiums these days can be thought of as temporary buildings.

[ZippyTheChimp]

They are hardly ever good investment of taxpayer money (when compared to alternate uses). Of course, it's billed as privately financed, but somehow we got stuck for several hundred million.

Same with the Mets.

[Transic]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-spstar0123,0,7113796.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines

It's official: Yanks to host '08 All-Star game

BY KEN DAVIDOFF
Newsday Staff Writer

January 22, 2007, 4:05 PM EST

Major League Baseball and New York City will hold a news conference on Wednesday, Jan. 31st, to officially announce Yankee Stadium as the site of the 2008 All-Star Game, Newsday has learned.

New York City Michael Bloomberg and baseball commissioner Bud Selig are expected on site. Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner doesn't plan to attend, The Boss' spokesman Howard Rubenstein said today.

The 2008 All-Star Game will serve as a national farewell to Yankee Stadium, as the Yankees are on schedule to open their new ballpark in 2009. Yankee Stadium last hosted the All-Star Game in 1977, which was also the last time the Midsummer Classic took place in New York. Shea Stadium last hosted the game in 1964, the ballpark's first year, and the Mets are also on target to open their new stadium in 2009.

The location of the '08 All-Star Game has been an open secret for years, reported as far back as 2005. It took this long for the city and baseball to finalize all of the logistics, and then find a date in common that worked for all of the participating dignitaries.

[Transic]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=amx8wPaJERGY&refer=home

Yankee Stadium to Host Baseball All-Star Game in 2008 (Update2)

By Erik Matuszewski

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Yankees will host the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 2008, the final season their 84-year-old stadium will be used.

Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 and was the stage for the team's record 26 World Series championships, is giving way to a new $955 million building after the 2008 season.

"It is the most famous cathedral in baseball and I think the most famous stadium in the world,'' Commissioner Bud Selig said at a press conference held at New York's City Hall. "This is the way we can honor a place that has meant so much to this sport for so long.''

The game is scheduled for July 15, 2008. Yankee Stadium previously hosted All-Star Games in 1939, 1960 and 1977. After each of those seasons, the Yankees reached the World Series.

In addition to hosting the championship teams, the stadium was the home field for such players as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio, who are among the 13 players in baseball's Hall of Fame who were inducted as Yankees.

Since 2003, the All-Star Game has been used to determine which league gets the advantage of playing at home for four of the seven games in the World Series. The American League has won all four All-Star meetings against the National League in that span and is 9-0-1 over the past 10 years.

"Nobody stages big events like the Big Apple,'' New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at today's news conference. "We've got the experience, the resources and the spirit. We'll put on the best All-Star Game in baseball history.''

Ticket Prices

Tickets for last year's All-Star Game in Pittsburgh had a face value of $125 and some re-sold for between $450 and $2,000, ticket brokers said. The cost of seats at the game in the Bronx will probably be significantly higher.

"It's going to be a very tough ticket to get,'' Tom Patania, a board member for the National Association of Ticket Brokers, said in a telephone interview. "The Yankees without having an All-Star Game have the highest attendance figures. To throw in an All-Star Game on top of that just adds to it.''

The Yankees drew more than 4 million fans in each of the past two seasons and averaged a major league-leading 51,858 for their 81 home games last season.

Bloomberg said city officials are expecting the All-Star Game to attract more than 175,000 visitors and have an estimated economic impact of $148 million. The highest previous economic impact for an All-Star host city was $65 million for Houston in 2004 and Boston in 1999, according to the league.

"This is something that all New Yorkers, not just baseball fans, should cheer about,'' said Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News and its parent company, Bloomberg LP. "This will showcase our city to a huge, diverse television audience and that's equal to millions of dollars of free advertising for our city and will help attract even more visitors and more businesses in years to come.''

All-Star Celebration

Selig said the league's All-Star celebration has changed significantly since 1977, when New York last hosted the game. It now lasts five days and features a home run derby, a fan festival and a futures game for top minor-league players.

Nine of the past 10 All-Star Games were held in new stadiums, including last year's meeting between the American League and National League at Pittsburgh's PNC Park.

Boston's Fenway Park was the only stadium more than 10 years old to host the All-Star Game since 1997.

San Francisco's AT&T Park, which opened in 2000, is the site of this year's game. St. Louis's new stadium will host the 2009 game and Selig said he's already considering the Mets' planned facility as a future All-Star site. Like the Yankees, the Mets are scheduled to open their new venue in 2009.

"This was unusual because one of the things I've tried to do is use the new stadiums, but the more we talked about it, celebrating (the Yankees') unprecedented history the overriding concern,'' Selig said. "I can assure you, the Mets are on my radar screen when they get a new stadium.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski at City Hall in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net (matuszewski@bloomberg.net)

Last Updated: January 31, 2007 11:53 EST

[antinimby]

New York can conceivably be the host of the All-Star game at least three separate times within the next ten years or so.

They tend to award the game to newly-built stadiums as well, which makes the new Yankee stadium and the new CitiField in the running soonafter their opening.

[Transic]

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-sppow0201,0,2298593.column?coll=ny-sports-headlines

http://www.newsday.com/media/thumbnails/columnist/2004-02/369978.jpg (http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-shaunpowell,0,4102841.columnist?coll=ny-sports-headlines)Shaun Powell (http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-shaunpowell,0,4102841.columnist?coll=ny-sports-headlines)
SPORTS COLUMNIST

Outdated Stadium should be history

January 31, 2007, 10:32 PM EST

It's never nice to speak ill about the ill, especially when death is apparent. With that in mind, I'll be kind and just say this: Yankee Stadium can't collapse fast enough.

Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper won't swing the wrecking ball until sometime in October 2008, depending on when Alex Rodriguez kills another playoff run. That's 21 months from now, or roughly the time between Carl Pavano starts. Until then, baseball fans must continue to root for the Yankees while sitting in a facility past its glory, which is sort of like taking Giselle Bundchen for a spin in a wheezing, old Coup de Ville.

Please, this is no disrespect to the history of the stadium itself.

Just the stadium itself.

Four million people visit Yankee Stadium every year to see Derek Jeter throw across his body to first base, to witness what $200 million buys these days in baseball talent, to observe the winningest team in baseball this decade.

Four million people do not visit Yankee Stadium to do a riverdance while standing in line for the three or four restrooms. Four million people do not visit Yankee Stadium to squeeze through aisles built for supermodels or fight for shouting space at concession stands the size of shopping-mall information booths. Four million people, or at least the few who dare to drive, do not visit Yankee Stadium hours before the first pitch just so they can find one of the limited parking spaces sold at monthly home mortgages.

Once you remove the product on the field and Monument Park in the outfield, the "Yankee experience" is like the death of Barbaro: overrated and overplayed.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, commissioner Bud Selig and other important types made it official yesterday when the All-Star Game was given to the Bronx in '08, but this was a mercy gesture, a nice way of being nice to a sick, suffering old cathedral that should've had the plug pulled a decade ago. Ordinarily, the Midseason Classic wouldn't come anywhere near Yankee Stadium, because baseball knows what we know: The place isn't fit for it.

The beauty of the Stadium nowadays lies exclusively with the history and tradition of the Yankees. People are attracted by walls that talk. They know this is where Babe Ruth smacked his 60th homer and where Don Larsen pitched his perfect World Series game. They want to press their ears close enough to hear the heavy heartbeats from Lou Gehrig's courageous speech and the Babe's good-bye.

They know they're standing in the same place where Roger Maris hit No. 61, where Aaron Boone needed one swing and where Reggie needed three. They also know this is where Joe Louis put Max Schmeling to sleep and where Chuck Bednarik did the same to Frank Gifford. A pair of popes blessed the crowd, and the end zone blessed Alan Ameche in the Greatest Game Ever Played.

All that history is so rich and rewarding and priceless in a building with the charm of Simon Cowell.

Despite getting more nips and tucks than the cast of "The View," the Stadium has seen better days. It can't compare to any of the grand old baseball buildings still standing. For sheer magnificence, nothing tops Dodger Stadium, still in all its retro 1960s glory, sitting atop Chavez Ravine. Wrigley Field also blows away Yankee Stadium, especially if you compare the neighborhoods that surround both ballparks. And Fenway Park, cozy and intimate and buffeted by the imposing Green Monster, is a more inviting place to waste a lazy afternoon.

Yankee Stadium would've gone long ago had George Steinbrenner not wasted time with his misguided attempt at building in Manhattan or flirting with New Jersey. Meanwhile, the cost of materials went up, to the point at which the price of the new Stadium in the Bronx will equal six Yankee payrolls. Well, if that's what it takes to move the Yankees into the 21st century and out of a dated building, so be it. Only three items are worth taking across the street to the new place. The arching façade, because it's the trademark. Monument Park, which deserves more space and a better presentation. And the roll call.

Well, there is something nice we can say about the old place.

It's not exactly Shea Stadium.

[TallGuy]

Alrighty, then. Tell us how you REALLY feel.

I was going to post some photos I took of Yankee Stadium corridors last year, but they apparently are on my home computer. I am attaching this however, which shows renovations in progress from 1974. Everything remaining in this picture is from the 'old' stadium, and currently remains in the current one. You can see the beams to support the extension of the upper deck being attached.

(and yes, that is Joe D.)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Four million people do not visit Yankee Stadium to squeeze through aisles built for supermodels...

And Fenway Park, cozy and intimate and buffeted by the imposing Green Monster, is a more inviting place to waste a lazy afternoon.

The Stadium is cramped, but Fenway is cozy.

[antinimby]

^ Exactly. Must have been a slow news day for this Powell character.

Fenway's a dump.

[Jasonik]

There is a distinction between a ballpark and a stadium.

[Xemu]

Fenway's a dump.
That might have been true five years ago but not anymore. Since John Henry took over they've drastically changed the concourse and concession areas. They've fixed bottlenecks, added seats and bathrooms and expanded onto Yawkee Way. All this without much change to the look of the park from field level. It's light-years from what it used to be.

[Jasonik]

Virtual tour of new Yankee Staduim (http://www.boston.com/partners/worldnow/nesn.html?catID=80767&clipid=1205796&autoStart=true&mute=false&continuous=true)

[Transic]

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/02/mystery_of_stad.php

by Neil deMause | posted 1:20 PM, February 15, 2007
Mystery of Stadium Funds Continues

Nearly a month after Mayor Bloomberg issued his preliminary capital budget, the mystery over cost overruns for the city's stadium projects (http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/01/bloomberg_addin.php) remains. The mayor, it now appears, has attempted to tack on somewhere between $140 million and $226 million in added spending for the Nets, Mets, and Yankees projects—all without notifying the city council, let alone the general public.

To recap: When the sports troika was approved last year, the city indicated that taxpayers would be on the hook for $160 million in land and infrastructure costs for the new Yankees stadium (already a last-minute lineup substitution for the initial $135 million price tag), $98 million for the Mets, and $100 million for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, which includes a basketball arena to bring the Nets to Brooklyn. (State spending and tax breaks would add at least another half-billion to the overall public tab.) In the mayor's new budget, however, Yankees spending is now projected at $209 million through 2009, Mets at $172 million, and Nets at $205 million.

The city Independent Budget Office already revealed last month (http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/01/bloomberg_addin.php) (and city council sources have since confirmed) that the extra Atlantic Yards money is for such things as new water mains and roadways, which somehow weren't accounted for when the project was first announced. As for city spending on the Yankees project, which will pay for building new parkland to replace that obliterated by the new stadium (http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/003097.php), as well as for demolition of the House That Ruth Built, the city at first insisted that it was still within its original budget.

However, Parks Department spokesperson Warner Johnston recently told the Voice in an e-mail that an additional $35 million has been allocated to the project for "contingency funding and construction-related inflation"—in other words, cost overruns and the expectation of further cost overruns.

That gets us to $140 million. But what about the other $14 million for the Yanks, and $74 million for the Mets, that shows up in the mayor's budget? Johnston referred us to the mayor's Office of Management and Budget—whose officials declined to return a series of Voice phone calls and e-mails inquiring into the mystery money.

City council officials are apparently getting no better treatment: One council staffer described OMB as "stonewalling" the council's own finance staff on the issue. Staffers for councilmembers Hiram Monserrate and Helen Diane Foster, who represent residents around the Mets and Yanks stadium sites respectively, said they knew nothing about the increased allocations. Lukas Herbert, one of the Bronx Community Board 4 members who'd tried to warn that the city would face likely cost overruns on its share of the Yankees project, says, "This is almost like an 'I told you so' - it just goes to show that once a big corporation like the Yankees gets an approval from government, the cost just goes up for the public." Not that, under the circumstances, being right is much comfort to Herbert, who lives three blocks from the stadium site on the Grand Concourse: "My alarm goes off at 7 a.m., and within five minutes I start hearing the ping, ping of the pile drivers driving in those columns. And last time I checked, the school down the street was still falling apart."

[lofter1]

... between $140 million and $226 million in added spending for the Nets, Mets, and Yankees projects—all without notifying the city council, let alone the general public.


Helloooo! This is our tax money being spent.

Can we ALL say BOONDOGGLE?

Or are we too busy being screwed to notice / care?

[Transic]

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/73927

The New Yankee Stadium – Boon and Dust

by Elaine Rivera

BROOKLYN, NY February 21, 2007 —Construction in the city is at a peak with a huge number of developments around town. Whether you like it or not, if you live near one of the big projects dust, noise and traffic are more part of your life than ever. WNYC's Elaine Rivera takes a look at the cost of the new Yankee Stadium for Bronx residents living nearby.

REPORTER: Since August, hundreds of apartment residents along Jerome Avenue have had an unwelcome alarm clock. Inaldo Chavarria lives in one of the pre-war buildings on the street. About a hundred yards from his front door will eventually be the new stadium for the world-renowned Yankees franchise.

CHAVARRIA: At seven o'clock in the morning on the dot or 7:05 you actually start hearing this noise which you can kind of hear behind me um without a doubt it's basically like that since Day One After the ceremony they just come here they have trucks idling all up this block.

REPORTER: Those trucks, he says, start idling around 4 in the morning. The nine-hour daily excavation has also literally stirred up plenty of dust.

CHAVARRIA: The actual digging of the construction it just creates more dust now to the point where it is just ridiculous.

REPORTER: In his apartment, Chavarria points to a window sill and a stand that has a layer of dust. He also points to one of the apartment walls which he painted two months ago that appears to be off-color.

CHAVARRIA: You see and I painted it white really white it's one of those things that you can see it's - it's dust.

REPORTER: Resident Anita Antonetty serves on the local community board and voted against the stadium project because she's worried about losing 22 acres of parkland.

ANTONETTY: We lost are biggest part in the neighborhood We were promised replacement parks and interim parks of course that didn't happen before the construction began so we are with very limited park space.

REPORTER: She's also concerned about the health effect of construction in a community with the one of the highest rates of asthma in the country.

ANTONETTY: There are days walking through here because this is where all the transportation hub is and you're coughing and there is grit in your eyes and none of this is being monitored to what the effects are.

REPORTER: Not true, says Randy Levine, president of the Yankees organization. He says they have been complying with all city, state and federal regulations.

LEVINE: As to dust and all other environmental issues, we've kept our word we're maintaining our highest standards...we're sensitive to all of these issues - the department of environmental protection is testing and monitoring to make sure we are in compliance and we continue to do so.

REPORTER: Levine also says the Yankees are erecting 15 to 18 foot noise barriers along Jerome Avenue and other nearby streets.

LEVINE: This a construction project - there is some level of noise but we work very, very hard to mitigate it. The department of buildings is constantly on the scene monitoring it.

REPORTER: Levine argues that the project is good for the local economy, stating that 37 percent of the contracts have gone to Bronx-based companies. He says that translates into $70 million for Bronx businesses and the hiring of hundreds of local residents.

But urban planner and resident Lukas Herbert says it's not necessarily a boon. Not only is there the dust, noise, and lack of parkland, but he says the new stadium could hurt the current real estate near the site.

HERBERT: We have beautiful art deco buildings on Jerome Avenue that once looked out over the park and now they're going to have a 14-story wall with lights on top of it right in front of their windows that is probably going to have a negative effect on those buildings; it could serve to blight them.

REPORTER: Like Antonetty and Herbert, Chavarria, also has been involved with the community board. The 30-year-old MTA compliance manager has lived in the neighborhood his whole life…he thinks the neighborhood in the long run will improve because of the new stadium.

CHAVARRIA: I believe in economic development. I like the fact that this borough I mean the area is starting to revitalize, it's starting to pick up after so long but there is a cost to it and this is the cost to it right now. DISC 1 (Track 17/2:34-2:48)

REPORTER: The new Yankee stadium is expected to open in 2009 right about when the community will see another construction project begin - the demolition of the shell of the iconic old stadium. For WNYC, I'm Elaine Rivera.

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Pictures are courtesy of Subway Heroes (http://www.subwayheroes.com/2007/02/new-yankee-stadium-pictures.html) and Squidpix (http://sports.webshots.com/album/557355629QNWyNL?track_pagetag=/page/photo/sports/baseball&track_action=/MediaInfo/AlbumTitle)

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://img482.imageshack.us/img482/8996/yankeestadium01cul3.th.jpg (http://img482.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yankeestadium01cul3.jpg) http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/151/yankeestadium02cil7.th.jpg (http://img384.imageshack.us/my.php?image=yankeestadium02cil7.jpg)

[macreator]

I forgot how big that park was. What an expansive project.

[BrooklynRider]

I'm finding it hard to generate any excitement for this project. However, I was in Denver this week and saw Coors Field, which might be one of the best looking stadiums I've ever seen.

[TallGuy]

As posted on WCBS.com

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/310233.php?imageGalleryXRefId=121464

[ramvid01]

Looks like that construction is now noticable. Last I remember looking there was nothing there. Seems to be moving prety quickly.

[Transic]

http://therealestate.observer.com/2007/03/testifying-their-yankee-stadium-love.html

Testifying Their Yankee Stadium Love
FILE UNDER: Stadiums (http://therealestate.observer.com/stadiums/)

Two New York critics of the taxpayer-subsidized Yankee Stadium have been invited by Congressman (and presidential hopeful (http://kucinich.us/)) Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to appear before a House subcommittee on Thursday in Washington, D.C. The panel will hear testimony from Save Our Parks (http://saveourparks.blogspot.com/)member Joyce Hogi and Village Voice writer Neil deMause (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0713,demause,76184,2.html). It's an oversight hearing, which means there is no pending legislation.

The hearing is called: "Build It and They Will Come: Do Tax Payer-Financed Sports Stadiums, Convention Centers and Hotels Deliver as Promised for America's Cities?"

Maybe not the catchiest campaign slogan, but Mr. Kucinich may end up picking up a few votes in the Bronx nonetheless.

The full media advisory is after the jump.

- Matthew Schuerman


Tuesday, March 27, 2007
For Immediate Release:

Media Advisory

"Build It and They Will Come: Do Taxpayer-Financed Sports Stadiums, Convention Centers and Hotels Deliver as Promised for America's Cities?"

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Room 2247 Rayburn

10:30 a.m.

Domestic Policy Subcommittee,

Oversight and Government Reform Committee

This hearing will examine the promises of economic prosperity that are made to cities which finance professional sports stadiums, convention centers and hotels.

The public justification for this use of public funds, including construction financing with tax exempt bonds, is that this is an investment that brings jobs and consumers to a city's downtown. Similarly, proponents for taxpayer financing of convention centers and hotels frequently argue that those projects are contributors to the revitalization of cities.

Academic research on the value to economic development, however, has universally concluded that sports stadiums, convention centers and hotels do not create an increase in economic activity in the city which financed the construction.

In 2006, the IRS issued a private ruling that enabled the New York Yankees to receive tax exempt financing for the construction of a new stadium. Later, the IRS revamped its regulations to permit many more sports stadiums to receive tax exempt financing.

This is the second hearing in a series Kucinich plans to hold looking at various issues afflicting urban America.

Witnesses for the hearing include:
Panel I
Ms. Joyce Hogi -- a widow and resident of the South Bronx, New York. Ms. Hogi's apartment overlooks the construction sight where a new parking lot is being built for Yankees' stadium. The parking lot was formerly a Macombs Dam public park.

Mr. Frank Rashid -- waged an unsuccessful 10-year campaign to save Tigers' Stadium in Detroit.

Mr. Nick Licata -- Seattle City Council president. Mr. Licata will discuss his successful attempt to fight a new arena being built in his city for the Seattle Supersonics.

Panel II
Mr. Neil deMause - author of Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit.

Dr. Brad Humphreys -- Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Heywood Sanders -- a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio and an expert of convention center expansion.

Mr. Dennis Zimmerman -- Director of Projects at the American Tax Policy Institute. Mr. Zimmerman is a former Congressional Research Service analyst and Congressional Budget Office analyst whose expertise is in the use of tax exempt bonds and the economics of professional sports stadiums.

Mr. Bob Murphy, President, Dayton Dragons, Dayton, OH. The Dayton Dragons are a Class A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds.

Mr. Micah Green, co-CEO, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Washington, D.C. Mr. Green heads the merger of the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Market Association. The Association represents the interests of more than 650 securities firms, banks and asset managers.

Panel III
Mr. Donald Korb -- chief counsel of the International Revenue Service. Mr. Korb will be discussing a December rule change that enabled tax exempt bonds to be used in the construction of the new Yankees' stadium.


###

[Transic]

http://www.newsday.com/ny-spbbystad015149739apr01,0,5057481.story?track=most emailedlink

All of the old ambience in new Yankee Stadium

BY BOB HERZOG
bob.herzog@newsday.com

April 1, 2007

The Yankees won't be changing zip codes in 2009, nor will their new home have a new name.

"Let us thank the Yankees and Mr. [George] Steinbrenner for having faith in the South Bronx," Rep. José Serrano said at the ground-breaking ceremony last August. "You could have moved to New Jersey. You could have moved to Manhattan. But the New Jersey Bombers or the West Side Bombers doesn't sound right."

What has sounded right since 1923 will continue to ring true: Yankee Stadium lives on. The newest version, designed by sports architecture giant HOK Sport (which is also designing the Mets' new ballpark, CitiField), will pay an obvious homage the Yankees' rich heritage.

It is being erected across the street from the current Stadium, with its new bleachers on the site of the current Macombs Dam Park. In fact, the infamous Bleacher Creatures are being honored in the new Stadium with a special concession area dedicated to those passionate, occasionally raucous fans.

"This new home preserves our tradition and restores some of the lost treasures," noted team president Randy Levine. "But it maintains the playing field as it is today, relocates Monument Park and keeps all the great features fans have come to love of the present Stadium."

Architectural features will include the renowned facade and the return of several features from the original Stadium built in 1923 - the old auxiliary scoreboard in right-center, the identifiable frieze atop the roof and the large cathedral windows. The latter features were not retained as part of the 1974-75 re-construction.

"As caretakers of this American icon, the Steinbrenner family is committed to preserving the rich history that the New York Yankees represent," Yankees general partner Steve Swindal, Steinbrenner's son-in-law, said at the ground-breaking ceremony. "As this great monument to our glorious past rises from the ground, it will serve as a tribute to the present, the past and the future."

Capacity for the new Stadium will be 50,300, with approximately two-thirds of the seats in the lower bowl.

The playing-field dimensions will remain the same: 318 to the leftfield foul line; 399 to left-centerfield; 408 feet to centerfield; 385 to right-centerfield, and 314 to the rightfield foul line.

There will be 70 luxury suites, a museum, learning center, restaurants, lounges and clubs plus a 30,000-square-foot common area.

The new facility will occupy 1.35 million square feet of space, approximately 500,000 square feet larger than the current Stadium. Estimated cost is $1.2 billion, most of it paid for through private funding.

YOU VOTED ONLINE:

Will Robinson Cano win the AL batting title?

YES: 18.5%

NO: 81.5%

STATLINE: The Yankees have played in four ballparks since moving to New York in 1903 (Hilltop Park, Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium)

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[Transic]

http://therealestate.observer.com/2007/04/fewer-fans-more-parking-at-new-yankee-park.html

Fewer Fans, More Parking at New Yankee Park
FILE UNDER: Stadiums (http://therealestate.observer.com/stadiums/)

The city is planning to finance a set of garages and lots that would add almost 3,000 more parking spaces near Yankee Stadium even though the new ballpark is going to seat 6,000 fewer patrons (http://www.gotickets.com/venues/ny/new_yankee_stadium.php)than the current one.

A hearing Thursday before the Industrial Development Agency, an arm of city government, drew a limited but earnest response from watchdog groups and community organizations, asserting that the more parking spaces you build, the more people will drive. They argued that instead of using public funds to encourage driving, the money should be put toward a proposed Metro-North station that reportedly needs another $35 million to come into being (http://therealestate.observer.com/2007/03/the-train-station-that-ruth-didnt-build.html).

The I.D.A. will vote on whether to authorize $190 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project in May or June, according to a spokeswoman. The agency's analysis shows that the city will spend $20 million to reconstruct parkland on top of the garages and will lose another $2 million in forgone taxes on the bonds, which will be tax-free.

Eventually, the city will make more than double its money back through new taxes, lease payments and shared revenues, though it will do so over a 43-year period, the I.D.A. said; it would not release the assumptions for the revenue numbers.

Officials pointed to the final environmental impact statement as justification for the project, which states that the garages would reduce "excessive traffic circulation pre-game by motorists circulating on the local streets in search of hard-to-find parking spaces," and would "eliminate illegal parking on local streets."

Critics disputed the notion. "Fans park on neighborhood streets to avoid paying the expensive parking fees, which are projected to rise to $25 a game when the new stadium is completed," Bettina Damiani, the project director of watchdog group Good Jobs New York, said.

