New Yankee Stadium - by HOK Sport [Archive] - Page 3

lofter1

July 29th, 2008, 06:08 AM

No doubt that the creative accounting discussed here will turn out to be A-OK ...

Can't imagine that government folks would consciously try to pick the pockets of the tax-paying public. And even if they did, then how could they get away with it? Wouldn't our businessman Mayor and never-met-a-deep-pocket-she-didn't like City Council Presdent Christine Quinn (http://www.christinequinn.com/) be wise to this stuff?

Congress probing whether city wildly inflated value of land for new stadium

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/07/28/alg_stadium-construction.jpg
Cairo for News
The new Yankee stadium under construction.
The city faces a probe for giving two wildly differing estimates of
the value of the land underneath it.
A Congressional committee has launched a probe into whether the
city and Yankees wildly inflated the value of the site for the team's
new stadium to float nearly $1 billion in tax-free bonds.

NY DAILY NEWS (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/27/2008-07-27_congress_probing_whether_city_wildly_inf.html)
By Juan Gonzalez
July 27th 2008

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) last week demanded "specific documents and reports" that could show the city claimed the land beneath the new Yankee stadium was worth nearly seven times its true value.

The massive switcheroo allowed the city to sell $941 million in bonds for the stadium, which must by law be linked to a site's actual value.

That means taxpayers are getting rooked because bondholders avoid paying tax on the interest they earn - and it could jeopardize the financing of the whole project.

Kucinich, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is zeroing in on dramatically different estimates the city offered for the stadium land - one of $275 per square foot and another of just $45. A hearing is set for September.

"There's no way vacant land in the Bronx is worth $275 a square foot," said a veteran city assessor, who asked not to be identified.

The issue is especially touchy because the Yankees have sought up to an additional $366 million in tax-exempt bonds as costs for the project have soared.

The conflicting figures were first put forward in April 2006, as the city prepared to approve building a new stadium, documents obtained by the Daily News showed (NOTE: Quinn was elected (http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml) Speaker of the NYC Coucnil in January 2006).

City Finance Department officials said a large swath of Bronx parkland earmarked for the site of the new ballpark had a market value of $204 million. That comes out to a whopping $275 a square foot.

That preliminary assessment, given to the City Council, was crucial to the Yankees and their bond underwriters.

It established the amount of money under IRS regulations the team could use to pay in PILOTs - payments in lieu of taxes - to repay the debt. The more the land was worth, the more bonds the city could float for the Bombers.

Less than a month later, in an application the city was required to submit to the National Park Service before it could convert the parkland for stadium use, the Parks Department gave a different estimate.

It said an independent appraisal concluded the land was worth just $45 per square foot.

Why such wildly different values for the same property?

"Our assessors jacked up the numbers and the comparables for the Council to justify the stadium bonds," said a Finance Department official familiar with the project.

Earlier this month, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester), who heads an assembly committee reviewing the Yankee stadium project, requested copies of all records connected to the Finance Department's 2006 estimate.

"There are some obvious inconsistencies," Brodsky said.

In the 2006 report, former Assistant Finance Commissioner Dara Ottley-Brown said assessors used sales of seven small vacant parcels in Manhattan as comparables to estimate the value of the new stadium's land. (NOTE: Ottley-Brown ran into some controversy at Finance (http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2006/1006/news/015.html) in regards to former Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctorof and she has since been shifted to the position of Chairman at the Board of Standards and Appeals; according to one insider, city officials "are parking her there to get her out of the way.")

Most of those parcels were in Harlem, one was on the lower East Side and another was in Manhattan Valley, near Columbia University.

"Why use only Manhattan land for comparables when the stadium is in the South Bronx?" said the veteran city assessor.

The independent appraisal around the same time reached the $45-per-square-foot figure for the same parkland.

That appraisal, which the city commissioned from PATJO Appraisal Services, relied only on sales of big vacant parcels in the Bronx as comparables.

The watchdog group, New York City Park Advocates, obtained a copy of the PATJO appraisal under a Freedom of Information Law request and supplied it to The News.

Current sale prices for vacant land in the Bronx, according to Robert Von Ancken, the managing executive of Grubb & Ellis, a major real estate firm, are "between $100 and $125 per square foot."

Finance Department spokesman Sam Miller defended the city's valuation of the stadium land.

That estimate, Miller said, reflected an expected increase in market value of the new stadium site from a new Metro-North station and other infrastructure improvements slated for that area of the Bronx.

If so, that should mean the value of all land around the new stadium also increased.

A review of the Finance Department's latest assessments of an entire block across River Ave. from the new stadium shows an average market value of $36 per square foot for land.

Even more amazing, the city's 2008 assessment of the 10.7 acres of land under the existing stadium - the legendary House That Ruth Built - shows a market value of just $7 million! That's $15 per square foot, if you do the math.

The city would have you believe that when you cross the street to the new stadium site, land values suddenly skyrocket to $275 per square foot.

If that's not inflation, what is?

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

TallGuy

July 29th, 2008, 09:07 AM

!:confused:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/300/nyypatchesat1.jpg

http://stadiumpage.com/newyankee/NYS_071508_5.jpg

LOL...it only looks like it, but hey, who's looking.:rolleyes:

The only thing that is has to do with the current stadium is the date. Otherwise its a misrepresentation.

Arrrrrghhh! (shake shake shake)

The insignia patch is COMPLETELY original Yankee Stadium. Look at the details in both and you will clearly see the differences, from the blue lettering in the original to the new one's gold. And if you must visit in person to prove my point further, the original eagle medallions at top can still be found at the current, post renovation stadium.

But, rather than tell anybody where they are, let's have a contest. Anybody who can tell me where the the original Eagle Medallions from the front gate of original Yankee Stadium currently are, wins my 'Tallguy Poster of the Day' award.

BenM

July 29th, 2008, 09:55 AM

I originally was confused about the stadium represented on the patch, but, in addition to the info here, there in a YES commercial celebrating the stadium were they morph/transpose an early photo of Yankee stadium into the patch logo. It's the old stadium, no doubt.

I think it just got a little more difficult to get those new bonds issued.

TallGuy

July 29th, 2008, 10:07 AM

side by side view

lofter1

July 29th, 2008, 12:33 PM

More fun & games from our elected officials by way of the Bronx Boondogglers ...

City swings suite deal with Yanks while fans strike out

NY DAILY NEWS (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/07/29/2008-07-29_city_swings_suite_deal_with_yanks_while_.html)
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Monday, July 28th 2008

Fans will have to pay through the nose for good seats at the new Yankee stadium next year - but city officials will get a luxury suite for free at every game.

The free "Landlord's Suite" must have eight seats plus standing room for four and offer the same "accommodations, services and amenities" as the other suites in the new $1.3 billion stadium, according to the Yankees' lease with the city agency financing it.

The city also gets the right to purchase up to 180 tickets at every home game "for the best seats available" at face value - even for playoffs and the World Series.

"The more you dig, the more strange stuff you find," said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester), who is probing how the Yankees and the city Industrial Development Agency issued $943 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project.

"I'm not so sure why the city or the IDA deserves a luxury suite," Brodsky said. "I'm not so sure that we want to develop these complicated deals to give someone access to a luxury suite."

The Yankees are seeking another $366 million in tax-free financing for the stadium, but Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez reported yesterday that Congress is probing whether the value of the stadium land was wildly inflated to justify the tax-exempt bonds.

"I don't think we should be spending money to build skyboxes for City Hall or anyone else," said Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs New York. "The Yankees should be building their own skyboxes."

The Landlord's Suite is supposed to be built with taxable bonds, so American taxpayers will not subsidize its construction.

The new stadium has 47 luxury suites in all, according to published reports, and renting one for a year costs anywhere from $600,000 to $850,000.

The Yankees project they will rake in $253.2 million at the stadium next year. The team says 50% of tickets will cost $45 or less, but seats near home plate will cost as much as $2,500 next year, while some seats behind the dugout will shoot to $850 from $250.

Asked about the city's free suite yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg mistakenly said there would be no such deal at the new Yankee stadium or at Citi Field, the Mets' new home in Queens.

Mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser later acknowledged that the mayor was wrong, but said the city had not decided what to do with the suite.

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

TREPYE

July 30th, 2008, 09:15 AM

Stare at these two for about an hour
Then let me know if you still want to "roll your eyes."

Assuming that the now defunct picture is that of the stadium in the logo I can can tell you with a 100% certainty and the 13% peripheral vision that I have left with my eyes rolled that the stadium being projected in that logo looks like nothing like the stadium that is actually going to get demolished. The old YS has been gone for decades now and does not and should not apply to what is happening now and that is that the redesign of the 70's (albeit sub-par compared to the originial) is going be be the one demolished and is the current rendition of present YS with all of its own history and glory. Thus the one that actually is there now should be rendition on the logo, not something that was destroyed some 30 odd yrs ago. The commemoration of the old stadium is going to occur in the next few coming decades as they will be playing in what is essentially a replica of the old YS. (I know, I know not exact but definitely based on it)

TallGuy

July 30th, 2008, 09:36 AM

75% of the original, pre-renovated Yankee Stadium still exits.

TREPYE

July 30th, 2008, 09:47 AM

^Really??

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6149&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1217340425 (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6149&d=1217340425)

I guess if you are standing outside (which is the view of the stadium projected on the logo) and have X-ray vision.

ZippyTheChimp

July 30th, 2008, 12:17 PM

75%...74%...76%.

Doesn't matter anyway.

The season long event that the logo symbolizes has nothing to do with the architecture of the building, as I said many posts ago.

Consider the logo. What does it state?

1923-2008. Not 1974-2008. Not 1923-1973. The conclusion I draw is that 85 years of Yankee baseball is being celebrated.

So what graphic to compliment it?

New stadium? That's the future in a different place. Not even in consideration.

How about the way the stadium looks right now? That would commemorate the destruction, inescapably a depressing thought.

How about the 1974 stadium? But as I already said, that ignores 50 years of Yankee baseball, and that 1923-2008 wouldn't fit.

Trepye, in rereading these posts, it seems to me that you weren't aware that the logo is an exact drawing of the 1923 facade, and made the error that it related more to the new stadium. And now you're trying to justify the error by stating that the demolition is celebratory.

Now, if you believe that's the way it should be, then of course the logo is incorrect. But I doubt you will find too many people that agree with you.

TallGuy

July 30th, 2008, 12:25 PM

Existing parts of original pre-renovated Yankee Stadium still existing in the structure:

The ENTIRE original third deck. 14 rows were added to the top after the removal of the roof to provide weight countersupport as the support columns were removed and the cantilever and cables were added.

The ENTIRE 2nd deck loge is original. Gone are the rear rows which are covered by the cantilever support structure, in which the luxury boxes are housed.

The sections of the first deck behind the walkway are original. The section in front of the walkway to the field is new from when they lowered the playing field.

All existing bleacher sections are original, as is part of the original outfield wall along the bleachers in the black batter's eye section.

The entire original outer wall below the third deck concourse, including all the original detail, is still there.

The third base side ticket booths are original.

The interior support columns are all original (you can even still see remanants of the original support beams between the decks if you know where to look).

The old third deck catwalks are still housed within the enclosed third deck structure, and can periodically be viewed when the doors are opened for maintainence purposes.

The patio (for lack of a better term) black and white concourse surrounding the stadium is original.

The most unoriginal thing is the playing field, which was lowered 10 feet during renovations.

Missing are the support columns, roof, and original facade, as well as about half the bleachers.

TREPYE

July 30th, 2008, 07:41 PM

Your above post proves my point that you cannot tell from the vantage point that the logo depicts. IT is a completely different stadium from that view.

TREPYE

July 30th, 2008, 07:45 PM

So what graphic to compliment it?

New stadium? That's the future in a different place. Not even in consideration.

That is obvious from a logical standpoint, but from a visual standpoint someone who does not know the history of the stadiums would think that the new stadium is being depicted not the currently used one.

How about the way the stadium looks right now? That would commemorate the destruction, inescapably a depressing thought.

Well yeah it is depressing, so? Is kinda should be sad to see them go. The Shea logo has the actual current Shea stadium, wow, imagine that. As a matter of fact they depicted the early Shea which was mostly gray and the current she with its blue facade. Much more competent job than what the Yankees did as it is an actual representation of the stadium being commemorated.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1163/1412287853_5556bcf394_m.jpg

Trepye, in rereading these posts, it seems to me that you weren't aware that the logo is an exact drawing of the 1923 facade, and made the error that it related more to the new stadium. And now you're trying to justify the error by stating that the demolition is celebratory.

It has actually been your erroneous assumptions or (once again:rolleyes:) misreadings of my post that has had you chasing an imaginary topic and that is that I though the stadium in the logo is exactly like the new stadium.

But if you want to bask in the forum-glory of providing a post that outlines an error you pulled out of you rear end then by all means enjoy it. Zippy, my ancestrial counterpart has demonstrated that while evolution has take its course intelligence and aptitude does not necessarily carry over....you was right and I was wrong.

Feel better? :p

Anyways...
I never said that they are exact (I used the word "iteration" of the new one which is basically what it is for the lay audience) I said that it in no way looks like the current stadium and the current stadium should be depicted. Which addresses your redundant thought below.

Now, if you believe that's the way it should be, then of course the logo is incorrect. But I doubt you will find too many people that agree with you.

Which I have addressed before

For some of us who are not old enough to see its previous versions that was THE Yankee Stadium we got a chance to go to and experience.

But you probably misread, again.... :-/

lofter1

July 30th, 2008, 08:30 PM

Question: Will the new stadium when completed offer the view of the exposed steel on the upper tiers as is seen here?

http://stadiumpage.com/newyankee/NYS_071508_5.jpg

ZippyTheChimp

July 30th, 2008, 08:44 PM

That is obvious from a logical standpoint, but from a visual standpoint someone who does not know the history of the stadiums would think that the new stadium is being depicted not the currently used one.Your first statement on this topic:
know its not a big deal but its a stupid disconnect. 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.As far as the Yankees, I would guess the overwhelming majority of the fans, and so far everyone who has commented in this thread - the logo is consistent with what they are representing; it's just not consistent with what YOU want them to represent. Therefore, it's only a "stupid mistake" if you're on one one side of the issue. So far, that would only be you.

Well yeah it is depressing, so? Is kinda should be sad to see them go. The Shea logo has the actual current Shea stadium, wow, imagine that.Not relevant. How the Mets want to depict the last year of Shea is their business. We're discussing the Yankee logo, and whether or not it's consistent with how they want to commemorate the final year of Yankee Stadium. They chose to recall 85 years of baseball history, not 30 years.

It has actually been your erroneous assumptions or (once again:rolleyes:) misreadings of my post that has had you chasing an imaginary topic and that is that I though the stadium in the logo is exactly like the new stadium.I said it seems to me, noting in your original statement that you made no mention of the fact that it is an exact drawing of the original. I thought you might have not been aware of it, and you should note that your post confused BenL as well.

But if you want to bask in the forum-glory of providing a post that outlines an error you pulled out of you rear end then by all means enjoy it. Zippy, my ancestrial counterpart has demonstrated that while evolution has take its course intelligence and aptitude does not necessarily carry over....you was right and I was wrong.You can tell someone is running out of gas when they roll out the insults. And a silly emoticon with its tongue out doesn't justify it.

I've patiently answered your posts.

I never said that they are exact (I used the word "iteration" of the new one which is basically what it is for the lay audience)The lay audience? Would that be Yankee fans?

Search around for some sports/Yankee/stadium forums. You will find the same thing. Everyone seems to get it. Well, almost everyone.

TallGuy

July 30th, 2008, 11:26 PM

Yes, the white steel as you see it is the finished product.

lofter1

July 31st, 2008, 09:38 AM

Don't like it ^ http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/images/icons/icon13.gif

TallGuy

July 31st, 2008, 09:49 AM

That has been controversial, with many thinking the new facade would stand out better if the exposed white steel were a darker color or covered up with darker material. The jury is still out with me though.

One thing I do like about the new facade, which is another controversial topic, is that it closely mirrors the exterior of the stadium. If you look above the gothic exterior windows, you will see two smaller squares (which can also be found on the existing stadium, which mark the old, abandoned, third deck concourse). These squares also appear in the new facade. In the old facade they are circular cut-outs not square, and that has been viewed as either design sloppiness or cost cutting, but it is obvious they are complimenting the new exterior.

ZippyTheChimp

July 31st, 2008, 09:50 AM

It was discussed when the renderings first came out - why didn't they just wall it like the original.

I guess it's $$$$. Couldn't find a way to soak a little more out of the taxpayers.

lofter1

July 31st, 2008, 10:12 AM

IMO the white steel looks perfunctory and is definitely a cost-cutter -- cheap -- it has no grace or relationship to the limestone & arches below.

Surely if the crew at HOK had any real design sensibilities then they could have come up with something which served the purpose but in a far better visual way.

Not saying they had to copy the upper level on the original -- but there are lots of visual cues on the old one which could have been used as inspiration for the new without going the visually cheapest route:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Yankee_Stadium%2C1920s.jpg

TallGuy

July 31st, 2008, 02:36 PM

Agreed. The limestone looks great, but it is a far, far more expensive and lavish upgrade over the original, which is merely concrete. The plastic facade is a cheaper version to the current concrete facade, and far cheaper than the original copper one.

I wish they could have copied more of the cantilevered upper deck, provided something better than the exposed white steel, and somehow returned the front gate ticket booths, even if only for decorative purposes.

Some original ones still stand by the third base side. If they moved those across the street, fans could enter between the orgiinal ticket booths, which I think would be wonderfully symbolic.

NYatKNIGHT

July 31st, 2008, 02:39 PM

If they had to go with the exposed white steel, they might as well have made it look like the famous frieze, it wouldn't have been much of a stretch.

TREPYE

August 4th, 2008, 12:27 PM

Your first statement on this topic: As far as the Yankees, I would guess the overwhelming majority of the fans, and so far everyone who has commented in this thread - the logo is consistent with what they are representing; it's just not consistent with what YOU want them to represent. Therefore, it's only a "stupid mistake" if you're on one one side of the issue. So far, that would only be you.

Yeah cuz its like, an opinion. In case this thought did not evolve, not everyone is gonna have the same opinion.

Not relevant. How the Mets want to depict the last year of Shea is their business. We're discussing the Yankee logo, and whether or not it's consistent with how they want to commemorate the final year of Yankee Stadium. They chose to recall 85 years of baseball history, not 30 years.

Technically only 50 (sans 6 championships) with the decpiction on the logo.

I said it seems to me, noting in your original statement that you made no mention of the fact that it is an exact drawing of the original. I thought you might have not been aware of it, and you should note that your post confused BenL as well.

Ok he got confused but that point was subsequently calrified.

You can tell someone is running out of gas when they roll out the insults. And a silly emoticon with its tongue out doesn't justify it.

I've patiently answered your posts.

The lay audience? Would that be Yankee fans?

Search around for some sports/Yankee/stadium forums. You will find the same thing. Everyone seems to get it. Well, almost everyone.

Your posts tend to have an "infallible" tone to them while you love to point out fallacy in others. Unfortunatley to the point that you make up errors that people make instead of clarifying. I never said that the old an new are identical, you said that I said, thus in essence making it up. I said that it looks like the new stadium (and undoubtely it does) and that the logo should depict current stadium wich looks nothing like what is being depicted in the commemoration. Which to me in my personal opinion is BS and not the right thing to do. Thus I was not insulting you but rather being condescending to your uncandid chest thumping insinuations of superiority.

ZippyTheChimp

August 4th, 2008, 02:26 PM

I never said that the old an new are identical, you said that I said, thus in essence making it up.Where did I say that?

Thus I was not insulting you but rather being condescending to your uncandid chest thumping insinuations of superiority.That only happened in response to your need to post a :rolleyes:.

What exactly does that denote...I respect your opinion, but I disagree?

Or something more...condescending?

Sorry, I don't hide behind emoticons.

TREPYE

August 6th, 2008, 03:43 PM

Where did I say that?

You keep insinuating that I cant tell the difference between the 2.

Stare at these two for about an hour

http://www.sportslogos.net/images/logos/53/68/full/i7dq1ta52t3jxsujj58ejaq0b.gifhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Yankee_Stadium%2C1920s.jpg

Then let me know if you still want to "roll your eyes."

Trepye, in rereading these posts, it seems to me that you weren't aware that the logo is an exact drawing of the 1923 facade, and made the error that it related more to the new stadium. And now you're trying to justify the error by stating that the demolition is celebratory.

BTW, in regards to this....

That only happened in response to your need to post a :rolleyes:.

What exactly does that denote...I respect your opinion, but I disagree?

Or something more...condescending?

Sorry, I don't hide behind emoticons.

Boy, those smiley faces really strike a chord in ya dont they??? Try not to take them too seriously perhaps you can find some grains of salt within them and enjoy the post a little more. :) (psst! I really am smiling)

ZippyTheChimp

August 6th, 2008, 05:35 PM

You keep insinuating that I cant tell the difference between the 2.Insinuating? Is that the best you can do?

