My favorite part of this story is that it came from Mr. Sunshine, the Yankee fan who tries to convince himself (and me) that all will be OK. Deep down he knows the truth….
Read this great piece in the WSJ
When new stadiums have flopped in the past — that is, when the public has come to loathe them or their teams haven’t benefited from them — it’s generally been for one of four reasons, say historians, sports executives and fans. Either the stadium catered too much to affluent fans, or too little, or had dimensions or weather conditions that negatively affected play.
…
The new Yankee Stadium has seemed cursed from the beginning, as if Babe Ruth disapproved of the abandonment of the house he built. That it opened during a recession, with a major-league-high $72.97 average price for a nonpremium ticket (up 76% over 2008, according to Team Marketing Report) has created contempt among fans who otherwise love the team. “They don’t have a good enough team to charge those prices,” says 35-year-old fan Jeff Burrows of Brooklyn, who toured the park recently with his father. “They’ve made almost every mistake you can make,” says Roger Noll, a professor of economics emeritus at Stanford. “There’s nothing that’s been as unpopular as this.”
The question is whether all the trouble ultimately will be worth it. If the new stadium fails to augment the Yankees’ payroll advantage over competing clubs, and if its propensity to allow home runs makes it difficult to craft an effective pitching staff — what was the point?
The rest is here.
www.metspolice.com
@metspolice