Ms. Damiani said that the reason why tax-exempt bonds, which have lower interest rates, were being used for the garages was because "the free market decided the garages were not worth building."

A spokeswoman for the Economic Development Corporation, which solicited bids for the garages said there were "multiple qualified bidders," but would not say how many there were.

The impact statement counted 355 cars in illegal spaces on a typical game night, meaning that the new parking facilities would provide eight times as many spaces to ensure that people would follow the law. The statement predicts that the new and expanded parking lots and garages would overbuild to such an extent that they would siphon off 808 cars from existing stadium parking facilities every game night, leaving some of the privately-operated old ones as little as 60 to 80 percent full.

The winning bidder, the Bronx Community Initiatives Development Corporation, (http://therealestate.observer.com/2007/04/yankee-stadium-garages-get-city-help.html) is a nonprofit which exists, according to its mission statement, "to lessen the burdens of local governments to service the needs of their residents." Awarding the contract to a nonprofit rather than to a for-profit company enables the use of tax-free bonds, which lower the cost of the project by lowering the interest rate.

But municipalities can build garages with tax-exempt bonds also. Joseph Seymour, the former Port Authority executive director who is BCIDC senior vice president, explained the benefit of having a non-profit do it this way: "It doesn't go on their consolidated debt."

So why are the Yankees and the city--which included the new garages in the agreement for the new stadium--insisting on new garages, especially when the city will have to temporarily occupy current parkland in order to do so?

Convenience. The new garages will be right across the street from the new ballpark, while the old ones are farther away. It's apparently worth $25 for the ticket-holder, and $22 million for the city, to not have to walk three or four blocks after a game.

- Matthew Schuerman


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[Derek2k3]

Look at all that wood. I bet no green construction methods are being used. No comment about the bigger parking lot either, this has been quite a week to lose hope in NYC's future...

[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/sports/baseball/01sandomir.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Latest Developments in a Crosstown Rivalry

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Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer, giving a tour of the Citi Field construction site last month.

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
May 1, 2007

Home plate at Citi Field in Flushing is marked by a patch of Astroturf. In the Bronx, an outcropping of New York schist was leveled by chisel hammers attached to earth movers to clear the land for the future home plate at the new Yankee Stadium.

The pitcher’s mound in the Bronx will be where a yellow Dumpster rests, while a steel span in Flushing that emulates the Hell Gate bridge over the East River will soon support the concourse in right-center field.

The Mets and the Yankees are racing to open their new stadiums by opening day 2009. Those passing the construction sites — huge rocky pits that are filled with cranes, earth movers, steel, giant pieces of precast concrete — see the concrete frame of one stadium rising in the Bronx over former parkland and another one of steel ascending over parking spaces beside Shea Stadium.

“This place is so big, so wide open now, but when it’s filled with grass and seats, it will envelop you,” said Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets, as he walked through the Citi Field site during a recent tour.

Behind him, Shea remains, a vestige of an unadventurous period in sports architecture. “A dull, dingy place,” Wilpon said.

In his office, Wilpon keeps a miniature replica of Ebbets Field, a daily reminder of the architectural muse of Citi Field. It includes the rotunda through which Brooklyn Dodgers fans, including his father, Fred, the Mets’ principal owner, used to enter. He removed the tiny rotunda piece from the rest of the model and said, “Fred can tell us how it used to smell in there.”

A reimagined rotunda, which will be named for Jackie Robinson, is also beginning to take shape; so is the footprint of the Great Hall, a meeting place, among other things, through which many of the fans visiting the new Yankee Stadium will enter. It will stand 60 feet high and span left field to right field, along 161st Street, from Jerome Avenue to River Avenue.

“It will be unparalleled, similar in scope to the Grand Central Station waiting room,” said Valerie Peltier, a managing director for development of Tishman Speyer, on a tour of the Yankee Stadium site last week. Tishman Speyer is overseeing construction of the $800 million stadium. Jerry Speyer, the company’s president, is on the board of Yankee Global Enterprises.

Executives from each team said that they were not competing with each other over who would have the better ballpark. It is almost enough that the deals were made, with city and state contributions for infrastructure and other nonconstruction costs, to let the teams build new ballparks. Since 1991, 18 new major league stadiums have been built.

“After nothing happening for 15 or 20 years, it’s all happening here in the same time period,” said Dave Howard, an executive vice president of the Mets. Beside the ballparks, the Devils’ arena in Newark is nearly done, the Jets and the Giants are planning construction of their shared Meadowlands stadium, and the Nets hope to start building their arena in Brooklyn soon.

The first level of the steel structure in Flushing is nearly in place, with yellow caution tape flapping in the wind, affording a raw view of a design fiat: fans will be able to see the field nearly anywhere they walk along the 40-foot-wide concourses, except from behind the Sterling luxury boxes that are 18 rows from field level, a club on the Promenade level and a restaurant in left field.

“In the old stadiums, nobody thought about that,” Wilpon said.

Three levels of concrete structure are in various stages of completion at the new Yankee Stadium, more along right field than left. Rakers, 40-foot pieces of steel onto which the seats will be installed, will be arriving next week. A crane to handle the steel is being assembled.

The construction already obscures a portion of the rusted elevated train tracks and takes place around a New York City Transit substation that will eventually be blocked by the giant outfield scoreboard.

Nascent dugouts are visible in little excavations several feet below field level across a rocky landscape from which 350 cubic yards of dirt were removed before construction began. The future site of Monument Park is below a platform that supports several office trailers.

“The most interesting thing to me,” said Lonn Trost, the chief operating officer of the Yankees, looking over the site, “is to take the tradition of Yankee Stadium, replicate it here, and provide fans with something new.”

The new stadium will have the same field dimensions as the current one, with more seats angled to the infield. It will also resurrect the original exterior with limestone, concrete and granite, and recreate the frieze that ringed the stadium, with 39 sections of white-painted steel weighing six tons each, to be made in Quebec. The new frieze should not turn green in the air, as did the old copper one, which was removed in the 1974-5 stadium renovation.

Some of the 24,000 pieces of precast concrete that will comprise the Citi Field exterior are already in Flushing, some weighing 1,000 pounds. The front of each piece is covered with bricks, which are sliced lengthwise to reduce the weight yet create the impression of a brick facade. It is so different in architectural ambition and style from the original Shea design of blue and orange tiles arranged over exposed ramps.

“By the end of this season, most of the exterior facade will be in place,” Howard said. “It will look like the virtual model we have online.”

Shea still serves a purpose, beyond housing the Mets for two more seasons, and it is not simply to underscore the limits of the dual-purpose stadiums. Inside an unused section of the World’s Fair-era hulk, the Mets have built a showroom that depicts what the 10 Sterling and 40 Excelsior luxury suites will look like (the former will have bathrooms modeled on the Four Seasons restaurant’s). Various types of seats can be tested for comfort.

The team is also using the showroom to assess carpeting, tile, color and other design schemes — Jeff Wilpon, who grew up in the family’s real estate development business, can offer a spiel about terrazzo floors — for the suites, clubhouses and concourses. The concourses may have glazed wall tile.

“I want to know what we’ve designed before we sell it,” Wilpon said.

The $600 million stadium will reflect its era, as its predecessor did. Shea’s opening was envisioned for 1962, the Mets’ inaugural season, but after delays, it took about two more years to complete. The original Yankee Stadium took an astonishingly quick 284 days to finish in time, providing the team with a home of its own after being told to leave the Polo Grounds.

“How often do you get to build Yankee Stadium?” Peltier said. “Never.”

Well, almost.

[NYCFOTOGRAFO]

WANTS TO SEE HOW THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW YANKEES' STADIUM IS COMING ALONG? VISIT MY PAGE EVERY WEEK AND YOU WILL SEE HOW IS GOING.

http://cprphotography.ifp3.com/

ALSO http://pbase.com\cpophotography
for the earliest photos

[Transic]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=afsBin7aRTDA&refer=home

Yankees, Mets Won't Sell Seat Licenses; Stadium Funds in Place

By Danielle Sessa

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- New York's two Major League Baseball teams won't sell licenses to fans who want to buy season tickets at their new ballparks because they have already secured financing and don't want the fan backlash.

Yankees President Randy Levine and Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon said in separate interviews that their clubs won't join at least 17 other major U.S. sports franchises in selling personal seat licenses when their new baseball stadiums open in 2009. The licenses require fans to pay a one-time fee for the right to buy season tickets.

"We had a visceral feeling it would not be well received by our fan base, which was confirmed by our market research,'' said David Howard, the Mets' executive vice president of business operations.

The St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium, the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park and Wembley Stadium in London are venues that have recently been built partly with money from seat-license sales.

The Cardinals and Giants, like the Yankees and the Mets, are among the major-league teams that built their stadiums without public grant money. The two New York teams raised a combined $1.6 billion in taxable and tax-free municipal bonds that will be repaid with stadium revenue.

"They didn't sell PSLs principally because they didn't have to,'' said Rob Tilliss of Inner Circle Sports LLC, who oversaw a loan to the Giants to help build their stadium. "They were able to raise enough financing to build their ballparks.''

Levine declined to discuss why the Yankees don't plan on selling seat licenses.

$40 Million

The Yankees and Mets might be passing up at least $40 million each in revenue by not selling licenses, said Max Muhleman of Private Sports Consulting Inc., who developed the program for 15 other pro sports teams. Both clubs would have been able to charge more than the baseball average of $3,000 to season-ticket holders, he said.

"New York would be one of the safest and most enthusiastic seat-license markets in the whole country,'' said Muhleman, 70. "The New York market is a very high-passion sports market and tickets are regarded as a very valuable commodity.''

So far, none of the nine major professional sports team in the New York market have sold seat licenses. The National Football League's Giants and Jets, who are building a $1.4 billion stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to open in 2010, haven't decided whether to sell them.

The National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets haven't determined if they will sell personal-seat licenses at their new arena in Brooklyn, New York, spokesman Barry Baum said. The team plans to move in for the 2009-2010 season. The New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League decided against them for their new arena in Newark.

Creation

Muhleman helped the NFL's Carolina Panthers become the first major pro sports team to sell seat licenses in 1993. Now, at least 10 NFL teams have sold seat licenses, Muhleman said.

The Yankees' new $1.2 billion stadium and the Mets' $800 million project are being built next to the teams' current venues. While neither is getting public money for the stadium, the city and state are contributing about $400 million for infrastructure improvements, new parks and parking garages.

The Yankees play in 84-year-old Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, while Shea Stadium in Queens has been home to the Mets since 1964. The Mets sold the naming rights to the new ballpark to Citigroup Inc. for a record $20 million a season. The Yankees have said they will sell "affiliation rights'' -- such as Yankee Stadium at "X'' Plaza.

Other Clubs

The Cardinals, whose 43,975-seat Busch Stadium opened last year, raised about $40 million by selling 10,300 seat licenses, said Mark Murray, director of season and premium ticket sales. The owner holds the right to purchase tickets for that seat for the life of the ballpark.

"The definite motivator for us was we didn't get public funding,'' Murray said.

The Giants helped finance their 41,777-seat ballpark by selling lifetime rights to the 15,000 best seats at what was first known as Pacific Bell Park, which opened in 2000.

The team raised $50 million to $60 million through the personal-seat license sales, said spokeswoman Staci Slaughter. The ballpark was the first privately financed major-league facility since Dodger Stadium in 1962.

The Houston Astros and San Diego Padres also sold seat licenses to help pay for their new ballparks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Sessa in New York at dsessa@bloomberg.net (dsessa@bloomberg.net)

Last Updated: May 11, 2007 00:03 EDT

[Transic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/realestate/20livi.html?ref=realestate

Living In | High Bridge, the Bronx

Home of the Bronx Roar

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Ruby Washington/The New York Times
HERE TODAY, THERE TOMORROW Until the new Yankee Stadium, right, is complete in 2009, the old one will have to do. Parkland will replace it.

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By C. J. HUGHES (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=C. J. HUGHES&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=C. J. HUGHES&inline=nyt-per)
Published: May 20, 2007

HIGH BRIDGE, folded into a valley in the southwestern Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo), welcomed its first wave of Manhattanites in the 1920s; developers promised them more room for less money.

Now history may be coming full circle. Buyers frustrated by high prices in uptown Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo) neighborhoods like Inwood and Harlem (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo) are slowly discovering Art Deco buildings in High Bridge, conveniently near two subway lines and a chain of handsome parks.

For some, the attraction may be the new Yankee Stadium, a billion-dollar multiblock public-private behemoth whose curved bleachers are even now rising across East 161st Street from its older cousin.

It is to be ready in time for the 2009 season; along with it are to come new athletic fields, tennis courts, bicycle and walking paths, stores and restaurants. There will also be a new Metro-North Railroad station — which during baseball season might help ease overcrowding on the subway. Hopes are high that the advent of all these attractions will help generate residential construction.

The project has not been discord-free, however, as a total of 22 acres in Macombs Dam and John Mullaly Parks were sacrificed to build it.

To make amends, developers say, they are creating interim fields in former parking lots and will replace the old stadium — to be razed when the new one is ready for use — with permanent parkland.

“The reconstruction of parkland and adding state-of-the-art amenities point in one direction, and that’s for the benefit of the neighborhood,” said Wilhelm Ronda, the planning director for Adolfo Carrión Jr. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/adolfo_jr_carrion/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the borough president.

Community advocates had sought a more substantial offer, pointing out that the area has grappled with high asthma rates — a problem ascribed in part to urban overcrowding and a lack of green space. The South Bronx generally, according to Menaka Mohan, a coordinator at Sustainable South Bronx, has a half-acre of green space per 1,000 residents, far below the two-and-a-half-acre standard her group and others advocate.

Still, transplants are coming, confident that High Bridge, a neighborhood one and a half square miles in size, is turning a corner.

Elaine Rivera, who two years ago bought a 720-square-foot co-op on the Grand Concourse, says wryly that when she falls prey to doubt on this point, she consults her own residential track record: Almost every place she has lived — the East Village, the meatpacking district — went on to become trendy, after she had turned down opportunities to buy.

“I thought, I’m not going to blow this off and make another mistake again,” said Ms. Rivera of her one-bedroom, one-bath unit with a terrace providing “movie-set views.”

A reporter for the public radio station WNYC, Ms. Rivera paid $150,000 for the place in the fall of 2005, and spent $13,000 more for new floors and a stove (many High Bridge co-ops are sold unrenovated). She said she had been told by at least one broker that it could sell for $250,000 today.

But she, too, acknowledges that before hordes flock here, the Bronx must overcome the perception, cultivated in the hard-luck 1970s and 1980s, that blight and crime persist.

Police statistics bear out the neighborhood’s transformation: Murder rates in the 44th Precinct, which covers High Bridge, dropped 58 percent from 2001 to 2005; robbery was down 29 percent over the same period. (Even so, there were 13 murders in the precinct in 2006, and 495 reported robberies.)

Ray Melendez, who moved to High Bridge in 1985 and once served as a police officer there, remembers when drug users in Joyce Kilmer Park routinely broke into parked cars. Mr. Melendez, who admits to having his own brushes with the law, says that he spent five years behind bars for a restraining-order violation, only to return to a neighborhood invigorated: In Joyce Kilmer Park these days, families come to picnic.

He says he is thinking about buying something new in the neighborhood. Based on his search, he estimated that his 850-square-foot one-bedroom co-op — which cost $20,900 in 1989 — could sell for $140,000.

But with the onset of gentrification, he said, “I worry about where the locals will go to buy a gallon of milk.”

What You’ll Find

Bronx neighborhoods lost their distinct shapes a century ago, so High Bridge’s boundaries are debatable but are generally said to sweep from the Grand Concourse west to the Harlem River, between East 167th and East 144th Streets.

A more useful marker may be the distance from which one can hear the stadium crowd roar, as happened on a recent afternoon when the pitcher Roger Clemens (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/roger_clemens/index.html?inline=nyt-per) announced that he was rejoining his former team.

About 90 percent of High Bridge’s housing stock is apartments, according to the 2000 census, especially six- and seven-story buildings dating to the 1920s and ’30s, with architectural details like peaked ogee windows and columns resembling twisted rope.

Newer multifamily houses are strung along Woodycrest, Nelson and Ogden Avenues, on High Bridge’s western flank, atop a rocky ridge, and are mixed with the occasional two-story wood-frame row house or shingle-style house, though facades tend to be marred with window bars.

In March, a fire in one of these older structures killed 10 people, 9 of them children, in two families of immigrants from the West African nation of Mali, calling attention to the grim living conditions that are still the norm in parts of the area. Immigrants make up 36 percent of the population; over all, according to census data collected from Queens College (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/q/queens_college/index.html?inline=nyt-org), the neighborhood is 32 percent African-American and 62 percent Latino.

Steep staircases, which can zigzag like something in M. C. Escher’s art, connect this western section with the rest of High Bridge.

Highly desirable co-ops, meanwhile, are found on High Bridge’s eastern slope, on Grand Concourse and Walton Avenue, though less so along Gerard Avenue, where buildings have good bones but need work.

Some of these buildings, clad in multicolored terra cotta, their courtyards planted with Japanese maples, have laundry rooms, garages and full-time doormen.

What You’ll Pay

It is still possible to find a co-op for less than $100,000 in High Bridge. A one-bedroom on the market in a Grand Course building, for example, lists for $90,000.

In general, prices can be half those across the Harlem River in Washington Heights, which is where many residents who end up here have looked first, said Marjo Benavides, an agent at Ariela Heilman Real Estate, based on the Upper West Side.

In early May, a one-bedroom, one-bath co-op at 811 Walton Avenue, where Ms. Benavides lives, closed for $174,000. A similar unit would fetch $350,000 in Upper Manhattan, she said.

Rents can vary drastically, depending on building conditions, brokers say. On average, one-bedrooms in prewar elevator buildings go for $1,200 a month, according to Eric Lynch, a sales associate with Century 21 N.Y. Metro, based in Harlem.

Two older apartment complexes — the Park Plaza on Jerome Avenue and the Noonan Plaza on West 168th Street — were completed in the 1930s with Mayan motifs by the architect Horace Ginsbern. They are examples of rental buildings likely to go co-op in the future, Mr. Lynch and other brokers predict; such trends have already altered parts of upper Broadway in Manhattan.

In the meantime, for renters, there is more of everything to go around, with a vacancy rate of about 5 percent, higher than in Manhattan, Mr. Lynch said. People are discovering “the new Upper, Upper, Upper West Side,” he added.

The Commute

Besides the No. 4 subway line, High Bridge is served by the B and D, whose local trains get to Times Square in about 35 minutes.

High Bridge is also served by the 1, 2, 13, 19 and 35 Bronx bus lines. There’s also the Bx11, which stops at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, and the Bx6, which delivers commuters to West 155th Street in Manhattan, where they can pick up the C train, or to West 157th Street, where they can grab a No. 1 train.

What to Do

For six months a year, baseball crowds can overwhelm the local transportation system. Michelle Dingoor, who in March paid $214,000 for a two-bedroom co-op on Walton Avenue, says she carries a game schedule to know when to avoid the subways. Residents typically shop in strips along West 161st, 165th and 167th Streets and Edward L. Grant Highway, which offers everything from fried chicken to car mufflers.

Along River Avenue, in the pixilated sunlight below the No. 4 train tracks, merchandise is geared for hometown fans, who can buy Yankee caps in a choice of colors. On the same block, Ball Park Lanes offers 50 bowling alleys on two floors and rents bowling shoes for $2.

Sit-down dining is rare, though the G Bar Lounge, at Grand Concourse and East 151st Street, is popular.

Adding to the architectural standouts, Rafael Viñoly designed the new Bronx courthouse on East 161st Street, which opens in June, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/bronx_museum_of_the_arts/index.html?inline=nyt-org) added a wing last year designed by the Arquitectonica International Corporation.

The Schools

There are at least 16 elementary schools in High Bridge, most ending after Grade 5. Among them are Public Schools 114 on Jerome Avenue and 73 on Anderson Avenue.

Many students in the neighborhood in Grades 6 to 8 attend the Paul Robeson (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/paul_robeson/index.html?inline=nyt-per) School on Morris Avenue.

Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School, on East 151 Street, just east of High Bridge, is one option for older teenagers.

Students there scored 407 on the math SAT and 400 on the verbal in 2005, versus 511 and 497 statewide. In 2006, 45 percent of seniors graduated.

There are also Catholic schools. One of them, All Hallows High School on East 164th Street, bears a banner declaring itself “one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in the U.S.”

The History

High Bridge takes its name from a Roman-style former aqueduct built in 1848, which cuts across the Harlem River at West 170th Street.

In the days before the Brooklyn Bridge, the 116-foot span drew sightseers. Hotels and an amusement park sprang up beneath it, said Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx historian.

Closed since the early 1970s, the High Bridge will reopen, possibly in 2009, said Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the city’s Parks Department.

Going Forward

Gateway Center, a big-box complex, is to open near East 149th Street in 2009, at the site of the former Bronx Terminal Market.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/nyregion/thecity/20tree.html

South Bronx

Trees They Want, but No Boys Allowed

By JENNIFER BLEYER
Published: May 20, 2007

MAKING way for the new Yankee Stadium on the sites of Macombs Dam and Mullaly Parks in the South Bronx, 170 mature leafy trees met their fates with chain saws, ropes and log loaders last summer, and an additional 207 are set for their demise.

To counter the loss, the city’s Parks Department has been moving ahead with a five-year program to plant 8,000 new trees along the sidewalks and in parks within two miles of the new stadium. Since last fall, more than 550 young trees representing 33 species have taken root in the area. An additional 250 trees will be put in the ground before the spring window for ideal planting conditions closes in three weeks.

Although appreciative of the lush greenery, some residents would like to see male trees excluded from the mix because of the pollen that they emit and the medical problems it can cause.

“Let’s not plant something that will actually trigger off these things,” Robert Garmendiz, chairman of the parks and recreation committee of the local community board, said at a recent committee meeting.

At the meeting, Mr. Garmendiz requested that the Parks Department refrain from planting male trees, expressing concern that they would worsen allergic reactions and asthma attacks in the South Bronx, where asthma rates are among the highest in the city. “It only makes sense,” he said.

But in the opinion of Fiona Watt, the department’s chief of forestry and horticulture, concerns about planting male trees in the Bronx may be largely immaterial, since the city rarely plants male trees.

In terms of gender, trees are either monoecious, meaning that they have the reproductive structure of both sexes, or dioecious, meaning that they have either the male or female reproductive structure. Only six of the 45 tree species that the city plants on sidewalks are dioecious, Ms. Watt said. Those are the katsura, the Kentucky coffee, the hardy rubber, the ginkgo, the European ash and the green ash trees, few if any of which are being planted in the South Bronx.

“It’s a teeny little drop in the bucket, infinitesimal compared to the number of trees that already exist across the landscape,” said Ms. Watt, noting that many trees in the city grow wild and were not planted by people. A big pollen-spreading culprit among New York’s 5.2 million trees, she said, is probably the ailanthus, among the city’s most prevalent species of tree. Seeds it spreads in the wind take root in forests and backyards.

“When you talk about pollen,” Ms. Watt said, “the allergy issue is caused by existing trees.”

Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, emphasized that the pollen that trees emit is easily outweighed by their many virtues, like producing carbon dioxide, conducting rainwater and providing animal habitats.

“You can’t have plants without pollen,” Mr. Benepe said. “The enormous urban benefits of trees far outweigh the inconvenience of pollen.”
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/05202007/sports/house_that_id_build_sports_mike_vaccaro.htm

HOUSE THAT I'D BUILD

BEST OF N.Y. BALLPARKS ROLLED INTO ONE

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May 20, 2007 -- I CAN'T believe this is happening, but I'll admit it: I'm getting sentimental about our old ballparks. I miss them already. Maybe this is less surprising about Yankee Stadium, which is still the greatest baseball place on earth, even in its 84th year rising out of 161st Street and River Road. But the fact is, I grow just as dusty each time I pull past what used to be the outfield parking lots at Shea, too.

Cranes and trucks and crude concrete blocks are a part of our baseball skyline this summer, and it's good, and it's necessary. Sometimes you can get caught up in the romanticism of Yankee Stadium and forget the chunks of it that randomly succumbed to gravity more than nine years ago. There is little romantic about Shea; all you have to do is look around.

Still, even though the teams are only going to be moving a few strides away from where they currently reside, even though the new ballpark basilicas in The Bronx and in Queens are going to be welcome additions to both the city's architectural family and to its status as the greatest sporting city in the world, it's hard not to hear the voice of The Chairman every time one of the doomed parks comes into view:

And there used to be a ballpark
Where the field was warm and green
And the people played their crazy game
With a joy I'd never seen.
And the air was such a wonder
From the hot dogs and the beer
Yes, there used a ballpark, right here.
So kill me. I'm just an old sentimental softy.

One of these days, believe it or not, Citi Field will face the wrecker's ball. One of these days, there will be a third Yankee Stadium needed, the way there's a need for a fifth version of Madison Square Garden. When that day comes, 50 or 60 years from now, it's possible the idea of one combined uber-park won't be quite as impossible to conceive as it was when the latest ballparks were hatched.

And maybe then, in that ballpark of the future that our grandchildren will flock to, we can find a place to truly capture all the flavor and all the fabulous quirks and hidden qualities of all the yards we've called home through time. Maybe. And maybe they can stick this column in a time capsule until then, and take to heart a few suggestions for the House That I'd Build (if I had a spare billion bucks and a baseball team to play in it):

You have to have The Bat.