You can't interpret post #511 without considering #510. It was a sarcastic response to sarcasm.

For the third time, I said it seemed to me (red didn't work, so lets add boldface). That meant I wasn't sure, an opinion, and you had the opportunity to say I was mistaken, instead of going on about me twisting "facts."

I would have taken your original assertion less seriously if I had known at the time I was dealing with a Met fan (Yanks-Red Sox thread). All this to prove the Yankees made a mistake.

Mets win. Yay!

Tiresome.

I won't waste any more time on this, but I'd like to address a line of thought that has bearing on discussions in general.

Yeah cuz its like, an opinion. In case this thought did not evolve, not everyone is gonna have the same opinion...

Your posts tend to have an "infallible" tone to them while you love to point out fallacy in others.

Opinions are not protected from challenge. Facts are immutable, until proven in error; it's the conclusions we draw and opinions we form that are debated here. Whether or not you change your opinion is your business; but when you present that opinion and I disagree with it, I'm going to challenge it.

And when I do, I'm going to do it with the attitude that I'm right and you're wrong. Are you acting differently?

TREPYE

August 7th, 2008, 12:47 PM

First of all the fact that I am a Met's fan has no bearing on my opinions. Had the mets pulled the same dopeyness that the yankees had I would be criticizing them just as much. Just like I bashed them when they ineptly firely Willie. Look, I know you Yankee fans have a paranoia about "yankee haters" (which I find quite amusing) but I can assure that with the state that my team is right now I would be hard pressed to say that they are that much better.

I want you to challenge my opinions thats what makes forums fun but to treat me like I cant tell the diff betwee the old and new stadium and say that I am trying to make up for an error (which I did not commit, exact quote:And now you're trying to justify the error by stating that the demolition is celebratory) is something that I am not going to recognize as legit because it pure and total BS. My main point, again, current stadium vs new stadium, not old stadium vs new one; it so happens that the old looks like the new which is simply a caveat of my main point.

Jasonik

August 7th, 2008, 04:23 PM

Kucinich investigates Yankee Stadium perks for NYC officials

Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday August 7, 2008 (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Kucinich_investigates_Yankee_Stadium_perks_for_080 7.html)

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is opening an investigation into perks for New York City officials being offered as part of a deal to build a new stadium for the New York Yankees.

Kucinich (D-OH) chairs a House Oversight subcommittee, and he has made similar inquiries regarding the New York Mets stadium, which offers similar perks for city officials.

In its investigation of the deal between the Yankees and New York City for land on which the new stadium is to be built, Kucinich's Domestic Policy Subcommittee found that the lease allows city officials free use of a luxury box in the new stadium and priority rights to purchase up to 180 tickets per game.

A letter Kucinich sent to the Yankees Thursday requests details on the perks.

The subcommittee's investigations, which have been ongoing for more than a month, are examining whether the IRS can change its regulations and allow stadium projects such as the new Yankee Stadium to receive public-backed financing that comes with tax breaks.

The Yankees are seeking an extra $350 million in public funds to build the new stadium. The team wants additional public support from the city's industrial development agency to be added to the $941 million in tax-exempt public bonds the organization already has issued for the $1.3 billion stadium.

The stadium has been under construction since 2006 and is set to open next year.

Kucinich's letter is reprinted below:

August 7, 2008

Mr. Randy Levine

President

New York Yankees

Yankee Stadium

New York, New York 10451

Dear Mr. Levine:

The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held two hearings[1] and issued a number of requests concerning the public financing of professional sports stadiums.[2] In conjunction with our specific investigation into the financing of the new Yankee Stadium, the Subcommittee has learned that pursuant to the lease agreement between the Yankees and the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA), the City of New York, as assignee of the NYCIDA, is, among other rights, granted: (1) the right to use a luxury box for Yankee games in the new Yankee Stadium free of charge; and (2) priority rights for the purchase of up to 180 tickets for each Yankee home game.[3]

I hereby request the following documents:

(1) All documents relating to the lease provision, section 4.04, or any other agreement, draft or final, granting the NYCIDA or the City of New York any right to use or purchase any luxury boxes or tickets for any event at the new Yankee Stadium, including without limitation all documents relating to the origination of the concept, negotiation, execution, interpretation, and economic value of any such provision or agreement.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides information on how to respond to the Subcommittee’s request.

I request that you provide these documents as soon as possible, but in no case later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, August 18, 2008.

Sincerely,

Dennis J. Kucinich

Chairman

Domestic Policy Subcommittee

lofter1

August 7th, 2008, 07:14 PM

Mr. Levine is very well connected (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Levine) in the back rooms of NYC ...

Kucinich's letter is reprinted below ...

Mr. Randy Levine

President

New York Yankees

meesalikeu

August 11th, 2008, 12:49 PM

yeah, new yorkers may not be aware, but dennis kucinich and george and the steinbrenner family go way back together. so this is pretty funny :D

lofter1

August 11th, 2008, 01:27 PM

Looks like that friendship ^ may have gone sour (http://www.zimbio.com/New+York+Yankees/articles/605/Kucinich+Introduces+Measure+Impeach+Cashman) :( ...

NYC4Life

September 3rd, 2008, 07:52 PM

NY Post

BIDDER UP FOR STADIUM WRECKING CREW

By JEREMY OLSHAN

Posted: 4:15 am
September 3, 2008

Demolition crews are lining up for the chance to play wrecking ball at Yankee Stadium.

The city has given the Yankees until Feb. 28 to vacate The House That Ruth Built, and then - over the following year - the ballpark will be slowly smashed to pieces, according to a request for bidders on the $27 million contract released yesterday.

Just as fans have watched the new stadium rise across the street this season, the historic ballpark will shrink a little each day during the 2009 and, perhaps, the 2010 seasons.

From March to May of 2009, the crews will work to remove all the asbestos contained in 60,000 square feet of roof and 30,000 square feet of floor tiles.

Parts of the Stadium that can be resold to collectors or reused will be yanked out by the end of May. The rest of the demolition will be completed in the spring of 2010.

Aside from obvious memorabilia, such as the 57,000 seats, the city has been coy about which pieces of the Stadium will be salvaged.
Also likely to be spared are the iconic "meeting place" bat-shaped smokestack and the famous white frieze that runs across the outfield, according to Economic Development Corp. documents.

Sports memorabilia experts say the frieze - which is actually a replica of the original 1923 Stadium's copper one - and The Bat would be difficult to sell because of their sheer size.
These are more likely to be moved, perhaps nearby to Heritage Field, which will be built atop the Ruthian ruins, said Mike Heffner, president of auctioneer Lelands.com.

BenM

September 9th, 2008, 01:38 PM

Bank of America targets Yankees (http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/59946)

Deal close for top sponsorship at new park after late bid overtakes rival Chase

By TERRY LEFTON (tlefton@sportsbusinessjournal.com)

Bank of America is close to taking the wraps off the largest sponsorship associated with the new Yankee Stadium, which has been on the market since late last year through CAA Sports.
While numerous sources said an agreement on the Premier Partnership package has been reached, an announcement date had not been set at press time for this story. Terms of the deal could not be confirmed and were difficult to discern. Early this year, the package was being shopped at $20 million a year. Sources familiar with the deal said last week that it was worth more than the New York Mets’ deal with Citibank and Barclays’ deal with the New Jersey Nets’ new home, each of which was said to be for an average of $20 million a year over 20 years and set a new benchmark. But another source said the Yankees’ deal was in the mid-teens per annum. . .

The deal includes a comprehensive financial relationship between the franchise and Bank of America. It also offers the company a vast array of inventory within the new ballpark, which will open next year, including prime signage in and around the park, large signs on the highways around the stadium, prominent exposure on Gate 4, the stadium’s main entrance, several fixed signs on top of the stadium affording an aerial view, a large sign atop the right-field scoreboard, even bigger signage on the back of the scoreboard that will face a new subway stop, signs on interior gates leading to the field, fixed and LED signs inside the stadium and the stadium bowl, permanent dugout branding and behind-the-plate signage and a logo on all Yankees tickets.

NYC4Life

September 9th, 2008, 03:51 PM

Just hopefully the stadium won't be renamed "Bank of America Field at Yankee Stadium."

lofter1

September 9th, 2008, 04:38 PM

There are all sorts of No Signage Laws in regards to proximity to NYC Parks. At least two City parks are in direct proximity to Yankee Stadium (http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/nyy_stadium/html/nyy_redevelopment.html).

But of course this is different -- it's in The Bronx so the pols and money guys can screw the public :confused:

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/nyy_stadium/img/project_map2.jpg

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/nyy_stadium/html/project_map.html

ZippyTheChimp

September 9th, 2008, 04:56 PM

At least they didn't change the name, but a revolting development nonetheless.

TallGuy

September 10th, 2008, 10:30 AM

Even if I don't care for it. I have read elsewhere that it will be a model agreement for other facilities, like MSG for example, that are so tied to their historical names that changing it is not an option. Credit the Yankees for getting a bigger deal than the Mets did with Citi, WITHOUT including actual naming rights. Ballparks have historically had heavy advertising. What this really seems to mean is that the majority of it within YS will be BOA as opposed to a more even mix.

YS during the 60's onward had that horrible Longines sign draped over the original 'Yankee Stadium' engraving over gate 4, so it is not as if there isn't precedent.

lofter1

September 10th, 2008, 11:18 AM

Did / does any of the advertising at the old (existing) YS aim OUTWARDS towards the neighborhood, train tracks, roadways?

Sounds as though the new deal with B of A will direct signage to those approaching the Stadium, not just those inside the Stadium.

If so then that is not right. But it is in keeping with the sensibility of both NYC Park Commissioner Adrian Benepe & Mayor Bloomberg that everything is for sale and the entire city is a big marketing opportunity.

Let's put some signs up outside the windows of Benepe & Bloomberg and see how they like it.

ZippyTheChimp

September 10th, 2008, 11:54 AM

What I'm waiting to see: The light & dark geometric patterns of the grass at almost all baseball stadia form a company logo.

Or has this happened already?

lofter1

September 10th, 2008, 12:33 PM

If so, then the mowing pattern on this one will be fairly easy ...

http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/images/boa.gif

NYC4Life

September 16th, 2008, 11:38 AM

NY1

Updated 10:06 AM

State Lawmaker Slams Yankee Stadium Financial Plan

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/4153/17370557li4.jpg

The Yankees are firing back at a state lawmaker who claims the team is getting plenty of tax breaks – while doing little for taxpayers.

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky is releasing a report today that claims the new Yankee Stadium has benefited from up to $850 million in tax breaks, but will create only 15 permanent jobs.

The report also says the city's Industrial Development Agency manipulated the assessed value of the stadium to qualify for an Internal Revenue Service exemption.

A Yankees spokeswoman accused Brodsky of lying and grandstanding. She says the stadium will create 1,000 permanent jobs.

The head of the IDA is also rejecting the report's claims.

Alonzo-ny

September 16th, 2008, 02:21 PM

How many will simply be moving from one stadium to another.

JCMAN320

September 19th, 2008, 04:19 PM

YANKEES NOTEBOOK
Steinbrenner, Murcer added to Yankees mural

Friday, September 19, 2008

NEW YORK - Ray Negron was a trouble-making high school kid when he spray-painted graffiti on a wall at Yankee Stadium in 1973 and instantaneously became part of team lore.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner caught him in the act, and Negron was locked up, but not before Steinbrenner extended his generosity and made Negron bat boy for that night's game. He went on to become Steinbrenner's special assistant and works for the Boss to this day.

Yesterday, Negron was back in the Bronx and painting up a wall, but not in a mischievous way. He helped put finishing touches on likenesses of Steinbrenner and player and broadcaster Bobby Murcer on a mural next to the stadium, adding two Yankee greats to a wall that already includes images of Mickey Mantle, Thurman Munson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other stars who played in pinstripes.

Negron said he felt he had come full circle by working on the mural.

"This is a way of being able to say thank you," he said, moments after helping complete the Steinbrenner image. Fans heading to the stadium stopped by and snapped pictures as the mural was finished.

It shows Steinbrenner looking at the Yankee players with his arm around a little boy, representing the many children he has helped over the years.

Murcer died of brain cancer in July at 62. The only Yankee to play with both Mantle and Don Mattingly, he had a distinguished career on the field before moving to the broadcast booth.

New York plays its final game in Yankee Stadium on Sunday before the park is torn down. But the mural will last.

"This wall isn't going anywhere anytime soon," Negron said.

OmegaNYC

September 19th, 2008, 04:28 PM

Wow, last home game on Sunday.. I may be a hardcore Mets fan, but I wished I would of went to Yankee Stadium. I didn't even get a chance to go to Shea this year. I hate my job. ~_~

NYC4Life

September 19th, 2008, 06:51 PM

So many memories and memorable moments at both Yankee and Shea Stadiums. Shea Stadium however, is a dreadful stadium and won't be missed as much as the current Yankee Stadium.

EugeneNYC

September 19th, 2008, 10:11 PM

Two days before the Bronx Bombers are slated to play their last game in the old Yankee Stadium, the lettering is going up on the new field across the street.

(AP) - The New York Yankees plan to unveil and lift into place massive "Yankee Stadium" lettering over the entrance to its new ball field in the Bronx.

The blue letters are slated to be hoisted into place by a crane beginning early Friday morning at Gate 4 at 161st Street and Jerome Avenue.

The team's new stadium is going up across the street from its 85-year-old venue, where the Yankees will play for the last time on Sunday. The new ballpark will open in 2009.

The original Yankees Stadium opened April 18, 1923.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080919/FREE/809199997/1072

antinimby

September 20th, 2008, 12:36 AM

Hmmmm...not so sure I like the free-standing, giant lettering on top like that. The old stadium never did anything like that.

Besides, isn't it redundant when just below it, you have the gold lettering which says the same thing?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/09/19/sports/20security.600.jpg
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/sports/baseball/20security.html)

TREPYE

September 20th, 2008, 01:11 AM

lofter1

September 20th, 2008, 01:52 AM

Why? It was old fashioned. Except for a few left-over hippies nobody during the 70s wanted old stuff hanging around.

TallGuy

September 21st, 2008, 09:22 AM

For the first time I have seen a color picture of the old Yankee Stadium and I hadnt realized how etheral the frieze made it look.
Intricate copper-green ornaments that gave the backdrop some splendor. More than any other feature it gave it a real cathedral look. Simply beautiful, I lament not being old enough to experience it. :(

Which begs the question: Why in the world would they get rid of such a distinct and beautiful feature. In the Sports Illustrated article it said that when they took it down they melted it for its copper....What??

http://www.baseball-fever.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=37443&stc=1&d=1205281413

Needless to say that they defaced it with something that looks paltry in comparison today.

In order to remove the support columns, they needed to remove the roof due to the weight, and add 14 rows to the back of the upper deck in order to create a balance for the cantilever system that was then installed. It was considered to add the facade back, but again, the weight of it, prevented that. The new facade at the new stadium is a lightweight material, and nowhere near the original in beauty or design, but still an improvement.

NYC4Life

September 22nd, 2008, 02:24 AM

Yankee Stadium on its Final Day 9/21/08

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2098/fans2hs2.jpg

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/158/yankeestadium4vn9.jpg

From across the Harlem River

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4356/yankeestadium7jf2.jpg

Side by Side with the New Stadium

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/8563/yankeestadiums2fz9.jpg

The New Stadium nearly complete

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3519/newyankeestadium9jl1.jpg

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3729/newyankeestadium8nx6.jpg

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/8903/newyankeestadium12bz0.jpg

Crowds at River Avenue

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/1240/riveravenue2ji6.jpg

Final Game Ticket

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9139/yankeesticketws0.jpg

One Last Goodbye

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6786/yankeestadium5ip4.jpg

The Old Yankee Stadium fades into memory

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/8554/yankeestadium13og8.jpg

lofter1

September 22nd, 2008, 02:35 AM

All that steel rising above the limestone at the new Stadium looks bad.

Sort of like they took the Port Authority Bus Terminal, painted it white and stuffed it inside.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/images/icons/icon13.gif

But, hey ... Steinbrenner paid for it :rolleyes: so who can complain?

antinimby

September 22nd, 2008, 04:56 AM

The new large blue lettering is too skinny. You can see that from the fourth pic.

It's harder to make out what it says whereas the one on the current stadium can be seen much more easily.

BenM

September 22nd, 2008, 12:50 PM

All that steel rising above the limestone at the new Stadium looks bad.

Sort of like they took the Port Authority Bus Terminal, painted it white and stuffed it inside.

It reminds me of the renovation at Soldier Field, where they wedged the new seating into the landmarked structure.

JCMAN320

September 22nd, 2008, 02:00 PM

I wish I had the money to get a $160.00 seat for the bleachers. NYC4Life that day is something you'll remember for the rest of your life. I watched it on ESPN last night and when Jeter gave his speech at the end I couldn't hold it together and started to tear.

It is official, I have been to 22 games, atleast one game every year since 1997, at Yankee Stadium since my first game with my father on September 20th 1997 when I had just turned 11 years old a month earlier. David Cone pitched that game against the Toronto Blue Jays. The game went to the 12th inning and I'll never forget it started to get windy and rain like something out of the "Natural" and the Yankees loaded the bases and Bernie Williams walked to bring in the winning run, Derek Jeter from third base. Yanks won 5-4.

I was to 4 games this season alone and saw two out of the four games against the White Sox, the series before the Orioles. I went Monday with my father, when Jeter was tied with Lou Gehrig for most hits at Yankee Stadium, Yanks won. Then I went on Thursday with my girlfriend when the Yanks won 9-2. Took alot of pictures of the Stadium, the concourse, field, stand, monuments, exterior, and the last oringinal "Cathedral" gate at Gate 2. This year and those last two games are games I will remember for the rest of my life.

And yes I do have every 22 ticket stubs in an album, from September 20th, 1997 to September 18th, 2008. I will miss this beautiful ballpark filled with so much history and for me many great personal memories.

I will still take the 40 min ride on the PATH from JSQ to 33rd St. and then take the B or the D from 34th St. to 161st-Yankee Stadium, even though it won't be the same stadium and I will miss the old girl very, very, much, Derek Jeter said it best in his speech to salute the fans on the Cathedral's mound:

"For all of us up here, it's a huge honor to put this uniform on every day and come out here and play. And every member of this organization, past and present, has been calling this place home for 85 years. There's a lot of tradition, a lot of history, and a lot of memories. Now the great thing about memories, is you're able to pass it along from generation to generation. And although things are going to change next year, we're going to move across the street, there a few things with the New York Yankees that never change - it's pride, it's tradition, and most of all, we have the greatest fans in the world."

"We're relying on you to take the memories from this stadium and add them to the new memories that come to the new Yankee Stadium, and continue to pass them on from generation to generation. On behalf of this entire organization, we want to take this moment to salute you, the greatest fans in the world."

NYatKNIGHT

September 22nd, 2008, 03:29 PM

Much appreciated NYC4Life, especially the ones from across the river.

brianac

September 23rd, 2008, 01:41 PM

City's field of schemes in Bronx?

BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 22nd 2008, 8:46 PM
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/09/23/alg_bronx-park.jpg Parks Dept. Archive
A newly rediscovered photo of former grass field near Yankee Stadium has stirred activists. A parking lot since the 1970s, it has often been used as an off-season ballfield.

A recently discovered photograph of a baseball diamond just west of the old Yankee Stadium (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Yankee+Stadium) has reignited questions about whether the city is actually replacing all of the recreational parkland taken for the Bombers' new arena.

The 2.89-acre parcel between 161st St. and the Macombs Dam Bridge (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Macombs+Dam+Bridge) approach was paved over in the 1970s, and served as extra stadium parking during the season, but was left open to the public for the rest of the year.

It will soon be the site of a parking garage for the new stadium. But the Parks Department did not include the asphalt ballfield in its calculation of the recreational park facilities the city must, by law, replace as part of the stadium project.

"The site was used for parking at the old stadium, and it will be used for parking at the new stadium," said Parks spokeswoman Jama Adams (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jama+Adams).

A chain-link backstop, along with painted bases and foul lines, are the only remnants of the ballfield's glory days as the well-maintained natural-grass baseball diamond shown in the undated archival photograph. Parks recently supplied the photo to a filmmaker making a documentary about the stadium project.

Locals and activists say the asphalt field remained in off-season use, and should be counted as park space lost to the project.

"There's no other way to say it but that they lied about it," said Geoff Croft (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Geoff+Croft) of NYC (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City) Park Advocates, who said he played ball at the site as a child. "They have ignored these facilities."

Parks denies the painted baselines and backstop indicate the parking lot was intended for off-season use as a ballfield.

"This parcel of parkland has been operated as a parking lot by a garage operator since at least the mid-1970s," said Adams. "During the baseball season, the site was locked by the garage operator, and so it was not open for recreation. During the off season, the site was not locked."

Adams acknowledged locals may have used the site in the off season, but said that did not mean the city had to count it as a recreational facility.

