Sports Illustrated has a long piece about both new stadiums…I find the Yankee Stadium part the more interesting.
Many Mets fans will tell you they are happy to have a new, updated park, even if some miss Shea, but I spoke to a lot of Yankee fans over the winter who are so repulsed by the idea of the new Stadium and its prices that they hate it even before they’ve even seen it. There’s no reason for a new Stadium, they say, upset on principle. And yet, there is no arguing that both facilities had become functionally outdated, even if, at least in the case of Yankee Stadium, the building remained aesthetically pleasing. It’s the execution of the new buildings, encompassing pricing as well as design, that has the power to engage and disgust.
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Only a few look back at the old building. Some have their pictures taken with it in the background. On the uptown 4 train, you can look inside the old place between the gap of the right field stands and the bleachers. The seats are still there but there is no grass on the field. The floor is a carpet of dirt. The hum of conversation in the subway car comes to a halt as people look inside the ghost town. They make quiet remarks like “whoa,” “weird” and “empty.”