And you have to have The Facade, the old kind, the kind they swear they're faithfully replicating in the new Yankee Stadium, the kind that rings three-quarters of the park and not just the bleachers, and let's hope they really mean that.

You have to have the Home Run Top Hat, which is cheesy and clichéd but, then, so is proposing to your girlfriend on top of the Empire State Building. Only in New York can cheesy and clichéd also be classy.

You have to have a memorable scoreboard, and so for this I nominate the one that used to dominate Ebbets Field, the one at the bottom of which was Abe Stark's famous ad ("HIT SIGN, WIN SUIT!"), the one that seemed to stretch from Flatbush all the way to Park Slope and back. The best New York scoreboard ever built.

You have to fun with the outfield dimensions, and so why not do something crazy, like replicate right field and center field at the old Polo Grounds? People talk about the short porch at Yankee Stadium, but it was at the Polo Grounds his first few years as a Yankee that Babe Ruth perfected his long-ball stroke. Bring that back. And don't be afraid to make center field an epic poke, the way it used to be at the Polo Grounds. Only four people ever reached the center-field bleachers in its most recognizable incarnation (Luke Easter, Joe Adcock, Hank Aaron, Lou Brock), because the distance to center field was 433 feet at its closest, 505 feet at its most distant, and 483 when the Mets played the last game there on Sept. 18, 1963. Maybe by then, chicks will dig small ball.

You have to have tomato plants, in honor of Joe Pignatano.

You have to have Monument Park.

You have to have retired numbers, of course, and by 2067 the Mets may even have decided to retire a few.

You have to have that skyline tableau that's rested atop the Shea Scoreboard the past few years, the one that has a red, white and blue ribbon covering the place where the Twin Towers ought to be.

Mostly, you have to build the kind of ballpark that, 60 years after that, when they start to play in the next New York ballpark (and Roger Clemens enters the option year of his final contract), still moves you the way you should be moved when you hear these lyrics:

And the people watched in wonder
How they'd laugh and how they'd cheer
And there used to be a ballpark, right here.
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http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/05/16/georges_bronx_hole_gets_filled.php

George's Bronx Hole Gets Filled

Wednesday, May 16, 2007, by Scott
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It's been a while since we've checked on King George's Bronx Hole (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/11/21/in_the_bronx_its_georges_hole.php). Photographer Alan Miles helps catch us up, saying "I took a helicopter tour earlier today and was surprised to find how far along the new Yankee stadium is." Indeed. Opening Day 2009, here we come!

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More from the new Yankee Stadium.
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And a little bit of the original.

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[antinimby]

Yankee stadium station gets Metro-North nod


By: Catherine Tymkiw
Published: May 21, 2007 (http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070521/FREE/70521003/1066/newsletter03)

Plans to build a new Metro-North station at the new Yankee stadium crossed the final hurdle after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro-North Railroad committee inked a definitive deal with the city.

Under the agreement, the MTA will foot $52 million of the $91 million project. The city will contribute the remaining $39 million for the new station, which is expected to handle up to 10,000 people during Yankee home games.

The MTA said its portion would be funded from its capital program ($44 million), higher than anticipated income from the program ($4 million) and Legislative earmarks ($4 million) from Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, Assemblyman Jose Rivera and Congressman Jose Serrano.

The city and the MTA have agreed for some time to share the costs of building a new station near the new stadium but details had never been hammered out. With Monday’s deal, the new station is on track to open by the second quarter of 2009.

That’s good news for fans, especially those who have drive or trek all the way into Manhattan to catch the subway back because of the lack of a commuter rail station near the stadium, or drive.

The MTA will foot the bill for building the station, ticket facilities and a customer information system, as well as picking up half the cost of the mezzanine. The city will pay for the overpass and the other half of the mezzanine. The station will be located on Metro-North’s Hudson Line south of the Morris Heights station but the MTA said it anticipates providing game day service on all three lines.

A design-build contract has been signed with CCA Civil Inc/Halmar International and a construction management contract was signed with DMJM Harris Inc.

The MTA is expected to give its final OK at its board meeting on Wednesday.

© 2007 Crain Communications, Inc.

[Transic]

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=70040

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NY1 Exclusive: Bronx-Based Businesses Paid Big Bucks For Work On Yankee Stadium

Construction on the new Yankee Stadium is paying big dividends for minority-owned companies and local builders, much to the delight of Bronx politicians and Yankee officials. NY1’s Dean Meminger filed the following exclusive report.

Construction at the new Yankee Stadium is moving right along, and Yankee officials say people from the Bronx are scoring work opportunities.

According to the Yanks, so far 35 percent of the construction contracts have gone to Bronx-based companies – 21 out of 60 businesses hired up to now.

Leon Eastmond's company is putting the boilers into the stadium.

"To ride by and say my boilers – our boilers, because I didn't do it by myself – are in Yankee Stadium, that is a very proud moment,” said Eastmond.

Five City Council members, including the speaker traveled to Eastmond's plant to congratulate him.

"We knew Yankee Stadium would bring jobs to the Bronx, and that is what it has done,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “These boilers are built by New Yorkers, by Bronx residents."

Bronx elected officials took a lot of heat for backing the new stadium. Opponents feared there wouldn't be enough jobs for blacks and Latinos from the borough. Councilman Larry Seabrook says there will be plenty.

"We must continue fighting to make sure the fair share of Bronx people are actually working at Yankee stadium, and that business people are participating,” said Seabrook.

In fact, the Yankees say that so far $75 million in contracts have gone to Bronx businesses that are supplying more than a quarter of the current stadium workforce. Blacks, Latinos, and women make up 45 percent of all workers.

"It is a delivery on a promise we made our community, and I am very excited and happy to see it happen today," said Bronx City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

And more positive news – a temporary park has been completed to replace some of the parkland taken over by the new stadium. NY1 was there as the first visitors took a stroll around the track.

"We known there will some inconveniences while the new Yankee Stadium gets built, but what we hope they will see is that we will keep our promises during the interim period,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “And there will be better parks than they had before."

The parks commissioner says there will be several more parks built while construction of the new stadium is going on. And when the old stadium is torn down, a major park will be built at the site.

- Dean Meminger

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All images are courtesy of http://www.stadiumpage.com/

[Transic]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-shaikin3jun03,1,1332964.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

Yankees' new home won't be a House

Beginning in 2009, New York will play in a stadium complete with luxury boxes and a bar with the view of the Empire State Building. It won't have the old ghosts, but it will be called Yankee Stadium.

Bill Shaikin
June 3, 2007

NEW YORK — Say the words: Yankee Stadium.

Say them slowly. Let the syllables linger, in the distinguished manner of Bob Sheppard, the public address announcer there since 1951.

The words drip with tradition, with excellence, with history. This is the House That Ruth Built, the house in which Gehrig and DiMaggio and Mantle played, the house in which Marciano and Ali fought, Rockne coached, Pele played and two popes prayed.

This is the cathedral of American sport. They don't tear down the Vatican, but they're about to tear down Yankee Stadium.

You wonder why.

"There's an aura here at Yankee Stadium, taking the field and knowing all the people that have played here before you," said Yankees captain Derek Jeter, heir to the legends in pinstripes. "You have to be here to witness it — all the tradition, all the winning, all the great things that have happened here."

You have to be here. Get here soon. You have this summer, and next season, and then comes the wrecking ball.

You wonder why.

"Because it's an old ballpark," Yankees Manager Joe Torre said. "It's got a great museum feel."

So does Fenway Park, but the Red Sox are fixing it up for the new century.

So does Wrigley Field, but the Cubs are remodeling.

The Yankees renovated their stadium in the 1970s and looked into it again this time. The repair job would have cost as much as — if not more than — the new ballpark, Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost said.

The problem: too many fans, or so they say. Oy, every team should have such a problem.

Ruth homered in the inaugural game at Yankee Stadium, in 1923, when the team attracted a million fans.

George Steinbrenner, aching for a new ballpark in Manhattan a decade ago, bellowed that the Yankees never could draw 3 million to the big, bad Bronx. Now they're winning and attracting 4 million, and they're building that new ballpark across the street from the current one.

It is not, Trost insists, all about the money.

"Listen, we'll make more money over there. No question about it," he said. "But we're moving because we have to. This building has reached its limit.

"We're drawing 4 million, and we can't service them. You can't keep drawing people in here and asking them to wait on line for three innings to go to the bathroom or get concessions. We have to make it comfortable for the fans."

And so they will. The concourses will be twice as wide, with triple the number of luxury suites, 22 elevators instead of two and a martini bar with a view of the Empire State Building.

"This facility will be treated and developed like a prime five-star hotel," Trost said.

Said Jeter: "It's pretty much keeping up with the times." The new ballpark will include an actual museum, perhaps with all 26 championship trophies. They display two now, in a cramped reception area outside the executive offices.

The new ballpark will be called Yankee Stadium, and bless the Yankees for that. They could be leaving a billion dollars on the table.

The Mets sold naming rights to their new ballpark to Citibank for $400 million, a major league record. The Yankees, presumably, could have sold their naming rights for twice that much.

"I would say you're kind of low," Trost said. "Yankee Stadium is not ABC Field. It is not XYZ Stadium. Our advertisers, our sponsors, our partners want to be associated with the Yankees and Yankee Stadium, not with Somebody's Field."

The Yankees assuredly will make up that money from those advertisers, sponsors and partners, in the ABC Club and the XYZ Pavilion.

The accountants can worry about that. The players can enjoy the creature comforts of a swanky new clubhouse, and an adjacent batting cage. And the fans can relax, in particular those fans worried that the charms of Yankee Stadium will be lost forever.

On the outside, the Yankees will reproduce the original 1923 exterior, with limestone and cathedral windows and arches atop the stands. On the inside, the Yankees will replicate the current field and its dimensions, including Monument Park in center field and the short porch in right field.

The modest differences: The Yankees will have fewer seats in the upper deck and more in the lower deck, with the best seats closer to home plate. They'll add a restaurant atop the batter's eye beyond center field. And, according to Trost, they'll move the tarp from the third-base side to the first-base side so Jeter does not injure himself by running into it.

Alas, even the most faithful reproduction is, well, a reproduction.

"You walk into an old ballpark, and you know it's an old ballpark, with a lot of history," Torre said. "That won't be the case over there."

So, if you're a devoted baseball fan, make the pilgrimage this year, or next. Even Bud Selig, who delights in celebrating the All-Star game in new ballparks, awarded the 2008 All-Star game to Yankee Stadium, for its farewell season.

And then the mystical, mythical ghosts of Yankee Stadium will be gone forever, buried under rubble.

"The ghosts are going to have to relocate," Jeter said. "They don't have to go far. It's just across the street."

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

[Transic]

http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/NEWS02/707210333

Officials break ground on Metro-North station for Yankee Stadium

By NICOLE NEROULIAS (NNEROULI@LOHUD.COM)
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: July 21, 2007)

NEW YORK - Baseball fans stuck in traffic on the Major Deegan this weekend, take heart. In two years, Metro-North Railroad will offer train service to Yankee Stadium.

State and local officials broke ground yesterday on the $91 million station, scheduled to open in June 2009, two months after the first pitch thrown in the new stadium. The Hudson Line stop will accommodate some southbound trains from the Harlem and New Haven lines on game days, in addition to shuttle trains from Grand Central Terminal and Harlem-125th Street.

Officials predict the station will serve 6,000 to 12,000 riders, primarily those now driving down from the Lower Hudson Valley.

"Right now, the streets of Yankee Stadium are clogged with thousands of cars on game days," said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Fewer cars will also improve life for neighborhood residents, whose children have disproportionately high rates of asthma due, he said, to the air pollution.

The Metro-North station and the new stadium are part of a series of $560 million redevelopment projects under way in the Bronx, Bloomberg said. Both he and Gov. Eliot Spitzer referenced ESPN's current miniseries "The Bronx is Burning" as a reminder of how much has changed in the neighborhood since the tumultuous 1977 season.

"We're going to call ESPN and tell them they should do a sequel and it should be called 'The Bronx is Booming,'" Spitzer said, followed by Bloomberg offering his own title suggestion: "The Bronx is Building."

As they spoke, Metro-North trains rumbled by on the Hudson Line tracks behind the ceremonial shovels. On game days, Harlem and New Haven line trains will use a set of tracks north of the Mott Haven junction to turn west, running at a slow speed and terminating at Yankee Stadium, explained Margie Anders, Metro-North spokeswoman.

The rest of the time, only Hudson Line trains will stop at the Yankee Stadium station.

"We don't believe there's a market for New Haven Line customers to come to Yankee Stadium on non-game days," Anders said. "But, if there's demand, we can explore that option later on."

The station is funded by $52 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and $39 million from New York City. The city will also build a pedestrian overpass connecting the wheelchair-accessible station to the other side of 153rd Street.

Schedules and fares are still being finalized for the new station, Anders said.

Reach Nicole Neroulias at nnerouli@lohud.com (nnerouli@lohud.com) or 914-694-3527.

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http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/07/yanks_reach_fir.php

Yanks Reach First Place ... In Stadium Subsidies
posted: 12:37 PM, July 20, 2007 by Michael Clancy

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The House That Your Taxes Built: The new Yankee Stadium and the old, soon to be demolished one
Photo by Christopher Pierro

By Neil deMause

One of the enduring questions about the new Yankee Stadium, now rising like a supersized doppelganger in the former public park across the street from the House That Ruth Built, is precisely how much the Bronx Bombers' new playpen will cost taxpayers.

Two summers ago, Mayor Bloomberg announced the project as "the state helping the way, but George [Steinbrenner] footing the bill," but even then the city admitted that it would be spending $135 million on replacement parks and "infrastructure." A subsequent Voice analysis (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0546,demause,70002,5.html) of the numerous tax rebates, lease kickbacks, and tax-free financing put the total taxpayer outlay at $374 million; the following March, the subsidy-watch group Good Jobs New York issued a report (http://goodjobsny.org/lootfinal3.pdf) that upped the ante to $478 million.

Now that all the bills are starting to come in, Good Jobs has released a new report, "Insider Baseball," and with it a new estimate of the cost to taxpayers: $663.5 million. Not only is that nearly five times what the mayor claimed back in 2005, it would represent the most costly public stadium subsidy in U.S. history—surpassing the $611 million that Washington, D.C., is spending on a new stadium for the Nationals, a deal that even one of the District councilmembers who voted for it said she wished she could "throw into the ocean. (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2006/03/dc_stadium_deal_1.html)"

"It's obviously not the first time there were major cost overruns associated with a large development project in the city," Good Jobs research analyst Dan Steinberg tells the Voice—the city's $100 million cost for Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project, he notes, mysteriously "leaped to $205 million" (http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2007/01/city-hall-obfuscatorily-admits.html) earlier this year, while the 1970s renovation of Yankee Stadium was initially budgeted at $24 million before ballooning to a final price tag of $101 million. Some of the new items taxpayers will be stuck with the tab for:

The $135 million estimate for replacement parkland lasted only until the week before the council vote to approve the new stadium, when the city raised that figure to $160 million (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2006/03/it_aint_over_ti.html); it jumped to $195 million (http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/02/mystery_of_stad.php) in Bloomberg's most recent capital budget. (Underestimating projected stadium costs is a time-honored tradition in the stadium biz—a D.C. official told the Washington Post that his city had intentionally lowballed its contingency budget (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2005/12/dc_official_we.html) in order to secure city council approval.) As for what the added money is going for, it's hard to say— one new line item in the capital budget, says Steinberg, is listed only as "new Yankee Stadium."
A new Metro-North station was approved to serve the new stadium, costing the city $38.6 million and the MTA $51.2 million. The new station wasn't included in the original public cost estimates because the city "insisted it wasn't planning on building one (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/001286.html)"—at least, until the city council had voted to approve the project.
The full property-tax exemption granted to the Yankees, initially estimated as being worth as little as $44 million, will now cost the city $144 million in present-day dollars, according to the city Independent Budget Office.
Likewise, the IBO originally estimated that letting the Yankees use tax-exempt city bonds to borrow $920 million for the stadium (and $190 million for stadium parking garages)— effectively saving the team money by giving it a taxpayer-subsidized bargain interest rate— would cost city, state, and federal taxpayers $55 million. Now, with refined assumptions about the working of the bond market, the IBO has recalculated the public cost of the discount bonds at $154.2 million.The Good Jobs report also details the at-times incestuous relationship between Yankees management and city government, including not only the revelations (first reported by the Voice (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0630,demause,73958,5.html) that the city reimbursed the ballclub for its stadium lobbyists and executive salaries, but such questionable dealings as the city and Yankees sharing a bond counsel to lobby for IRS approval of the stadium bonds, and Yankees president (and former city deputy mayor) Randy Levine hiring a colleague from his private law firm to lobby his old bosses at the U.S. Department of the Interior to approve the Yanks' land grab of federally funded parkland.

While the new stadium price tag may cause some New Yorkers' eyes to glaze over—when you're throwing half a billion dollars around, what's a couple hundred million more?—it has a disproportionate impact when compared with the economic gains that the project was supposed to produce. When Bloomberg presented the stadium plan to public review, it was with the promise that new tax revenues and savings on maintenance would make the deal pay its own way. With the revised figures in the Good Jobs report, though, the city will be putting out $384 million—and getting back, even by the city's own rose-colored estimates (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0603,demause,71747,5.html), less than half that.

That the real numbers are only coming to light after the concrete is being poured is what steams Good Jobs director Bettina Damiani. The city, she says, "refused to have a debate about the public financing because they insisted there wasn't any"— a sleight of hand aided and abetted by the Yanks' well-connected cadre of gladhanders.

"They didn't do anything illegal," says Damiani. "But they knew how to make it as closed-door as possible."

[lofter1]

... a new estimate of the cost to taxpayers: $663.5 million. Not only is that nearly five times what the mayor claimed back in 2005, it would represent the most costly public stadium subsidy in U.S. history ...

Why would anyone be surprised that George Steinbrenner hoodwinked & bamboozled the citizens of New York?

Or that the powers that be bent over and took it from him?

George is a very clever old guy ...

The TEN Most NOTORIOUS Presidential Pardons

time.com (http://www.time.com/time/2007/presidential_pardons/7.html)

http://img.timeinc.net/time/2007/presidential_pardons/images/steinbrenner.jpg
CHRIS O'MEARA / AP

http://img.timeinc.net/time/2007/presidential_pardons/images/transparent.gifhttp://img.timeinc.net/time/2007/presidential_pardons/images/transparent.gifGEORGE STEINBRENNER, 1989

Indicted on 14 criminal counts on April 5, 1974, the owner of the New York Yankees plead guilty to obstruction of justice and conspiring to make illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Steinbrenner, a major Republican donor, allegedly knew the money he was donating was not going through regular election procedures. Not wanting to appear soft on crime, President Ronald Reagan would only pardon Steinbrenner if the Yankees' owner admitted to the crime.

[Transic]

http://www.nysun.com/article/59377?page_no=1

The Stadium Chase

Mets Take a Lead in the Battle of the Stadiums

By CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY (http://www.nysun.com/authors/Christopher+Faherty)
Special to the Sun
July 30, 2007

As the Mets (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+York+Mets) and Yankees (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+York+Yankees) battle for a playoff berth and the chance at a world championship, another race is taking place in Queens and the Bronx (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=The+Bronx) to complete the teams' new stadiums, and indicators show the Mets have the early lead.

Using steel and concrete in place of wood and leather, the clubs are competing to build two of the most expensive stadiums in the history of American sports, just more than six miles apart. Both are scheduled to open their doors to fans in time for the April start of the 2009 season, and as can be expected in virtually all aspects of the epic crosstown rivalry, the stadiums' merits and shortcomings will be scrutinized closely and debated endlessly.

In the shadow of the House That Ruth Built (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Yankee+Stadium), the new Yankee Stadium is now rising, and the shell of the proto-ballpark is visible above the park's famous white façade. At a cost $1.2 billion, it will cover a vast area of 1.35 million square feet of the Bronx with parks, garages, and a state-of-the-art ballpark that will seat 50,000 roaring fans. To the southeast in Flushing Meadows, the Mets are spending $800 million to build Citi Field, a 42,500-seat stadium that draws its design from the long demolished and storied home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbets Field.

At the moment, the Mets sit in first place in the National League East with a strong young roster and a farm system loaded with talent. The Yankees are clawing their way back into the American League (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=American+League+(Baseball )) wild card race and struggling to make up ground on the Boston Red Sox. It also appears as if the Yankees are falling behind the Mets in the construction of their new stadiums.

The Mets have built most of the concrete shell for the open-air concourse that will surround Citi Field and give fans 360 degrees of field views. The steel framework for the three levels of seating is already completed behind home plate and along the first base line, and steel is being installed for the upper decks along the third base line. Four light towers, installed last week, soar above the seats that lead to right field.

Standing outside Citi Field on Wednesday, the chief operating officer of the Mets, Jeffrey Wilpon, said the builders are hitting milestones each week. "Fans see it happening quickly," he said. "I see it happening slowly, but overall we're on time."

On the other side of town, at the new Yankee Stadium, the heavy metal extending skyward, toward the baseball gods, is less visible. The concrete façade that will form the exterior of the stadium is constructed behind home plate, and workers are expanding it along both base lines. However, it extends just a short distance toward left and right field, and the steel framework for the upper deck is constructed only in the area behind home plate.

An ironworker who was working at the stadium this weekend and did not give his name said the construction of the concrete façade is three months behind schedule. He also said the portion of façade he was working on yesterday was supposed to be up by April.

The Yankees organization refused to participate in this article. A spokeswoman for the Yankees, Alice McGillion, denied that the concrete façade is behind schedule.

"We are not behind. Absolutely not," she said. "We are different than the Mets. We are not following the Mets' way of doing things. We are doing it our own way."

Sources close to the organization say the Yankees are planning to roll out an extensive marketing campaign soon.

***

Both new stadiums will seat substantially fewer fans than their aging counterparts, following a trend in baseball to create more intimate spaces.

"There is something to be said about intimacy," the vice president of a sports marketing company, Premier Partnerships, Todd Walker, said. "People are willing to pay more for that experience."

Intimate stadiums also allow management to capitalize on ancillary revenue from special events such as concerts, Mr. Parker said. Both the Yankees and Mets management has said the teams plan on making the stadiums available for private events, as well.

The chief operating officer of the Yankees, Lonn Trost, told the Sports Business Journal that the new stadium would be available for weddings, bar mitzvahs, conferences, and meetings. "Pretty much everything, from our biggest meeting rooms, to the press box, to the smallest spaces, is going to be convertible for this kind of use," he said.

While the stadiums will seat fewer people, both will be substantially larger in total size. At 1.35 million square feet, the new Yankee Stadium will be 60% larger than the existing facility, making it one of the largest in the country.

A professor of architecture at Notre Dame University who also runs a stadium-consulting firm, Philip Bess, said new baseball stadiums across the board are substantially larger than those of the past to provide more space for player facilities and concessions. "Right now, there aren't a lot of fiscal constraints," he added.

Luxury will also be the name of the game. The Yankees plan to build 67 luxury suites at the new stadium; currently, Yankee Stadium has 19.

The Mets will open 54 luxury suites at Citi Field, 10 of which, called the Sterling Suites, will be 18 rows from home plate. At Shea Stadium, the Mets' brass has constructed a preview room where prospective suite buyers can get a feel for what will be in store at Citi Field. The suites will have outdoor seats sectioned off by sliding glass doors. Inside, they will come complete with luxury amenities: flat screen televisions, leather sofas, Sub Zero refrigerators, and a touch-button remote that will control electronics and allow fans to order food.

Most suites at baseball parks are situated in the middle levels of stadiums. By placing the new suites 114 feet from home plate, the Mets are bringing to baseball a popular trend in indoor arenas that Mr. Parker called "bunker suites." The bunker suite concept, which has been popular at National Basketball Association and National Hockey League arenas, creates a better vantage point for luxury seating.

While executives lose revenue by displacing a glut of valuable seats, it has been proved that more money can be made with high-priced luxury suites, Mr. Parker said.

"There doesn't seem to be any cap for the best seats in the house," he said. "There is an insatiable appetite to have behind-the-ropes access."

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All images courtesy of Stadiumpage

[Transic]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/01/news/companies/yes_sale.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007080206

The dismantling of the Yankee empire

YES Network is the MVP of Steinbrenner's business empire, and it's for sale, report Fortune's Jon Birger and Tim Arango. Will the team end up on the block too? His son Hal says no.

By Jon Birger (jbirger@fortunemail.com) and Tim Arango (tarango@fortunemail.com), Fortune
August 2 2007: 6:28 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The New York Yankees' cable network, the YES Network, is for sale, Fortune has learned. And some baseball insiders and Yankees limited partners are wondering whether the team itself might be next.

The highest-rated regional sports network in the country and the cable home of the Yankees and the NBA New Jersey Nets, YES is jointly owned by the Yankees, investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=GS&source=story_quote_link) (Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=GS&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/575.html?source=story_f500_link)), and former Nets owner Ray Chambers. Goldman and Chambers would like to cash out, YES and Yankees insiders say, and one source says to expect a deal by summer's end. Some possible bidders: Cablevision, Comcast (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=CMCSA&source=story_quote_link) (Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=CMCSA&source=story_charts_link)), News Corp. (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=NWS&source=story_quote_link) (Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=NWS&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/1381.html?source=story_f500_link)) and Verizon (http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=VZ&source=story_quote_link) (Charts (http://money.cnn.com/quote/chart/chart.html?symb=VZ&source=story_charts_link), Fortune 500 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/snapshots/1525.html?source=story_f500_link)).