"While it is entirely possible to use the parcel for some recreational purpose during the winter months and there were remnants of the parcel's former use as a multiuse play area," she said, "its primary purpose has been as a parking lot for Yankee Stadium."

wegbert@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/09/22/2008-09-22_citys_field_of_schemes_in_bronx.html

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

Alonzo-ny

September 23rd, 2008, 02:19 PM

They played baseball on a concrete parking lot and want it replaced with a park?

ZippyTheChimp

September 23rd, 2008, 03:22 PM

If someone can prove with records that the site was city parkland, then a good case can be made in court. It doesn't matter that it was a parking lot for 38 years.

Canal Park was a parking lot for 80 years.

TREPYE

September 23rd, 2008, 11:00 PM

Could the old Yankee stadium have been landmarked???

TallGuy

September 25th, 2008, 11:58 AM

Trepye,

I sent you a private message link last week to a Yankee Stadium thread. If you go to the additional forum links at the bottom of the page, there are several other threads that deal extensively with this. Your information on the subject can be found there.

NYC4Life

October 17th, 2008, 04:02 PM

10/16/2008 08:08 PM

Last Sod Laid On New Yankee Stadium Field

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5210/97222802gu9.jpg

NY1 got a sneak preview of new Yankee Stadium Thursday as the last piece of sod was laid onto the field.

The first baseball game is scheduled for April 16, 2009.

There will also be a new stop at the stadium on the Metro-North Railroad.

In an effort to decide what to charge for the new Hudson Line stop, the MTA is holding a public hearing on Monday, November 17.

The agency is proposing that the fare remain the same between Grand Central and other stops in the Bronx Zone. Currently that is $6.50 one-way during peak hours and $5 off-peak.

The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at the office of the Bronx District Attorney at 198 East 161st Street. People can register to speak until 8 o’clock that evening.

For more information on how you can register in advance, visit http://mta.info.

Copyright © 2008 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

Shadly

October 17th, 2008, 04:17 PM

Sod, sod, sod. Down into my belly.

lofter1

October 17th, 2008, 10:53 PM

Yankee Stadium Drama Deepens

CURBED (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/10/17/yankee_stadium_drama_deepens.php)
by Robert
Friday, October 17, 2008

http://curbed.com/uploads/new_stadium-thumb.jpg (http://curbed.com/uploads/new_stadium.jpg)

The argument about the financing used for the new Yankee Stadium (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/sports/baseball/17stadium.html?ref=nyregion)
appears that it's going to get worse before it gets better, as the nation's
#1 Yankee Fan, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio is determined to stay in
the batters box and swing like the Bambino. He wrote a letter to Mayor Bloomberg
saying that officials "could be guilty of perjury if the misrepresentations were
deliberately inaccurate" and that claims about the stadium's value "cannot be relied on."
In an email interview Mr. Yankee Fan said "our factual findings could be the basis
for a later agency or court finding of legal liability." Hank Steinbrenner has reportedly
ordered 500,000 Kucinich voodoo dolls with pins to be given away when
the new stadium opens.

[NYT]

A central part of Kucinich’s and Brodsky’s assertions is the range of values on the stadium land. The Parks Department placed it at $21 million, and an E.D.C. consultant pegged it at $40 million. The I.D.A. subsequently assessed the land at $204 million, based on the city Department of Finance’s rate of $275 a square foot, well above comparable values in the South Bronx, but gave a $175 million figure to the I.R.S.

Kucinich wrote that it was unclear “who, if anyone” put pressure on the city’s finance department to submit the “wildly inflated” $204 million appraisal, or why it decided to use “inappropriate comparable properties” to determine that value. By e-mail, he said he had seen no evidence that the Yankees asked the city to raise its appraisal.

antinimby

October 18th, 2008, 01:01 PM

I don't like that big "YANKEE STADIUM" sign inside the stadium. Is it really necessary?

Are there really that many clueless people in the stadium that need a big sign to tell them that they are in Yankee Stadium? I guess we are now really living in a dumb-downed world, aren't we?

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/5210/97222802gu9.jpg

lofter1

October 18th, 2008, 02:16 PM

That sign is for the TV -- YANKEE Branding.

The odd thing is that YANKEE is one of those words that just looks wrong when it's seen spelled out in big letters.

TallGuy

October 18th, 2008, 02:50 PM

I like the Yankee Stadium sign. It sure beats 'AIG Stadium' or 'Taco Bell Stadium'

NYC4Life

October 18th, 2008, 02:51 PM

Would have looked better with just the team's name or logo atop the scoreboard and video screens, like many newer stadiums have.

TallGuy

October 18th, 2008, 02:52 PM

Would have looked better with just the team's name or logo atop the scoreboard and video screens, like many newer stadiums have.

Agreed.

JCMAN320

October 18th, 2008, 03:14 PM

Well to the left of the word "Yankee" will be a big old fashioned analog clock, so the words will have company up there.

CCCP

October 18th, 2008, 08:44 PM

It really is going to be a beautiful building.

http://imgsrv.wcbs880.com/image/DbLiteGraphic/200810/3308392.JPG

NYC4Life

October 19th, 2008, 02:05 AM

Watching the field really gives you the impression the stadium's all but complete.

JCMAN320

October 19th, 2008, 02:43 AM

Wow as Yankee fan, all of the sudden I feel alot more accepting of the new Stadium, it is starting to look like a worthy air to the former legendary stadium. With that new sod down, it really is starting to take shape.

NYC4Life

October 19th, 2008, 04:28 PM

A perfect version from the renders and even the original drawings from 2 years ago.

brianac

October 24th, 2008, 03:43 AM

New Metro-North station by Yankee Stadium right on track

BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, October 23rd 2008, 12:45 AM

The Steinbrenner boys aren't the only ones busy during this off-season in the Bronx (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/The+Bronx).

Metro-North Railroad (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Metro-North+Commuter+Railroad+Company) is making progress on constructing a train station near the new Yankee Stadium (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Yankee+Stadium), and the railroad has scheduled a public hearing for November to determine fares to and from the station.

The hearing is required before the railroad can begin service to the Hudson Line station, which is expected to open in the spring.

The railroad also is refining schedules and operation plans for the station, which will see regular weekday and weekend service all year - not just when the Yankees (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+Yankees) are in town.

The emerging station has two 10-car platforms, a 10,000-square-foot covered mezzanine and a 450-foot overpass with elevators and stairs.

The overpass is just north of 153rd St.

"We're making good progress building this new station, especially considering the work goes on while trains go by, highway traffic continues above, and with buildings and columns all around," said Metro-North President Howard Permut (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Howard+Permut).

"We look forward to serving this section of the Bronx, not just on game days but all year-round."

On game days, fans riding the Hudson Line to the stadium get a one-seat ride. Riders on the New Haven (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+Haven) and Harlem (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Harlem) lines will need to make a simple transfer at certain times.

On the way to the weekday and night games, New Haven and Harlem line riders heading south will be directed to get off at the 125th St. station and walk across the platform to a waiting shuttle train to the stadium.

Heading home during the work week, those fans will be able to simply board a train at the new station for direct service to their destinations.

On weekends, fans from Manhattan (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Manhattan) will have to take shuttle trains.

The different travel patterns are necessary because of the large number of trains - 700 - running to and from Grand Central Terminal (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Grand+Central+Terminal) on weekdays.

The new service will take advantage of a U-shaped stretch of track in the Mott Haven (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Mott+Haven) Yard called a wye. It connects the New Haven and Harlem lines, which run through the center of the Bronx, to the Hudson Line, which runs along the Hudson River (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hudson+River).

Metro-North expects as many as 10,000 riders from New York, Connecticut (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Connecticut) and New Jersey (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+Jersey) will use the new station when the Yankees are in town.

The stop will be in the same fare zone as nearby stations such as Morris Heights (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Morris+Heights) and University Heights (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/University+Heights+(Bronx)). A one-way peak ticket from those stops to Grand Central costs $6.50 while an off-peak ticket is $5. A monthly unlimited-ride pass costs $149.

The Yankees didn't contribute toward the construction of the station. The MTA (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Metropolitan+Transportation+Authority) is paying $52 million, while the city is kicking in $39 million, according to Metro-North

.pdonohue@nydailynews.com (.pdonohue@nydailynews.com)

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2008/10/22/2008-10-22_new_metronorth_station_by_yankee_stadium.html

© Copyright 2008 NYDailyNews.com.

NYC4Life

October 24th, 2008, 03:16 PM

Village Voice

The Yanks on Trial: Liveblogging the Kucinich Hearings

Posted by Neil deMause at 11:14 AM, October 24, 2008

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/levine.jpg

The story so far: Back in July, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich demanded documents (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2008/07/kucinich_probes.html) from the Bloomberg administration and the New York Yankees explaining how exactly they managed to tell the IRS that the land under the Yanks' new stadium was worth $200 million, while telling the state of New York it was worth $21 million. (If the IRS figure had been lower or the state figure higher, the team's <A href="http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2006/04/bloomberg_on_st.php">convoluted stadium tax breaks might have been illegal (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2008/09/the_yankee_stad.php).) As of last week (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2008/10/kucinich_to_yan.html), Kucinich still hadn't gotten an answer.

Today, starting at 10 am, that may change, as Yankees president Randy Levine, city finance commissioner Martha Stark, and Economic Development Corporation chief Seth Pinsky are all scheduled to testify in Washington before Kucinich's Congressional subcommittee. I'll be liveblogging the hearings below; if you want to follow along at home, check the subcommittee website (http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2262) for a video feed.

9:01 am: An hour to go, and Seth Pinsky's testimony just arrived over the email transom. After much lengthy back-patting ("The benefits of this project have been validated in one of the most thorough and transparent approval processes in the history of New York City, New York State, and likely the nation"), Pinsky finally gets to the point of today's hearing:
Those wildly divergent land assessments for the parkland now buried under the Yanks' new grandstand.

His explanation: The higher figure ($175 million) assessed the value of the land once a stadium was built on it; the lower one ($21 million) the value if low-income housing were built there. (Why low-income housing? Pinsky doesn't specify.) "Claiming that a marked disparity between these valuations is a sign of malfeasance," Pinsky will say, "is no more logical than drawing the same conclusion from an assertion that the canvas on which a work of art is painted would be worth less if it instead contained a portrait by an artist with far lesser talents."

9:40 am: Another news item while we wait: Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE49M8PS20081024?sp=true)reports that "the credit crunch might impede the city from selling more debt for the Yankees, who are expected to seek up to $360 million of new tax-free and taxable bonds." You might want to take that with a grain of salt, though:

The same story also claims that in 2006 the Yanks' new stadium was projected to cost only $480 million to build - when that was actually one estimate then of the taxpayer cost (http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2006/02/yankees_stadium_3.html) of the $1 billion-plus project. Maybe they should start teaching remedial math in J-schools.

9:59 am: They moved the page with the streaming video. If you bookmarked it before, go here (http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2262) instead.

10:19 am: And we're off: Kucinich, in his opening statement, alleges that the Yankees withheld documents he'd requested in July in order to stall the hearing until the Treasury Department had okayed their request for new tax-free bonds. Treasury did so on Tuesday; the Yankees, says Kucinich, delivered the paperwork on Wednesday night. Kucinich calls this "evidence that they don't want the truth to come out."

10:33 am: Kucinich again: The key question is whether the city "reverse-engineered" its land assessments to make the Yanks' tax-exempt bonds legal. (Long, detailed explanation of the Yanks' "PILOT" scheme here (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2006/04/bloomberg_on_st.php).)

Rep. Elijah Cummings follows up by talking about how Roger Clemens is still his hero even though he did steroids.

Witnesses are up next.

10:45 am: Yanks prez (and former deputy mayor under Giuliani) Randy Levine says without a new stadium, "the Yankees would have been forced to leave the Bronx," and says state assemblymember Richard Brodsky belongs in the "grandstanding Hall of Fame" for his critical report on the Yankees project. Note that Brodsky, who testifies later, has been placed way at the other end of the table from Levine.

11:14 am: Pinsky says it's "both standard and appropriate" for the city to do two different assessments, based on different principles. Finance commissioner Martha Stark, who actually conducted the assessments, is up next, which is where the math (and the logic) starts getting hairy.

The first assessment, says Stark - the one to determine how much parkland would be needed to be replaced - was based on just multiplying a typical per-square-foot value for the South Bronx by the size of the property. The second one - sent to the IRS to justify the PILOT plan - took the total value of the development, stadium included, and assumed that the land value was between 15% and 25% of the total - this, Stark says, "is consistent with appraisal practices around the country."

I don't have any appraisers on speed-dial, but I did just call Independent Budget Office economist George Sweeting to get his response to all this.

His reply: The city keeps two "baskets" of value for determining property taxes - land value and improvements value. "Thinking about it logically, the economic value of the land should show up in the land value," he says, while any value of stuff that's dropped on top should show up in the "improvements" line. The land under the original Yankee Stadium, Sweeting notes, is valued by the city at a mere $7 million - despite having a baseball stadium on top of it, not a housing complex.

11:26 am: The questioning begins. Kucinich asks Stark if she was under any pressure to inflate the Yanks' land value. She says no. Kucinich notes an email sent by city attorney Gunn to Stark and other city officials that requested a meeting with the Department of Finance and the Yankees to discuss the assessment - noting the team had "an interest in seeing the assessed value will be high enough to generate as much payments in lieu of taxes" to justify tax-exempt bonds. Is this typical and appropriate, asks Kucinich? Stark: "We were asked to do what was lawful and appropriate," and says the email didn't have any bearing on the assessment.

11:48 am: Pinsky acknowledges that without a high assessment of the land value, the stadium financing might not have gone through.

"Fortunately, the number that came out of the Department of Finance, through no pressure on our part ... was a number that was not that far off from what we were projecting."

Brodsky retorts that the second assessment used "extraordinary and possibly illegal methodologies."

Meanwhile, Allison Lack of Good Jobs New York (http://goodjobsny.org/) emails to note that when Stark told Kucinich that it wasn't unusual for her to get emails from city officials about other pending assessments, the example she gave was of a Department of Education building - one owned by the city, in other words, not by a private landholder. (Though the city will actually own the new Yankees stadium, the team will pay "property taxes" on it. To themselves, to pay off their own construction costs. Didn't I say this was convoluted?)

12:08 pm: Kucinich again asks Stark if she knew about the Yanks' need for a high land value for PILOT purposes before doing the assessment.
Stark: "We did not." Kucinich begins to say she might want to reconsider her testimony, at which point Pinsky whispers something to her at the witness table.

Kucinich is having none of this: "Excuse me, what did Mr. Pinsky just say to you? Mr. Pinsky, are you her counsel?"

Pinsky, it turns out, has correctly anticipated what Kucinich is about to introduce: Emails between Pinsky and his then-EDC boss Josh Sirefman, the month before the council voted on the stadium project, where Pinsky stressed that "apparently DOF is close to finalizing their preliminary assessement, and I'd like to understand what it is before it's released publicly." Stark says that while her office certainly knew that the PILOTs were at stake, and EDC wanted an assessment ASAP, "we value the real estate as we would value it typically."

12:15 pm: Stark just gave the clearest explanation yet of why she made two different land assessments, using two different methodologies: The original low number, she says, came from an assessment of the land as it existed, as vacant land. (Well, not exactly vacant (http://everystockphoto.s3.amazonaws.com/yankees_newyork_newyorkcity_987623_l.jpg).) But, she adds, "once it is constructed, the value of the stadium actually enhances the value of the land."

If this is true, it's worth noting, this means it effectively blows a hole in federal restrictions on the use of tax-exempt bonds for private projects: If you're building a more expensive building, that makes the land more valuable, which raises the assessment. That in turn allows you to pay more PILOTs (since PILOTs can't exceed what you would be paying in property taxes, if you were paying them), which allows you to float more bonds to pay for your more expensive building. This hearing could end up having farther-reaching impacts than just for New York's stadium projects.

12:26 pm: Kucinich is still hammering on Pinsky about his conversations with Stark during the assessment process. Pinsky insists that he didn't influence her office's assessment, just told her he needed a number soon. While these emails and such certainly could raise suspicions, it doesn't look like there's anything close to a smoking gun of tampering here.

12:36 pm: Brodsky, under questioning, thinks he's found a smoking gun (even using the words "smoking gun"): He spoke with officials at the Department of Finance, he says, about the various adjustments that are expected to be made to a land value, based on time, geography, etc. "Where an adjustment required by standard practice raised the assessment, they did it. Where an adjustment required by standard practice lowered the assessment, they did not do it."

Sadly, no one on the committee asked a followup.

12:51 pm: We are deep in property-tax-lingo hell here. (Stark just said "imputed.") Kucinich is back on the "15-25% of overall value" assessment, wondering why Stark's office used that method rather than comparing value per square foot to similar properties in the area. She replies that that figure was really just used to "validate" the regular assessment, which is based on comparable properties.

Kucinich then asks how come other neighboring properties in the Bronx are valued at per-square-foot rates far lower than the stadium site - lower, in fact, than even the original $32.50 per square foot rate used in the original, low stadium site assessment?

It's a different between two types of valuations, says Stark: the "cost approach" - i.e., calculating values based on how much a project costs to build - vs. the "income approach" - calculating values based on how much revenue it can bring in. "The income approach is used for specialty projects like stadiums." It's for this reason, she continues, that her office used per-square-foot figures from places as farflung as Harlem and the Lower East Side: They wanted to compare it to other sites that had gotten huge investments of city infrastructure.

Kucinich is unmoved, accusing Stark of "cherry-picking" properties to drive up her assessment.

1:11 pm: And we're done, but not before an interesting exchange about when a tax isn't a tax.

It all starts when Brodsky goes on the attack again, charging that it's not really private money paying for the stadium, but rather public money, since the Yanks are being exempted from paying property taxes. Levine pipes up for the first time in two hours, saying this is a ridiculous argument: The Yanks don't pay taxes on their old stadium, and were never going to pay taxes on the new one - "There would not have been a new stadium if this mechanism were not put into place," he says.

Cummings notes that the whole PILOT scheme is about telling the IRS that these are tax payments, not private payments. So which are they?
Pinsky, clearly choosing his words carefully: "They are a payment in lieu of generally applicable taxes, which is what we told the IRS." But it was attractive to the city, he continues, precisely because "currently the city of New York receives no taxes from the Yankees." What the city did, he says, is to "impose a tax on the Yankees that is a general applicable tax" in order to let them call their stadium payments PILOTs, at no cost to the city, which wasn't getting any tax money anyway.

This is a clever sleight of hand that Pinsky is attempting: The city "imposed" a tax on the Yankees, but it's not a special tax (which can't be used for tax-exempt bonds), but rather a generally applicable tax that just happened not to be applied to the Yankees before now. So it's not money the city would have gotten otherwise, but it's still public tax money for IRS purposes.

And with this surreal logic, the hearing is adjourned. Whether legal action follows, as Kucinich and Brodsky have both hinted at, we'll just have to wait and see.

Copyright © 2008 Village Voice LLC (http://www.villagevoice.com/about/)

NYC4Life

November 9th, 2008, 03:05 PM

NY1

Updated 10:21 AM

Yankees Transfer Soil Between Stadiums

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5566/26416445mj1.jpg

The Yankees are trying to bring some of their old stadium's mystique and aura to their new home.

Members of the team's 1998 World Championship team and 40 high school students from several Bronx schools took part in a special ceremony Saturday afternoon.

They removed dirt from the pitcher's mound and home plate area at the old stadium and placed the dirt in the corresponding locations on the team's new field across the street. The rain did not dampen the crowd's enthusiasm.

"Bringing dirt from the old and greatest stadium, you know, our Roman Colosseum to the new one, it's an honor," said a student.

"It was amazing, I had the greatest time of my life," said another student. "I don't care if it was raining, hurricaning, I'd be out here. I wouldn't trade this moment for the wold"

Former pitcher David Cone helped move his old mound.

"It's a great symbolic gesture to be able to dig up home plate and the pitcher's mound and bring it to the new stadium, while giving the old stadium the respect it deserves," he said.

Those putting the new dirt in place said now when they watch future wins they will think they had a little part in bringing the team good luck.

"You know, it makes me feel like I'm a part of history," said a student. "I've never been in Yankee stadium before so it's very special for me."

The first home game at the new Yankee Stadium against Cleveland is set for April 16.

Copyright © 2008 NY1 News. All rights reserved.

JSsocal

November 9th, 2008, 03:09 PM

Good news, looks like Yankee stadium has not met it's demise as quickly as Shea...

NYC4Life

November 9th, 2008, 03:59 PM

If it were only possible to preserve the entire stadium.

Bronxbombers

November 23rd, 2008, 12:06 AM

If it were only possible to preserve the entire stadium. I read every post. Thanks for all of the pictures of Old Yankee and also thanks for all of the pictures of New Yankee Stadium. I saw the outside of Old Yankee Stadium on 10/10/2007. And I will be inside of New Yankee Stadium during late July 2009.

lofter1

November 23rd, 2008, 09:57 AM

Given the economic collapse, will the likes of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Citibank, Merrill Lynch who bought / rented the expensive corporate boxes at the new YS still be able to honor their financial commitment to the Yankees gang?

Seems the public now has dibs on those boxes / seats, since our tax money is paying for so much of it.

Unfortunately the new Yankee Stadium will prove to be one of the worst examples of Financial Wrongheadedness under which the USA now operates.

lofter1

November 29th, 2008, 11:27 PM

Given what he's getting back, Mayor Mike's $1 / year salary is looking to be just another example of his lousy sense of humor.

How is he and his crew at City Hall any better than your run-of-the-mill shakedown gang?

Bloomberg Team Pressed Hard for Use
of Luxury Suite at Yankee Stadium

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/30/nyregion/30stadium_span.jpg
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Some tough negotiations led to the City of New York’s obtaining
the right to use a luxury suite at the new Yankee Stadium.

NY TIMES (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/nyregion/30stadium.html?_r=1)
By DAVID W. CHEN
November 30, 2008

The Bloomberg administration was so intent on obtaining a free luxury suite for its own use at the new Yankee Stadium, newly released e-mail messages show, that the mayor’s aides pushed for a larger suite and free food, and eventually gave the Yankees 250 additional parking spaces in exchange.

The parking spaces were given to the team for the private use of Yankees officials, players and others; the spaces were originally planned for public parking. The city also turned over the rights to three new billboards along the Major Deegan Expressway, and whatever revenue they generate, as part of the deal.

The e-mail messages between the aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Yankees executives were obtained and released by Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, Democrat of Westchester, who questions whether taxpayers were adequately protected in the city’s deal with the team.

Mr. Brodsky said what emerges from the e-mail correspondence is a sense of entitlement ingrained in Bloomberg officials. He said that the city appeared to be pushing for use of the suite for not just regular-season games, but for the playoffs and the World Series, and for special events like concerts, too.

“There’s this ‘Alice in Wonderland’ quality to the question of, what is the public interest here and who’s protecting it?” said Mr. Brodsky, who conducted a hearing on the issue of public financing of sports stadiums this summer. “We can’t find the money for the M.T.A., or schools, or hospitals, and these folks are used to the perks and good things of life, and expect them.”

The city maintains it was simply trying to obtain a luxury suite comparable to that given to other cities involved in stadium or arena projects. But the message traffic, which dates to January 2006, raises questions, too, about how sincere city officials were when they recently stated publicly that the box could be used to reward outstanding city workers, rather than mainly for the mayor, dignitaries and aides. The notion of inviting city workers as guests is not mentioned in the e-mail messages until Aug. 7, 2008, and only then in response to an inquiry from a reporter.

The city’s push for the perks has been known, at least broadly speaking, since Mr. Brodsky began raising questions earlier this year about the stadium deals for the Yankees and Mets, from whom the city also secured a luxury box. But the e-mail messages offer a revealing snapshot of the behavior and marching orders of the people involved in the deal for the construction of the billion-dollar Yankee Stadium.

It is hard to determine the precise value of what the city gave the Yankees as part of the exchange. The public parking, though perhaps a convenience to those who drive to the stadium, was to be run by a parking garage operator, not the city, before it was turned over to the Yankees for team use. The billboards would most likely generate about $750,000 annually, given their location. The Yankees are expected to charge $600,000 to $850,000 a year for stadium luxury suites, according to reports.

The project required permission from the Internal Revenue Service because of the team’s desire to use tax-exempt bonds to finance construction. In one heated exchange, city lawyers threatened they would not make the request to the I.R.S. for the use of the tax-exempt financing unless the Yankees would consider providing the luxury suite.

Lonn Trust, the Yankees chief operating officer, wrote to the city on Jan. 26, 2006: “For clarity, no seats, no suites, no tickets, and as they say in Brooklyn ‘No nothin’.’ ”

In response, a lawyer for the city, Joseph Gunn, warned that “No nothin’ can go both ways,” adding that if the luxury suite was not included, “We do not submit the letter ruling request.”

“Suite negotiations between the city and the New York Yankees were part of lengthy discussions with the city involving a whole host of different deal points,” said Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the Yankees.

At another point, raw personal feelings emerged, as evidenced during this exchange, starting June 29, 2006, between top city officials about Randy Levine, the Yankees president.

“If we want a deal on the suite, he wants 250 spaces,” Seth W. Pinsky, then the executive vice president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, wrote to Daniel L. Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor. After Mr. Doctoroff did not respond, Mr. Pinsky, a bit sheepishly, wrote the next day: “It comes down to how much we’re willing to rely on Randy’s word.”

“Let’s not give,” Mr. Doctoroff replied. “I don’t trust him.”

Another theme that emerges is Mr. Bloomberg’s interest in the stadiums. In one e-mail message on July 5, 2006, about the Mets’ new stadium, Mr. Pinsky noted: “This is a big issue to the mayor.”

David Lombino, a spokesman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, cautioned against reading too much into the e-mail messages.

“Securing the option to use a box at the stadium was one part of a much larger, comprehensive negotiation where we sought the best deal possible for the city,” he said. “Our goal was to make sure that New York had the same advantages as other cities, including the option to use a box, be it for staff outings, for public employees or for visiting dignitaries. The mayor’s office has indicated that no decision has been made as to whether or not it will exercise the option, but it exists for this and future administrations.”

A Bloomberg spokesman, Andrew Brent, echoed those ideas, saying, “As a matter of equity, it was important to us throughout the negotiations that the Yankees were not exempted from such gives or treated any differently than other teams.”

In response to recent questions from reporters, Mr. Pinsky, who is now the president of the Economic Development Corporation, has played down the importance of the luxury suite, saying he did not understand what all the fuss was about. [OY!]

But the messages show that he and other aides were anything but casual about the matter, with issues like the location and size of the box of obvious concern.

When the team agreed to an 8-seat box, the city successfully demanded 12 seats.

And on July 7, 2006, Mr. Pinsky informed Mr. Doctoroff that the Yankees had told him: “The location of the box is in left field, but before the foul pole. Also, it is designed to project out, so that it will have a direct view down the third base line.”

The city also demanded that the luxury suite be provided with food — just like all the other suites. But the Yankees balked.

In one message dated July 26, 2006, Stephen Lefkowitz, a Yankees lawyer, wrote to Mr. Pinsky: “Seth — Randy believes he told you ‘no food’ and that you agreed. If this is so, please let me know and we can drop this from our list of irritants.”

The city, of course, disagreed. And that prompted Mr. Lefkowitz to respond this way: “It’s really ridiculous, but it sticks like a bone in everyone’s craw. The Yankees feel the city should pay for any food it wants to consume, and I think it’s a little unseemly to require ‘free’ food.”

He added: “For this I went to law school — sigh.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Eugenious

December 10th, 2008, 06:59 PM

MLB 09 The Show Gameplay Footage, New Yankee Stadium

MLB '09 For PS3: A Guided Tour of the New Yankee Stadium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33JKj26Fcw

New Yankee stadium looks absolutely stunning

lofter1

December 10th, 2008, 09:53 PM

That VID is now gone ...

JSsocal

December 11th, 2008, 12:32 AM

^^^Wow, I watched it around 5 or so (Pacific coast time), and it was there... Boy they are quick :rolleyes:

antinimby

December 19th, 2008, 12:46 PM

The $160,000,000 man (could that be why he's got such a big smile on this face?).

C.C. at the new Yankee Stadium yesterday...

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/files/2008/12/20081217_cc_sabathia_ag_188.jpg

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/files/2008/12/20081217_cc_60.jpg

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/files/2008/12/20081217_cc_168.jpg
LoHud yankees blog (http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2008/12/17/is-there-a-big-man-in-the-house/)

antinimby

December 19th, 2008, 12:50 PM

By the way, the Yankees in addition to bidding against themselves for C.C. (and overpaying by a lot, as usual) had to "convince" C.C. that New York was worth coming to. :rolleyes:

I might add that this is a man that had previously played in Cleveland and Milwaukee.

God, the Yankees are stupid.

DarrylStrawberry

January 13th, 2009, 07:07 PM

http://www.diamondhoggers.com/2009/01/exclusive-virtual-tour-of-new-yankee.html

Monday, January 12, 2009

An Exclusive Virtual Tour of New Yankee Stadium (http://www.diamondhoggers.com/2009/01/exclusive-virtual-tour-of-new-yankee.html)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvSpjWGsyI/AAAAAAAAFME/b2MethQ_fZE/s400/YankeeMain.jpg

On the day that the Yankees unveil a new patch (http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2009/01/12/yankees-break-out-a-new-patch/) commemorating their new palace, we present you with one of the first inside looks at the new stadium. This tour comes courtesy of us from Editor George's roommate (thanks George). Enjoy the photos and a first look at the new gem of all big league ballparks (of course it is).

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvReGerZJI/AAAAAAAAFL0/Ehmc67i_RmE/s400/Yankee2.jpg

And in the future this room shall have much champagne sprayed in it. The New York Yankees locker room. What I like about it is the classic Yankee design casing/railing across the top of the lockers. What says Yankee baseball like that design? You look at that, you know you're in the Bronx. The Yankees did an excellent job of bringing tradition to this new ballpark.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvRT28EbZI/AAAAAAAAFLs/fk6v5EAhDlc/s400/Yankee3.jpg

Individual locker set and a better look at that famous railing design from inside old and new Yankee Stadium.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvRO23bM4I/AAAAAAAAFLk/Vmd0u2Qes3c/s400/Yankee4.jpg

Here is a view of the Yankees team restroom. We're told is was substantially bigger and fancier then this picture does justice. We believe it.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvRKSL-jkI/AAAAAAAAFLc/n4QnkgMQwTw/s400/Yankee5.jpg

The Yankees team hot tub. When we first saw a picture of this we thought it was a small team boat parked in the garage somewhere. This could hold ten to twelve Yankees at any given time with a girl for each. Girardi isn't gonna have that, but still. Only the Bombers know of the secret privileges that come with being a Yankee.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvRGOtgzhI/AAAAAAAAFLU/LMOzFsnDsho/s400/Yankee6.jpg

The carpet in the Yankee locker room. This isn't offered at retail for those interested. I bet it feels very plush on the feet. I'm sure it's lovely. Looks comfortable. Much finer living then what you'd find in say, the Pirates locker quarters or a team like the Marlins.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvRAQOpTII/AAAAAAAAFLM/Ql7FgbZ4AHo/s400/Yankee7.jpg

This is a look at the Yankee team batting cage. Firsthand accounts say it is much larger then the opposing team batting cage. This is also easy for one to assume. This is where the Bombers will master the manotinous. Where they'll earn blisters like the old time ballplayers. Where guys will carve out Hall of Fame careers.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQ8Na7fgI/AAAAAAAAFLE/0ieuDX1zDkc/s400/Yankee8.jpg

It looks like another area in the New Yankee Stadium will have an aspect that made old Yankee Stadium so appealing warm and cozy. Those legendary bleachers out in right field (http://www.diamondhoggers.com/2008/06/redlegs-welcome-us-in-new-york-with-w.html). This is very neat that the Yankees have decided to keep this area in the new park that gave the old stadium so much character.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQ3XBcqmI/AAAAAAAAFK8/D5pU947ZKtw/s400/Yankee9.jpg

And the view that the lucky men will see as they enter the field of dreams to do their day jobs. Can you even imagine?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQyxDcdbI/AAAAAAAAFK0/DnDr5tmVnOA/s400/Yankee10.jpg

One difference from the old park to the new park is the scoreboard in the wall in right field. This is a more modern-looking dimension of the new park. The old park had no scoreboard in the wall and as you can see the lettering and numerals will be modernized rather then the old flashbulb lights to make a scoreboard.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQuYQqYjI/AAAAAAAAFKs/yQKjf-Ghdm8/s400/Yankee11.jpg

From this club level view, we think that the new stadium out in left field looks an awful lot like the old stadium again. And that's what you'd hope for just as a baseball fan. It looks pretty spacious out in the left field corner of the new Yankee palace. We'd expect word to get around the league pretty quickly that balls will kick around down there and turn into doubles and even triples for guys that really motor.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQoXVyiJI/AAAAAAAAFKk/wpOazE_5uOc/s400/Yankee14.jpg

A view of new Yankee Stadium (right) next to old Yankee Stadium (left). One thing worth asking: will the new stadium see 27 World Championships?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQi4AyVwI/AAAAAAAAFKc/VoMIz2AVpO4/s400/Yankee12.jpg

Full view of beautiful center field, which will seat people. At the old Yankee Stadium, tarp covered the batter's eye area and there were no fans allowed to be seated there. All in all, this place really does look like a glossy new version of the old park. The architects did an excellent job. You get what you pay for.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_UYl4EeW8xVg/SWvQdk7S0dI/AAAAAAAAFKU/rhrMIsC_LvA/s400/Yankee+13.jpg

Cool aspect of the new stadium. The date that the park will be 'born'.

antinimby

March 28th, 2009, 10:21 PM

http://www.nypost.com/photos/theme/images/logo.png (http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo01.htm)

Peek Inside New Yankee Stadium

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo01.jpg
SKY-HIGH: An aerial shot of the brand new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will open up
the stadium on April 3 in an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs, and the first
home game of the regular season is set for April 16 against the Cleveland Indians.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo02.jpg
LOOK BACK AT HISTORY: The Stadium's museum will house treasures such as Thurman
Munson's locker and statues depicting Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World
Series.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo03.jpg
LAP OF LUXURY: The best seats in the house range from $500 to $2,625, and offer
soft cushions, teak armrests and concierge service.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo04.jpg
LOCKER ROOMY: Derek Jeter (whose locker is second from the left) and his teammates
will have plenty of room to stretch out in their deluxe clubhouse. The 30,000-square-
foot locker room is the largest in the major leagues and each locker has a computer to
keep players abreast of batting-practice times and other news, but won't let them surf
the Web.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo05.jpg
KICK BACK AND RELAX: Plush chairs and flat-screen televisions line the players' lounge,
where the Yankees can escape for some private time. Manager Joe Girardi gets his own
three-room office suite, with separate spaces for holding interviews, and a private bathroom
and shower.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo06.jpg
TRAINING CAMP: The Yankee clubhouse features a training room and gym, including
these hot and cold tubs. One tub allows trainers to observe players doing rehab
through below-surface glass.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo07.jpg
WHAT A VIEW! Fans can drink in the scenery from the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, one
of two members-only clubs in the Stadium. The large air-conditioned space is located
in center field above Monument Park.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/galleries/sports/yankees/pp_03272009_yankee_stadium/photo08.jpg
ENTER HERE: The main entrance of the new Yankee Stadium features a large NY logo
and the double-eagle medallions that were originally debuted on the 1923 version of the
Stadium.

Copyright 2009 NYP Holdings, Inc.

Alonzo-ny

March 29th, 2009, 03:03 AM

That player's lounge looks uncomfortably tight.

avngingandbright

March 29th, 2009, 10:55 AM

Is that drywall in the players' lounge? Classy, real classy.

Alonzo-ny

March 29th, 2009, 11:23 AM

Its clearly a leftover space that they threw some seats and tvs into.

meesalikeu

March 29th, 2009, 02:57 PM

* yawns * rolls over to continue napping *

JSsocal

April 2nd, 2009, 07:32 PM

Here is a cool 360 degree view over at the New York Times taken from behind home plate: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/02/sports/20090402-yankees-pano.html?ref=sports
====================
Also:
Yankee Get Taste of New Stadium
New York Yankees players were elated on Friday at the first workout in their new $US1.5 billion Yankee Stadium home.

"The best stadium, the best clubhouse, the best everything," a beaming Johnny Damon told reporters by his locker. "You can tell by the looks on our faces that Christmas came a little bit early this year."

Outside, more than 20,000 fans watched the team practise on the new diamond across the street from the Yankees' previous home in the Bronx since 1923 that had been dubbed "The House That Ruth Built," after famed slugger Babe Ruth.

Yankees captain Derek Jeter raved about the amenities, ranging from a spacious clubhouse and workout facilities, and new first baseman Mark Teixeira, signed to a eight-year, $US180 million free agent deal, gushed about his new address.

"This is going to be considered the greatest sports venue in the world," he said.

The new stadium echoes the old park on the field with the same outfield dimensions and many of the same architectural touches, including the ornate frieze, commonly known to fans as the facade, overhanging the top of the upper deck.

While the multi-tiered stands and the field bring back memories of the old home, the rest of the complex is state of the art with plush seating, broad concourses and a grand buffet of concession choices.

Subtle differences

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, starting his second season with the club after a disappointing opening campaign in which his team missed the playoffs for the first time since 1994, noted there were a few subtle differences.

The distance from home plate to the backstop was shorter, and there was a bit more foul territory wide of each base line, he noted before giving the new stadium a vote of approval.

"Fabulous," he said. "Last night when we walked in it, it felt like Christmas morning. It's an unbelievable building."

Girardi said he thought it was fitting that hurler Wang Chien-ming, sidelined by injury much of last season, would start the team's first exhibition game at the new park on Friday against the Chicago Cubs.

"What he's done here already over the years is something special," Girardi said about Wang, a 19-game winner in 2006 and in 2007.

"It was very unfortunate he got hurt last year. I think it's great that he gets this opportunity and gets to throw the first pitch on the mound."

Stoic closer Mariano Rivera, who has played a critical role in four World Series titles since joining the team in 1995, appreciated the new venue but was mindful of the task at hand.

"I think there's excitement," Rivera, 39, told Reuters. "I'm impressed by how big the facility is, the lockers and everything. It's gorgeous.

"But I hope we don't just come to enjoy this, but come and do what we're supposed to do and play the game."

http://tvnz.co.nz/othersports-news/yankees-need-pitching-payoff-2615236

antinimby

April 2nd, 2009, 09:24 PM

I think this is now the best ballpark in the country if not the world. Can't think of another sports stadium that can top it.

JCMAN320

April 3rd, 2009, 12:31 AM

This die-hard Yankee fan is going to Saturday's game with the girlfriend. I'll try and report back Staurday night and if not def Sunday.

Alonzo-ny

April 3rd, 2009, 06:59 AM

I dont have a problem with the fact they basically wanted a new stadium that looks like the old one. Shea is a bit of a disappointment.

DarrylStrawberry

April 3rd, 2009, 07:16 AM

I went to the open batting practice yesterday....this stadium is awesome.

A monument to Dow 14,000.

ZippyTheChimp

April 3rd, 2009, 08:57 AM

So 36,000 (http://www.amazon.com/Dow-36-000-Strategy-Profiting/dp/0609806998) is out the window?

OR will that be the theme of Yankee Stadium III?

ZippyTheChimp

April 3rd, 2009, 04:39 PM

I appreciate the extra few inches of room. For the rest...whatever.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif (http://www.nytimes.com/)

April 3, 2009

Sports of The Times

Where Retro Meets Recession

By GEORGE VECSEY

In the age of Madoff, in the age of bailouts, in the age of layoffs, comes the unprecedented spectacle of not one, but two heavily subsidized baseball stadiums opening in New York in the very same week.

It is instructive that the Yankees have seen fit to bring in the Cubs and the Mets are welcoming the Red Sox, two ancient franchises that exist — quite nicely, thank you — in their historic ballparks.

With their separate sets of angst, the Cubs still play in Wrigley Field (opened in 1914) and the Red Sox still play in Fenway Park (opened in 1912), although both landmarks have been yuppified considerably. The Yankees and the Mets get to have it both ways — tradition and glitz — in their gaudy new playpens.

Were these new places really necessary? Yankee Stadium was cramped and outmoded but quite awesome. Shea Stadium was a horror, but it was the Mets fans’ beloved horror. Knowing what we know now about the economy, we surely could have lived with them indefinitely.

The main goal became turning ballparks into resorts, land cruises designed for A.I.G.-bonus-recipient wallets, the games lasting long enough to wring more twenties and hundreds out of the faithful.

Bread and circuses. Shrimp and pennant races. Luxury boxes and follies. Laugh and cry.

And yet, like salmon swimming upstream or birds migrating on ancient flyways, real fans will find a way to the ballparks, pulled by the life-affirming force of baseball coming around again in the spring.

Fans will make their pilgrimage Friday night and Saturday, harking back to the old days when they spent a few dollars for a couple of hours of baseball.

Once upon a time, from 1923 through 1957, New York actually had three ballparks, where fans not only learned about baseball but about life, and sometimes even about architecture.

“There was a grandeur to the original Yankee Stadium that had a profound impact on a young boy from Queens,” recalled Alan Taxerman, a lawyer who saw his first game in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Built in 1913, with an Italianate rotunda behind home plate, Ebbets Field had a concave wall in right field that produced odd ricochets.

In Harlem sat the Polo Grounds, rebuilt in 1911 after a fire. It was tucked by necessity into the side of Coogan’s Bluff, built in a horseshoe contour, with very short foul lines in right and left field. The upper deck protruded over the playing field, with 250-foot pop-fly home runs sometimes hitting the notorious overhang.

Taxerman’s dad soon took him to the House That Ruth Built, later called (by Red Barber) the Big Ballpark in the Bronx.