Publicly, Yankees and YES officials are noncommittal. "Absolutely not," Yankees president Randy Levine replies when asked whether YES is for sale - though not before acknowledging some "testing of the market." Gerry Cardinale, a Goldman managing director and YES board member, is more forthcoming, conceding that YES is in fact being shopped. "We're testing the waters with a limited universe of quality buyers," says Cardinale. "We would consider selling only if we receive a full and fair price."

And what might a "full and fair" price be? Try a cool $3 billion to $3.5 billion. At that price, one could argue that the true gem of the Yankees business empire isn't the team itself but YES.

The team hasn't distributed profits to owners in about 10 years, two Yankees insiders say. (Responds Yanks chief operating officer Lonn Trost: "There have been distributions in the past and the expectation is there will be more in the future.) Meanwhile, YES brought in $340.5 million in revenue in 2006, up about 6 percent from the prior year, according to Kagan Media Research estimates. (YES doesn't release official financial data.) Kagan believes that 40 percent of that revenue - about $136 million - translated into cash flow.

The cash flow, of course, is the key to YES's valuation. John Mansell, a prominent sports-industry analyst, notes that stakes in other regional sports networks have traded hands recently at 19 times cash flow. So if YES, which is the cable home of the Yankees and Nets, can grow its cash this year by 8 percent or more - as Mansell thinks it will - a $3 billion valuation seems well within reach.


Drama in the owner's box

News of a possible YES sale comes at a crucial time for the Yankees. On the field, a team loaded with All-Stars and future Hall-of-Famers is struggling to keep pace with the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox.

Off the field, an even weightier drama is playing out. George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' demanding, combustible, and usually larger-than-life principal owner, has been strangely silent. This silence is feeding rumors of the Boss's failing health. He also lost his well-regarded number two - son-in-law and Yankees Global Enterprises chairman Steve Swindal - in March when Jennifer Steinbrenner, Swindal's wife and George's daughter, filed for divorce. And the team is building a new $1.2 billion ballpark across the street from existing Yankee Stadium in the Bronx - a somewhat risky venture given skyrocketing construction costs, but one that comes with a potentially huge payoff.

Details about the new stadium and its value to the Yankees will be examined further in the next issue of Fortune. Some highlights: The new stadium will add a minimum of $100 million annually in extra ticket-and-luxury box revenue. The rent the Yanks are paying New York City for the new stadium will drop to $10 a year (from $10 million a year for the old stadium). And the cherry-on-top: City officials get their own luxury box.

With Swindal gone, George's youngest son appears to have stepped in as his father's chief lieutenant. An executive with another club tells Fortune that Harold "Hal" Steinbrenner, 38, was the Yankees' surprise representative at Major League Baseball's owners meeting in May - something which the Yankees confirm.

Hal runs the family's hotel business, and associates describe him as bright, capable and driven - much like his father. "Hal is probably more like George than any of his other children," says one Yankees limited partner. "He's a very strong businessperson," adds John Swart, a Florida real estate developer who worked with Hal on a hotel project. "If Hal says he'll get something done, you know he will."

In an interview with Fortune, the usually press-shy Hal is forthcoming to a point. He declines to put a label on his stepped-up role: "That's a decision for George." Nevertheless, he acknowledges that his Yankees responsibilities did expand significantly following Swindal's exit. "When he left, of course there was a void," he says. "Let there be no doubt that I will fill that void enthusiastically."

Hal won't discuss his father's health, which is the subject of much speculation and little certainty. George Steinbrenner himself declined an interview through his spokesman. Yankees president Randy Levine says he talks to Steinbrenner "ten times a day" and insists the Boss is still making the important decisions. Daniel McCarthy, a Yankees limited partner and a long-time Steinbrenner friend, says Steinbrenner seemed "100 percent sharp" when he saw him in the spring.

However, such assurances conflict with what other well-placed sources say - reluctantly - about the Boss's health. A baseball executive - someone who has seen Steinbrenner this year and talks with Yankees officials - describes him as "inconsistently lucid." A New York businessman who knows Steinbrenner reports "George is very sick."


Are the Yankees next?

On the subject of a possible sale, Hal is emphatic. "There's no thought of selling the team," he says. "It's been in the family for 35 years, and it's going to stay that way."

Indeed, selling YES could well be part of a long-term plan to keep the Yankees in the Steinbrenner family. The windfall from YES, of which the Yanks own 36 percent, would provide a cushion to pay off any future estate taxes as well as provide the money needed to sign expensive free agents, pay draft picks and otherwise run a business heavy on fixed costs. "The reason they're cashing out is in very large part so they'll have enough cash to continue to own the team," says one source.

Even so, there remains speculation among the Yankees limited partners and other baseball insiders that Hal is simply echoing the wishes of an ailing father - that the Steinbrenners do not intend on keeping the team long term. The topic of a sale "comes up all the time" in conversations with the other partners, says Yanks minority owner Edward Rosenthal, a retired steel executive. Adds another Yankees limited partner: "If I were handicapping it, I think we're looking at a sale of the team within three or four years."

Were the Yankees to be auctioned off, the price tag for the team alone (in other words, not including the Yanks' stake in YES) could easily soar past $1 billion, given the global reach of the Yankees brand, the benchmark that will be set by the upcoming sale of the Chicago Cubs (for a sum that could approach $1 billion), the untapped revenue sources (a Yankees hotel or restaurant chain?), and the fact that many if not most of Wall Street's heavy hitters are Yankees fans (or have children who are). "My golden retriever could sell the Yankees," jokes one sports banker. "It would be the greatest bidding war in the history of bidding wars."

A banker with the firm helping to sell the Cubs - J.P. Morgan managing director Richard Walden - believes the Yankees would fetch "at least" $1.5 billion. "I actually think three years from now," says Walden, "that will look conservative." http://i.cnn.net/money/images/bug.gif (http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/01/news/companies/yes_sale.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007080206#TOP)

[STT757]

There have been mussings on WFAN that the Boss is sick, and that Cashman is running the team's baseball operations single handed with no interference from Tampa. There's strong speculation of a future sale, again as the article noted the Yankees without the YES network is worth atleast $1.5 Billion.

Who can afford the Yankees?

Murdoch's Newscorp would be a big one who would go for YES, the Yankees or both. However with the recent acqusition of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal could they afford another mega transaction. Newscorp went after the Journal to develop their new Business network, to compete with CNBC and the New York Times. However I think a better deal would have been to take over YES and the Yankees and compete with Disney's ESPN.

I think YES and the Yankees would prove more lucrative in the long run than Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, newspaper circulation is dwindling all over the world with the proliferation of High Speed internet access.

Besides Newscorp here (IMO) are some possible suitors..

Disney (ESPN etc..)
Time Warner
Comcast
Cablevision
GE (NBC)
Verizon
The United Arab Emirates (don't laugh)
A major Japanese corporation

[antinimby]

Large corporations, while they may have deep pockets, don't necessarily make good successful owners. Prior to Steinbrenner, CBS owned the Yankees and promptly ran them into the ground.

Instead of the above organizations that STT listed, I would rather see a private wealthy individual like a Mark Cuban for example take ownership of the team.

Private owners tend to be more emotionally and enthusiastically involved whereas corporations tend to treat teams as just a business.

[BPC]

Plus, the trend in corporate America is to divest of sports teams. Time Warner is selling the Braves; Tribune has already sold the Cubs; I believe Disney sold either the Ducks or the Angels or both.

[Transic]

Plus, the trend in corporate America is to divest of sports teams. Time Warner is selling the Braves; Tribune has already sold the Cubs; I believe Disney sold either the Ducks or the Angels or both.

Time Warner already got rid of the Braves, who are now owned by Liberty Media. Tribune hasn't officially sold the Cubs just yet but they're about to.

You forget that FOX used to run the Dodgers before they sold a majority share to a guy from Boston (I forget his name) who was one of the also-rans of the Red Sox sale.

However, RSN's are a different matter. Here is where the corporations can make their money and the possible YES sale could be a huge deal. I have a questions though: Aren't Time Warner and Comcast already in business with the Mets via SNY? Wouldn't going after YES mean getting in bed with a direct competitor? I would think the Mets would have a say in this.

Also, it would be beneficial for the Yankees to hold on to their share of YES as that's the main reasons why clubs want to start up RSN's in the first place. This was the main sticking point for Peter Angelos to drop his objection to the Washington Nationals: so that he could have his own RSN with the Nats and O's in the same network. So I would think it would be bad business for the Yanks to sell their share of YES.

Anyway, here's the follow-up to Fortune's article from Wednesday:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/03/news/companies/yankees.fortune/?postversion=2007080313

The Yankees face life after George

Questions arise about the health of the iconic owner and who might take his place - and whether the storied franchise will ultimately be sold, reports Fortune's Jon Birger and Tim Arango.

By Jon Birger (jbirger@fortunemail.com) and Tim Arango (tarango@fortunemail.com), Fortune
August 3 2007: 1:47 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune Magazine) -- Sunday, May 6, 2007. Seventh-inning-stretch time at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Yankees boasted a 3-0 lead, but to many New York fans the entire season was already in peril. The team's high-priced pitching staff had been decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness, and the Yanks had fallen 5 1D 2 games behind their resurgent rivals, the Boston Red Sox.

Then, as loudspeakers blared the final few bars of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," Yankees public address man Bob Sheppard cut in and asked fans to direct their attention to the owner's box behind home plate. When fans looked up, what they saw was arguably the best pitcher in the history of baseball, microphone in hand. "Well, they came and got me out of Texas," ageless wonder Roger Clemens told the roaring crowd just hours after signing a $28 million contract to help save the Yankees' season. "I can tell you it's a privilege to be back." Watching the scene unfold on television, one Yankees part-owner was concerned.

Not about Clemens or his contract - but about who wasn't there. "In the past that would have been a George moment," this limited partner says of the Yankees' demanding, combustible, and usually larger-than-life principal owner, George Steinbrenner. "It was a big moment, the kind where you'd expect George to hold center stage. The fact that he wasn't there tells you what you need to know."

***

Where is George? It's the question on the lips of many New York Yankees fans this year, as the most renowned franchise in American sports stumbles through a season that could wind up as its most disappointing in 50 years. A team loaded with All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, the Yankees were seven games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox at the end of July. Yet through nearly every one of this season's painful losses, the once-garrulous Steinbrenner - "the Boss," as he's known to friends and foes - has remained strangely silent.

Steinbrenner's silence is so out of step with what we know of the man that the baseball world is now buzzing with rumors that the Boss's health - mental and physical - is failing. (Through his spokesman, Steinbrenner declined to be interviewed.) Sportswriters openly question who's really pulling the strings in Yankeeland, and some baseball insiders and Yankees minority owners tell Fortune they believe 77-year-old Steinbrenner's diminished presence foreshadows the team's eventual sale. The topic of a sale "comes up all the time" in conversations with the other Yankees limited partners, says one Yanks minority owner, Edward Rosenthal, a retired steel executive. Adds another Yankees limited partner: "If I were handicapping it, I think we're looking at a sale of the team within three or four years." The questions about the future come at a crucial time - and not just because manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman have to figure out how to rescue the season. The highest paid roster in baseball hasn't won a World Series since 2000, and is still rolling the dice on older, high-priced free agents. And those players have failed to produce.

Off the field, Steinbrenner lost his chief lieutenant - son-in-law Steve Swindal - when Swindal's wife, Jennifer, filed for divorce in March. The team is building a new, $1.2 billion ballpark across the street from Yankee Stadium - a somewhat risky venture given skyrocketing construction costs, but one that comes with a potentially huge payoff, as our examination of some little-known Yankees financial data will show. To top it all off, Fortune has learned that the Yankees' cable channel, the YES Network, which airs Yankees and New Jersey Nets games, is up for sale. The top-rated regional sports network in the country, YES could fetch $3 billion.

The fate of the Yankees is no provincial concern. For Major League Baseball, the Yankees are a moneymaking machine. Not only do they pay more than $100 million a year in revenue sharing and MLB payroll taxes to baseball's 29 other teams, they also rain cash on any rival they visit.

The Yankees drew an average of 38,000 fans to their away games last year, the most of any team and 10,000 more than the MLB average. Yankee star power also helps MLB negotiate rich TV deals, and it's no coincidence that baseball's resurgence coincided with the most recent Yankee glory era, which started in 1996. Says one National League team president: "The Yankees' competitiveness is important to everyone." No one has been more crucial to that competitiveness than George Michael Steinbrenner III. Combining the dealmaking flair of Donald Trump with the showmanship of P.T. Barnum, he has shelled out astounding sums to put top performers in pinstripes - from Reggie Jackson, who helped the team win two World Series in the 1970s, to Alex Rodriguez, who's leading the majors in homers and RBIs. (Of course, there have been more than a few flops along the way. Remember Hideki Irabu? And what happened to $40-million-man Carl Pavano?)

Just as important, George played the press like a virtuoso. He realized early on that stoking controversy in the sports section could pay big dividends at the box office. At times he seemed willing to say almost anything to get his team on the back page of the tabloids or even the front page - whether it was second-guessing his manager's pitching moves or critiquing his star shortstop's overactive social life. The Boss's winning combination of bluster and bucks helped drive attendance from just over one million in 1973, his first season as owner, to four million last year. And the team, which George bought from CBS for a mere $10 million, is now worth at least $1 billion - a 100-fold gain.

Questioned about Steinbrenner's health, Yankees officials insist the Boss is still going strong. They claim his withdrawal is intentional - that he wants the attention on the team rather than himself. They also want to put to rest any speculation that the team might be sold. Indeed, selling YES could well be part of a long-term plan to keep the Yankees in the hands of the Steinbrenner family. A windfall from YES, of which the Yanks own 36%, would provide a cushion to pay off any future estate taxes (though sources say George has already moved a lot of his Yankees equity to his four kids). It would also give the family capital to sign expensive free agents, pay draft picks, and otherwise run the business. "The reason they're cashing out is in very large part so they'll have enough cash to continue to own the team," says one source familiar with the plans to sell YES. "Right now the Yankees hardly make money because their payroll is so excessive." Two Yankees sources tell Fortune the team hasn't paid out profits to limited partners in nearly ten years. (Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost responds through a spokesman that "there have been distributions in the past, and the expectation is there will be more in the future.")

****

As far as profits go, one could argue that YES, not the team, is the true gem of the Yankees' business empire. Baseball franchises' earnings have always been skimpier than their well known brands might suggest - in part because of their lofty pay rolls. The Yankees launched the network in 2002 - along with financial partners Goldman Sachs and former Nets owner Ray Chambers - as an attempt to better monetize the Yankees' brand. And it has delivered beyond all expectations. Sources close to the team and network believe YES could fetch $3 billion to $3.5 billion, which would mean it's worth about three times as much as the Yankees franchise itself. (Possible bidders: Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, and News Corp.) Publicly Yankees and YES officials remain noncommittal about selling the network. "Absolutely not," Yankees president Randy Levine replies when asked if YES is for sale - though not before acknowledging some "testing of the market." Gerry Cardinale, a Goldman managing director and YES board member, elaborates: "We're testing the waters with a limited universe of quality buyers. We would consider selling only if we receive a full and fair price." One source tells us to expect a deal before the end of the summer.

****

While the sale of YES would provide a welcome cash infusion, it would do nothing to resolve the Yankees leadership issue.

The Yankees are organized as a limited partnership. Apart from Steinbrenner family members, the Yankees have 23 limited partners, who together own a little under half the team. The roster boasts some business all-stars, including Chicago financier Lester Crown, Allen & Co. chairman and former Coca-Cola president Donald Keough, former PaineWebber CEO Donald Marron, former Capital Cities--ABC CEO Thomas Murphy, Broadway producer James Nederlander, and mutual fund legend Michael Price.

But the limited partners exercise almost no influence over the fate of the team. One of their former brethren, the late John McMullen, once quipped that "there is nothing more limited than being a limited partner in the Yankees." The current limiteds share his sentiment but view themselves more as privileged fans than profit-hungry investors. "That's okay," one says after complaining that the financial statements the team provides are short on detail. "I knew what I was getting into." So control of the Yankees has always been firmly in George's hands. Until recently his son-in-law Steve Swindal functioned as his No. 2 (official title: chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises) and for many years was widely assumed to be his successor. Well regarded inside and outside the organization, Swindal had a hand in nearly every off-the-field decision, from YES to the building of the new stadium. But after Swindal's wife filed for divorce in March, Swindal was forced out.

With Swindal gone, the role of chief lieutenant seems to have fallen to Harold "Hal" Steinbrenner, 38, George's youngest son.

Hal represented the Yanks at the MLB owners' meeting in May, according to an executive with another club. Associates describe Hal, who runs the family's hotel business, as bright, capable, and driven - much like his father. "Hal is probably more like George than any of his other children," says one Yankees limited partner, who, like many of the current and former Yankees insiders interviewed for this story, wished to remain anonymous. "He's a very strong businessperson," adds John Swart, a Florida real estate developer who worked with Hal on a hotel project. "If Hal says he'll get something done, you know he will."

In an interview with Fortune, the usually press-shy Hal is forthcoming - to a point. He declines to put a label on his stepped-up role with the Yankees: "That's a decision for George." Ever the diplomat, Hal is quick to tout the contributions of older brother Henry (known as Hank) on the baseball operations side as well as mention the involvement of his sisters, Jennifer and Jessica, and Jessica's husband, Felix Lopez. Nevertheless, Hal acknowledges that his Yankees responsibilities did expand after Swindal's exit. "When he left, of course there was a void," says Hal, who has an MBA from the University of Florida. "Let there be no doubt that I will fill that void enthusiastically." Hal wasn't always so keen on following in his dad's footsteps.

Oh sure, there were some great memories made over the years. "The one that sticks out was 1977," Hal says, referring to the Yankees' first World Series championship under his father. "I remember going down to the dugout and getting my picture taken with my dad and [then-manager] Billy Martin. I think Billy was actually holding me." Martin (who died in 1989) was hired and fired four times by Steinbrenner and knew better than anyone how difficult a boss George could be. Hal would find out for himself years later. Hal worked full-time for the team in the '90s, and by many accounts, including Hal's own, his stint was rocky. "George was a pretty challenging boss to work for right out of college and graduate school," Hal says. "I don't think that's much of a surprise to anybody."

One reason Swindal became the heir apparent in the first place is that neither Hal nor Hank, who raises thoroughbreds in Ocala, Fla., wanted the job. "Hank has no interest," says limited partner Rosenthal. "As for Hal, I don't think he would take that big a responsibility. I've been to many meetings with Hal, and I don't think I've ever heard him open his mouth." Hal's ambivalence may well run deeper than the typical father-son chafing. "He just never struck me as being very happy," another Yankees limited partner says of Hal's first go-round with the team. "I always got the sense that Hal was someone who wanted to chart his own course in life." That, of course, would be nearly impossible to do from the Yankee Stadium owner's box.

Hal, who lives in Florida, acknowledges some concern that his increased role will take him away from his family. "But what I've discovered," he says, "is that, one, we've got a lot of good field commanders, and two, with technology being what it is, there are a lot of different ways to communicate and run a company even if you're not actually there."

***

His father's health, which has become the focus of much speculation but little certainty, is a topic Hal will not address. Yankees president Levine says he talks to Steinbrenner "ten times a day" and insists the Boss is still making the important decisions. Daniel McCarthy, a Yankees limited partner and a longtime Steinbrenner friend, says Steinbrenner seemed "100% sharp" when he saw him in the spring. Howard Rubenstein, George's affable PR man, also vouches for his well-being.

Thing is, those assurances don't jibe with what other well-placed sources say --reluctantly - about the Boss's health.

A baseball executive - someone who has seen Steinbrenner this year and talks with Yankees officials - describes him as "inconsistently lucid." A New York businessman who knows Steinbrenner reports that "George is very sick." An owner of another team says that the Yankees ownership picture won't become clear until Steinbrenner steps aside or dies.

On the subject of holding on to the team, Hal is emphatic.

"There's no thought of selling the team," he says. "It's been in the family for 35 years, and it's going to stay that way." While Hal certainly sounds sincere, it's impossible not to wonder whether he's echoing the wishes of an ailing father rather than offering his own views. And if Hal is shading the truth so as not to hurt his dad, who could really blame him?

***

Whatever Hal says now, the lure of a huge windfall could change the family's thinking later. "A billion dollars is a billion dollars," says one moneyman with ties to the Yanks. "Look at the Bancrofts. Everybody said there's no way that family is going to sell Dow Jones [publisher of the Wall Street Journal]. Then someone comes along and offers 65% more than it's trading for." Were the Yankees to be auctioned off, the pricetag for the team alone could easily soar past $1 billion - considering the global reach of the Yankees brand, the benchmark that will be set by the upcoming sale of the Chicago Cubs (for a sum that could approach $1 billion), the untapped revenue sources (a Yankees hotel or restaurant chain?), and the fact that many if not most of Wall Street's heavy-hitters are Yankees fans (or have children who are). "My golden retriever could sell the Yankees," jokes one sports banker. "It would be the greatest bidding war in the history of bidding wars." J.P. Morgan managing director Richard Walden, one of the investment bankers helping sell the Cubs, says the Yankees would fetch "at least" $1.5 billion, adding, "I actually think three years from now that will look conservative." He may well be right, and the new stadium is one reason why.

To be sure, its $1.2 billion price tag is enormous - about $400 million more than the one the crosstown Mets are now building in Queens. The Yankees are footing the entire $800 million cost of construction. (New York State and New York City are kicking in the remaining $400 million in the form of land acquisition, infrastructure improvements, and tax breaks.) Yet as expensive as the new stadium will be, nearly everyone we interviewed believes it will ultimately prove a gold mine - one that will dramatically improve the Yankees' value, should the team be sold. "The cash flows coming out of the new building as compared with the old one are going to be ridiculous," says one Yankees source.

How ridiculous? A window opened into the normally secretive world of Yankees finance last year when, in conjunction with New York City's Industrial Development Agency, the team sold $940 million in tax-exempt municipal bonds to finance the stadium's construction. The bond prospectus provides a rare if partial look at the Yankees' stadium revenues.

From 1997 to 2005, growth in stadium revenue far outpaced the rise in attendance. Annual attendance rose 58%, from 2.6 million to 4.1 million, whereas ticket and luxury-suite revenue soared 202%, from $52 million in 1997 to $157 million in 2005. The new stadium will boast more than three times as many luxury boxes as the old, and as a result, ticket-and-suite revenues are projected to soar to $253 million when the new ballpark opens in 2009.

They will probably be much higher. The $253 million figure in the prospectus assumes attendance in 2009 of 3.4 million, which is the equivalent of 79% of the new stadium's 53,000- person capacity over 81 regular-season home games. Given that the Yankees sold 90% of their tickets last year, 88% in 2005, and are on pace for another 90% showing in 2007, it's hard to imagine ticket sales sagging when the new stadium opens. Also, the ticket-and-suite figures don't include two other sources of stadium revenue - concessions and sponsorships - that Levine expects will get a boost from the new ballpark. The Yankees' current concessionaire, Centerplate Inc., obtained 9.6% of its 2006 sales - the equivalent of $62 million - from its contract with the Yankees, according to SEC filings. Hal Steinbrenner tells Fortune that the Yankees are considering handling concessions on their own in the new stadium. Were the Yankees to go that route, the team could conceivably net $30 million annually on gross concession sales of $100 million, estimates former Yankees marketing director Joseph Perello.

As for sponsorships, Levine says the Yankees are not planning to sell traditional naming rights: "It's going to be called Yankee Stadium." Nevertheless, according to the bond prospectus, the team's lease with New York City (which will own the new stadium) stipulates that the Yankees keep "all cash and receivables" related to "naming rights" and "advertising" and specifically raises the possibility of the Yankees' selling naming rights "for parts of the stadium." In other words, fans may enter a building called Yankee Stadium but find themselves sitting in the Bank of America bleachers or purchasing snacks at the Pfizer food court. Perello, now a sports consultant, thinks the Yanks could collect $50 million to $75 million a year in sponsorship dough this way.

What will New York taxpayers get in return for all their Yankee largesse? Very little - unless you're a local pol with a hankering for hardball. The Yankees will pay a mere $10 a year in rent in the new ballpark, down from about $10 million in the old one. No, we didn't leave off some zeros; it's typical of the sweetheart deals cities make to keep teams in town. And this one comes with a cherry-on-top kicker: According to the prospectus, city officials get their own luxury box "for all regular-season team home games."

Of course, the Yankees are responsible for $51 million a year in debt service. Yet even that expense comes with a silver lining: It will help reduce the Yankees' revenue-sharing obligations. Baseball's 2002 collective-bargaining agreement permits teams to deduct stadium debt service and construction costs when calculating revenue sharing. Bottom line? Baseball's 29 other teams will effectively bear a third of the cost of the Yankees' new ballpark. "It's a classic tax shelter," one baseball insider says. "Not only do you get the benefit of added revenues, but you get a major revenue-sharing deduction as well."

A golden era for the Yankees' bottom line seems to be dawning just as the George Steinbrenner era is drawing to a close. Still, it's worth pondering whether Hal or any new owner will be able to maintain the fan interest engendered by his one-of-a-kind dad. Even during the Yanks' Mantle and Maris glory years, the team never drew more than two million fans. It wasn't until Steinbrenner turned every trade, every free agent signing, and every clubhouse squabble into a marketing event that the team became as successful at the box office as it was on the field. "He did want to be on the back page," Hal says of his father. "He always had a wonderful sense of how to promote things."