“The Stadium seemed impossibly high, like a Greek temple or the Colosseum in ancient Rome,” Taxerman recently recalled via e-mail.

It was the first time he had ever heard the word facade, in reference to the 15-foot copper arches on the third deck of the majestic Stadium.

•

“To any normal 8-year-old boy, these esoteric terms would have seemed strange and foreign,” Taxerman wrote. Mickey Mantle, not familiar with the word, famously mispronounced it “fa-KARD,” but he surely could rattle the ramparts with missiles off his bat.

“Below the facade and the lower stands lay the pitch, the most beautifully manicured lawn I have ever seen, and in center field, in front of the 461 sign, stood three monuments, Ruth, Gehrig and Miller Huggins, right on the field,” Taxerman wrote. “These were innocent times, and I really asked my dad if they were buried there.”

He added: “And outside the field on River Avenue stood the El and a series of stores, bars, restaurants, bowling alley, which to a youngster seemed to strongly suggest that this was Yankee Town. This was a city devoted to the most famous team in all of sports. We knew what that meant, and if we seemed arrogant about it, surely, it was an arrogance based upon fact. It made us proud.”

The ballpark as source of wonder. The ballpark as the center of the agora, the marketplace. Ballparks had nothing to do with oval stadiums that housed football games. Cookie-cutter stadiums for football and baseball were a phase, a trend, now discredited. Ballparks were for 77, now 81, home games a season, a gathering place for hopes and fears.

“I hate to go — but I hate to stay,” a fan muttered late one night in the rickety old Polo Grounds in 1962. The Giants and the Dodgers had split for California after the 1957 season, and the Polo Grounds was briefly resurrected for the raffish Mets. When Shea opened in 1964, female ushers wore fancy outfits, as if they were BOAC stewardesses flying to London. That touch did not last long. Not in Queens.

Shea was a dump the day it was built. But at the moment, some Mets patrons are screaming about the thousands of dollars they have spent for outfield seats from which they cannot see the warning track. And prices are even more grotesque at the new Yankee Stadium, with tickets costing a minimum of $350 downstairs, along the infield.

Have the Steinbrenners of the Bronx and the Wilpons of Queens succumbed to hubris in building smaller palaces catering to the rich, with luxury boxes and waiter service? When Fred Wilpon sat on his father’s lap in Ebbets Field, to save the price of a ticket, one did not order a hot dog from a waiter.

Both new stadiums retain a note of reality from the mundane clatter of elevated trains, a reminder that real people go to work on the 4 train in the Bronx and the 7 train in Queens.

At least both teams remained in their neighborhoods. The Yankees never followed through on their threats to escape to the West Side of Manhattan or, gasp, New Jersey. But the price was putting the new stadium on a sweet little park that used to house joggers and tennis players. Mayor Bloomberg’s administration keeps saying it will replace the vanished parkland with vest-pocket parks on tops of garages. The children are waiting.

The Yankees have done the right thing in recognizing that the name Yankee Stadium outweighs the income from some transient corporation. The Mets’ new playpen is, for the moment, named Citi Field, after a bank that hustled its way into insolvency and has been bailed out by you and me.

The Mets’ stadium has been criticized by Paul Goldberger in The New Yorker as being too pretentious for the tacky auto-repair shops of this outer-borough locale. As a Queens boy, I respond with the immortal words of Steve Martin: “Well, excuuuuse me.”

•

Ballparks are supposed to be out there with the people. In Flatbush, Brooklyn, you emerged from the subway into a rabbit warren of hot dog stands and candy stores and other utilitarian outlets. Real life.

Now we have these swanky new joints. The Mets and the Yankees have made their deals with the devil, the luxury-box trade. And for an opening attraction, they bring in teams from the two grand old ballparks of America. Play ball.

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Jasonik

April 3rd, 2009, 06:20 PM

IN TOUGH TIMES, A MONUMENT TO GREED

Last updated: 8:57 am April 3, 2009
Posted: 2:10 am April 3, 2009
By Joel Sherman (http://www.nypost.com/seven/04032009/sports/yankees/in_tough_times__a_monument_to_greed_162731.htm?&page=0)

IT IS beautiful, of course. But in the way that a woman who went to the world's best plastic surgeon might be beautiful. It is supposed to remind you of the previous incarnation, and ends up feeling artificial and overdone.

The new Yankee Stadium has just about everything you would want in a modern sports facility, except charm and a sense of proportion.

If you can afford the prices, you should have a good time there. The sightlines are wonderful. The large screen in center field is so clear you really do feel as if you could reach out and touch the people on it. The concourses are wide, and the food choices abundant.

Yet the place brought nausea, not nostalgia. It just feels like the wrong time in the history of this country and this city to be opening up the George Mahal. When the project was initiated 2 ½ years ago, the Yankees could not have known what the state of the economy was going to be now.

But this is about more than wrong place, wrong time. The Yankees' sense of entitlement and unrestrained excess is timeless. They will tell you they built this stadium for the everyman, stressing what they consider still affordable pricing and amenities. But this stadium, in actuality, was built for a moneyed class that in many respects does not even exist in this city any longer.

Those $2,625-per-game Legends tickets behind home plate are selling slowly, and that certainly is because there is a whole class of banking/Wall Street/real estate mogul who would have scooped them up but has gone the way of flannel uniforms. But also because those seats not long ago would have screamed status, and now speak only to greed. The working world will not look onto those sitting there with envy. They will wish that those seats came with a dunk tank, not waiter service.

The Yanks also want to make you believe that the history and romance could be easily shipped from the old place to the new one simply by recreating dimensions, reconstructing the facade or replanting Monument Park. However, the new Stadium didn't make me think of the place just across the street. It made me think about Vegas or Disney World, since it made me think of a fake place designed to manipulate my emotions and get into my wallet.

"We don't see it as ostentatious or flashy," Hal Steinbrenner said. "We see it as classy."

For me, class is out. In truth, sadly, the Yanks have conjured up a building that defines them: cold, corporate, over-privileged. At a financially distressed time in which Bud Selig has appealed to teams and players to be more fan friendly than ever, the Yanks have constructed even more of a moat between their players and those paying for all the goodies.

For example, Yankee executives see it as a positive that the players now have underground parking rather than in the old place, where they had to walk 50 feet outdoors from the parking lot to the Stadium. In those 50 feet, fans held back by barricades could scream to their favorite players and -- if one of those players indulged -- get an autograph or two.

Now the interaction between fans and players, and media and players, will be less than ever. I know no one sheds a tear for the media, but I think the new clubhouse, overstocked with off-limits areas and clandestine exits, only leads to a group that will feel less accountability. And an over-privileged nature and lack of accountability have hurt recent editions of the Yankees.

"We are not a regular team," Brian Bruney said. "We are the New York Yankees, and it has to be nicer."

Nice is in the eye of the beholder, and if you work for one of those few places left where the corporate card is still set on unlimited, then the new Yankee Stadium is for you. For many others, this place will have all the charm of Bernie Madoff.

joel.sherman@nypost.com

STT757

April 16th, 2009, 09:15 PM

I'm hoping to catch a Yankees game in the next few weeks to check out the new stadium, I didn't realize how much they spent on the new Stadium. The Yankees spent more for their new Stadium ($1.5 Billion) than the Jets and Giants are for the new Meadowlands stadium ($1.4 Billion), that might not seem like a big difference but considering the fact that the new Yankee stadium holds less than half the people as the Meadowlands stadium under construction really goes to show the Yankees went all out.

Opening Day:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30252173/

JCMAN320

April 16th, 2009, 10:26 PM

Well I told you I would give my assesment of the new place, a week late been busy, so here goes.

The outside is massive and impressive the first thing I said was "wow" my jaw just dropped. The place is enormous. Once inside the Great Hall is the new classic that will join The Frieze and Monument Park as signatures of the stadium. It makes you feel like you in the main waiting area at Grand Central, the vaulting catherdral windows and glass ceiling really emphasizes the vertical lines on the building.

The concourses are bright and airy, very airy. A windy day and the upper concourse becomes a windtunnel. It was breezier in the upper concourse then out in the stands. But on a warm day it is the perfect place for natural air conditioning.

The seating bowl resembles the inside of the old stadium, just not in stacked tiers for obvious sightline improvements. The freize is huge and looks great back in it's original spot. The auxiliry scoreboard in right and left field are exact replicas of the ones in the old stadium and look excellent. The Armitron clock is replicated from the old Longines clock on the scoreboard from the 40s to the late 50s. The main scoreboard is a marvel and is in it's original spot of right center field. You really get a sense of the old stadium once in there. It doesn't feel like it has moved at all. Even the cut out for the subway train is replicated. The one thing I could do with out is the "Yankee Stadium" in left field. Like the frieze and monument park wouldn't be enough to remind where you are. It really just feels like Yankee Stadium.

I enjoyed it, had a great time and can't wait to go back. I mean I understand the old Yankee Stadium had the site, history, and location, but much of it's signature features were lost after the renovation. It's urban area and asymetry made it feel like Yankee Stadium and along with it's tradition. It really just became Yankee Stadium in name. Now it really looks like it was suppose to.

STT757

April 16th, 2009, 10:45 PM

What about food concessions, more than just your standard ballpark fare?..

STT757

April 16th, 2009, 11:16 PM

New Hard Rock Cafe at Yankee Stadium:

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200904023999057

http://www.hardrock.com/locations/cafes3/cafe.aspx?LocationID=538&MIBEnumID=3

JCMAN320

April 16th, 2009, 11:44 PM

The food is vastly expanded. Instead of sitting in a bin just warming it's cooked fresh every few innings. Nathans, Johnny Rockets, Board Head Sandwhiches, Garlic Fries, Shrimp Fries, Sushi, Hamburgers, Crinkle Fries, Chicken Fingers, Pizza etc.. The only thing is that everything has gone up a dollar it seems. Also beer there is now 9.00!!!! Also Cracker Jack and Popcorn and Cotton Candy is all there. Alot more options and alot more concessions now.

Also the walls and seats are a darker blue similar to the pinstripes and caps. The seats and sightlines are so much better as well.

Also a sidenote, The Bat is staying. In the fan and ticket guide I got in the mail, the map shows Heritage Field on the plot of the original Yankee Stadium with The Bat remaining. It's going to act as a landmark for when people come across the new walkway from the ferry and Metro North station. From there people will walk along Jacob Ruppet Place pass Heritage Field to Yankee Stadium.

antinimby

April 17th, 2009, 12:17 PM

Thanks for the report JCMAN. All very good news except for the opener loss. :mad:

ZippyTheChimp

April 17th, 2009, 12:28 PM

Also a sidenote, The Bat is staying.Well, that's good. Going on Saturday, and email exchanges with friends had stuff like...

"Meet at the bat?"

"I guess so, It's still there, right?"

NYatKNIGHT

April 17th, 2009, 01:26 PM

Are you taking your camera?

JCMAN320

April 17th, 2009, 05:52 PM

Yea you can meet there, but if your not coming from that direction meet at Babe Ruth Plaza, the steps between Gates 4 and 6 along 161st St. I have photos I'll upload them over the weekend.

Also I forgot to mention several other elements in the design of Yankee Stadium. Besides the dimensions and Monument Park being carried over from the post-renovation Yankee Stadium, the feature of the escalator housing peaking out next to the left-field grandstand in the post-renovation stadium, is replicated with a more modern twist with the feature next to both the left AND right field grandstands. Another feature is the bullpens bookending Monument Park. However with the Yankees bullpen back in it's original pre-renovation place of right field; although parrelling the field instead of running from the outifled fence to the back of the stadium. Also the Yankee bullpen has a door allowing Yankees players in the bullpen to access Monument Park (a request by Mariano Rivera), while the visitiors bullpen in leftfield is next to the service entrance (hahaha) ;).

The Frieze, originally while ornamental and copper, is now structural steel and functional. It acts as a support for the cantilever upper deck over the concourse and supports the lights. It is structural steel coated with zinc, to prevent rust, and is covered with two coats of white paint. Above that are flags of not just American League teams arranged by their standing in their divisions, but now the National League teams as well. National League teams above left field grandstand, American League teams above right field grandstand.

When you walk in Gate 4 you are greated by a photo of Lou Gehrigs speech with a recording of it playing it as well. On the opposing wall is a giant bronze replica of the eagle emblems on the outside of Gate 4. Turn right there is a farmers market fruit stand, (yes a fruit stand), and then you are greated by the Great Hall. After that if you go up the escalators immeadately to your right you will be greeted by a martini bar. They have thought of everything.

In all seriousness the Yankees did a great of seemlessly weaving the best of the classic Yankee Stadium, with the best of the post-renovation Yankee Stadium. It looks fantastic. Easily the best best ballpark in the world, and would Colonel Jacob Ruppert have wanted anything less? ;)

BTW, Thhe Yankees Wins; Thhhhheeeeee Yankees WIN!!!! 6-5!!!!

ZippyTheChimp

April 17th, 2009, 11:14 PM

Are you taking your camera?Whenever I bring it, they lose.

antinimby

April 18th, 2009, 07:40 PM

Homeruns are flying out of here. Some are speculating that there's a wind tunnel/current that comes in from those open arches in the Great Hall.

Whatever the case is, they'd better get it fixed and soon.

JCMAN320

April 18th, 2009, 11:20 PM

14 runs in the second inning. 22-4, Indians. The Indians hit two grand slams in the grouping of 7 HR's. :(. I thought of the "wind tunnel" when I went to the exhibition game when the Yanks hit 5 HRs, all to right field. I think they might have to add windows in the arches of the Great Hall if that indeed is the culprit.

BenM

April 19th, 2009, 12:20 PM

Do firms use wind tunnel testing or some kind of aerodynamic modeling when building stadiums?

JCMAN320

April 19th, 2009, 05:43 PM

Well HOK, now Populous, designed the place. I watched the Yanks 7-5 win, and after Posada hit a video reviewed 2 run HR. Posada was showing Swisher the wind tunnel effect with his finger showing that the wind comes in through the open arches of the Great Hall and hits the left field grand stand and swirls around the bowl and pushes to right field. Also all the HR's hit in the 4 game series is the most ever hit in a series to open a ballpark. I think there is something to this.

lofter1

April 19th, 2009, 06:17 PM

HOK gonna have something to answer for.

I thought they were considered the Premiere Designer of Stadiums in the whole wide world?

kz1000ps

April 19th, 2009, 06:26 PM

Does anyone besides HOK design stadiums? Their name seems to pop up on every project, be it for universities or professional teams.

JCMAN320

April 19th, 2009, 07:03 PM

Lofter they are and they have done most if not all the new ballparks since Camden Yards; they even did the Prudential Center. I mean look at entire right side of the stadium from Gate 4 to Gate 6; all those arches are open. They're is nothing they could do to put in windows along there this year. They would have to wait till the seaon is over.

According to the fan guide "The Great Hall will not have air-conditioning, instead relying on natural cooling. The savings is about the same as 10,000 New York City apartments shutting off their air-conditioning for a summer day." So the open windows are for nothing else but to allow natural air-conditioning, while allowing wind to fly through the arches, open concourses and on to the field to give up homeruns. This needs to be corrected, it is not an essential feature to the Stadium, it is not neccesary to have these arches open. There are plenty of other green initatives in the Stadium that losing this feature won't be a great loss. Install air conditioning in the Great Hall, put up the same arching windows that are on Gate 4 and the left field side of the Stadium or put in windows that have openings in some of them to allow some air in. If they just but only some windows in some of the arches and not all of them, it will just act as a funneling agent. The original Stadium was a pitchers park and allowed pitcher to thrive and allowed the Yankees to sign great pitchers.

The Stadium is angled to the Northeast as the original Stadium, the dimensions of the field are the same as the original Stadium; the open arches of the Great Hall, as far as I can see, are the only logical culprit. While all the best of the original Stadium's pre and post renovation features are replicated, open right-field exterior arches are a new feature. That is my conclusion

There are several other problems I noticed. One problem is in the bleachers is that there is no draining in the front row of the bleachers, so puddles from games or days earlier will still be around.

Also another thing that was rectified in a hap-hazard way in todays game is the railing above at the Bleacher Cafe above the batters eye. It is metal and in the sun it glistens light into the batters face from time to time. Posada noticed it (who overall likes the new smaller batters eye). My problem is that they put a blue tarp over it that it is the blue from the old ballpark and it doesn't match the navy blue everywhere else. I hope when the Yanks go on a road trip they fix that while wraping the railing in the same navy blue padding as is on the railings at the dugouts.

The "home-run arches" need to go!

ZippyTheChimp

April 19th, 2009, 07:53 PM

Posada was showing Swisher the wind tunnel effect with his finger showing that the wind comes in through the open arches of the Great Hall and hits the left field grand stand and swirls around the bowl and pushes to right field.Do you know for a fact that Posada was indicating that the wind was coming from the arches, or just the direction of the wind swirl?

I don't quite buy that the problem is the arches; it doesn't sound right. A big volume of air would be needed to cause wind effects inside such a large space as the playing field. The air entering the great hall would have to be squeezed through the relatively small passageways connecting to the stadium bowl.

Venturi effect. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect)

The wind velocity would increase considerably, and be noticeable to people on the concourses. So far, I haven't heard anything about this.

If there's a flaw in the design, I think a more likely area is the back wall that rises from the last row of seats up to the overhang. In the old stadium, the wall was solid; in the new one, it's some sort of mesh. This reduces the height of the stadium as a wind block by a few storeys.

The problem may just be geography. Stadiums are open-air and subject to natural wind patterns. It may not seem like there would be much of a difference moving a few hundred yards north, but you don't need much of a difference to dramatically change the result.

Which brings me to...

Besides wind-swirls and jet-streams, there may be another factor. On Saturday, it seemed to my minds eye that the field dimensions aren't exactly the same (besides the obvious foul territory). The right field dimensions (314 ft down the line, 385 right center), but the wall between these two points seemed to curve more in the old stadium, where now it appears to be a straight line. This area is the location of the WB Mason sign, where most of the homers have landed.

The difference in a curved wall may be five or six feet, but that means Posada's homer would have been caught. Several of the other homers in this area cleared the wall by just a few rows.

The other factor is Wang. He's been pitching BP in all three of his starts, two away from Yankee Stadium. The Yankees played their half innings in the same park, but they didn't exactly light up Carmona.

I think this needs to be studied for a while.

ZippyTheChimp

April 19th, 2009, 10:26 PM

Found more information at the WasWatching blog.

The question was put to Greg Rybarczyk, who runs the Hit Tracker (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/index.php) website.

His response:
I have been watching the balls fly in the Bronx, and while what the Indians are doing today is far beyond anything I expected, I did expect more home runs in right field at the new park, due to the shorter fence in that direction. However, there is another factor that I am tracking that I think is at play as well: the ball in use this year in MLB seems to be slightly livelier than the ball used last year or in other recent years.

As for the fence differences, I can best explain that by showing a diagram.

Outfield fence old vs new Yankee Stadium (http://waswatching.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/nys_vs_rys_overlay.jpg)

I created this by using actual prints from the new stadium, and by using high resolution satellite photos for the old stadium. You may have heard that the dimensions at the new park are the same as the old park, but that is not strictly true. In certain spots the distances are the same or similar, but there are significant differences in the fence line. As you can see in the diagram, most of right field is shorter in the new park, by as much as 9 feet, but more typically by 4-5 feet (the blue dotted lines in the corners are scale markings that are 4 feet apart.) In center field, the new park is actually a bit deeper, and in left field, the parks are very similar. From some analysis I’ve done on home runs, these differences would tend to increase home runs overall, and particularly in middle-to-lower power hitters.

The fence distances are not the only difference: in a few places, the fence is shorter (particularly the right field corner). A typical conversion factor for fence height to distance is that lowering a fence by 1 foot is roughly equal to moving it 0.84 feet closer to home plate. So, with the right field fence being a couple feet shorter in the new park, this is like moving it in a foot and a half or so. Minor, but I thought I’d mention it.

The possible lively ball is something I’ve been tracking by looking at average weather-neutralized home run distances. Let me explain that before I go on. I have tracked all home runs for the past three seasons, and for each, I have noted the altitude and weather that each was hit in. After figuring out how far a given home run actually flew (I call this “true distance”), my Hit Tracker program allows me to adjust the altitude and weather to a standard set of conditions and see how far the ball would have gone. I call that “standard distance”. The idea is that a home run hit in Coors Field, or a home run hit on a 100 degree day in Arlington, Texas, or a home run hit into a strong wind at Wrigley Field, can all be compared by taking out those atmospheric influences and comparing their standard distances.

So, very early this season (actually on the second full day of games), I had already noticed that balls were seemingly flying farther than they usually do, so I checked my numbers, and noticed that the standard distances of all the home runs around MLB were a lot longer than those hit in 2008. Since then, I’ve continues tracking this, and what was little more than a feeling and some numbers off a very small sample size have become a lot more compelling: the first 350 home runs this year are flying, on average, about 6 feet farther than last year. The likellihood that such a difference could come about by chance is exceedingly low, less than 0.0031% the last time I ran the stats on that. I’ve tried to come up with some other possible ways that league-wide homers could be flying so much farther, given that the weather is already factored out, and the ball is the most likely explanation.