Note the past tense. It speaks volumes about the Yankees' future. http://i.cnn.net/money/images/bug.gif (http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/03/news/companies/yankees.fortune/?postversion=2007080313#TOP)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the controversial article in Condé Nast that fueled the speculation originally about Steinbrenner's health. I won't bother posting the details but there is one thing to note, though: Hal Steinbrenner is overlooking the construction of the new Stadium.

http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/sports/2007/08/02/Baseball-and-Steinbrenner

[Padre]

A British soccer club recently moved stadium, and are turning their old ground into apartments, keeping the facade.

http://www.thestadium-highbury.com/downloads/bp_001_1024x768.jpg

[Zephyr]

"Baseball stadiums are different," (Mayor Bloomberg) said (in 2004), noting that the proposed Jets stadium, with its retractable roof, could double as part of an expanded convention center. "They are open stadiums and so they can't be used in the winter. And in the summer when you would like to use them for a concert … there is either a baseball game there or you can't tear up the field."

At the beginning of this thread, one forum post noted: “Just move the Yankees to Manhattan already.” That was three years ago. And there were a myriad of reasons to leave them in the Bronx, still are.

But in 2007 with no way to change the inevitable - like the Mets, the stadium is in construction - you may have that lingering thought "how great is this, given all that money?" Yes, I know, the Yankees are paying for it, and they can do whatever they want. We could paraphrase George C. Scott in The Hustler and shout for emphasis “it is their MONEY!” And besides, they can still be called the “Bronx Bombers”. (Whatever could you call them in Manhattan? The Manhattan Mashers?) It’s needlessly to inflict on the Bronx, like Brooklyn, a team that moved away, even if this one moved only over to Manhattan. Well here we are, the Yanks will be in the Bronx for a long time to come, and let’s hope that all the good that will come to the Yankees, will come to the Bronx as well.

But was keeping this stadium as a new version writ large in the same locale without needing public money, a thing to be applauded. It may be a relief but this is after all the New York Yankees! Only the most storied franchise in the history of team sports. Why not the greatest stage that New York could have presented them – Manhattan – haven’t they earned it?

No doubt the monies would have to be reworked. The real estate would have to be set aside, and taxed differently. Many monies would be lost at that point but regained again through the backdoor.

But a revitalized chain reaction would also occur. First, maybe this would have forced them to break out of a larger copy of old Yankee Stadium. Maybe they would have had a competition with architects all over the world. They wouldn’t need to be encouraged, who wouldn’t want to do it. Imagine the new streams of money from Manhattan if the stadium were on its very doorstep. The luxury boxes could be expanded or increased in value, and the indirect benefits to the city of more people there after work hours. The pop-in tourist that would inevitably fill up even the handful of seats left, and this in turn would encourage an increase in size, not the so-called “intimate” reduction. Could you talk about general tourists around the Bronx to be lured into this new Yankee Stadium? And then those marvelous vistas, and in reverse, another green space on the island beside Central Park.

Maybe we will think about this again in the 22nd century.

[ZippyTheChimp]

At the beginning of this thread, one forum post noted: “Just move the Yankees to Manhattan already.” That was three years ago. And there were a myriad of reasons to leave them in the Bronx, still are.

But was keeping this stadium as a new version writ large in the same locale without needing public money, a thing to be applauded. It may be a relief but this is after all the New York Yankees! Only the most storied franchise in the history of team sports. Why not the greatest stage that New York could have presented them – Manhattan – haven’t they earned it?

No doubt the monies would have to be reworked. The real estate would have to be set aside, and taxed differently. Many monies would be lost at that point but regained again through the backdoor.The financial arguments concerning a Yankee Stadium in Manhattan habe been discussed extensively in this thread (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3530&page=178).

Sports stadiums have low economic impact when compared to alternative uses. This is especially true in places, such as Manhattan, where there is no problem in attracting people, and the value of real estate is high.

Economic analyses have consistently showed that sports stadiums are a poor investment for municipal governments. Yankee Stadium itself would have been better at the Manhattan railyards, but it would not have been better for the city's bottom line. Camden Yards was a shot in the arm to downtown Baltimore, but Baltimore is not Manhattan.

Yankee Stadium has been in the same neighborhood for more than 80 years. During the last decade, it has been hugely successful, but it has done little for the neighborhood. It's great that both the Yankees and Mets remain in NYC, but the public money that was thrown at these projects could have been better invested elsewhere.

The railyards will return much more revenue to the city than if A Yankee (or Jets) Stadium was put there.

[Zephyr]

.
You're entitled to your view ... I hope I am entitled to mine.

Thank you for telling me about the rest of the thread, where the economic discussion takes place, but I didn't think I needed to announce before I gave my opinion, that I had already spent the time reviewing the entire thread before I left a post. Since I did, I'll emphasize the following for you: not only am I aware of these financial arguments, I see no need to revise my post whatsoever because of them.

As with anything on a subject like this. there are a variety of views about how this could have worked, broader than what was explored here. What's more is that this is only a brush, really beside the point of the post. Stop and reflect on what you are responding to here. Did I specify the exact location in Manhattan? Was it strictly, or mostly a return-on-investment argument? Can it overturn what is already going forth? The answer to all of these questions is one word - NO. Therefore your counter is an over-reaction to what was an essentially winsome weigh-in on where we choose to go with this thing, and opportunities lost.

While "Baltimore is not Manhattan," it does share one thing with Manhattan - each proposal had its naysayers. Fortunately for Baltimore, their efforts worked out well. Perhaps we have nothing to learn from Baltimore, perhaps we have nothing to learn from any city that is not exactly like ours.


.

[TallGuy]

As a Yankee Fan first, and a fan of baseball traditional a close second, the Yankees had to stay in the same neighborhood. The economic and architectural arguments have their place, but for me, the only consideration is my team and its' history. I would have preferred the old stadium with all its' problems remodeled. I would also have preferred rebuilding on the very same spot even with the inconveniences in the short term of doing that. But barring those options, this is then next best thing. Manhattan? Maybe for the Mets. But no way for the Yankees. They belong where they are like no other team. Besides, they already played in Manhattan in two separate locations prior to 1923. Manhattan is also like no other city. it does not need a pro football or baseball stadium.

[Zephyr]

You can call me a Manhattan fan that cheers the Yankees and the Mets. One of a few.

[Transic]

The Knicks, Rangers and the Liberty are enough for Manhattan (and some would rather that one of these or all three leave the borough at this point :D). I see no point in adding another franchise there. And there have been off-the-wall suggestions like putting a stadium on Ground Zero, etc.,etc..

Besides, the identity of the Bronx Bombers is so ingrained into the culture of the metro area that it'd be too much of a disruption to too many people to drop it.;)

Anyway, new article:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spstad125329641aug12,0,1333853.story

PROGRESS REPORT THE NEW STADIUMS

BY STEVE ZIPAY | steve.zipay@newsday.com
August 12, 2007

On a steamy day a year ago this week - the anniversary of Babe Ruth's passing - a chorus line of Yankees brass and politicians posed with bat-handled shovels to turn the symbolic soil in Macombs Dam Park for the proposed $800-million successor to the stadium known as The House That Ruth Built.

A few weeks earlier, about six miles south in a Shea Stadium parking lot, the initial construction work on a $700-million ballpark designed to evoke memories of Ebbets Field already had begun, with far less fanfare.

For these projects, which will reshape the baseball landscape in New York City, what a difference a year has made. As summer spins to fall and the Yankees and Mets contend for postseason berths in their aging homes (Shea opened in 1964 and Yankee Stadium was rebuilt for the 1976 season), fans will continue to see their teams' new digs rising rapidly nearby. Executives involved in the massive undertakings firmly expect them to be ready for the 2009 home openers.

"We're a long way from where we were," said Valerie Peltier, a managing director of Tishman Speyer Properties, which is overseeing the development of the massive new Yankee Stadium. It will embrace up to 53,000 fans, many of whom will enter through a Great Hall with soaring ceilings and cathedral windows.

"The superstructure, the steel and concrete that's been poured in place, is about 85 percent complete. By the end of the year, the full project will be about halfway done. For the Yankees, the end of the year is November, right? When they stop playing?" Peltier said confidently last week. "So by mid-November, you will be able to see the entire skeleton, including the upper deck of the building; the whole geometry of what this building is going to look like will be done. We are absolutely on schedule."

So, too, is the Mets' project, dubbed Citi Field, which will hold 47,000 in its dark green seats and in 54 state-of-the-art suites, 10 of which will be 18 rows from the natural grass.

At Willets Point, five orange cranes bend over the site like graceful giraffes. Four light towers in rightfield are in place, as is one of the stair towers. Behind where home plate will be placed curves the C-shaped framework of the entrance rotunda that will be named for Jackie Robinson.

"The main concourse is done," said Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon, a real estate veteran, referring to the 40-foot open walkway that will ring the stadium and provide field views from almost all points. Aisles and walkways are visible, and "right around the beginning of November, we should be done with the superstructure steel. Obviously, to get the steel done before December is desirable."

A wrap of precast red brick facade is being installed not only around the ballpark but on the second level of the building that will house the Mets' offices. It is expected to be completed within a few months. "One of the big stair towers is in," Wilpon said, "and the others by September."

The centerfield scoreboard steel supports are set; steel columns extend down the baselines into the outfield. And things the casual observer doesn't see are there: the Con Ed vaults, the stalwart foundations.

Over in the Bronx, a key element of the new park is en route. "In a couple of weeks, you'll start to see the arrival of the huge concrete inserts for the cathedral windows, giant 40-foot-tall pieces of architectural precast and limestone along Jerome Avenue and down 161st Street," Peltier said. "We've already started that work on River Avenue. That's going like gangbusters."

More than 1,000 workers are toiling at the sprawling site. "You lose sight of that sometimes," she said. "When people leave at the end of the day, it's like people coming off a cruise ship."

The re-imaging of the aging ballparks will alter the field dimensions in Queens, but not in the Bronx. The Yankees, who want to replicate some facets of the existing stadium, say the distance to the fences will remain the same. The Mets want a pitcher-friendly park like Shea; the right- and left-center alleys will be 8 to 12 feet deeper, the distance down the lines will be 3 to 8 feet shorter; the deepest part of centerfield will be 408 feet, not 410.

Because each franchise is financing the construction - the city and state are providing tens of millions for site preparation, parking, parkland and some mass transit improvements - they aim to finish on time. In the harsher winter months, work will continue on each site, especially in enclosed spaces, according to both executives.

"Bathrooms and lights and ceilings, that'll be early next year," Peltier said.

At Citi Field - the naming rights were sold to Citigroup in a 20-year, $400-million marketing deal - the target date to complete the major work is the end of next year, which will allow four months to tidy up before the first pitch is thrown in April 2009. "And I'd like to be out of our offices before they start demolishing Shea," he said with a laugh. "The banging will be too much."

Wilpon, whose family firm has helped guide midtown Manhattan projects such as Bear Stearns' corporate headquarters, the octagonal tower completed in 2001 that includes eight trading floors, said stadiums and skyscrapers pose different challenges but demand the same attention.

During the Mets' last trip to Milwaukee and Chicago, Wilpon - who traveled with the team - wasn't far from his laptop, where three special webcams at Citi Field provided him looks at the job in progress.

"I'm very much in the mix," he said. "If I see something's not happening, I'll make a call."

[sfenn1117]

I'm seriously considering going to the all-star game next year. Who's with me?

[Alonzo-ny]

Why will the mets seats be dark green?

[NYatKNIGHT]

^They're going with the retro park formula, but it's a good color.

sfenn1117, absloutely.

[JCMAN320]

Sfenn as a die-had Yankees fan and amatuer Yankee historian, this is something I can not miss. As soon as tickets go on sale I'll be there.

[Zephyr]

The Knicks, Rangers and the Liberty are enough for Manhattan (and some would rather that one of these or all three leave the borough at this point :D). I see no point in adding another franchise there.

Besides, the identity of the Bronx Bombers is so ingrained into the culture of the metro area that it'd be too much of a disruption to too many people to drop it.;)



Good defence of your point of view. One of the extentions of my view is that maybe the Liberty should be in the Bronx (have they earned the right to be in Manhattan, but they are there anyway, no law against it).

And then too the "ingrained into the culture" of the "Bronx Bombers," may have led to that new stadium being ingrained in looking too much like the previous one. This great franchise will adapt as it always has. And if moving to Manhattan would have destroyed some essence of being the Yankees, why is it that on the road they are still viewed as the terror they have always been viewed when the teams were good over the years - it's not just the Bronx or Bronx Bombers, the name on the uniform is "New York".

If going to Manhattan, the biggest stage of all in the city, were to somehow de-rail the Yankee legacy, that would be troubling indeed. Manhattan would have made the Yankees even more accessible to all of New York - and would have shined a stronger light on the Knicks and Rangers as a sidebar. This subject will come again sometime in the distant future, and of that I have no doubt.

[TallGuy]

Manhattan would be far better for the Yankee legacy than New Jersey's Meadowlands, which would have made me sick. And as I may have said earlier, they played in two Manhattan locations previously when they were known first as the Highlanders (having previously been the Baltimore Orioles) and then as the Yankees in the Polo Grounds. But they are tied to that part of the Bronx.

Walter O'Malley, when offered Flushing Meadows as the site of his new BROOKLYN Dodgers stadium, said that 30 miles may as well be 3,000 miles, and moved them all the way to LA.

The Yankees will never move to Manhattan, because when the new stadium is obsolete in 30-40 years, that patch of land where the current stadium exists will be sitting there to be swapped once again. And for the 80 year old man I will be then, it will be a very exciting move 'home'.

[JCMAN320]

The Yankees belong in the Bronx plain and simple no if ands or buts about it. Although Yankee managment (CBS and Steinbrenner after them) have longed to move to New Jersey with the Giants and Jets, it will never happen.

[Transic]

I don't know how many of you pick up amny on your way to work but today's paper had a nice picture of the new YS going up side by side with the current one. The story, interestingly, is not up on their regular news website but you can still view the pic via their .pdf archives.

http://www.amny.com/media/acrobat/2007-09/32312297.pdf

Third page.

In other news:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312007/news/regionalnews/new_yank_ballpark_plan.htm

NEW YANK BALL'PARK' PLAN

By SAMUEL GOLDSMITH

August 31, 2007 -- Parking your car at the new Yankee Stadium is going to be a little harder than the team wanted, but no less expensive.

The Empire State Development Corp. announced yesterday that an entire parking garage - with 1,145 spaces - would be cut from the new stadium, but the project's price tag would stay the same.

Rising construction costs are to blame for scaling back the plan, the ESDC said. The state agency pledged $75 million in public funds to build four new parking lots for the stadium, but now only three can be built.

"It was not feasible to develop all four garages," the ESDC said in a statement. The cost of the parking lots is nearly $240 million, the bulk of which will be paid with city-issued bonds.

Until yesterday, the Yankees planned on 10,300 parking spaces. A team spokesman declined comment.

ESDC chairman Patrick Foye said losing the parking lot will not disrupt travel because a new Metro-North train station will be near the stadium.

--------------------------------------------------

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Fumble_in_the_Bronx/9874.html

Fumble in the Bronx

No payday yet in Yanks’ pact

by patrick arden / metro new york
SEP 4, 2007

BRONX. Bronx politicians liked to tout the community partnership agreement they hatched with the New York Yankees 17 months ago, especially when they had to respond to criticism over the team’s taking of public parkland for a new stadium.

Central to that deal was the promise of an annual $800,000 for Bronx nonprofits over the next 40 years. Critics labeled this a “slush fund,” because the money would be doled out by a new not-for-profit staffed by representatives of Bronx elected officials, and it didn’t have to be spent in the affected community. The funds were to start flowing, the agreement said, “upon the commencement of the construction.”

So imagine the surprise of Geoffrey Croft last week, when he discovered — one full year after the stadium’s groundbreaking — no such not-for-profit has been registered with the state yet, and no funds have been disbursed.

“The parks were taken in eight days without one public hearing,” complained Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates. “The Yankees wasted no time in seizing the public’s land, but they’re in no hurry when it’s time to pay up.”

Croft charged the promised payoff was actually a “pittance,” considering the neighborhood, which is plagued by asthma, lost “70 percent of their trees.”

A spokesperson for Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion responded that the not-for-profit has just been set up and now “this process is moving forward.” He said he was not prepared to name the panel’s members. The agreement is legally binding.

The Yankees did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
The agreement also stipulated the panel would produce an annual report every April. No report was issued this year.

[Transic]

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/300/nyypatchesat1.jpg

These are to be the commemorative patches the Yanks will wear next season. The All Star Game patch would be worn on the right sleeve but only at the commencement of All-Star balloting through the All-Star Game.

The other patch will be worn on the left sleeve, presumably for the entire season.

[DarrylStrawberry]

Up to $350K today...Anyone want to venture a guess as to how much these will go for in 2009?


Yankee Suites for the Ogling

By CHARLES V. BAGLI (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/charles_v_bagli/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: September 29, 2007

The Yankees are taking a page from the playbook of upscale apartment builders.

The team recently signed a lease at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets, for a showroom of luxury suites for the new 51,000-seat stadium under construction in the Bronx (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/bronx/?inline=nyt-geo), just north of the team’s current home.

When the showroom opens in January, potential buyers will be able to walk into a series of plush models of the 57 suites. Shoppers who visit the display, on the 32nd floor, will also be able to test the wider, more thickly cushioned premium seats that will also go on sale when the stadium opens, presumably for the 2009 season.

Those 5,000 to 10,000 premium seats, naturally, will have the some of the best views of the field.

Anyone who wants to know what a regular seat will be like is going to have to wait.

The 18 suites at the current stadium, as well as the boxes at Madison Square Garden, Shea Stadium and Giants Stadium in New Jersey, are considered fairly spartan compared with the operations at other new stadiums and arenas across the country. The suites at Yankee Stadium sell for roughly $265,000, with a few running as high as $350,000. Team officials said they had not yet priced the seats and suites in the new stadium, but there is little doubt that the numbers are headed skyward.

Randy Levine, president of the Yankees, said the team would make an announcement about the showroom and prices for the suites in the near future.

The opportunity to make more money on suites is just one reason that New York is in the middle of a stadium-building frenzy.

There are about $5 billion worth of sports palaces planned, under construction or nearing completion, including a new stadium for the Mets; the most expensive basketball arena in the country for the Nets in Brooklyn; a new hockey arena for the Devils in Newark; a new Madison Square Garden for the Knicks and Rangers; a new soccer stadium in Harrison, N.J., for the Red Bulls; and a new football stadium for the Jets and the Giants in the Meadowlands.

[lofter1]

This whole thing is beyond ridiculous & disgusting ...

These luxury boxes will top $500K before you know it.

Team owners get windfall profits based on these tax-payer subsidzied stadiums -- and the public gets stiffed on ticket prices / food prices -- the whole she-bang.

There should have been a part of the deal whereby a big chunk of that luxury box income was returned to the city (schools. transportation or parks department) rather than going in to George's pocket (and whoever pockets the $$ for the Mets new home).

Go Bloomberg :rolleyes:

[BPC]

Can't you just go back to the dude with the WW1 aviator's cap? I enjoy your posts, but am hating both the old lady and the dumb jock. It's as if Zippy switched to a human being.

[NoyokA]

This whole thing is beyond ridiculous & disgusting ...

These luxury boxes will top $500K before you know it.

Team owners get windfall profits based on these tax-payer subsidzied stadiums -- and the public gets stiffed on ticket prices / food prices -- the whole she-bang.

There should have been a part of the deal whereby a big chunk of that luxury box income was returned to the city (schools. transportation or parks department) rather than going in to George's pocket (and whoever pockets the $$ for the Mets new home).

Go Bloomberg :rolleyes:

Would you have prefered Guiliani's plan to pay for both stadiums?

[lofter1]

Nope -- just a lot less $$ out of the taxpayers' pockets.

[BPC]

Thanks L.

[ZippyTheChimp]

It's as if Zippy switched to a human being.Never considered it. Primate is as close as I get.

[BPC]

Never considered it. Primate is as close as I get.

Yes, but a Yankee-loving primate, which suggests some degree of evolution!

[ZippyTheChimp]

So, where are Met fans on the evolution timeline?

[BPC]

Stuck in 1969. Or maybe 1986.

[lofter1]

More to make NYers proud of the buisness acumen of Steinbrenner and his gang ...

Yankees’ Subsidy Deal Gets Stranger and Stranger

streetsblog (http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/10/03/yankees-subsidy-deal-gets-stranger-and-stranger/)
October 3, 2007

The Yankee Stadium subsidy package (http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/09/18/city-hopes-to-draw-constant-traffic-to-stadium-garages/) is the gift that keeps on giving. If you're the Yankees.

Following up on his tour of the smelly swath of plastic turf (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0739,demause,77908,2.html) (<<< READ the article at that link and ponder how likely it is that such a thing would ever occur in Manhattan) the Yankees installed in the South Bronx after turning actual park land into a stadium construction site, Neil deMause reports in the Village Voice that a clause in the Yanks' lease agreement with the city -- initiated by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and extended by Mayor Bloomberg -- allows reimbursements for stadium "planning" expenses. As of 2005, deductions include apparent write-offs for food, alcohol, and thousands of dollars in schwag (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0740,demause,77974,2.html), like caps and souvenir crystal baseballs.

http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10_01/.resized/.resized_250x422_yanksbill.jpg

Seems the Yankees haven't been spending enough on stadium "planning" to take full advantage of the rent break, so to justify additional deductions, the club began handing over loads of receipts to the Parks Department.


[W]hereas the earlier receipts were limited to stadium-related expenses -- although questionable ones, like the $700-an-hour lobbyist bills and restaurant tabs for engineering consultants -- by late 2005, the files had begun to look like those of an organization hastily trying to spend down its account by billing the public for everything but the kitchen sink.Here's a sample itemized list, courtesy Good Jobs New York (http://www.goodjobsny.org/Yankees_2005_%20Expenses.htm):

$31,364 in food and bar tabs at Yankee Stadium for two nights of the 2005 post season
$1,978 for a dozen crystal baseballs
$8,600 in "rivalry" wool caps for home games against Boston and Toronto
$1037 for 550 logo baseballs for an annual sales meeting
$2,037 in gifts for corporate clients like Sony, Ford and Continental Airlines
$25,000 for office space near Newark Airport
$10,145 for press room rental
$1,948 for party for Verizon
$78 to ship batting helmets from Yankee Stadium to Tropicana FieldImages of actual receipts are here (http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/Food_Bar_Tabs.pdf), here (http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/Novelties.pdf) and here (http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/Other_Questionables.pdf).

GJNY has issued a media release calling for an audit by City Comptroller (and potential mayoral candidate) William Thompson -- something the city has not done since 2004, when it examined the Yankees' stadium planning costs from 2001 and 2002.

"Considering the impact the new Yankee Stadium has had on the taxpayers and the neighborhood," reads the GJNY statement, "Good Jobs New York calls on Comptroller William Thompson to bring up to date all audits of the team to ensure no improper expenditures were in fact borne by the taxpayers."

[Transic]

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/bronx/2007/10/16/2007-10-16_stadium_garage_plan_gets_ok_carrion_drop.html

Stadium garage plan gets OK; Carrion drops opposition

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 16th 2007, 4:00 AM

A controversial plan to subsidize the new Yankee Stadium's parking garages has cleared its final hurdle, despite concerns over financing and traffic congestion.

The city's development agency voted for the plan last week after Bronx elected officials gave their approval.

The last obstacle was removed Oct. 5 when Borough President Adolfo Carrión dropped his opposition, and the Borough Board voted to endorse it.

Carrión had blocked the last attempt by the city's Industrial Development Agency to approve a $225 million tax-free bond issue to fund construction of the garages because, he said, the agency was withholding crucial documentation on the project.

But with what Carrión called "a thorough and informative presentation" by the city Economic Development Corp., which oversees the IDA, he endorsed the financing plan as "yet another important step toward realizing the goal of investment and community participation in the redevelopment of this area."

Councilwoman Helen Foster, however, whose Highbridge district covers the stadium area, voted against the plan.

"All along I've been opposed to the stadium and the traffic and congestion it would bring to the neighborhood," Foster said. "And this [garage] project will just encourage even more people to drive to the west Bronx."

Many of Foster's constituents worry the 9,000 parking spaces around the stadium will turn their already traffic- and asthma-choked neighborhood into a de facto park-and-ride hub - especially if the mayor's Manhattan congestion pricing plan becomes reality.

The new stadium project has faced strong local opposition from the surrounding neighborhood, in part because the city took away two large, popular local parks and gave them to the wealthiest franchise in sports.

"When are we going to put the needs of the community above the needs of an organization?" Foster asked.

The city controller's office, which also had expressed concerns about EDC's refusal to turn over documentation, endorsed the $225 million tax-free bond issue as well.

"We requested and received summaries of the lease agreement, the construction contract and the financing agreement," said controller's spokeswoman Laura Rivera. "And were told that the final versions would not differ substantively from what was shown to us."

wegbert@nydailynews.com (wegbert@nydailynews.com)

[BrooklynRider]

I don't know how 9,000 parking spaces could even be considered for that area. It has great access to mass transit.

[antinimby]

The other solution is to make the parking fees crazy expensive and that'll keep many folks out of their cars. Take that extra parking revenue and pay it back to the city to improve infrastructure in that area. Oh and also make the streets around the stadium require residential parking permits.

[investordude]

The stadium looks neat. Did anyone take pictures of the Gateway Mall? is that coming along?

[STT757]

I don't know how 9,000 parking spaces could even be considered for that area. It has great access to mass transit.