Now, if these numbers wre happening in isolation, I’d be more cautious about theorizing on this, but we are at 2.26 home runs per game (a high rate considering it’s April, the coldest month of the year on average), and on the observation side, my own eyes (which have watched every one of the more than 15,000 home runs hit in the last 3 + seasons) tell me the ball is carrying farther, and lots of announcers (who also see a lot of fly balls hit) are saying the same thing. (You might also want to check out this thread from the “Book Blog” regarding the possible lively ball.)

Source
WasWatching.com (http://waswatching.com/2009/04/19/is-the-new-yankee-stadium-a-homer-haven/)

JCMAN320

April 20th, 2009, 02:51 AM

Very interesting article. Posada was showing Swisher that the wind was coming in from that direction and the swirl, but he pointed that it was coming in from right field.

The current fence height is 8ft 6inches starting at the left field foul pole and gradually declines to a solid 8ft at the Yankee bullpen and continues at that height to the right field corner. The fences in the original Yankee Stadium were like rib cage height, before the renovation.

I would say that I don't buy the open back wall at the top of the grandstand because other parks have it including Citi Field, however those ballparks don't have that horseshoe shape that Yankee Stadium has. I'm still not sure on that.

Could it be that the seating is now in a bowl and not in stacked tiers? I don't know. I do know however that Mike Francesa went on and on about it tonight on Mike'd Up on Channel 4. They need to call up Populous, get some wind professionals in there while the Yanks are on the road at the end of the week, and figure out where its coming from.

I do mention the wind velocities in the upper concourse in my first post on the Stadium. The wind was stronger in the concourse than it was in the grandstand. It almost ripped a fully loaded food tray out of my hands. It does get windy in there sometimes.

If the lively ball is indeed the culprit then we should see this complaint across the majors. I mean Yankee Stadium use to be a place that you had to earn a homerun, now a nothing hit off the end of a bat that should be a an out to right field, carries and crries over the wall. The Stadium while beautiful, performance wise is becoming a joke.

Last note: Last year on the opening 4 games of the season at Yankee Stadium, 6 HRs were hit, year before 9, year before that 11. THIS season so far at Yankee Stadium, 20HR'S WERE HIT IN 4 DAYS; 14 TO RIGHT FIELD!!!!. An MLB record for the first 4 games to open a ballpark!!! Something is rotten in the Bronx!!!!

ZippyTheChimp

April 20th, 2009, 09:20 AM

The fences in the original Yankee Stadium were like rib cage height, before the renovation.You can't make any comparisons with the pre-renovation YS. The ball was not as lively, and overall, the field was much larger. Still in 1961, the Yankees set the team record for homers that stood for decades.
I would say that I don't buy the open back wall at the top of the grandstand because other parks have it including Citi Field, however those ballparks don't have that horseshoe shape that Yankee Stadium has. I'm still not sure on that. Could it be that the seating is now in a bowl and not in stacked tiers?Comparisons with other stadiums is of little value, since they all have unique characteristics. What's important is comparisons with the old YS. What's changed? The open back wall and the less vertical upper deck mean that the new YS is a lower building, and wind passes over it more easily. What does that mean? Don't know. The new field is slightly smaller in right. What does that mean? With everything else being equal, balls that would have been caught at the warning track in the old YS are going to be over the wall.

The point here is that because the two places look so much alike, people assume that they should have equal characteristics, so we look for a silver-bullet fix for an obvious flaw (open arches). I don't think it's going to be as simple as that. It may be part of a solution, but if the overall problem is that the new YS is less resistant to prevailing winds, what can you do?

The simplest solution that always worked in the past is to adjust the size of the field by moving home plate closer to the backstop. That option doesn't exist at YS because it's already been moved from 72 to 52 feet (pretty much the limit), and the sharp cut at the right and left field corners means seats would have to be removed.

If it turns out that the problem is the natural environment, the only solution I can see is to compensate by pushing the right field wall back 10 feet or so in the off-season (Less seats = even higher ticket prices, Yay!)

And any data that's collected may become worthless when a large building across the street is demolished. Anyone want to guess what that's going to do to wind patterns?

lofter1

April 20th, 2009, 10:19 AM

Even if there is a wind effect or a shorter outfield, none of that would give either team an adavantage. Both changes, if advantageous to hitters, would equally effect both teams.

So, if anyone is crying that visiting winners were victorious only due to some design aspect, then the arguemnt doesn't hold much water.

ZippyTheChimp

April 20th, 2009, 11:29 AM

It's more complicated than that, Lofter.

Home teams play a lot more games in their own park than visiting teams. The way a team is organized is highly influenced by the characteristics of its home park.

Pitching takes longer to develop than hitting or fielding. It's bad enough that established pitchers are reluctant to sign to play in a place that's hard to pitch, but it's also hard for young pitchers to develop confidence and experience when they're afraid that whatever they throw has a good chance of going over the wall.

Teams that play in hitter-friendly parks become offense dominated, with average or weak pitching. They hardly ever do well in the playoffs. Perfect example is the Texas Rangers. In the mid 90s, they had the best offense in the AL, Will Clark, Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez in their prime. But they never did well in the playoffs, because the pitching was weak. It hasn't changed.

Despite all the jumping around by media fools that something needs to be done right away, the problem is really long term.

ZippyTheChimp

April 20th, 2009, 01:36 PM

Good overlay comparisons between the old and new TS (and Citifield) here. (http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball /YankeeStadium_II.html#place2) Hover over the link to toggle.

Note also the difference in elevation.

JCMAN320

April 20th, 2009, 03:09 PM

Zippy I agree with what you said. My only thing is that the original Stadium was similar in height, however did not have the open upper wall. The post renovation stadium added 9 rows in the upper deck with removal of the columns so it could cantilever over the lower deck so the Stadium could support the weight. Thats where it got the height. You right about comparisons they don't work cause every park is unique. So maybe they will try closing that screen up there who knows. If the OYS getting torn down will effect the wind further who knows. Will see.

TonyO

April 21st, 2009, 09:54 AM

This wind issue is very interesting, Steinbrenner must be pissed. His world-class facility has a flaw.

They will have to do something about it. You can't have a 'ballpark on steroids' giving away HRs. This brings up another question, this can't be the first stadium to advantage/disadvantage some aspect of a game.

NYatKNIGHT

April 21st, 2009, 10:10 AM

Coors Field has altitude; balls soar farther and curve balls don't curve as much, and that's true for both teams in a game.

The Rockies can configure their team to take advantage of it. But that's nothing new, some parks favor righties or lefties and the clubs configure their team to match their park.

ZippyTheChimp

April 21st, 2009, 11:15 AM

All baseballs used at Coors Field are stored in a humidor-room to control temperature and humidity. Since 2003 I think. It's still a hitters' park, but no longer at the top of the list. Cellular Field in Chicago had the most home runs last year.

Parks used to be tailored somewhat to the team characteristics, but also heavily determined by the surrounding neighborhood. Modern ballparks are often built in less-dense areas, so that's no longer much of a factor.

AT&T Park in San Fran was designed to be a LH hitters' park, 309 ft down the line, 365 in right center. But the winds off the bay generally move right to left, so AT&T PArk is usually at the bottom of the list for home runs.

All of a sudden, everyone is studying weather patterns in the Bronx. As a general rule, the ball will carry farther in hot humid weather, but prevailing wind patterns in different places probably play a larger role. It was noted that in spring and late fall, winds at YS usually come from the west, but during the summer, more from the north.

Maybe those open notches in LF and RF next to the grandstands are allowing air to funnel out at high speed.

JCMAN320

April 21st, 2009, 02:59 PM

Source: Yankees Looking At "Wind Tunnel" Effect

By: Darren Rovell
Sports Business Reporter

In six games at the New Yankee Stadium, there have been 27 home runs.

That's an average of 4.5 home runs a game and, if the pace keeps up, that would yield 365 regular-season home runs. Compare that to last year, when only 160 home runs were hit in the old Yankee Stadium.

So to what do we owe the 128 percent increase to?

Because the majority of the home runs are carrying out to right field, it has been said the stadium's design has created a "wind tunnel" of sorts.

"With the way the wind has been the last couple of days, right field is a joke," an unnamed official told ESPN.com's Buster Olney. "I would say at least three or four home runs in this (Cleveland) series would be routine outs in nearly every park."

A source tells CNBC that the Yankees have done wind testing and didn't find anything that raised red flags in the past. The source says that the team will continue to study the wind's effect on the stadium design, even though the team would not be allowed to make any real changes until the season is over.

Many have said that a wind tunnel effect would be unmarketable. It's actually extremely marketable, as it basically creates a steroid effect presumably without the juice. Of course, it's only exciting if the Yankees are hitting the majority of the home runs.

Populous, the design firm formerly known as HOK Sport, which designed the stadium, did not respond to a request for comment.

© 2009 CNBC, Inc. All Rights Reserved

JCMAN320

April 21st, 2009, 03:16 PM

Accuweather: Seat Angle Could Be Causing Yanks' Wind Tunnel

Published: Monday, 20 Apr 2009 | 2:24 PM ET
Darren Rovell
Sports Business Reporter

Earlier today, we told you that the Yankees had not found anything conclusive from previous wind pattern studies at the new Yankee Stadium.

But thanks to the right field wind tunnel theory, given the preponderance of home runs, meteorologists are getting involved.

Accuweather.com meteorologists "estimate that the angle of the seating in the new stadium could have an effect on wind speed across the field," in an interpretive news release issued by the Web site Monday afternoon:

"The old Yankee Stadium had more stacked tiers and a large upper deck, acting like a solid wall in efffect, which would cause the wind to swirl more and be less concentrated. The new Yankee Stadium's tiers are less stacked, making a less sharp slope from the top of the stadium to the field. This shape could enable winds to blow across the field with less restriction. In addition, the slope of the seating would also lead to a 'downslope' effect in the field which, depending on the wind direction, would tend to cause air to lift up in the right field. Fly balls going into right field during a gusty west wind would be given more of a lift, thus carrying the ball further out to right field.

http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/News_And_Analysis/__Story_Inserts/graphics/__SPORTS/Y/Yankees_wind_flow.jpg
Source: accuweather.com

Accuweather.com says if it is the seat angle that's cause the issue, the only games that will be affected will be during times when "the winds are from a westerly direction and above 10 mph. This typically occurs during the spring and the middle to late fall." Therefore, according to Accuweather, the calmer weather in the summer will lead to fewer home runs.

Executives with Populous, formerly HOK Sport, the firm that designed the stadium are now referring all calls to the Yankees.

Questions? Comments? SportsBiz@cnbc.com

© 2009 CNBC, Inc. All Rights Reserved

BenM

April 21st, 2009, 07:08 PM

For years, John Sterling, the radio voice of the Yankees, has been horrible at calling fly balls ("Damon is camped out under it. Oh, wait, it's a home run!"). Now he actually has an excuse.

BrooklynRider

April 22nd, 2009, 12:15 AM

April 22, 2009
Is This Seat Taken? In Front Rows of New Ballparks, Not Yet

By KEN BELSON (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/ken_belson/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Odd patterns have been forming inside New York’s two shiny new baseball stadiums, ones not seen in years. Clumps of empty blue and green seats are painfully obvious because many of them are in the best sections or right behind home plate, while fans are concentrated in the more remote parts of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/citi_field/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier).

After spending $2.3 billion on new stadiums packed with suites, restaurants and the latest technology, the Mets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkmets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the Yankees (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org) expected fans to embrace their new homes and pay top dollar for the privilege. Almost every team that has built a new stadium in the recent past has seen an immediate surge in attendance.

Instead, the Mets and the Yankees face a public relations nightmare and possibly millions of dollars in lost revenue after failing to sell about 5,000 tickets — including some of the priciest seats — to each of their first few games after last week’s openers.

The empty seats are a fresh sign that the teams might have miscalculated how much fans and corporations were willing to spend, particularly during a deep recession. Whatever the reason, the teams are scrambling to comb over their $295- to $2,625-a-seat bald spots.

“I’m sure they’re thinking, ‘It’s just April,’ ” Jon Greenberg, executive editor of the Team Marketing Report, said of the lack of sellouts. “But it’s lost revenue they anticipated getting. This is the worst possible time to debut a stadium.”

The teams are loath to cut prices for fear of alienating existing ticket-holders. Letting fans from other sections move to the premium seats behind home plate and above the dugouts could backfire in the same way.

The price of an average premium ticket is $510 for the Yankees and $150 for the Mets. The prices of nonpremium tickets rose 76 percent this year at Yankee Stadium, which goes a long way toward offsetting losses from unsold premium seats.

“But it doesn’t look good,” said Maury Brown, president of the Business of Sports Network, a research Web site. “It’s the Yankees, not the Nationals. On television, it stands out like a big sore thumb.”

Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ general managing partner, said recently that “small amounts of our tickets might be overpriced.”

Still, the teams are trying to drum up sales. The Yankees have hired Douglas Elliman Worldwide Consulting, which promotes and markets real estate projects for developers, to sell premium seats to high-end residential customers. The team has also extensively advertised the availability of the high-priced seats, and invited potential buyers to visit the Stadium at a Select-a-Seat weekend last month.

Unable to sell season-ticket plans for about 100 of their best seats, the Mets have been auctioning them off one game at a time. At least one fan took the bait, paying $7,500 for two seats behind home plate on opening night.

The Mets have suffered the indignity of watching a court-appointed trustee sell the two season tickets bought by Bernard L. Madoff (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/bernard_l_madoff/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the financier who admitted to running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/frauds_and_swindling/ponzi_schemes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) that counted the team’s principal owner, Fred Wilpon (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/fred_wilpon/index.html?inline=nyt-per), as one of its victims.

An auction for the seats concluded on eBay (http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=170321505247) Tuesday night, with the winning bid coming in at $38,100, considerably below their face value.
Neither team seemed worried that some of the premium seats — any seat that comes with an amenity, like waiter service or access to a dining club — were unfilled. Some of them could have owners who simply did not show up, which hurts food, parking and merchandise sales. Other seats may be part of partial season ticket plans that did not include games played last week.

“If someone’s not there at the moment, that doesn’t mean it’s unsold,” said Dave Howard, the vice president for operations for the Mets. So far, he said, fans are spending about 60 percent more on food, beverages and merchandise than they did at Shea Stadium (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/shea_stadium/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier). “There’s a lot of circulation in the ballpark.”

Many fans with tickets are trying to recoup what they can by selling some of them online well below face value. More than 10,000 tickets (about 20 percent of the ballpark) for the Yankees’ game against the Oakland Athletics (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/oaklandathletics/index.html?inline=nyt-org) on Wednesday were available, a handful for as little as $5, according to FanSnap.com (http://fansnap.com/), which scans the Web sites of five dozen ticket resellers.

“More season-ticket holders than ever before are selling into the market,” said Michael Janes, FanSnap’s chief executive. “Some people need to generate cash to pay the rent.”

The teams’ sluggish starts on the field — including the Yankees’ 22-4 loss Saturday to the Cleveland Indians (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/clevelandindians/index.html?inline=nyt-org) — have not helped generate extra buzz. Attendance across the major leagues has dipped this season, and plenty of premium seats are empty in other ballparks. Many basketball and hockey teams have also had attendance declines.

But the slow start in New York is striking considering how much the teams here spent to build and promote their parks. Like airlines that break even on economy tickets and rely on first-class travelers to turn a profit, the teams need to sell their most exclusive seats to help repay the hundreds of millions of dollars of tax-free bonds they issued to finance their new parks.

The unfilled seats in New York are even more glaring compared with how robust sales have been for previous stadium openings. The Baltimore Orioles (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/baltimoreorioles/index.html?inline=nyt-org) sold out 67 of their 80 home dates in 1992, when Camden Yards opened. The Cleveland Indians sold out 36 games in the strike-shortened season in 1994, and were filled to capacity 455 consecutive games from 1995 to 2001.

After moving to their new park in 2001, the Houston Astros (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/houstonastros/index.html?inline=nyt-org) drew 3.1 million fans, 300,000 more than they ever attracted at the far larger Astrodome. The Pittsburgh Pirates (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/pittsburghpirates/index.html?inline=nyt-org), a perennial second-division team, sold 2.4 million tickets in 2001 when PNC Park opened, 700,000 more than they ever sold at Three Rivers Stadium.

Mets officials say they are encouraged that they have already sold the equivalent of 25,000 full season tickets, 7 percent more than in 2008. Most of the team’s 15-game plans are sold out, and single-game ticket sales for April and May are 87 percent higher than in the same period last year.

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/randy_l_levine/index.html?inline=nyt-per)Randy Levine (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/randy_l_levine/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the Yankees’ president, said last week that attendance at the second home game was proportionately ahead of last year’s pace. Levine also said that 80 to 85 percent of the Stadium’s 4,000 premium seats had been sold for the full season.

For next season, the Yankees plan to raise premium ticket prices 4 percent.

JSsocal

April 22nd, 2009, 11:40 PM

Some pictures from their first win at the new stadium...
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0667.jpg?t=1240457316
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0679.jpg?t=1240457346
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0675.jpg?t=1240457366
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0674.jpg?t=1240457391
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0704.jpg?t=1240457482
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0681.jpg?t=1240457419
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0703.jpg?t=1240457457
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0697.jpg?t=1240457506
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0689.jpg?t=1240457778
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0699.jpg?t=1240457861
Sure looked good, but a hell of a long line...
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0693.jpg?t=1240457892
http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0653.jpg?t=1240457962

lofter1

April 23rd, 2009, 12:19 AM

And all that nearby park space that was supposed to go into the neighborhood (in return for giving the Yankees organization the freedom to build on public space) ...

How's that coming along?

JCMAN320

April 23rd, 2009, 12:24 AM

They are building on top of the garages. They got a soccer field on top of the garage on at the corner of Jerome Ave. and 161st St. It aint great I got to admit. Heritage Field is going to be the biggest contribution.

lofter1

April 23rd, 2009, 12:31 AM

So far only one soccer field on top of a concrete parking structure?

Hmmm. Who got the good end of that deal?

STT757

April 23rd, 2009, 01:01 AM

The empty seats behind home plate at Citifield and Yankee stadium are quite obvious, everyone's talking about it on Sports radio and even on ESPN baseball tonight. I don't know about the Mets but the Yankees really have priced people out of the place, ESPN Baseball tonight put up a graph showing the costs for a family of four to attend a baseball game at various stadiums throughout the Country.

They figured in two adults, two kids, food, hats, programs, parking.

The MLB average was $194.00 to bring a family of four to a baseball game, the price to bring a family of four to Yankee stadium to see a game was $419 dollars!.. The best deal in MLB is the Arizona Diamondbacks where you can bring a family of four for $114.00.

What you get in Arizona for $114.00 costs you $419.00 at Yankee stadium.

The Yankees really need to rethink their strategy regarding their stadium, the big Corporations who traditionally buy up these high priced seats are tightening their belts in order to survive. Families who fill the cheaper seats are going to not come in the numbers they have in the past, again ESPN pointed out that so far League wide attendance is down big time. The obvious factor is the recession but the also mention the lousy weather hitting the Northeast over the last several weeks.

I expect the Yankees as well as most MLB teams will rethink their pricing levels for tickets next year, after they see where their attendance numbers come in after this year.

JCMAN320

April 24th, 2009, 01:09 PM

I just got a a txt message from YESNetwork to quote: "Bud Selig said Thursday the Yankees will consider adjusting the cost of their premium seats."

Sherpa

April 24th, 2009, 05:49 PM

Sucks !!!

ablarc

April 25th, 2009, 10:05 AM

This is a really great-looking ballpark ... right?

Jasonik

April 25th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Note how the pre-cast facade is just bolted to the exposed steel frame with no pretense. The honesty/artifice is rather interesting.

http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0679.jpg?t=1240457346

ablarc

April 25th, 2009, 12:35 PM

http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr196/jerethangelfan/IMG_0674.jpg?t=1240457391
I like the exposed utilities snaking down the mainframes of a brand new building. Makes me feel right at home, like I never left the subway.

JCMAN320

April 27th, 2009, 11:06 PM

Over the Wall and Under the Microscope in the Bronx

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/21/sports/21homeruns_600.JPG
Barton Silverman/The New York Times
Fourteen of the 20 home runs hit at Yankee Stadium in four games this season have been to right field. Left, the Yankees’ Nick Swisher climbed the fence on Shin-Soo Choo’s homer for the Indians on Sunday.

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: April 20, 2009

Before they built the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees commissioned engineering studies to gauge the possible effect of wind on batted balls. The tests showed nothing alarming, though more research is planned now that 20 home runs have been hit in the first four games.

It is too early to tell if this is a trend or an anomaly, but there could be a simple explanation for the home runs jetting out to right-center field: the wall may be closer to home plate than it used to be.

At the old Yankee Stadium, at least after the remodeling in the 1970s, the wall curved from the right-field corner to straightaway center. Now, because of a scoreboard embedded in the wall in right-center, it is almost entirely straight.