A big portion of Yankee fans coming to the stadium are from North Jersey, while Yankee stadium is connected to Manhattan and Penn Station to the South via NYCTA and will have a Metro North Station for those coming from Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties. Folks from North Jersey will continue to drive across the George Washington Bridge.

[BrooklynRider]

Point taken. Thanks for the info.

[Transic]

http://www.nysun.com/article/65367

Steel Makes Its Way to New City Stadiums

By CHRISTOPHER FAHERTY (http://www.nysun.com/authors/Christopher+Faherty)
Special to the Sun
October 26, 2007

Recycled materials that go into making the steel beams that form the nearly completed skeletons of the two new baseball stadiums in the Bronx (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=The+Bronx) and Queens (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Queens+County) could include a neighbor's old Chevrolet or a discarded washing machine from a local Laundromat.

Of the nearly 17,500 tons of steel that has already been hauled to the new Yankee Stadium (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Yankee+Stadium) and to Citi Field, about 60% was once ferrous scrap: steel goods collected from junk yards, town dumps, and the back rooms of automobile repair shops.

The business of amassing steel scrap is the first step in the creation of the steel beams and trusses that form the backbone of the city's baseball stadiums, both set to open in 2009.

America's largest scrap broker, the David J. Joseph Company, is providing most of the steel goods that will eventually be melted down and fabricated into beams for both the Yankees (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+York+Yankees) and the Mets (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=New+York+Mets). The company buys its steel from scrap dealers and large manufacturing companies, which often sell leftover steel from production.

Scrap steel, much of which has been broken down into fist-size pieces using a machine called a shredder, is then shipped to Blytheville, Ark., home to the American headquarters of the Nucor-Yamato Steel Company (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Nucor+Corporation).

Nucor, a company that has capitalized on the rising costs and environmental hazards of manufacturing virgin steel, recycles the scrap into heaping pieces of steel. Roughly 70% less energy is consumed in recycling scrap steel than in manufacturing steel from iron and coal, a spokesman for Nucor, Leonard Dryden, said.

Besides working with the contractors in charge of building New York City's baseball stadiums, Nucor is manufacturing steel beams for the new Meadowlands Stadium and the World Trade Center Memorial, a sales analyst at Nucor, Paul Lester, said.

Mr. Lester, who also leads tours of Nucor's huge plant, said the process of creating a large steel beam takes about three weeks.

The scrap is first melted down and turned into a single "semi-finished" piece of steel. The semi-finished product, which takes about 35 minutes to create, is then stored for two to three weeks before it is shaped into beams at the factory's rolling mill.

Before any of the steel manufactured by Nucor can be installed in the outfields and concourses of the new stadiums, it must first be fabricated into the specific sizes and shapes called for in the blueprints. This is where the Canam Steel Corporation comes in.

Steel is shipped in bulk to a Canam plant in Quebec, where the project managers, Jacques Renaud for Citi Field and Daniel Renaud (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Daniel+Renaud) for the new Yankee Stadium, direct crews that cut and mold steel joists, trusses, and beams.

Jacques Renaud, who is not related to Daniel Renaud, has a crew of about 330 people, including subcontractors, working underneath him in order to fabricate and install the 13,000 tons of steel that will be used in the construction of Citi Field.

So far, about 9,000 tons of steel has been transported to the park. As a tractor-trailer can haul about 20 tons of steel, Canam has made about 600 shipments to Queens from Canada, Mr. Renaud said.

The remaining steel will be used to build the dramatic entranceway at Citi Field, the Jackie Robinson (http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Jackie+Robinson) Rotunda, and some of the upper level seating, Mr. Renaud said.

When the new Yankee Stadium is finished, it will be constructed from about 13,000 tons of steel. Of that number, about 7,000 tons has already been installed in the Bronx, with another 1,500 tons currently being stored at a holding site in South Plainfield, N.J., Daniel Renaud said.

With most of the steel already in the city, both project managers say they are excited about building what the architects say are the most unique parts of both stadiums. In the coming months, the Yankees will build a steel replica of the famous white fence in the outfield of Yankee Stadium, and the Mets will begin constructing the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

[Transic]

I think it's time to show where things are now. A recent pic that I found:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/2052450500_5708c250af_b.jpg

[MidtownGuy]

^RETARDED, POINTLESS, and if it HAD to be done, a wasted architectural opportunity.
Looks like aerial evidence of an idiot society to me. Summon the Martians to finally finish us off, we aren't worth our salt.

[BrooklynRider]

^You read my mind. :p

[ablarc]

^ Well, you can be sure the bathrooms will be better, along with wheelchair access. ;)

[eatabagel]

So what does this mean in terms of commuter parking at Yankee Stadium? If this is garage A, is there a garage B? Would that be the existing parking structure for the current Yankee Stadium?

----

New Yankee stadium gobbles up last bit of parkland

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, November 21st 2007, 7:21 PM

Going from Park to parking, the last patch of parkland to be taken for the new Yankee Stadium project was fenced off last week, so construction of a parking garage could begin.

That part of Macombs Dam Park - bounded by the Macombs Dam Bridge approach to the north, Ruppert Place to the east and 157th St. and the Major Deegan Expressway to the west - will be the site of Garage A.

When completed, the two-story garage also will have a rooftop park with regulation soccer/football field, a 400-meter running track, 10 handball courts, four basketball courts, children's play equipment and a comfort station.

The rooftop park is one of several being built in the neighborhood - though some are far away from - in order to replace more than 25 acres of parkland being used for the stadium project.

Under Parks Department regulations, whenever parkland is given up for development, the city is required to replace each acre with comparable facilities in the same neighborhood.

But parks advocates and local opponents of the stadium project suspect the city is shortchanging the area.

When the Yankees dug up John Mullaly and Macombs Dam parks, the neighborhood lost 25 acres of open green space and 400 mature oak trees, while the "replacement parks" are largely artificial turf rooftop fields and concrete esplanades.

Ruppert Plaza, for example, is a paved pedestrian walkway next to the existing stadium that will be counted, largely unchanged, as park acreage in the replacement plan.

Joshua Laird, the Parks Department's assistant commissioner for planning and natural resources, said the function of the plaza will change once replacement parks are finished.

"In its current form, it's just a way for people to circulate around the stadium," he said. "But when the work is complete, it will be the link between Heritage Field and the park on top of Garage A."

Heritage Field, current site of the House that Ruth Built, will become the core of the new community park, with three ball fields.

But even by the Parks Department's own numbers, the replacement package is a bit light.

While 25.31 acres were taken for the project, the replacement plan gives back only 24.15 acres.

wegbert@nydailynews.com

[Alonzo-ny]

Ballparks and such on top of a parking structure DO NOT replace parkland in my opinion.

[Common Sense]

I do not understand what some people expect......The city is giving the neighborhood state of the art outdoor community space in the the middle of the Bronx nevertheless ...... 25 acres!!

Where would you have built a new Yankee Stadium? Would anyone be happy with the Yankees not in the Bronx, maybe long Island? Westchester? God no not Jersey......

What we have is a win win for all...... The city, the community, the Yankees, NYC as a premier world class city are all benefits of this development

[Alonzo-ny]

I said nothing of my opinion on the project. i made a statement.

[ZippyTheChimp]

What we have is a win win for all...... The city, the community, the Yankees, NYC as a premier world class city are all benefits of this developmentI'm happy that the Yanks are staying in the Bronx, but considering that the richest franchise in MLB stated that they would pay for the stadium themselves, the city (taxpayers) forked over hundreds of millions of dollars that benefited the Yankees, not the community.

[Common Sense]

I'm happy that the Yanks are staying in the Bronx, but considering that the richest franchise in MLB stated that they would pay for the stadium themselves, the city (taxpayers) forked over hundreds of millions of dollars that benefited the Yankees, not the community.


Agree 100%...... but the city, lets say when all is said and done, contributed $375 million towards a $1.3 billion development that in turn will spur even more development

Isn't that just the cost the city ought to be paying because a new stadium benefits a lot for NYC as a whole?

[ZippyTheChimp]

We have discussed this on this thread, and extensively in the defunct Jets stadium thread. Sports stadiums are a poor investment for municipal governments when measured against alternate choices.

Yankee Stadium has been in the neighborhood for 80 years. It made the Yankees rich, but did little for the community.

At least the city owned the old stadium and collected rent. Won't be the case in the new one.

One original idea was for the Yankees to finance the new Metro North station to encourage mass transit. In a twist of irony, not only is the MTA building the station, but the city is stuck building parking garages.

[Common Sense]

We have discussed this on this thread, and extensively in the defunct Jets stadium thread. Sports stadiums are a poor investment for municipal governments when measured against alternate choices.

Yankee Stadium has been in the neighborhood for 80 years. It made the Yankees rich, but did little for the community.

At least the city owned the old stadium and collected rent. Won't be the case in the new one.

One original idea was for the Yankees to finance the new Metro North station to encourage mass transit. In a twist of irony, not only is the MTA building the station, but the city is stuck building parking garages.




It's just the cost of maintaining a modern 21st century city.....
$375 million is nothing compared to the mess at Javits

Having the Metro North makes this even a better deal for the community

I can't wait to not have to park in one of the new garages........maybe ill save .08% of a child from having asthma

Same for the Mets new place as well

[ZippyTheChimp]

It's just the cost of maintaining a modern 21st century city.....
$375 million is nothing compared to the mess at JavitslSo you set up Javits as the model, and anything less screwed-up is acceptable?

Javits is publicly owned and not at the top of the industry; Yankees are the opposite, and need NO help.


I can't wait to not have to park in one of the new garages........maybe ill save .08% of a child from having asthmaSilly.

[Optimus Prime]

One original idea was for the Yankees to finance the new Metro North station to encourage mass transit. In a twist of irony, not only is the MTA building the station, but the city is stuck building parking garages.

I agree, this is a joke. The Yankees have really pulled one over on the City and MTA here.

I don't care if they want to build a new stadium, but they owed the Bronx and the City so much more. Not paying for the station, not paying for the parking, not giving back enough parkland, all of it is simply unacceptable.

[arcman210]

On a lighter note, for those interested there are new pictures posted on some websites, here is one from yankeetradition.com.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32426&stc=1&d=1196735486
http://www.yankeetradition.com/NewYankeeStadium.htm (http://www.yankeetradition.com/NewYankeeStadium.htm)

[sfenn1117]

limestone!

[BrooklynRider]

[quote=Common Sense;202377]Agree 100%...... but the city, lets say when all is said and done, contributed $375 million towards a $1.3 billion development that in turn will spur even more development.[quote]

Why would a "new stadium" hosting the most successful and winning franchise in history spur development that the "historic stadium" hosting same team did not?

I could understand arguments that try to sell a new stadium as a catalyst to spur development. I can't fathom what the argument might be for a stadium replacing a stadium within a few hundred feet of the oroginals location.

Personally, I think investing $375 million in community housing would spur a lot more economic activity and return on investment than corporate welfare of this sort. No argument can be made for the infrastructure repairs, because they are all directly related to the stadium - not the community.

[Common Sense]

Why would a "new stadium" hosting the most successful and winning franchise in history spur development that the "historic stadium" hosting same team did not?

I could understand arguments that try to sell a new stadium as a catalyst to spur development. I can't fathom what the argument might be for a stadium replacing a stadium within a few hundred feet of the oroginals location.

Personally, I think investing $375 million in community housing would spur a lot more economic activity and return on investment than corporate welfare of this sort. No argument can be made for the infrastructure repairs, because they are all directly related to the stadium - not the community.


I think you make an interesting point..... I wish there were more case studies of these types of things.

But I do think that a new, vibrant, re-built, stadium neighborhood will lead to investments in the surrounding area and will spread

[ZippyTheChimp]

I wish there were more case studies of these types of things.There are plenty.

Just ignore the ones that are commissioned by the teams.

[Scraperfannyc]

I suppose when babe ruth realized he would be evicted from the house he built, he lifted the curse.

[Optimus Prime]

There are plenty.

Just ignore the ones that are commissioned by the teams.

Exactly. Also ignore ones commissioned by cities or state stadium authorities.

Look for Dennis Coates and Brad Humphreys, they have done a bunch of these studies.

[Derek2k3]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/2122878814_d653df9d01_o.jpg
margaretmendel (http://www.flickr.com/photos/margaretmendel/)

[lofter1]

Taxpayers will fund Yankees' VIP parking,
NYC gets less money

NY DAILY NEWS (http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/01/02/2008-01-02_taxpayers_will_fund_yankees_vip_parking_.html)
Juan Gonzalez
January 2, 2008

The Yankees and hundreds of their VIPs will get free valet parking for the next 40 years, courtesy of New York taxpayers.

The startling revelation of yet another subsidy for the richest team in baseball is buried deep in the fine print of a $237 million tax-exempt bond offering that city officials quietly issued the week before Christmas.

The documents say a $70 million state subsidy for parking improvements for the new Yankee Stadium (slated to open next year) has been earmarked for a new 660-car valet parking garage where virtually all the spaces will be reserved for the free, year-round use of the Yankees and their VIPs.

That's not the only shocking disclosure found in the 500-page bond document.

Others include:

The total cost of the parking expansion project has zoomed to $340 million - $80 million more than city officials announced only eight months ago, when the directors of the city Industrial Development Agency gave preliminary approval to the bond issue. The money is meant to pay for three new garages, refurbishing half a dozen open-air lots and replacing lost parkland due to construction.
Game-day parking prices for the general public will more than double from $14 last year to $29 in 2010. They could hit $35 by 2014.
In addition to 600 free valet parking spaces for the Yankees, 120 game-day parking spaces will be reserved for the free use of the private cars of city cops assigned to the stadium, and an additional 130 on nongame days for city vehicles on "official business."When Mayor Bloomberg and former Gov. George Pataki announced their deal for the Yankees to build a new stadium in the Bronx back in 2005, the mayor guaranteed the city would receive at least $3.2 million in annual rent, plus payments in lieu of taxes from the parking facilities.

That revenue was to be the only direct income the city would receive from the entire new stadium project.

The money was meant to help repay the direct public subsidy to the garages - $32 million from the city, plus the state's $70 million. The city's expenditure is earmarked for new parks that will sit on top of two of the garages.

Even then, the promised revenue was substantially less than the $3.9 million the city is receiving as its share of current Yankees garage revenue.

Now that the bonds have been issued, we learn that the new garages will not generate enough money to provide full rent and taxes to the city until at least 2014.

That's according to the financial projections in a consultant study. The city included those projections in the bond documents but had not previously released them, despite several requests for a copy from the economic watchdog group Good Jobs New York.

"There may be periods during which excess cash flow could be insufficient to pay the city the full amount owed," Economic Development Corp. spokeswoman Janel Patterson acknowledged. "The amounts owed will not be forgiven, but will accrue interest at a compound annual rate ... until paid in full."

The balance sheet for the garages can't possibly be helped by the loss of more than 700 game-day spaces to the Yankees and the NYPD.

The bond offering says, "Parking Garage Site B will be funded exclusively from the State" [and] will have 600 spaces "reserved for use by the New York Yankees, its employees, guests, customers and other invitees and will not generate revenues."

That is double the number of free parking spaces Bloomberg announced for the team back in 2005. In addition, the garage operator must offer the team up to 900 additional parking spaces annually at an unspecified discount rate.

"The Yankees have no involvement with the garages," team spokeswoman Alice McGillion said yesterday.

Sure. And Manhattan has no involvement with the Brooklyn Bridge.

Any way you slice it, the Yankees and their luxury box VIPs will enjoy free, year-round valet service at what will essentially be the team's publicly financed private garage.

At an average $40-per-game valet parking rate, team executives can expect to save some $80 million from that sweet deal over the nearly 40-year life of the bonds.

Since Garage B is slated to be the only parking facility physically attached to the stadium, Yankees players will enjoy an added bonus.

They will no longer have to face adoring young fans waiting in the parking lot after the game in hopes of landing an autograph from their favorite hero.

Nothing but the best for the Bronx Bombers - and you pick up the tab.

© Copyright 2007 NYDailyNews.com

[ZippyTheChimp]

When Mayor Bloomberg and former Gov. George Pataki announced their deal for the Yankees to build a new stadium in the Bronx back in 2005,So now Bloomberg is being touted as a breath of fresh air in the stench of national politics.

Something smells.

[lofter1]

btw: What happened to potato head? Clearly his Presidential aspirations are on hold, to say the least.

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://www.wpclipart.com/food/vegetables/potato/mashed_potatoes.png

[lofter1]

lmao ^ :D

[lofter1]

Gotta love the Bronx and the old-style NYC political machines which pretend to look out for the people ...

Stadium Goes Up, but Bronx Still Seeks Benefits

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/07/nyregion/07stadium.span.jpg
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
The new Yankee Stadium, with a 2009 target date, is being built
near the old one in the Bronx.

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/nyregion/07stadium.html?ref=nyregion)
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
January 7, 2008

Several years ago, as the Yankees negotiated to build a new stadium in the South Bronx, the neighborhood faced the realities of a massive construction project in its midst: parks would be closed and moved, traffic would be horrendous, life would be, for a while, a hassle.

So, as one way to make up for these inconveniences, the Yankees and elected officials signed a community benefits agreement. It required that the team would give roughly $1.2 million a year, starting when the work began, to various community groups through a special panel. The deal was similar to agreements in other major projects, like Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn and Columbia University’s expansion into Harlem.

But nearly 17 months after construction began, as workers race to complete the new Yankee Stadium by opening day 2009, none of that money has been distributed, and the group responsible for administering it has never met.

The seven-member panel also has not chosen a permanent chairman, registered as a charity with either the Internal Revenue Service or the state attorney general’s office, or selected recipients for $800,000 in grants or $450,000 in free tickets, merchandise and athletic equipment.

Elected officials have complained that they are in the dark.

“I feel embarrassed because I don’t know anything about what’s going on,” said City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, who represents the northwest Bronx. Mr. Koppell had suggested that the Bronx council members meet to discuss the agreement. “I was involved when we negotiated it, but I have not been involved since. I urged that we have a Bronx delegation review, but nothing’s happened.”

The Yankees say the community groups will get all of the money that they agreed to give according to the community benefits agreement, or C.B.A., including the first 17 months’ worth, once the panel meets. Alice T. McGillion, a team spokeswoman, said that the money was in an escrow account and that the club was not responsible for the delays.

“Please ask Bronx Boro President’s office about any delays in the fund and advisory panel being set up,” Ms. McGillion wrote by e-mail. “As the CBA specifically states the fund and its establishment is independent from the New York Yankees.”

The Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrión Jr., has been “too busy” for the past three weeks to discuss the stadium fund in an interview, said his spokesman, Michael Murphy. Last month, Mr. Carrión announced his candidacy for city comptroller in 2009. But Mr. Murphy wrote in an e-mail message that the process to release the money to community groups was moving along.

“There were many people deciding who would be the most appropriate candidates for the panel,” Mr. Murphy wrote, in explaining the delays. “It took time for people to look at the list and come to a consensus.”

The fund was part of the agreement and was to be established the day stadium construction started, Aug. 17, 2006, and distributed annually through 2046.

The agreements are enforceable by courts, but officials who normally ensure that the terms of a contract are carried out — such as the city comptroller — have no oversight because municipal money is not involved.

The agreement for Yankee Stadium was unusual, however, because it was not negotiated or signed by community members. It carries only the signatures of four elected officials, who said they were acting on behalf of the community, and a representative of the Yankees.

None of the officials who signed the agreement agreed to be interviewed for this article. The signatories were Mr. Carrión; Randy L. Levine, the president of the Yankees; and Bronx City Council members Maria Baez, Joel Rivera and Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

Mr. Murphy referred most questions related to the fund to the Yankees, or to the panel itself, but he would not disclose the names of its members, with the exception of the group’s acting chairman, Serafin U. Mariel.

Mr. Murphy would not say who had selected Mr. Mariel, 64, a Manhattan resident who is the former president and chief executive of New York National Bank.

Mr. Mariel, who, campaign finance records show, has donated to the candidacies of Mr. Carrión in the past, acknowledged that the group was far behind schedule. “It has taken some time to choose the advisory panel, but while some of that time has been lost, I don’t think any of the funding commitment will be lost,” Mr. Mariel said during a telephone interview last month.

“I am in the process now of arranging a meeting of panel members so they can meet each other and establish guidelines,” Mr. Mariel said.

Councilwoman Helen Diane Foster, who represents the High Bridge neighborhood and who opposed the stadium, said she had neither been briefed nor been asked for an opinion on the board. She said she had sent letters requesting information to Mr. Carrión and to council members Ms. Baez and Ms. del Carmen Arroyo without response. “I have no idea how people were selected to the panel,” she said. “It concerns me, but I’m also wise enough to know that a lot of people are hinging careers on how great this deal is, so I’m not surprised we haven’t had this conversation.”

However, Mr. Carrión’s spokesman, Mr. Murphy, said that the borough president was open to discussing the issue with other elected officials. “This process has been participatory since the beginning,” Mr. Murphy wrote via e-mail. “Every Bronx elected official can at any time address his or her concerns directly to the Borough President. He has an open door policy regarding addressing any concerns his colleagues might have.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

[NYatKNIGHT]

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2008-01/34753505.jpg
A crane hoists stonework bearing the Yankee Stadium sign into position on the new stadium's facade, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008, in New York. (Associated Press / January 15, 2008)

[NoyokA]

I think black would have looked classier than gold, but like at 15 CPW the materials here are top notch. Much better than the materials on the current stadium.

[TallGuy]

original

[antinimby]

The gold lettering is too Trump-ian tacky. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/images/smilies/yuck.gif

[lofter1]

But there is that Trump <> Steinbrenner connection.

It's where tacky spawns spontaneously ...










FLORIDA!

(or as one ex-NYer hopes it will soon be re-christened: Rudyland)

[DarrylStrawberry]

I can't wait for this stadium to open.

How much do you think the opening day tickets will fetch?

[BrooklynRider]

^More than the typical weekly wage of anyone living within ten blocks of the stadium.

[DarrylStrawberry]

Robbery in the park

Fans and taxpayers soaked by new Yankee Stadium

Posted: Thursday January 3, 2008 2:36PM; Updated: Friday January 4, 2008 2:12PM

Many moons ago, while scrawling a hidebound tract for children about the life of David Robinson, I came upon a tale I've never forgotten: Robinson marveling at how, after he'd signed his first contract with the San Antonio Spurs in 1989, everyone wanted to give him free meals and merchandise even though he could more than afford to pay.

This little anecdote came to mind when the New York Daily News reported (http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/01/02/2008-01-02_taxpayers_will_fund_yankees_vip_parking_.html) that VIPs will get free valet parking at the new Yankee Stadium for the next 40 years while fans pay handsomely for the privilege of stowing their junkers, starting this year when the tag jumps from $14 to $17 and then to $19 when the new ballpark opens in 2009. The thumb in the eye is that rates could go as high as $35 per jalopy by 2014.

In the Yankees' defense, parking rates are the bailiwick of New York City which happily trumpeted the wondrous benefits of the new billion dollar House That Steinbrenner Built thanks to team money and tax exempt bonds. The city and state are subsidizing the parking facilities and other goodies. Now the city's Economic Development Corp. admits there will be a shortfall in recouping those funds due to soaring construction costs, thus the need for rate hikes. Meanwhile, 700 VIP spaces will deprive the city of $80 million in revenue during the life of the bonds. Another 900 spaces will be discounted.

Any surprise that Joe and Jo-Ann Fan, not to mention Frank and Francine Taxpayer, will pay the freight twice while the fat cats who can most afford it get a free ride?

Two years ago, Neil deMause warned in The Village Voice (http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0603,demause,71747,5.html) two years ago that the new Stadium, for a cash-machine franchise valued at around $1 billion, would be a money pit, and he has produced a tidy spreadsheet of the public and private costs (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/documents/Yanks-Mets-costs.pdf) of New York's two new ballparks. This recent development should make you suspicious when owners and politicians crow that no or few public dollars are being used in these ventures (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2008/01/wrigley_sale_wo.html). Always check the fine print, and stay up past midnight when little perks like that valet parking deal are snuck in the back door.

This space has bemoaned the use of public loot to erect palaces for private businesses (teams) on several occasions, and the actual benefits to a city or community have been widely debated and disputed, so I'll spare you another stemwinder. But as Ken Belson noted in the New York Times in July 2006: "The Yankees need the subsidies, tax breaks and new revenue [from a new stadium] not only to pay for the stadium, but also the team's hefty payroll. Without that padding, the Yankees might find it harder to assemble a winning team. And without a winning team, it will be harder to raise tickets prices, broadcast rights and other fees."

If there's a positive here, it's that fans will be encouraged to use mass transit, although the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will raise fares in March and another hike is expected in two years. This is the same poverty-stricken MTA that wanted to sell a valuable parcel of land in Manhattan at a low, low discount price to the New York Jets for a new pigskin parlor. Fortunately, the sale and stadium were ultimately torpedoed by state legislators who smelled tar boiling.

All of this makes me cringe when I hear some poobah proclaim that something is being done for the fans. "We're just happy that we're able to do this for the Yankees," George Steinbrenner said most revealingly at the August 2006 groundbreaking, "and happy to do it for you people."

[Jim856796]

How are we going to move Monument Park to the new Yankee Stadium? Can't we physically move the monuments without damaging them?

[TallGuy]

There won't be any room to move the monuments as they will be moving the 'survivor's staircase' there.

[lofter1]

Ooops ... those ticket prices might be going up sooner than hoped for ...