Greg Rybarczyk, who runs the Web site hittrackeronline.com, said 6 of the 14 homers hit to right field would not have been out at the old Stadium.

“The biggest difference is exactly at the center of Section 103 (the one closest to the right-field bullpen), where the new park is nine feet shorter (359 feet in the new, 368 feet in the old),” Rybarczyk said in an e-mail message.

“On average, along the straight section of the right-field fence, the new park is five and a half feet closer than the old park. Once you go past the end of the straight segment of the wall towards center field, that’s where the new park becomes deeper.”

Rybarczyk, whose findings were first reported by the Web site WasWatching.com, studied satellite photographs of the 2008 version of the Yankee Stadium field and overlaid them on photographs of the new Yankee Stadium.

He discovered that left field is almost the same (despite another scoreboard there) and center field is a bit deeper than before, but right field is significantly different. To Rybarczyk, the short porch is actually shorter.

The Yankees’ president, Randy Levine, declined to be interviewed about the ballpark’s design. But the club has maintained that the field is oriented in the same direction, and that the dimensions and height of the fence are exactly the same. That may be true in the areas listed on the fence — in the corners, in front of the bullpens and in center field — but there are no dimensions listed near the scoreboards.

While 20 homers are the most ever hit in the first four games at a new ballpark, it is not unprecedented, even in the Bronx. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there were four stretches of four games at the old Yankee Stadium in which teams combined for at least 20 homers.

It happened in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2007, when 26 homers soared over the walls. Home runs have also been up around the majors this season, and according to Rybarczyk, who pinpoints the distance of each one, they have been traveling farther.

Even so, few of the homers last weekend were hit very far. The Yankees hit pivotal homers to right off Jensen Lewis on Friday and Sunday, neither traveling more than 350 feet. In an e-mail message, Lewis guessed that both balls would have reached the warning track or been shorter outs in any other park.

“There is definitely something to be said about how the ball travels at the new stadium,” Lewis said. “Routine fly balls become home runs and it’s going to be a strain on both home and away pitching staffs. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens once it warms up in the summer there — might as well install an air raid siren with how many bombs will be hit.”

At Citi Field, the Mets have experienced the opposite phenomenon. In six games, there have been only 10 home runs, and the ballpark plays particularly deep from left-center to right-center. Balls that probably would have left Shea Stadium, like the one Milwaukee’s J. J. Hardy ripped to deep left-center Saturday that was caught by Carlos Beltran, have been outs.

“I think we’ve seen the ball go out in left-center field, and when it’s hit well, it goes out,” said Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer. “When it’s not hit as well, it goes short. A lot of people have said balls hit to left-center or right-center would have been out at Shea, but I don’t agree with it. I haven’t looked at any charts, but I think we were helped the other day when Beltran easily got over to catch Hardy’s ball.”

Wilpon added, “It’s a small sample size, but that sample shows the ballpark is playing in a way that’s fair.”

Shea Stadium was always considered a pitchers’ park, and Yankee Stadium was largely a hitters’ park, especially to right field. According to the Bill James Handbook, there were 544 homers hit at Yankee Stadium from 2006 to 2008, the 10th most in baseball during that time.

Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati had the most, at 686, followed by U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

Teixeira pointed out that the Phillies won the World Series last season, and that the White Sox were champions in 2005. Playing at a home-run-happy park is not necessarily a bad thing for the home team, especially one stacked with power hitters like the Yankees.

“Obviously, we’ll have a little better understanding of our park, because we play here more than the other teams, and that should help us,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “We have a lot of guys who hit the ball out of the ballpark. But who knows what will happen?”

“It’s not something that I want to see a lot, unless it’s all ours,” Girardi added. “But it was an interesting four days.”

Ben Shpigel contributed reporting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
JCMAN Thought:

I checked older Yankee Stadium photos, prior to the renovation, and the shape of the fence then looks similar to the shape of new Yankee Stadium wall, with the exception of the park then being much deeper to left. However I have come to a personal conclusion that this is a trend around baseball currently with many homeruns being hit and with everyone being sensitive to the new Stadium opening, it quickly became a poster Stadium for this trend.

lofter1

April 28th, 2009, 12:28 AM

If true then the shorter distance shouldn't benefit one team over another. So why are the Yankees getting slaughtered at home?

George must be getting dull in his dotage. You'd think he'd realize that he needed to sign some good hitters to hit that magic spot, but even after building his Bazillion Dollar Ball Park failed to buy the right guys.

Or maybe it's a new curse caused by over arching greed.

JCMAN320

April 28th, 2009, 03:08 AM

Bad Yankee pitching!

BenM

April 28th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Greg Rybarczyk, the guy quoted in the article above, has a chart (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/hrdetail.php?id=2009_385) plotting all of the HRs hit at the stadium.

http://www.hittrackeronline.com/parks/newyankeestadium_2009_scatter.jpg

If he's right about the fences being 9 feet closer in the new park, then it does look like several of the HRs hit in the new park would have been warning track outs at the old stadium (like Posada's HR that was reviewed last week). The Yankees' options to fix this would appear to be limited. I suppose they could raise the fence a foot or so (it might be at chin level for those in the front row, but they could probably still see the game), but moving back the fences doesn't appear to be an option.

antinimby

April 28th, 2009, 12:17 PM

Bad Yankee pitching!Their hitting maybe even worse. Leaving a ton of men on base. Can't hit in the clutch. No bullpen.

This may be a very long season, I'm afraid.

sfenn1117

April 28th, 2009, 02:47 PM

It's crushing to watch as a fan and hard to justify spending so much money on payroll when nothing comes out of it. The bullpen doesn't have a single drop of talent in it besides Rivera. I'm starting to get frustrated with Cashman, although he's still not as bad as Minaya.

scumonkey

April 28th, 2009, 07:08 PM

From Crains NY
April 28, 2009 5:21 PM Yankees cut some premium ticket prices

Team announces that in addition to the price reductions, some fans who bought season tickets will receive free seats for up to 24 games.

(AP) - The Yankees are cutting some premium ticket prices and giving free seats to certain ticket holders in response to empty seats during the first homestand at their fancy new ballpark.
The team on Tuesday slashed the price of 48 first-row Legends Suite season seats on the outer half of the dugouts and photo cages from $2,500 to $1,250, and 68 others in the final three sections down each foul line from $1,000 to $650.
"There are a few hundred suite seats in our premium locations that have not been sold on a full season basis," Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "As a result, and for many of our fans who have already purchased full season suite seats in such premium locations, the Yankees are announcing today a program that adjusts certain prices and benefits."
New York said the reductions will apply to this season only.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester, a frequent and vocal critic of the Yankees, said the reductions weren't enough.
"It's the public that built Yankee Stadium, and even at these prices, the public has been excluded from the very stadium they built," Mr. Brodsky said. "It's a continuing disaster."
Those who bought $2,500 first-row season tickets in the 11 sections surrounding the plate that weren't reduced will receive an equal number of free first-row tickets for the rest of the season. Those who bought $1,250 first-row seats in the first two sections past each photo cage will receive free seats for 24 games.
Fans who bought $850 Legends Suite season tickets will get free seats in the same section for eight games and free seats in the $500 section for four games. Those who bought $600 Legends Suite season tickets will get free seats in the $500 section for 10 games, and those who bought $500 Legends Suite seats will get free seats in that section for eight games.

Sherpa

May 4th, 2009, 10:18 PM

Boston Sucks

JCMAN320

June 10th, 2009, 09:36 PM

Study: Design cause of Stadium homers
Dimensions shorter due to straight, rather than curved, wall

By Bobbie Dittmeier / MLB.com

06/10/09 8:51 AM ET

The shape and height of the right field wall at Yankee Stadium, rather than wind and other weather factors, are the cause of the proliferation of home runs hit there in its inaugural season, AccuWeather.com said Tuesday in a report on its Web site.

The meteorology company said that it analyzed the 29 games played and the 105 home runs hit at the new Stadium and determined that 20 of those home runs, all hit to right or right-center field, would not have been home runs at the old Stadium across the street.

There were 160 home runs hit at the old Stadium last season. At its current pace, the new Stadium would yield 293 homers, an 83-percent increase over last year and 10 shy of the Major League record of 303 hit at Denver's Coors Field in 1999.

AccuWeather.com said that the right field wall at the old Stadium, 10 feet in height, gently curved toward center field, while the wall at the new Stadium, eight feet in height, runs straight toward center field, resulting in shorter dimensions that at one point reach nine feet. It published a graphic on its web site showing the differences in the shape of the walls and the landing points of 20 home runs that it said would not have gone out in the old ballpark.

The Yankees, according to The Associated Press, say that the dimensions are exactly the same.

"The dimensions at select corners of the field are identical -- and the posted numbers on the walls reflect that," Accuweather said. "However, detailed schematics of the park reveal some nuances that have significant implications."

The weather service said that the inclusion of an auxiliary scoreboard in the right field wall, which did not exist at the old Stadium, is the reason why the wall runs in a straight line toward center field. Sixty-three of the 105 home runs have gone to right or right-center field, according to AP.

"In right field, the new-found homer haven, the wall structure is slightly different than the old park," Accuweather said. "The main difference involves curvature. The gentle curve from right field to center field seen in the original Yankee Stadium has largely been eliminated at the new stadium. This is due in large part to the presence of a manual scoreboard embedded within the wall. Losing this curvature has resulted in a right field that is shorter by four to five feet on average, but up to nine feet in spots.

"Not only is the famed short porch even shorter in the new stadium, but the walls themselves are not as tall. In the old ballpark, the walls in right field stood at a height of approximately 10 feet. At this height, it was difficult for outfielders to scale the wall and attempt to rob a home run over the fence. Fast forward to 2009, and the outfielders have been scaling the wall without any trouble. The result? The new outfield fences only rise to a height of eight feet, adding to the ease of hitting a home run to right."

There has been speculation that balls have carried farther at the Stadium because of stronger wind currents, perhaps caused by the Stadium's open concourses or the incline of the stands, which is less steep than it was at the old ballpark. Accuweather said that has not been the case.

"There has been no consistent pattern observed in the wind speed and direction that would lead to an increase in home runs so far this year," Accuweather said.

Bobbie Dittmeier is an editor/producer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

scumonkey

June 10th, 2009, 09:48 PM

Keith Oberman reported this tonight on "Countdown".
He also rightfully pointed out that Accuweather told
New Yorkers that they wouldn't need an umbrella
just hours before the sky opened up and the floods came pouring down :rolleyes::D

ZippyTheChimp

June 10th, 2009, 09:52 PM

I posted this link weeks ago.

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/YankeeStadium_II.html

Hover mouse over YANKEE STADIUM I for comparison.

Interesting is a possible fix at PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE. I don't know if this was an actual design that was rejected, but by relocating the bullpens on either side of the restaurant box, you could pull the wall back.

sfenn1117

June 10th, 2009, 10:51 PM

ZippyTheChimp

June 11th, 2009, 12:20 AM

JCMAN320

August 6th, 2009, 11:00 PM

Yanks win 13-6 against the BoSox. 66-42 currently tied for the best record in baseball; 36-17, best home record in the AL; 24 games over 500; and 3.5 games ahead of the BoSox. New Yankee Stadium is working out just fine for us.

Yankees pay tribute to Ali
Legendary boxer presents club with hospitality award

08/06/09 7:53 PM ET

NEW YORK -- It is rare that the rosters of the Yankees and the Red Sox can be brought together for any common event, other than nine innings of baseball on a summer night.

Before Thursday's game, the members of the classic rivalry halted their preparation to appreciate and honor something they could all agree on. Muhammad Ali is still "The Greatest."

The three-time world heavyweight champion and 1960 Olympic gold medalist was honored at Yankee Stadium, circling the warning track in a motorized cart while waving to the grandstands from behind dark sunglasses.

As he moved toward home plate, the Boston and New York players in the outfield all stopped their stretching and tossing. Johnny Damon and Jacoby Ellsbury applauded, and Jorge Posada walked over to the cart to shake Ali's hand.

Along with the president of the American Academy of Hospitality Services, Joseph Cinque, Ali presented Yankees managing general partner and co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner with the academy's "Six Star Diamond Award" for Yankee Stadium and Legends Hospitality, LLC with the "Five Star Award."

In its inaugural season, Yankee Stadium received the Academy's highest honor, bestowed on superlative establishments that are deemed to be of pinnacle quality. Thursday marked the first time that a Stadium earned the honor for excellence in hospitality.

Ali, who compiled 56 wins and 37 knockouts in his storied career, experienced one of the most memorable evenings of his career at the original Yankee Stadium on Sept. 28, 1976, when he defeated Ken Norton in a 15-round decision to retain the heavyweight title.

As Ali was prepared for the presentation and was cheered by the early-arriving crowd, highlights of his classic bouts played on the two auxiliary video screens in left-center and right-center fields.

Yankees captain Derek Jeter also participated in the on-field ceremony, which concluded with Ali being fitted for an authentic New York cap and the entire Yankees roster coming out of the dugout to pose for a photograph.

Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

JCMAN320

September 11th, 2009, 07:04 PM

http://savetheyankeegate2.com/

Hey guys I'm not trying to spam but please look at this site and what were fighting for. We are trying to get Gate 2 incorporated into the new Heritage Field. As many of you may or may not know the current Heritage Field design does not include anything of historical significance of the stadium. Gate 2 was the only part of the Stadium that left in original form during the mid-70s renovation.

We are dedicated group of Yankee fans and baseball fans that are trying to make this happen. We are gaining traction and have great ideas. We have been covered by the Star-Ledger, Daily News, and baseball fever.

Please take a look and hopefully you will be inspired to join the cause.

Thank You

BPC

September 14th, 2009, 12:53 AM

Love it.

TREPYE

September 19th, 2009, 12:59 PM

More data from Hit-Tracker.

Location of home runs in 2009

Yankee Stadium (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2009_1268&type=ballpark)

Ameriquest (Texas) (http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2009_1069&type=ballpark)

So far, 3.62 homers per game have been hit in Yankee Stadium, #1 in MLB.
Ameriquest Field is #2 at 2.86 homers per game. Ameriquest is #2 in the average true distance for homers at 411 ft. That's consistent for a stadium with a high number of homers. You would expect an equally high average distance for Yankee Stadium, but that 's not the case.

Of the 14 AL ballparks, the four lowest in average true distance are:

Fenway Park - 386 ft
Safeco - 388
US Cellular - 389
Yankee Stadium - 389

Compare the two charts above. Use the range-rings and notice how many homers are within 350 ft in right field.

Fascinating website.

Notice how homers hit in YS are 3 mph slower than the ones hit in Texas. One thing that this website has to capture in its stadium average line to get an more complete picture is the average [estimated] maximum height of the home run ball's trajectory.

When I watch a ball being hit, I notice that:
Line drives have a high speed off the bat but reach a lower max height.
Fly balls have slower speeds off the bat but reach a higher height.

I'm willing to bet that upon analysis that YS homers has one of the lowest max heights out of all the stadiums...specially those hit to right field:).

JCMAN320

September 30th, 2009, 06:46 PM

Yankee Stadium to host bowl game
Big East, Big 12 scheduled to meet in Bronx in 2010

By Tim Britton / MLB.com

09/30/09 12:36 PM ET

NEW YORK - Forty-seven years after Yankee Stadium last hosted a bowl game, major college football is coming back to the Bronx.

On Wednesday, the Yankees announced a deal with the Big East and Big 12 conferences to host a bowl game at Yankee Stadium beginning in December 2010. Although the game does not have an official name yet, it's already being colloquially referred to as the "Yankee Bowl." The inaugural game, to be played sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day in 2010, will pit the fourth-place finisher from the Big East against the No. 7 team from the Big 12.

"Nobody stages big events like the Big Apple. We've got the experience, we've got the resources, and we've got the spirit," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It's a win for the fans of both teams playing, and it's a win for New York."

The game will bring major college football back to New York City for the first time since the old Yankee Stadium across the street hosted the Gotham Bowl in 1962. That game featured current Big 12 member Nebraska defeating one-time Big East team Miami, 36-34.

The entire northeast has not hosted a major bowl game since 1981, the last year the Garden State Bowl was played at the Meadowlands. The potential for poor weather, however, isn't a concern for anyone involved.

"I've played games in snow and ice; it's fun," said Dan Beebe, commissioner of the Big 12. "Bring on the snow, bring on the ice. I don't care. The Big 12 is excited to come here. We'll play in whatever conditions. We'll put ice skates on instead of cleats."

"I've always thought what's strange is football in warm weather," Bloomberg added. "This is a sport where you have to go out and bundle up. That's part of the fun of it."

Bloomberg hopes the game will become another major holiday event in a city full of them. Yankees President Randy Levine said the game has the potential to become affiliated with New Year's Eve at Times Square in the same way the Rose Bowl is connected to New Year's Day and the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.

Bloomberg estimated that the game could bring 40,000 visitors and roughly $47 million to the city.

Logistically, the football field will spread from behind home plate straight out toward center field. That setup will afford excellent sightlines from almost all of Yankee Stadium's seats, which were designed to face the middle of the field, according to Yankees Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost.

Trost added that the stadium was built with possible football games in mind and that the organization cherishes such opportunities to open Yankee Stadium's doors in the offseason.

"When you build a stadium such as this one, keeping it open for 81 days in the regular season and 11 possible days in the postseason really isn't enough. In today's world, you need to keep this venue open all the time," Trost said. "We made a special effort to winterize this entire building. This building works for baseball, it works for football. It's been designed for both."

A matchup between the Big East and Big 12 certainly has its draws. The conferences are not aligned in any other bowl contest, with their last postseason meeting occurring after the 2007 season, when West Virginia defeated Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

"The Big East has long prided itself on having made it in New York City," said Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, alluding to the Big East men's basketball championship at Madison Square Garden. "Now we're back for football in perhaps the most famous stadium in the world."

The game provides the Big 12, whose easternmost teams are Iowa State and Missouri, the chance to bring student-athletes to New York.

The announcement comes two months after the Yankees agreed to host a November 20, 2010, regular-season meeting between Army and Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium. Notre Dame could find itself back in New York for the "Yankee Bowl" a little over a month later if the Big 12 does not have enough bowl-eligible teams and the Fighting Irish are not invited to the Bowl Championship Series.

The Big East's Marinatto summed it up best, though. "Big East, Big 12, Big Apple," he said. "Big time."

Tim Britton is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090930&content_id=7242582&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

kz1000ps

October 24th, 2009, 02:07 PM

Cracks Emerge in Ramps at New Yankee Stadium

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/10/23/nyregion/23stadium1ready/articleLarge.jpg

A ramp next to the Hard Rock Cafe at the $1.2 billion Yankee Stadium was patched to repair a multitude of cracks.

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and KEN BELSON
Published: October 23, 2009

The concrete pedestrian ramps at the brand-new $1.5 billion city-subsidized Yankee Stadium have been troubled by cracks, and the team is seeking to determine whether the problems were caused by the installation, the design, the concrete or other factors, according to several people briefed on the problems.

The ramps were built by a company accused of having links to the mob, and the concrete mix was designed and tested by a company under indictment on charges that it failed to perform some tests and falsified the results of others. But it is unclear whether work performed by either firm contributed to the deteriorating conditions of the ramps.

The Yankees have hired an engineering company to take samples from the ramps — they ascend from field level to the stadium’s upper tiers, carrying thousands of people each game — to determine the cause and the extent of the problems as the team finishes its first season in the new stadium and prepares for what could be its first World Series there.

A spokeswoman for the team, Alice McGillion, called the cracks “cosmetic,” saying that they posed no safety issues because they did not affect the structural integrity of the ramps. She characterized the work to repair the problems as “routine remediation,” which she said was “usual in this kind of building or in any other building.”

“There is no evidence that there is any issue or problem with concrete or any material in the building,” she said.

Several people briefed on the problems said, however, that they would cost several million dollars to fix. The cracks, some as much as an inch wide and several feet long, are visible on the slate-gray walkways. Those with knowledge of the defects spoke on the condition of anonymity, as did others, because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

It remains unclear whether the problems will require the team to tear out any of the concrete along the affected walkways. Before the season began, the team had already taken steps to address the fact that the ramps did not comply with federal regulations concerning accommodations for the disabled, several people briefed on the issue said, changing the angle of the ramps.

The company that evaluated the strength of the concrete poured for the walkways, Testwell Laboratories, its owners and several officers were indicted last year on state racketeering charges, and they have all denied the accusations. The case stems from a sweeping 18-month investigation of the concrete-testing industry that also led to charges against a second company. The investigation also forced the city to order the retesting of the concrete in 80 structures in four boroughs, including the stadium. More than half a dozen other companies remain under scrutiny in the case.

The company that built the ramps, Interstate Industrial Corporation, was barred from doing city work in 2004 because city investigators concluded it had ties to organized crime, an accusation its owners have vehemently and repeatedly denied.

The contract for the work at Yankee Stadium was awarded to a company called Central Excavators. But the Yankees, Interstate and Turner Construction Company, the construction manager that built the stadium, have all acknowledged that Interstate performed the work.

One person with knowledge of the matter said the cracks and deterioration were unusual.

“But here, the issue is who is pouring the stuff and whether the pour created the problems, and in theory whether the original engineering was involved,” the person said. “You just couldn’t put it on Testwell. Maybe it’s Interstate, the people who poured the concrete, or the engineers, or some combination.”

The design work on the stadium, including on the ramps, was performed by Populous, a company in Kansas City, Mo. Gina Stingley, a spokeswoman for the company, said on Friday night that she was unfamiliar with the issues and could not comment.

Frank DiTommaso, an owner of Interstate, said he had heard that some patching had been done, but “we’ve never been contacted by the Yankees about any structural deficiencies.”

An effort to reach a Turner official by e-mail was unsuccessful, and a phone message left for an official at Jenna Concrete Corporation, which supplied the concrete, was not returned. A lawyer for Testwell said he was unaware of the situation and could not comment.

The Yankees are scheduled to play Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Angels at the stadium on Saturday.

If the engineering firm finds problems with the concrete at the new stadium, one of the city’s signature construction projects and one of the Bloomberg administration’s biggest development undertakings, it would mark the first time that defective concrete has been uncovered since the investigation began.

The problems also underscore the inadequacies in the process by which the city vets contractors on projects like the stadium, which was financed in significant part by the city but built by a private developer, Tishman-Speyer. The procedures for screening contractors on projects financed by the city’s Economic Development Corporation, as the stadium was, are less rigorous than for projects built and paid for by the city.

The Testwell indictment, unsealed last October, charged that the company failed to perform some strength tests and billed clients for work that was never done at the stadium and roughly 100 other projects, including the Freedom Tower. When the charges were announced by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, city officials said the structures were believed to be safe, but might deteriorate sooner than expected.

David Waldstein contributed reporting.

Link (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/nyregion/24stadium.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion)

lofter1

October 24th, 2009, 05:16 PM

Mayor Mike, George S.! Hello!! And Wake Up ...

... The company that built the ramps, Interstate Industrial Corporation, was barred from doing city work in 2004 because city investigators concluded it had ties to organized crime, an accusation its owners have vehemently and repeatedly denied.

The contract for the work at Yankee Stadium was awarded to a company called Central Excavators. But the Yankees, Interstate and Turner Construction Company, the construction manager that built the stadium, have all acknowledged that Interstate performed the work.

Ya gotta love NY :cool:

Merry

November 3rd, 2009, 06:06 AM

City keeps (Stadium) gate open: Yanks fans' plan for memorial still in game

BY Benjamin Peim

November 3rd 2009

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/11/03/alg_gate-2.jpg

Gate 2 at the old Yankee Stadium.

There's a loose collection of Yankee fans who are taking Yogi Berra's "It ain't over 'til it's over" to heart and still swinging away in their fight to save a gate from the old Yankee Stadium from oblivion.

The Parks Department's plans for commemorative items at Heritage Field - the park that will replace the old stadium - failed to win preliminary approval from the New York City Design Commission at an Oct. 26 meeting.

Gate 2 had not been in Parks' plans.

"It's not a victory, but it shows we're still in the game," said crusading fan John Trush, of Washington, N.J.

The Parks Department gained preliminary approval last May for Heritage Field plans from the Design Commission, which must approve all permanent works of art, architecture and landscape architecture on or over city property.

A Parks spokesman said the department was working closely with the commission to address concerns and expected the park to be completed on schedule.

The Gate 2 supporters group, formed over the Internet, has presented its plans to a number of city officials.

They envision the gate as a grand entrance to the future park, costing as little as $1 million.
It could also be a Bronx "Arc de Triomphe," the fans argue, luring tourists and paying homage to Yankee lore.

But some Bronx residents appear fed up with waiting for the old stadium's demolition, and with the Gate 2 crusade.

"These people are coming in after the fact," said Geoffrey Croft, president of the nonprofit New York City Park Advocates. "If they wanted to save it, they should have been in touch three years ago when plans were being made."

The Bronx was promised Heritage Field as a replacement for parkland swallowed up three years ago by the construction of the new Yankee Stadium.

While the new stadium was completed on schedule, Heritage Field's construction has been long delayed.

Croft argues that the gate will take away from park space.

City officials critical of keeping the gate question its historical value, noting it was significantly altered during the stadium's 1973 renovation.

They also argue that the gate would have to be stabilized and restored, which could cost $10 million.

But supporters say that 80% of the gate's structure is from the 1920s.

They also say the money needed for the project could be raised by selling the stadium's bricks as commemorative items.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bronx/2009/11/03/2009-11-03_city_keeps_stadium_gate_open_yanks_fans_plan_fo r_a_memorial_still_in_the_game.html#ixzz0VnFSY2CN

BrooklynRider

November 4th, 2009, 10:18 PM

If the old Yankee Stadium needed to be replaced, then the old one should be demolished. How is it that Shea Stadium came down simultaneous to construction of CitiField, but this stadium remains standing? The residents of the Bronx are getting screwed.

Sherpa

November 6th, 2009, 02:36 PM

They must have the mob-linked team who are involved with the Deutsche Bank building invloded here too.

lofter1

November 10th, 2009, 09:22 AM

Bette Midler trash-talks Yanks:
'Beaches' star urges Bombers to pay for cleaning of Major Deegan

"Think of all the creative things you can do with your own stretch of highway," she said. "Alex Rodriguez could really impress Kate Hudson with a mile of A-Rod Rhododendrons.

"A-Rod could split it with Derek Jeter. I hear his girlfriend wants an engagement ring, but if he's not ready for that level of commitment, nothing says, 'I love you' like a mile of the Major Deegan planted with Jeter Junipers!

"And while I'm on the subject, a Matsui Japanese Maple would make a lovely MVT - Most Valuable Tree. Some Johnny Damon Dogwoods would be nice."

NY Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/11/10/2009-11-10_bette_trashtalks_yanks_miss_m_urges_bombers_to_ pay_for_beautification_of_major_d.html?r=ny_local)
By Heidi Evans
November 9th 2009

First, the Yankees cleaned up on the Phillies - now Bette Midler wants the world champs to pick up the tab to clean 2 miles of a dirty Bronx highway outside their shiny new Stadium.

The Divine Miss M, who since 2004 has been paying to collect trash people throw from their cars along the Major Deegan Expressway, would love her hometown team to step up and "Adopt-A-Highway" in their own backyard.

"Come on guys!" Midler urged. "It's a good thing, it's not expensive, and it's great branding for the Yankee organization.

"I have been trying to get to someone in the Yankee organization for years to do this," Midler told the Daily News. "It's time to pass the torch."

Midler, who founded the New York Restoration Project in 1995, has been committed to making the city cleaner and greener.

Her crusade began when she returned to the city 14 years ago and was appalled at how New York's public places seemed to be drowning in a sea of litter.

She began cleaning up Fort Tryon Park and Fort Washington Park in upper Manhattan, initially recruiting members of her family and friends. Those early efforts turned into the nonprofit New York Restoration Project's grass-roots effort to plant 1 million trees across the city by 2017.

Midler was so irked by the filth along the grimy Major Deegan, she personally pays for cleanup crews to come twice a week instead of the standard once a week.

Adopt-A-Highway crews have filled 394 bags with fast-food wrappers, soda bottles and other garbage strewn between W. 168th St. and W. Fordham Road this year.

While there are waiting lists for people and companies that want to "adopt" prettier roads, such as the leafy Henry Hudson, or the Grand Central Parkway, the poor Major Deegan has no such luck.

"I'm thrilled to death that they [the Yankees] won, but would they please in their win fork over - it's so cheap - like 25 grand for a whole year," she added. "They could have flowers that say "Go Yankees!"

Greg Wooden, vice president of Adopt-A-Highway, said it would cost less than $2,000 a month, a mere pittance compared with the $252 million the Yankees fork over to A-Rod, and $189 million to Derek Jeter.

Midler is passionate about the subject, and belted out a plea to the Bronx Bombers. "Think of all the creative things you can do with your own stretch of highway," she said. "Alex Rodriguez could really impress Kate Hudson with a mile of A-Rod Rhododendrons.

"A-Rod could split it with Derek Jeter. I hear his girlfriend wants an engagement ring, but if he's not ready for that level of commitment, nothing says, 'I love you' like a mile of the Major Deegan planted with Jeter Junipers!

"And while I'm on the subject, a Matsui Japanese Maple would make a lovely MVT - Most Valuable Tree. Some Johnny Damon Dogwoods would be nice."

A Yankees spokesman said they're looking into the matter.

© Copyright 2009 NYDailyNews.com

MidtownGuy

November 10th, 2009, 12:46 PM

the $252 million the Yankees fork over to A-Rod, and $189 million to Derek Jeter.

I guess they wouldn't take such a horrible, hideous, low down job for like, 100 million.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
I mean, a person couldn't possibly have a mind-bending luxurious lifestyle making 100 million a year. Or even 50 million. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
(I need 10 smiley faces, because one just isn't enough, I'm too damn greedy and I like to horde them):rolleyes:

Notice to the Gods: start smiting this debased society. Sodom and Gemorrah had nothing on us.

oquatanginwan

November 10th, 2009, 02:38 PM

Season tickets for one seat would more than cover the cost of clean-up for that stretch of road! This is a no-brainer for the Yankee organization, which just plopped their new stadium on the community's park and is dragging their feet on demolition.

Anyway, cheers to Bette Midler for putting her money where her mouth is. And Beaches is the best chick flick of all time.

lofter1

December 15th, 2009, 11:56 AM

Cement 'nixer'

NY POST (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/cement_nixer_iwwsQuWmR6q2P9jm7mA43K)
By DAREH GREGORIAN
December 15, 2009

A fraud investigator testified yesterday that he saw firsthand that mandated concrete-safety tests weren't being performed at the new Yankee Stadium.

Thacher Associates investigator Jim Murphy said a Testwell Laboratories supervisor he confronted had claimed he didn't need to perform the tests "because of his experience."

"He said he could tell by looking," Murphy testified in Manhattan Supreme Court, where the company and three of its honchos are facing racketeering charges for allegedly cutting corners at 100 construction sites around the city.

When Murphy asked why the supervisor's field reports contained data on the never-performed tests, "He told me he would just make up," the investigator said.

Murphy, hired to watch for possible fraud at the Stadium, said that when he went to Testwell brass, they lied about the company's testing methods.

More than a dozen Testwell projects have been retested and found safe -- including the Stadium, the Freedom Tower and 7 World Trade Center.

[I]Copyright 2009 NYP Holdings, Inc.

ZippyTheChimp

February 18th, 2010, 01:00 PM

February 17, 2010

Concrete Testing Company and Owner
Are Convicted of Falsifying Work

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/02/18/nyregion/18testwell_CA0/18testwell_CA0-articleInline.jpg
V. Reddy Kancharla

By JOHN ELIGON

The leading concrete testing company in New York and its owner were convicted on Wednesday of falsifying the test results of different concrete mixes that were eventually used in some of the most prominent projects in the city.

The verdict was a stunning defeat for the company, Testwell Laboratories, whose officials had denied any intent to defraud and said that any wrongdoing was limited to bookkeeping errors.

Jurors are still considering a more serious charge, enterprise corruption, against Testwell and its owner, V. Reddy Kancharla. It carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. The jurors had yet to reach a verdict on that count when Justice Edward J. McLaughlin of State Supreme Court in Manhattan asked them to deliver the verdicts they had decided. The jury is scheduled to resume deliberating on Thursday.

Testwell, a 41-year-old company with headquarters in Ossining, N.Y., was hired to evaluate the strength of concrete used in projects including the new Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower and the Second Avenue subway line. Prosecutors and others familiar with the case have said that any falsified tests did not create safety hazards, although the stadium’s concrete pedestrian ramps have been troubled by cracks that required repair.

The convictions delivered on Wednesday dealt with what are known as mixed-design reports. For these reports, testers are supposed to put different concrete recipes through an eight-week analysis that involves making several batches of concrete and storing them in controlled environments. Each batch must then be put to a strength test that involves applying pressure until the concrete cracks, prosecutors said. Based on these tests, the inspectors recommend a formula for a project, prosecutors said.

But on hundreds of occasions, Testwell skipped these tests, instead relying on strength estimates tabulated in a computer program, prosecutors said.

As they left the courthouse on Wednesday, Mr. Kancharla and his family, accompanied by his lawyers, wore grim expressions. The lawyers and Testwell declined to comment until all of the verdicts were in.

On Wednesday, the jury acquitted one of Mr. Kancharla’s co-defendants, Wilfred Sanchez, of all the counts he faced. Before the verdict, Mr. Sanchez, who was a steel inspector for Testwell, was tense and shaking, according to his lawyer, Curtis J. Farber.

But once Mr. Sanchez heard the verdict, Mr. Farber said, “I just could see the tension from his face relax.”

“They should never have brought this prosecution in the first place,” Mr. Farber added, referring to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. “There was just no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of my client.”

Mr. Farber had argued during the trial that Mr. Sanchez, who was accused of doctoring steel inspection reports and was charged with enterprise corruption, was merely a low-level Testwell employee who prosecutors thought was guilty by association.

The jury has not reached any verdicts relating to the final defendant, Vincent Barone, the company’s vice president. Prosecutors have accused Mr. Barone, who also faces the enterprise corruption charge, among other things, of helping to falsify numerous inspection reports.

The jury, which sat through about four weeks of testimony and arguments and has deliberated for about five days so far, still has a number of charges to consider. Among them is a charge of scheme to defraud as it relates to the falsified mixed-design reports.

As for the enterprise corruption count, the defense lawyers argued that Testwell’s top executives did not collude to run a criminal enterprise. It is possible that jurors could view the falsified reports as isolated bad acts, rather than a larger scheme to commit a crime.

In his opening statement, Paul Shechtman, who represents Mr. Kancharla, attributed inaccuracies in reports to either errors or bad practices by low-level employees.

“Their sins were not his sins simply because Testwell is his company,” Mr. Shechtman said. “Ask yourself, ‘What did Mr. Kancharla know? What, if anything, did he do?’ ”

After the guilty verdicts on Wednesday, Thomas D. Thacher II, president of Thacher Associates, a company hired by Testwell customers to review several of Testwell’s projects, said: “Anybody who is certifying as to issues that affect safety and structural integrity must be double-checked. It’s too easy to cheat and the incentives are too great, and the Testwell conviction demonstrates that.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Ed007Toronto

February 19th, 2010, 01:42 PM

Testwell, a 41-year-old company with headquarters in Ossining, N.Y.

At least he won't have to go far to go to jail

ZippyTheChimp

February 19th, 2010, 05:13 PM

Too bad the inmates at Sing-Sing no longer quarry stone. He could be the stone quality tester. Perfect rehab.

Cat235D

February 22nd, 2010, 01:50 PM

Interstate did not do the concrete on the ramps, What cracks was a cement coating that was done by a out of state company. How do i know this?? I worked for Interstate for 15 years the last job i worked for them on was the Apple foundation on the upper west side.:(

ablarc

February 22nd, 2010, 05:21 PM

Having worked so long for Interstate, you've accumulated considerable credibility ... right?

Cat235D

February 22nd, 2010, 05:57 PM

I would absolutely think so.

ablarc

February 24th, 2010, 01:52 PM

^ You wouldn't want them to subpoena your Wired New York data; never know what use they'll put that do.

Righteous outrage and professional polish gets you only so far.

(Word to the wise.)

ZippyTheChimp

February 24th, 2010, 05:23 PM

Second verdict is in.

February 24, 2010

Concrete-Test Co. Guilty in NYC Landmarks Case

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:33 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- A once-prominent concrete testing company and two of its leaders were convicted Wednesday of racketeering by systematically faking results for such landmarks as the new Yankee Stadium and ground zero's signature skyscraper.

A jury found Testwell Laboratories Inc., its president and a vice president guilty of enterprise corruption, the state's version of racketeering.

Vice President Vincent Barone stared steadily ahead as he heard the verdict, which carries a mandatory prison term of at least a year and the possibility of up to a 25-year term. President V. Reddy Kancharla wasn't there, with the court's permission, due to illness, his lawyer said.

They and the company had been convicted earlier of lesser charges -- with no mandatory prison time -- in a sprawling case that accused the company of falsifying concrete and steel test results for nearly 120 projects in and around New York City. They include such icons as ground zero's Freedom Tower and such crucial pieces of infrastructure as the forthcoming Second Avenue subway line.

The tower, the subway line, the stadium and at least 19 other buildings have been declared safe after retesting. But officials are still awaiting results on at least 60 more.

Prosecutors, who had no immediate comment after the verdict, said Testwell's operation was riddled with fraud, from doctored results on concrete samples from construction sites to made-up steel tests that reported inspections of welds that didn't exist.

Defense lawyers said the charges made crimes out of honest mistakes, contract disputes and widespread practices in the industry. The now-bankrupt Testwell and the executives didn't intend to deceive anyone, their lawyers said.

''The company was not a criminal enterprise,'' said Testwell lawyer Cesar de Castro. He said he respected the verdict but was considering an appeal.

Kancharla's lawyer, Paul Shechtman, said he was planning an appeal.

''I've never had a client who believed in his innocence more than Reddy Kancharla, and I'm confident we will continue to fight in the courts to prove that,'' he said.

While Kancharla and Barone were convicted of numerous underlying charges in the racketeering case, including scheme to defraud and falsifying business records, they also were acquitted of some charges, he noted.

Barone's attorney, Andrew Lankler, declined to comment.

The case was among of a roster of prosecutions that arose from the city's recent building boom, which prosecutors say was riddled with shortcuts and corruption.

Testwell systematically altered -- or simply made up -- results for tests designed to insure buildings will hold up, prosecutors said.

''Corruption became part of the building process, as much as concrete and steel'' were, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Diana Florence told jurors in a closing argument.

One Testwell manager, Wilfred Sanchez, was acquitted last week of enterprise corruption and all the other charges against him. His lawyer said Sanchez mainly worked as a steel inspector and had nothing to do with the allegedly falsified test results.

Two Testwell engineers have pleaded guilty to conspiracy, acknowledging they knew Testwell data on concrete formulas were bogus. They are expected to pay more than $100,000 in fines apiece but not to get jail time.

Several other officials and employees are to be tried separately on various charges.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Cat235D

February 24th, 2010, 09:14 PM

^ You wouldn't want them to subpoena your Wired New York data; never know what use they'll put that do.

Righteous outrage and professional polish gets you only so far.

(Word to the wise.) Subpoena away I stand by every word i type.

ablarc

February 27th, 2010, 04:14 PM

I don't do subpoenas. Other people do subpoenas.

Cat235D

February 28th, 2010, 11:52 AM

Well ill check my mailbox on a regular basis then..

antinimby

September 20th, 2011, 01:11 PM

Bronx seeks a hotel home run

The borough wants to find a developer to build a high-end hostelry and conference center on the site of a struggling four-story car park near Yankee Stadium.

By Lisa Fickenscher
September 19, 2011 11:48 a.m. (http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110919/REAL_ESTATE/110919901)

A failed four-level parking lot near Yankee Stadium could become a first-class hotel if the right plan—and ultimately developer—can be found to do the job.

The Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. issued a request for expressions of interest on Monday to build a hotel and conference center on the site of a new, badly underutilized garage operated by the Bronx Parking Development Co.

“A major hotel and conference center has been a priority for the people of the Bronx for decades," said Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. in a statement. “For years, my office and the BOEDC have heard from both developers and hotel operators expressing their desire to develop a new hotel in the vicinity of Yankee Stadium.”

The issue came to head because the Bronx Parking Development Co. is at risk of defaulting on the bonds that financed the construction of three new parking facilities near the new Yankee Stadium.

“Because of low demand for the parking, we had a risk of not being able to make the bond payments,” said Chuck Lesnick, vice president of Bronx Parking Development. He added that the loans are not now in default.

The problem for Bronx Parking Development is that all too few fans are using its pricey new facilities.

Instead, more bomber fans are taking public transportation or opting for cheaper parking nearby. The new Gateway Shopping Center, just a few blocks away from the stadium, has been attracting fans to its parking garages, which charge about $4 an hour, compared with $35 per game for a self-park space in the stadium garages or $45 for valet service.

Meanwhile, according to Metro-North, an average of 3,900 attendees use the commuter line and its new train station at the stadium to get to weekend games, while 3,200 take the train to games during the week.

There are 9,000 parking spaces near Yankee Stadium, and Bronx Parking Development has said that barely half of them are occupied on game days.

According to the proposal, the city would like to convert garage No. 8, a four-level, 749,700-square-foot facility with 2,411 parking spaces, into what it describes as a first-class hotel that would include a “high-end penthouse level restaurant,” as well as retail space. The garage is located at East 153rd Street and River Avenue.

Mr. Lesnick predicted that the hotel might even attract the Yankees' visiting baseball teams, all of which currently opt for hotels in Manhattan.

©2011 Crain Communications Inc