You Can’t Buy the Naming Rights,
but Call It the Billion-Dollar Ballpark


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/08/sports/08yankee1.600.jpg
Librado Romero/The New York Times
The new stadium, which is set to open in April 2009, has its name
inscribed into the stone and highlighted in gold leaf


NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/sports/baseball/08sandomir.html?ref=nyregion)
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
February 8, 2008



Sports Business

The old Yankee Stadium cost Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast Huston $2.5 million to build and $100 million (or so) for the city to rebuild. The cost to replace it is now about $1.2 billion — not $930 million ($830 million and financing) as originally estimated.


Then there’s another $135 million, still to be financed as part of a separate company in the Yankees’ realm to create the food and beverage business the team will start, rather than invite an outside concessionaire like Aramark to build it.


However you calculate the costs, it is hard to envision what the $1.2 billion ballpark will look like, what with all the mud, cranes, uninstalled seats, unbuilt luxury suites and hundreds of construction workers at the site. There is still a lot of concrete and steel to build on.


Surely, it will be a dandy replica of the original ballpark, which dates to 1923, and not a facsimile of the stadium that emerged from the unimaginative 1974-75 renovation.


Or, as Yogi Berra said during a video produced by the Yankees to market premium seating at the ballpark, “It’s going to be like a new stadium.”


It was Lonn Trost, the Yankees’ chief operating officer, who noted the new costs Thursday during a news-media tour of the construction site. They will be borne by the team, not the city and the state, which are footing the bill for new parks, new garages and a new Metro-North station, and financed by borrowing beyond the $866 million in tax-exempt bonds and $64 million in taxable bonds that are financing the stadium’s construction.


The team’s debt service will surely rise — and it won’t get any help from a naming rights deal. Trost said the team has rejected offers of at least $50 million a year — two and a half times what Citigroup is paying the Mets — to name the stadium for a corporation. He did not say which companies would pay such a fee.


Still, even without naming-rights booty, Sal Galatioto, who runs a sports investment banking company, said the Yankees shouldn’t have much trouble finding more financing. “The Yankee name carries a lot of weight with investors,” he said. “They have a good story to tell, especially if some of the increased expenses will increase revenues.”


About $150 million in higher costs are going to a fancier scoreboard than originally envisioned and enhancements to luxury suites, club suites and restaurants that went beyond the original architectural plans — all designed to produce cash.


The scope of space dedicated to the wealthiest’s pursuits in suites and pampered club areas is stunning. The two-level Legends Suite Club will serve the 1,800 ticket holders who will sit closest to the field in 1,800 cushioned seats extending along the baselines from home plate. Hopefully, when ticket prices are announced, the wealthiest in their premium areas will subsidize the regular Joes.


(There is also a conference center — if a meeting breaks out in the sixth inning.)


Another $60 million is to pay for security improvements that were recommended by the New York Police Department and $50 million was associated with starting construction several months late in August 2006 because of lawsuits.


The stadium is starting to look like something, much like Citi Field, which is rising in Flushing beside Shea Stadium. Both ballparks are racing to be completed by April 2009.


The dueling Yankee Stadiums face each other across 161st Street. The partly finished granite and limestone exterior of the new one winks at the ancient House That Ruth Built as if to say, “I’m going to be look better than you — and I’ll have wider seats.”


Gate 4, at the corner of 161st Street and Jerome Avenue, gleamed in the gray chill.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/02/08/sports/08yankee2.190.jpg
Librado Romero/The New York Times
YANKEE STADIUM is inscribed into
the stone and highlighted in gold leaf.

The price tag of the new Yankee Stadium will be about $1.2 billion. The cost was originally estimated at $930 million. Circular holes on either side of the inscription await the arrival of sculptured medallions of eagles that were part of the original design by Osborne Engineering.


“I just ran across Ruppert’s 1924 income tax return where he started amortizing the $2 million construction cost,” Trost said. “For $2 million, we can build a seat.”


Actually, arithmetic proves that the 53,000 seats will cost $22,641 each. (Cheap!)


Inside, much of the steel structure is completed, and the most striking feature so far on display is a 21st-century rendition of the rooftop frieze that defined the old stadium’s design. The old one was copper and turned green through oxidation. The new frieze is made of steel, painted white and was delivered in 39 six-ton pieces.


About half are in place, giving the new place its first indication of grandeur. Trost’s tour of the construction site meandered from outside (with what appears to be a much gentler grade to the seating, offering fewer steep views), to the inside, where he walked through the Yankees’ clubhouse, showers and weight room. He gestured down a corridor and said, “Torre’s office is that way.” Reminded of the transfer in power from Joe Torre to Joe Girardi, he added with a smile, “You know it’s Joe’s office.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Compan

[Radiohead]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/2247491411_24513d0b87_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2262/2248286112_bd3185615a_o.jpg

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/3835/nyff1090207171024x768zq0.jpg

[lofter1]

Gotta say it's looking good.

But for $1.2 B it damn well better, eh?

[Radiohead]

^ The original YS cost $2.5 million in 1923. Is there an inflation rate of greater than 40,000% for anything else since the 1920's that anyone can think of? (other than Manhattan real estate?:o)

[Transic]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/sports/baseball/21tickets.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=login

Yankees’ Top Seats Grow Pricier

By RICHARD SANDOMIR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/richard_sandomir/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Published: March 21, 2008

If you’re a Yankees (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org) fan with lots of spare cash, parts of the new Yankee Stadium will be for you. Consider two offerings sent to season-ticket holders in an e-mail message Thursday.

First up are the Legends Suite seats, the best in the $1.3 billion ballpark, which is to open in 2009. There will be 1,800 Legends seats in the 25 sections closest to the field, radiating up the base lines from home plate. Those fans will sit in cushioned seats with teak arms and have access to three clubs, private bathrooms and waiter service.

The seats will start at $500 each and the tiptop ones — the $2,500, front-row seats — are sold out, said Lonn Trost, the Yankees’ chief operating officer. (A Yankees fan could have spent $500 to see 50 games from $10 box seats in 1987.)

The current stadium has a Legends section of about 160 seats, with a peak price of $1,000 a game. The new Legends section features a home plate area that is 20 feet closer to the plate than in the current stadium’s configuration.

The second offering, which promises a “luxury suite experience one seat at a time,” is the 74-seat Club Suite, which is four luxury boxes combined into one. The $700 price includes food and beverages (alcohol is extra), preferred parking and concierge service.

The e-mail message from Trost asked all season-ticket holders if they wanted to upgrade to the deluxe offerings, “for which we have already received an enormous amount of unsolicited requests.” It also began the process of relocating season-ticket holders to similar locations in the new ballpark.

The team has the equivalent of 39,121 full season-ticket holders.

But Trost cautioned in his e-mail message that “the seat location and quantity of games included in all current ticket license plans are subject to change when you relocate to the new Yankee Stadium.” He said by telephone that he was not referring to the slightly smaller capacity of the new ballpark, but the variety of miniticket plans being sold.

The other two premium plans are less than $500. The 1,200 main level outdoor suite seats — behind home plate in the nine sections behind the Legends area — start at $350. And in the 1,300 terrace level seats located in the sections behind the outdoor suite, you can experience a wee bit of luxury for $100, $115 and $135.

The 4,374 premium seats in the four suites essentially substitute for the usual complement of high-priced stadium club seats. Of the 47 luxury suites available at the new ballpark, 29 have been leased, for between $600,000 and $850,000, Trost said.

There will be 48,000 nonpremium seats in the new stadium. Trost said that 88 percent of those cost $100 or less, and 55 percent will cost $45 or less.

He added that the highest-priced box seats at the old stadium — which rose to $250 this season from $150 last year — would not cost significantly more in the new stadium and would not be priced nearly as high as the cheapest Legends seat. But they could be farther back to accommodate the Legends seats.

-------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=79612

Price Of Yankee Stadium Project Skyrocketing

The Yankees new home is proving to be a lot more expensive than anticipated.

City officials say as construction moves forward on the new stadium, the cost of replacing the parkland that's being used has skyrocketed to $190 million -- 48 percent higher than initially thought.

When a deal was reached for the new stadium, many residents were upset about losing parkland, so the city promised to create 28 acres of new park and recreation space in the area. However, the project has hit some unexpected snags along the way, including an underground oil tank that had to be drained and removed.

Despite the higher costs, officials say they will not scale back plans for the new parkland.

The new stadium is scheduled to open in time for the 2009 season, with the city and state kicking in more than $200 million for the project.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Getting a handle on the The Big Bat

BY ANTHONY RIEBER | anthony.rieber@newsday.com

March 23, 2008
Newsday (http://www.newsday.com)

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2008-03/37080985.jpg
The Big Bat is seen outside Yankee Stadium. Officials are unsure what is going to happen to The Big Bat once the Yankees move to their new stadium. (Al Bello, Getty Images / March 23, 2008)

"Meet me at The Bat."

It's as much the Yankee Stadium experience as a visit to Monument Park, the Bleacher Creatures' first-inning roll call or a $7.50 beer.

It's The Bat, a popular meeting place at The House That Ruth Built. And no one is saying what's going to happen to it once the stadium is demolished.

The 120-foot Louisville Slugger outside Gate 4 - actually a boiler stack fitted to look like a bat, complete with a knob at the top, tape at the handle and Babe Ruth's signature on the barrel - seems to have been overlooked as the Yankees prepare to make the move across the street to a new Yankee Stadium in 2009.

"We do not have knowledge of what will happen to The Bat," Yankees spokesman Michael Margolis said.

A spokesman for the city parks and recreation department, which owns and runs Yankee Stadium, referred calls about The Bat to Mayor Bloomberg's press office.

Said mayoral spokesman Joseph Gallagher: "The city is working with both the Mets and the Yankees on a plan to sell memorabilia from their respective stadiums that will be timed with the end of the 2008 season, and won't interfere with existing plans to demolish the stadiums."

Does that mean The Bat is considered memorabilia to be sold? Or is it part of the stadium structure that will be demolished?

"Sorry, not getting more specific," Gallagher wrote in an e-mail message. "We're still in touch with both organizations."

The Mets had a similar situation crop up when the famed "Home Run Apple" in centerfield seemed to have been overlooked in the plans for Citi Field. After an outcry from Mets fans on the Internet - the Web site www.savetheapple.com (http://www.savetheapple.com) was created and an online petition brought attention to the issue - the Mets announced their intention to have some sort of apple presence at the new stadium.

"We're either going to take it over [from Shea] or we're going to put up a new one and display the old one in some form," Mets COO Jeff Wilpon told Newsday's Ken Davidoff last week.

If the city and the Yankees wanted to sell The Bat as memorabilia, it could be done, according to memorabilia expert Howard Schwartz of Grandstand Sports in Manhattan, who is seeing "great demand" already in items having to do with Yankee Stadium.

Teams now cut up game-used jerseys, for example, and sell them in pieces, or sell dirt from their stadiums. Could the same be done with a 120-foot bat?

"They could do whatever they want," Schwartz said. "No matter how large an item, certainly you could cut it into how-ever-many pieces. They could cut it into fifths and some people could put it on their lawns."

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spbat235623517mar23,0,6299517.story

[antinimby]

Here's an idea: how 'bout just moving it over to the new stadium?

I mean, duuuuh...:rolleyes:

[TallGuy]

'The Bat' is a cool feature of the post-renovation stadium, but as it only dates to 1976 I don't see it as being of critical importance to either the relic seekers or being sorely missed across the street. It might be a nice gesture to recreate it at the new park, assuming it was functionally necessary as well. But of all the things to be lossed, this one bothers me perhaps the least.

Design-wise, it probably should not be included at the new facility if they are true to their word of invoking the original design. But then again, the design they are really honoring is the 1967 version of Yankee Stadium when the seats were painted blue and the frieze was painted white (along with the outer walls). So perhaps they SHOULD include it to honor all previous stadium eras.

[Zephyr]

Speaking of large bats, there is one sitting outside a government building, nowhere near a ball yard, in Chicago. It is by world famous pop artist collaborators, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. This bat column is an obvious visual satire of Chicago politics, built on "clout":



http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/popart/images/ClaesOldenburg-CVBruggen-Batcolumn-1977.jpg
Courtesy Art History Archive / photo Attilio Maranzano

Batcolumn, 1977

Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Steel and Aluminum
Painted with Polyurethane Enamel
Approxiamately 96 feet high by 10 feet in diameter
Harold Washington Social Security Center
600 West Madison Street
Chicago

I have heard word that Chicago politicians would love to get rid of this particular work of art, maybe even paying to send it to a place, like New York, to get it out of their City :). Voilà ... problem solved!

[JCMAN320]

Zephyr as a Yankee fan I would love that outside. I like the lattice work. Looks better than just a giant metal bat. Lets make this work.

[Transic]

http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9590/239476367004c9e64c31bpe8.jpg

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http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5468/23947015581bf72437fbbnq7.jpg

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http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5986/attachmentkf6.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5251/239651721553c77c366ebgt4.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

They opened up foul territory down the line.

[ramvid01]

Thanks for the pics.

However I think this four deck design looks dumb. I know they want to give fans better sightlines, more space, etc ,etc however it just doesn't look majestic and instead looks more like an arena then a baseball stadium.

[TallGuy]

Including the facade is a great idea but it is turning out to be a big dissappointment. Not only are the materials used far cheaper than the original copper and the current concrete, but they are not even the same design! The new facade is missing much of the detail of the earlier versions.

[The Benniest]

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I figured I'd post it ...

HIGH'JINX' HITS YANKEES
CREW SABOTEUR BURIED RED SOX GEAR UNDER NEW STADIUM
By JOHN DOYLE, CHUCK BENNETT and JEREMY OLSHAN

April 11, 2008 --

The new Yankee Stadium may be cursed!
A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The Post yesterday.

"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker said. "Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried."

The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers.

"I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. "I respect the stadium."

The Post has withheld their identities because they are not authorized to speak to media.

This latest hex is above and beyond any typical ritual - like wearing a lucky shirt or hat - that fans typically do to boost their luck.

"It sounds a little unprecedented to me," said Tim Wiles, director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.

"I guess if the Yankees go 86 years in the new ballpark without a win we'll know if we are on to something," he said, referring to Boston's previous infamous losing streak after they sold Babe Ruth.

"If I was a Yankees fan, that is my house. I don't want a Red Sox [T-shirt] under my house," he added.

Chris Wertz, co-owner of the Red Sox bar Professor Thom's in the East Village, laughed at the ingenuity of the worker.

"I won't be surprised in the least bit to see that visiting locker room torn up and relaid right away," he said. "This what makes the game special for baseball fans. It's not a mean thing, but something they will take seriously."
Red Sox fans, he said, will see the buried garment as a good-luck charm, especially after years of seeing the retired numbers of four legendary players displayed in Fenway Park.

It has long displayed "9" for Ted Williams, "4" for Joe Cronin, "1" for Bobby Doerr and "8" for Carl Yastrzemski - which comes out to 9-4-18, the day before the World Series that resulted in the last Red Sox championship until 2004.

Baseball historians said these kinds of superstitions are not something to be scoffed at.

"Curses start off very easily. It's all the power of suggestion and they take on a life of their own," said Dan Gordon, co-author of the 2007 book "Haunted Baseball."

"Even the 'Curse of the Bambino' didn't really take off until the 1980s. Before then it was just hard luck," he said.

Mickey Bradley, co-author of "Haunted Baseball," said a worker is said to have buried an unknown good-luck charm in a water main trench of the current Yankee Stadium back in 1920.

"Prior to that, they never they won a World Series," he said.

Players can also bring curses to their teams.

"Look at the curse of A-Rod. The Yankees haven't won since [Alex Rodriguez] came to their game. There's probably more to that than a T-shirt," said Peter Nash, author of "Boston's Royal Rooters," a history of Red Sox fans.

"This just takes the rivalry to whole new level. If you look at 2004, the Yankees were up three games. If Boston lost that, seriously, the whole franchise would have been decimated," said Nash, who performed with the rap duo Third Bass before writing about baseball.

"I think there is a curse in effect already. Maybe the Red Sox T-shirt is like the icing on the cake, a nice little F-you from Boston," he said.

The year 2004, of course, was the year the Red Sox broke their own curse and won the World Series after beating the Yankees in the playoffs.

Still, stadiums have long had their own curses.

One of them is the 1945 "Billy Goat" curse at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago cubs.

Legend has it that William Sianis placed a curse on the team after stadium staff refused to let him enter with his pet goat. The team hasn't played in the World Series since 1945.

Superstition in stadiums can also cut the other way and help a team.
The Texas Rangers languished in their old stadium from 1972 to 1993, until they moved into a new ballpark the following year. Since then, the team won three division titles. More recently, the Tampa Rays may be cursed by their own new stadium, which was partially built over a cemetery.

Over the past decade, the team had the worst record in all of Major League Baseball four times and finished last place in their division nine times.
As for the buried emblem of hated Boston, the Yankees say they aren't the least bit worried.

"It sounds like a tall tale, and it would take more than a Red Sox T-shirt to put a curse on the Yankees," said team spokesman Howard Rubenstein.

Copyright 2008 New York Post

[ZippyTheChimp]

^
Not sure which way a curse would go from a shirt being walked on. But I hope old George doesn't get wind of it, or he'll have the place torn apart.

**As Yanks head for Fenway this weekend, the all time home-run list:

#15. (521) Ted Williams...Willie McCovey
#17. (520) Alex Rodriquez

[Jasonik]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2198/1992717572_ac4ea9edbe_m.jpg

[JCMAN320]

Yanks deny claim that Bosox T-shirt is buried in concrete

by The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk Friday April 11, 2008, 2:45 PM

The New York Yankees today denied a New York Post report that a Boston fan buried a Red Sox T-shirt in the $1.3 billion new stadium's concrete.

"We noticed that the NY Post wrote a fun and interesting story about a T-shirt today - but it never happened," Yankees spokeswoman Alice McGillion said in a statement today. "Yankee fans know that burying something in concrete in the basement is never a good thing. Memo to the Post: You're 10 days late for April Fool's Day."

The Post reported that the Boston fan was part of the concrete crew at Yankee Stadium covertly buried a the T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers said, according to the report in the New York Post.

"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker told the newspaper. "Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried." The Post said it withheld the workers' identities because they are not authorized to speak to media.

[The Benniest]

How, interesting. This gives me second thoughts on if anything the NY Post reports is true. Or, at least, if they twist and turn the real story to make it 'interesting.'

Is the Post a partial tabloid?

[scumonkey]

....partial....
.....this part, that part......

[The Benniest]

If what the Yanks claim is not true, the Post sure isn't giving up trying to convince people.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122008/news/regionalnews/underminer_a_bx__traitor_106168.htm

[ZippyTheChimp]

One summer day, he placed a carefully folded jersey bearing the name and uniform number of David Ortiz, the slugging Red Sox designated hitter known as Big Papi, into the concrete mix being laid along the third base line.

If I were this guy, I wouldn't be asking Big Papi for free Fenway tickets.


From Boston Globe

These are uncharted waters for Big Papi. He's lived a charmed life in Red Sox Nation. He is the sultan of swing and he's earned his position as the most dangerous hitter, the most beloved Sox player of the modern era...


Now he is in a dreadful slump. He is 0 for 13, and 1 for 25. He is 3 for 39 on the season. Among those with enough at-bats to qualify, he owned the second-lowest batting average (.077) in the majors after last night's game. He is lower than low, lower than Rob Lowe, lower than Barry Manilow.

Last night's Yankees starter, Chien-Ming Wang, didn't need to look at his book on David Ortiz. Wang sends his monthly mortgage payment to Big Papi. Ortiz owns the righthander. Going into last night's game, Ortiz was 15 for 30 against Wang with 4 doubles, 2 home runs, and 6 walks.

None of it mattered. Ortiz's slump continued. He took a called third strike in the first. Then he hit into a double play in the fourth. In the seventh, he hit a feeble grounder to first and barely took the trouble to run down the line. He was on deck when Wang retired Dustin Pedroia to close out New York's 4-1 win.

Unless you've been there, it's just about impossible to explain what is happening to Big Papi at this hour. Maybe you felt like this if you lost your ability to make the short putt. Or maybe you found yourself stuttering when speaking in front of a crowd. If that's happened, then you know...


He's got an injury - his right knee (meniscus) was surgically repaired after the end of last season. He had trouble getting into his crouch much of last year and now it appears the mended knee is troubling him again.

But this is more. This is bad luck and bad form.

Things have not been right for the big guy all season. He failed to hit a home run in Florida. That seemed strange. Then he went to Japan and immediately hit a homer in a game that didn't count. [8000 miles from "the shirt"]...


Most recently, he's stopped giving interviews to every person with a notepad or microphone. A Herald columnist questioned him for taking a trip to New York to do a commercial when the Sox had a day off Monday.[Was Papi seen in the Bronx with a pick-ax?]

[antinimby]

I'm watching the Yankees-Red Sux game right now and Ortiz looks completely lost.

Instead of jinxing the Yankees, I think that moron might have inadvertently jinxed Ortiz instead. Haha.

[Kalitechne]

No retractable roof. Enough said.

[ramvid01]

A retractable roof would have ruined it.

And lets not talk about how much more tax money would be needed. :rolleyes:

[Kalitechne]

A retractable roof would have ruined it.

And lets not talk about how much more tax money would be needed. :rolleyes:


A retractable roof would have made it a sports facility of the 21st century, something which New York lacks, unfortunately.

Since when did available funds ever stop government from spending?

[ramvid01]

^^ That's laughable. To begin with retractable roof technology has been around for over 30 years. It is anything but modern, maybe new.

A retractable roof is not going to make a stadium modern. If that were so, all the new stadiums would have a retractable roof (which is not the case in point). Wider concourses and better sightlines make a stadium more modern than a silly moving roof.

[Kalitechne]

^^ That's laughable. To begin with retractable roof technology has been around for over 30 years. It is anything but modern, maybe new.

A retractable roof is not going to make a stadium modern. If that were so, all the new stadiums would have a retractable roof (which is not the case in point). Wider concourses and better sightlines make a stadium more modern than a silly moving roof.

All the more reason why New York has to play catch up. I guess a car with a sunroof is silly too. And doorways are a riot!

New York should be with the haves, not the have-nots.

[lofter1]

Afraid of getting a little wet?

Just imagine being inside the stadium under a closed retractable roof in mid-August.

[ramvid01]

New York should be with the haves, not the have-nots.

Oh you crack me up! I guess New York isn't a world city anymore because it doesn't have an overpriced, impractical for the 7 days it rains in a baseball season, retractable roof.

Ugh what am I ever doing here. Quick to Milwaukee! :cool:

[ZippyTheChimp]

Trolling

[antinimby]

NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080413/capt.38e14c3a439e4b4fb07ad5e1a59738fe.yankees_curs e_foiled_baseball_nyfr104.jpg http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080413/capt.874aab14cd2742758d324726bb0ba9e4.yankees_curs e_foiled_baseball_nyfr103.jpg
Frank Gramarossa, project executive for the new Yankee Stadium, displays a Boston Red
Sox jersey with the name of player David Ortiz that was removed from the ground at the
new Yankee Stadium in New York, Sunday, April 13, 2008. The Yankees have ended a
construction worker's attempt to jinx their new stadium with the buried jersey. Team
officials watched Sunday as construction workers removed the jersey from two feet of
concrete in a service corridor of the stadium that is under construction.



By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
April 13, 2008 (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-yankees-cursefoiled)

NEW YORK (AP)—A construction worker’s bid to curse the Yankees by planting a Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled Sunday when the team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot in the ballpark.

After locating the shirt in a service corridor behind what will be a restaurant in the new Yankee Stadium, construction workers jackhammered through the remaining concrete Sunday and pulled it out.


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080413/capt.c588544fcfb64c9daba8156538837624.yankees_curs e_foiled_baseball_nyfr102.jpg
Construction workers try to free a Boston Red Sox jersey with the name
of player David Ortiz from concrete at the new Yankee Stadium in
New York, Sunday, April 13, 2008. The New York Yankees have ended a
construction worker's attempt to jinx their new stadium with a buried Boston
Red Sox jersey. Team officials watched Sunday as construction workers
removed the jersey from two feet of concrete in a service corridor of the
stadium that is under construction.


http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080413/capt.6e21ee888a88466f849450442bad4223.yankees_curs e_foiled_baseball_nyfr101.jpg
A Boston Red Sox jersey with the name of player David Ortiz is unearthed
at the new Yankee Stadium in New York, Sunday, April 13, 2008. The
New York Yankees have ended a construction worker's attempt to jinx their
new stadium with a buried Boston Red Sox jersey. Team officials watched
Sunday as construction workers removed the jersey, from two feet of
concrete in a service corridor of the stadium that is under construction.


The team learned that a Sox-rooting construction worker had buried a shirt in the stadium from a report in the New York Post on Friday, team officials said.
Yankees President Randy Levine said the team at first considered leaving the shirt.

“The first thought was, you know, it’s never a good thing to be buried in cement when you’re in New York,” Levine said. “But then we decided, ‘Why reward somebody who had really bad motives and was trying to do a really bad thing?”’

The worker had buried a Boston jersey under a locker room in the new stadium, which will open next year across the street from the current ballpark, team officials said.

Levine said that area had been well supervised. “Obviously it was in a different location,” he said.

On Saturday, construction workers who remembered the employee—Gino Castignoli—phoned in tips about the shirt’s location.

“We had anonymous people come tell us where it was and we were able to find it,” said Frank Gramarossa, a project executive with Turner Construction, the general contractor on the site.

It took about five hours of drilling Saturday to locate the shirt under 2 feet of concrete, he said.

On Sunday, Levine and Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost watched as Gramarossa and foreman Rich Corrado finished the job and pulled the shirt from the rubble.

Now in shreds from the jackhammers, the shirt still bore “Red Sox” on the front. It was a David Ortiz jersey, No. 34.

Trost said the Yankees had discussed possible criminal charges against Castignoli with the district attorney’s office. “We will take appropriate action since fortunately we do know the name of the individual,” he said.

A woman who answered the phone at Castignoli’s home in the Bronx said he was not there.

A spokesman for Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson did not immediately return a telephone message Sunday.

Levine said the shirt would be cleaned up and sent to the Jimmy Fund, a charity affiliated with Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“Hopefully the Jimmy Fund will auction it off and we’ll take the act that was a very, very bad act and turn it into something beautiful,” Levine said.

Copyright © 2008 Yahoo!

[lofter1]

NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium

A construction worker’s bid to curse the Yankees by planting a Red Sox jersey in their new stadium was foiled Sunday when the team removed the offending shirt from its burial spot in the ballpark.

... construction workers who remembered the employee — Gino Castignoli — phoned in tips about the shirt’s location.

One way to get famous :cool:

[antinimby]

...or in trouble.


Trost said the Yankees had discussed possible criminal charges against Castignoli with the district attorney’s office. “We will take appropriate action since fortunately we do know the name of the individual,” he said.

And the guy's from the Bronx, too. What a dork (and a traitor).

[lofter1]

Let's see ... tax money involved to build the stadium = cash out of taxpayers pocket.

So, say they garnish Gino's wages to make up the $$ spent to undo his dastardly deed ...

That'd teach him :cool:

(hope he don't got no kids)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Let's see if Papi brealk out of his slump tonight.

May want to rebury the shirt.

[JCMAN320]

They benched him for tonight. LOL

[antinimby]

When you've reached the star level of a David Ortiz, it's not called benching, it's getting a night off. ;)

[Radiohead]

Cool shot from a distance. Looks like the view from the roofs will be blocked.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2290/2412106363_a350be4f12_b.jpg

[JCMAN320]

The center rising from the outfield wall steel will be the support for the video screen. Except for that center part the outfield wall will rise no futher.

[JCMAN320]

Yankees seek more public financing for new stadium

by The Associated Press Wednesday June 11, 2008, 7:00 PM

The New York Yankees are seeking more public financing to build their new stadium in the Bronx, city officials said.

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester, whose committee investigates public debt projects, said today the Yankees now say that if they don't get another $400 million in public financing the club might not be able to finish the stadium.

Janel Patterson of the New York City Economic Development Corp. that is working with the Yankees said the project isn't threatened. But, she said, the city is working to relieve an Internal Revenue Service regulation that prohibits more public debt to be incurred for the stadium. Brodsky says that IRS change also is being sought to help stadium and arena projects for the Mets and Nets.

The new $1.3 billion stadium is scheduled to open next year across from the historic Yankee Stadium, which is still being used this year.

"The Yankees have expressed an interest in receiving additional financing for their project," Patterson said today. "Currently, they are not permitted to do so on a tax-exempt basis pursuant to IRS regulation."

She said the city IDA would be willing to allow the increased funding, but no decision has yet been made.

"The city is working with the state in Washington to seek relief from the applicable IRS regulation, as this regulation has taken away a tool that would be useful for a number of important New York economic development projects, not just Yankee Stadium," she said.

Brodsky said Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp., "told me that the Yankees have said they may not complete the stadium if this issue not resolved."

Brodsky, chairman of the state Assembly's committee governing public authorities and their borrowing, criticized the closed-door dealing for millions of dollars to benefit the Yankees in the face of public transit and other needs that aren't being funded fully.

[scumonkey]

They play as badly as they have been and have the GALL
to ask for MORE of OUR money-
H e double hockey sticks NO! :mad:

[Alonzo-ny]

What?!?

[Scraperfannyc]

Ugh! And maybe they should pay Alex more money so that he won't play so terribly in the post season, if they ever get there?

[STEAMWORKSNYC]

You have got to be kidding me ,why should they get more money from the public for a stadium the public can't afford to sit in.What's the extra money for ? I hope its not for the public park they promised to develop.:mad:

[NoyokA]

The Stadium is 90% complete. The City would be wise to call the Yankees bluff.

[NYC4Life]

I'm sure they can use the extra money needed from the revenue that will be made during the all-star weekend, or of course, cut arod's salary by half :D

[antinimby]

So they're asking us for more money so that they can turn around and throw more of it away at aging, over-the-hill, on-the-downside-of-their-career, overpriced has-beens?

[TREPYE]

Brodsky said Seth Pinsky, president of the city's Economic Development Corp., "told me that the Yankees have said they may not complete the stadium if this issue not resolved."



City and state to the Yankees: "Oh, effing well; so we guess it wont get finished. Your loss, not ours. Maybe you should think twice about spending 17, 18 million a year on steroids cheat like Giambi, Clemens (for a half a season!)."

Idiots.:rolleyes:

[pianoman11686]

I'm not in favor of government subsidies for stadiums. But why is it that almost no one understands the difference between subsidizing the cost and providing tax-exempt financing? The Yankees aren't asking the city to give them money. They're asking the city to float municipal bonds that are tax-exempt in order to reduce the financing costs.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The word subsidy generally refers to a direct contribution from government to the private sector.

But...

The Yankees aren't asking the city to give them money.
...isn't true.

Tax-exempt means a shortfall in government revenue. To balance the budget, that revenue will have to be recovered somewhere else.

Why should an enterprise that's already gotten direct subsidies get a tax break.

Someone give me a break.

[Jasonik]

http://www.record-place.net/homepage/upload/bild_art16754.jpg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O9ylVFCnCE)

[JCMAN320]

Congressman examines proposal for more Yankee Stadium funding

by The Associated Press Saturday June 14, 2008, 1:55 PM

ALBANY, N.Y. - A congressional subcommittee is examining the New York Yankees' bid for another $350 million in public financing for their new stadium.

Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has questioned whether the Internal Revenue Service can allow public-backed financing with tax breaks to be used to build professional stadiums such as the new Yankee Stadium. The NBA's Nets and the New York Mets could also benefit, as well as well pro teams nationwide, if the IRS agreed with the New York City Industrial Development Agency to alter its policy against stadium funding.

Kucinich wants the Treasury Department to answer questions about the proposed change before any financing is granted for stadiums, according to a posting by Kucinich on the committee's Web site.

[TREPYE]

The Yankees aren't asking the city to give them money. They're asking the city to float municipal bonds that are tax-exempt in order to reduce the financing costs.
The Yankees with the type of money that they bring in should be asking for NOTHING, they gotten enough.

BTW....

But why is it that almost no one understands the difference between subsidizing the cost and providing tax-exempt financing?

WOW! You understand that?? Boy, your schmart!

Schmertypants!
Schmertypants!
Pianoman is a Schmertypants!

Please enthrall our feeble minds with the vast wisdom and knowledge you posses. :p

[pianoman11686]

Is there a problem, TREPYE?

[TREPYE]

No, just having fun dude. Lighten up. ;)

[dtolman]

The facade looks complete (taken from a recent game while waiting in line to get in):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2596127241_042ac5d44d_b.jpg

[NYC4Life]

The new masterpiece of ballparks :rolleyes:

[lofter1]

Or maybe not ...

Company Hired to Test Concrete Faces Scrutiny


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/21/nyregion/21concrete_650.jpg
Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
The new Yankee Stadium is among the projects in which the work of Testwell Laboratories is in question.


NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/nyregion/21concrete.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
June 21, 2008


Manhattan prosecutors are investigating whether the leading concrete testing company in the New York area, which has been hired to measure and analyze the strength of the concrete poured at some of the biggest construction projects in the city, failed to do some tests and falsified others, officials involved in the inquiry said on Friday.


The investigation has uncovered problems with tests the company conducted on concrete poured over the last two years at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and the foundation of the Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan, along with as many as a dozen other projects, said several of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.


The investigation has also raised questions about past work done by the company, Testwell Laboratories Inc., at a wide range of sites around the city. Construction and inspection practices in the city are already under scrutiny as a result of a series of fatal accidents and arrests on corruption charges.


The Yankees and the developer of the team’s new stadium, along with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is building the Freedom Tower, said the concrete used for their structures had been determined to be sound and posed no safety threat. But they acknowledged that they had questions about the company’s work.


The testing of concrete by companies like Testwell is one of the most basic safety measures used for all sorts of construction projects in the city, from apartment houses to bridges. The companies, both at job sites and in their laboratories, are supposed to conduct a variety of tests to make sure that the concrete was properly mixed and set, and that it meets industry standards for strength and durability.


The investigation centers on allegations that the company in some instances failed to do preliminary tests, including some known as slump tests, and later falsified the results of more sophisticated compression tests, officials said. A building boom in the city, meanwhile, has fueled the demand for concrete — supplied by an industry that still bears the taint of decades of mob domination.


Lawyers for Testwell defended the company and its work. They said its officials had done nothing wrong and had cooperated with investigators, who on Wednesday took some 200 boxes of documents and computers from Testwell’s main office in Ossining, N.Y., as well as from a trailer at Yankee Stadium and another office in Queens.


“They are quite confident that at the end of whatever this investigation is, it will show that they have done their job correctly and honestly,” said one of the lawyers, Martin B. Adelman.


The investigation is being conducted by the Labor Racketeering Unit in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, along with five other city agencies and inspectors general.


The stadium in the Bronx, being built at a cost of about $1.2 billion — much of it financed with tax-exempt bonds — is to open in 2009. The Freedom Tower, at the site of the former World Trade Center, will be the city’s tallest building if it is finished as planned.


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/06/20/nyregion/21concrete02_650.jpg
Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Testwell Laboratories was responsible for testing of concrete used at the Freedom Tower,
now under construction at ground zero.


According to city records, Testwell has roughly $12 million in city contracts to provide a wide range of testing services — well beyond just concrete — to a number of different city agencies.


It is unclear what impact the investigation would have on other projects, completed or under way, that relied on work by Testwell. The city’s Buildings Department said in a statement that it would take “action based upon the findings of law enforcement.”


Among the other projects under scrutiny, one official said, were several city schools and an amusement park in New Jersey.


Investigators said it was unclear why a company might fail to conduct tests or falsify test results. “I guess it keeps your overhead and costs down if you don’t actually do the tests,” one official said.


The allegations that prosecutors are reviewing include overbilling, double-billing and billing for tests the company did not conduct, one official said. Among the possible charges the prosecutors could bring are falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies.


In addition to its work measuring the strength of concrete, Testwell also examines steel and tests for the presence of asbestos and prosecutors were looking into at least one incident in each of those areas, an investigator said. In one, a worker died last year when he fell through the floor of a landmark building at 113 Bank Street in the West Village, where officials believe Testwell failed to ensure that the proper shoring work had been done, the investigator said.


In another, the company tested for asbestos at La Guardia Community College in 2000 and certified that a building there was clean, but later tests found that asbestos was present, the investigator said.


One of Testwell’s lawyers, Scott Stone, took issue with the characterization of the company’s work at La Guardia College, and provided a copy of an inspection report that listed materials containing asbestos that were found in the building.


Mr. Stone also played down the company’s role at the Freedom Tower, saying it had done no concrete testing there, just a week of vibration monitoring.


The investigation began about five months ago as a result of irregularities uncovered by monitors hired by the Yankees and by the Port Authority, as well as by the authority’s own engineers, according to law enforcement officials and people involved in both projects.


The inquiry involves the city’s Department of Investigation and Buildings Department, as well as inspectors general from the Port Authority, the School Construction Authority and the State Dormitory Authority.


One investigator said prosecutors hoped to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury soon.


The company, formed 40 years ago, is one of a small number that perform concrete testing in the New York area. It employs more than 200 people, according to business records, and reported nearly $20 million in sales last year. One of its lawyers, Mr. Adelman, said it had in recent years employed an independent monitor, Ronald Goldstock, to ensure the integrity of its work.


All concrete that is delivered to construction sites is tested by firms hired by the owners or builders. When concrete trucks leave their batching plants, paperwork is time-stamped, and the time is again noted on arrival at a job site.


The tests are typically conducted on concrete poured into cylinders 12 inches long and 6 inches in diameter; the cylinders are kept on the job site, in the same conditions as the poured concrete. The samples are then sent to laboratories, where the strength is tested. Concrete cures and its strength increases over time, and tests are performed at 14 days, 28 days and 56 days.


Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for the Yankees, said that a company hired by the team to monitor the stadium project, a common practice in large construction endeavors in an effort to uncover fraud and abuse, discovered problems with Testwell’s work and began its own internal investigation. The monitor, Ed Stier of Thacher Associates, took the information he developed about the tests to the authorities.


Ken Belson contributed reporting.


Copyright 2008The New York Times Company

[antinimby]

That is just criminal if it turns out to be true. Throw them in jail for a very long, long time.

They're endangering people's lives. God forbid one day, the city experiences one of those once-in-a-blue moon kind of earthquakes and all these structures fail because of them.

Look at what happened in Sichuan China recently. Shoddy construction practices/materials led to so many collapses and deaths.

By the way, can they retroactively go back and tests the concrete once it's built and dried? I read it somewhere that they could but can't be certain.

[Jim856796]

There have got to be several reasons why Yankee stadium is being replaced with a new one. The new ballpark is technologically advanced is one reason. I don't know if the large capacity (57,545) is another reason.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Actually there are slightly less seats in the new stadium - about 51,000 plus some standing room - but there are a lot more luxury boxes. Those, plus a lot more retail will mean $$$$$$$.

What fans get is modern amenities, wider concourses with views of the field, and more parking. The players get a state-of-the-art facility. There will also be a new Metro-North station.

[EugeneNYC]

Some new pics posted on http://stadiumpage.com/. I really like how the new Yankee Stadium is turning out; I definitely feel a sense of continuity, it just looks like a stadium that belongs in the Bronx. In contrast, when I look at Citifield, although a first-class facility, it could have been built anywhere.

[BrooklynLove]

Please explain.

[NoyokA]

Some new pics posted on http://stadiumpage.com/. I really like how the new Yankee Stadium is turning out; I definitely feel a sense of continuity, it just looks like a stadium that belongs in the Bronx. In contrast, when I look at Citifield, although a first-class facility, it could have been built anywhere.

I don't think the new Yankee Stadium screams Bronx as much as it is nearly an exact replica of the original and current Yankee Stadium, whereas Citifield has nothing in common with Shea. Its not a question of belonging but rather familiarity.

[antinimby]

Please explain.Easy.

Citifield = cookie cutter

New Yankee Stadium = class, refinement.

[EugeneNYC]

Yes, thank you.

But also for me, the aura of Yankee Stadium is a big part of being a Yankee fan. Yes, maybe it is familiarity, but the fact that there's continuity is important. It would be a major disappointment if the stadium was being replaced with a blah park like Citifield.

I remember reading that certain elements of Citifield are meant to resemble the old Ebbets field. Honestly, I don't see how that is relevant for today's Mets fans.

[Stroika]

Yankee Stadium looks very fascist. It recalls Mussolini's Milan train station or Tempelhof Airport, as planned by Albert Speer. There's a lot of neo-Roman/Art Deco in it, i.e., fascist architecture, and limestone.

I don't necessarily think the Yankees (or even George Steinbrenner -- Marge Schott is another story) are fascists. But Yankee Stadium's grandeur bears certain similarities to some of the most visible fascist buildings.

http://stadiumpage.com/newyankee/NYS_071508_5.jpgMilan's Central Train Station, finished in 1931:
http://www.dianalminks.com/europe/europe_trip/Italy_milan_train_station.jpg
"Hitler's Airport" -- Tempelhof
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/288770692_c22dde3df1.jpg?v=0
Speer's 1937 plans for a stadium in Nuremburg
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/StadionmodelsKDR.jpg

[NoyokA]

Perhaps fitting for a team labeled the "Evil Empire".

[BrooklynLove]

Easy.

Citifield = cookie cutter

New Yankee Stadium = class, refinement.

Please, gimme a break.

New Yankee Stadium = old Yankee Stadium less the heritage that made it special. What you're left with now is a soul-less carbon copy.

Explain to me which features of Citifield make it cookie cutter.

[TallGuy]

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=80275

[NYatKNIGHT]

Explain to me which features of Citifield make it cookie cutter.Besides the retro style with green seats, arched red brick facade and exposed steel like the dozen others built since Camden Yards?

[BrooklynLove]

And they all have scoreboards and parking lots and bathrooms. Spare me.

Camden
http://www.stadiumpage.com/camden/Camden_Out_07.jpg

Citi Field
http://www.stadiumpage.com/citi_models/Citi_model_208_3.jpg

New Comiskey Park
http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/gallery/data/3/medium/USCellular1.jpg (http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=653&size=big&cat=)

New Yankee Stadium
http://www.stadiumpage.com/future/YS_Model_Dusk.jpg

[NYatKNIGHT]

Those amenities you listed are essential to every stadium, so please, you spare me.

[BrooklynLove]

You're missing the point fella.

[NYatKNIGHT]

What do you take me for?

I disagree with your view that there aren't a lot of obvious similarities with a lot of the new ballparks, despite not looking exactly the same. Furthermore, I disagree that the new Yankee Stadium looks like a soul-less carbon copy.

[BrooklynLove]

I wouldn't try taking you for anything any which way b/c I don't know you at all.

My point is not to say that there are not similarities among recent parks. My point is to express that at a high enough level of abstraction, all the parks are similar. Camden and CitiField are about as similar as New Yankee and New Comiskey.

Are you a Yankee fan?

[NYatKNIGHT]

I suppose at a high enough level of abstraction one could reach any conclusion they want. But to me, Citifield is a retro ballpark like Camden Yards, Coors Field, Rangers Ballpark, AT&T Park, Comerica Park, PNC Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Busch Stadium. Yankee Stadium looks like Yankee Stadium.

[BrooklynLove]

Well, I guess we can't put Barclays Arena in that group - nothing retro about that badboy.

[antinimby]

New Yankee Stadium = old Yankee Stadium less the heritage that made it special. What you're left with now is a soul-less carbon copy. Obviously the new stadium won't have the history the old one had. It's new. How could it? Duh.

Speaking of soulless, will Citifield have any more soul?



Explain to me which features of Citifield make it cookie cutter.Everything about it. When one looks at Citifield, there really is no part that particularly stands out as being unique.

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Citifield. I think it looks attractive and is a vast improvement over Shea but just not as distinctive as the new Stadium in the Bronx.

Inside, they all are modern and cookie-cutter-ish, even the Yankees', although the frieze will help to set it apart from the rest.

[brooklynheights]

As a guy who's been to about 2/3rds of the major league ballparks in north america, I expect both Citifield and the New Yankees stadium to remind me of every other park built since the early 1990s. And I have one thing to say to this: Thank God! The new ballparks are great. New York has much to make it extremely unique. It's perfectly fine with me if our ballparks are similar to everyone else's.

The old Shea is horrible. So were all the 1960s ballparks. St. Louis probably had the best of the 1960s crop in the Old Busch Stadium, in no small part because it was well maintained (unlike most of downtown St. Louis!), but I still prefer the new Busch to the old one.

So, will citifield be cookie cutter? Yes. Is that an insult? No. New York will finally be catching up to the rest of the country.

[Make no mistake, in almost every other enterprise, I love New York over the rest of the country!]

[ZippyTheChimp]

I suppose at a high enough level of abstraction one could reach any conclusion they want. But to me, Citifield is a retro ballpark like Camden Yards, Coors Field, Rangers Ballpark, AT&T Park, Comerica Park, PNC Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Busch Stadium.Since all baseball facilities share similar layouts, the differences we're talking about is aesthetics.

The retro-ballparks are called parks, fields, yards.
Yankee Stadium looks like Yankee Stadium. That's the point. When the original was built in 1923, it was the first with 3 tiers, and popularized the term stadium. The contemporaries were Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, the Polo Grounds, and Ebbets Field.

[eddhead]

Yes, thank you.

But also for me, the aura of Yankee Stadium is a big part of being a Yankee fan. Yes, maybe it is familiarity, but the fact that there's continuity is important. It would be a major disappointment if the stadium was being replaced with a blah park like Citifield.

I remember reading that certain elements of Citifield are meant to resemble the old Ebbets field. Honestly, I don't see how that is relevant for today's Mets fans.

Agreed. And it is easy for me, as a Yankee fan to say this, but the real problem is that Shea was / is ALSO a blah field. It features symmetrical dimensions , 2 unsupported tiers, no facade, and really boring architecture. It is like Robert Moses on steroids. Really, what are the distinguishing aspects of Shea Stadium which was for all purposes one of the first truly first cookie cutter parks. The Mets are at a disadvantage in that they have no real legacy ballpark to replicate. At least in trying to replicate Ebbets the Mets are revitalizing a part of NY history.

That New Yankee Stadium promises to be closer to the original than the current remodeled stadium is outstanding. The Yankees owe it to their legacy to stay true to the old Stadium including representing the dimensions to the extent it is reasonable to do so. That they are doing so is really exciting. I cannot wait to see it completed.

[lofter1]

IMO the open arches of the new Mets park is one of the best things about it.

[antinimby]

Too bad they didn't go with the darker red bricks as depicted in the renderings.

The lighter shade of bricks they're using are just too common and bland.

[meesalikeu]

here's a link to some pics i took of yankee stadium construction around the 1st of july:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,16629.0.html


http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g48/meesalikeu/album5/P1110054.jpg

[philvia]

I suppose at a high enough level of abstraction one could reach any conclusion they want. But to me, Citifield is a retro ballpark like Camden Yards, Coors Field, Rangers Ballpark, AT&T Park, Comerica Park, PNC Park, Citizens Bank Park, and Busch Stadium. Yankee Stadium looks like Yankee Stadium.

one near me.. yes i agree most of the stadiums all look the same
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/171764091_2382b68cd1_b.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

looks like camden, not like citifield though.

[NoyokA]

For the record I think the new Yankee and Mets Stadium's suck, both are overpriced, unnecessary, and neither are stylish nor coherent. What do you expect when every new American ball park is designed by the same C-list firm? The only new stadium that I really like and wish either team took a cue from is Petco Park in San Diego, it has something the new Yankee and Mets Stadium lack, a little something called architectural flair.

http://yanksfansoxfan.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/06/1.jpg

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/11/1130_bwar_sandiego/image/padres-ballpark-3.jpg

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/11/1130_bwar_sandiego/image/padres-ballpark-4.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/PetcoPark.jpg/795px-PetcoPark.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Petco_Park_01.jpg/800px-Petco_Park_01.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/PetCoJC_01.jpg/800px-PetCoJC_01.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/PadresWaterfall.jpg/800px-PadresWaterfall.jpg

http://www.predock.com/Padres6.jpg

[antinimby]

Nice try but I don't think so.

Petco looks as architectually exciting and unique as the Port Authority Bus Terminal (minus the grime and soot of course). ;)

[NoyokA]

huh? I could see the Getty Museum, I don't see the comparison to the PABT.

[antinimby]

Forget it Stern. The point being, I don't think Petco is a very good example of something all that different or exciting either.

As much as I've panned Citifield, I'll still take it over Petco.

[lbjefferies]

Petco is just awful. As is just about every other baseball stadium built since Royal's stadium in Kansas City.

[NYC4Life]

Petco Park is not as awful as let's say "U.S. Cellular Field" in Chicago.

[NoyokA]

Petco Park is great, its in the details. Perhaps its one of those parks you need to visit to appreciate.

[BenM]

What do you expect when every new American ball park is designed by the same C-list firm?

I really feel for the sports venue staff at HOK, now that the golden era of new stadiums is over. It was a nice ride while it lasted.

[antinimby]

I visited. I even looked around a bit. I was still unimpressed. ;)

[STEAMWORKSNYC]

Petco really!! It doesn't standout to me as something new and different.

[lofter1]

Maybe it's the weather ...

But even the most mundane things seem better in San Diego.

[BrooklynLove]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIBujkLratc

[lofter1]

"homege" :cool:

[STT757]

I tried going swimming once on Coranado Beach and the water was absolutely freezing, and this was in August.

[STT757]

Here are some photos of the Metro North Station under construction at Yankee Stadium, note these are from May.

http://www.madre-de-dios.org/gallery2/v/movement/railroads/fieldtrips/052608ys/

[TREPYE]

Why does the "Last Season at Yankee Stadium" logo look like this:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/300/nyypatchesat1.jpg


When in fact the stadium being demolished actually looks like this:

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2008-03/37080985.jpg


...and they are really moving into this:

http://www.newsday.com/media/photo/2005-06/18037598.jpghttp://stadiumpage.com/newyankee/NYS_071508_5.jpg




I know its not a big deal but its a stupid disconnect. :rolleyes::rolleyes: The commemorative logo should resemble the stadium that is going to get commemorated/demolished not the iteration that they are moving into. To be fair its not the first time the Yankees do something stupid.

[BenM]

^Until your post, I hadn't realized that the logo was based more on the new stadium than the old. I agree that it should memorialize the old park instead. While I don't like the All Star logo, I do like their inclusion of the frieze. I think that is the part of Yankee Stadium that is most identifiable to both New Yorkers and baseball fans outside of the city.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I think you've misread Trepye's post.

He's saying the logo should represent the renovated stadium of 1973.

The logo actually does symbolize the original Yankee Stadium (http://www.yankeephotos.com/)

And I think that's the way it should be. Commemorating a renovation would throw away 50 years of baseball history. What's being symbolized is the spot where The Bronx Bombers played for 85 years. The field is basically the same. The original was renovated several times, first in 1927.

This is how it looked from 1928...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Yankee_Stadium_1928-1936.JPG
...until 1936, when it was again renovated into the "classic" stadium that was again renovated in 1973.