William Weir of the Hartford Courant went to both new stadiums, and wrote about his journey.
Some interesting notes:
Getting tickets: Scoring tickets for the Mets (a Monday night game against the Atlanta Braves) was relatively easy. I went through the Mets website (newyork.mets.mlb.com) and purchased them online. The tickets were $15 each, but the total cost was $47.50, including service fees and delivery (even though they were e-mailed).
(Amen on that, and we’ll have a lot to say about that on Wednesday (saving it for after the holiday).
I feel bad that they encountered the Bag Nazi’s at Yankee Stadium. I’m surprised they don’t make us take off our shoes to get into the Stadium. It’s New York City, people have bags.
Getting in: Both stadiums are a quick walk from their respective subway stops. The Mets require a quick bag check and a frisking (a security wand for female attendees).
But Yankee security wouldn’t let us in with backpacks (the same ones we took to the Mets’ CitiField). We spoke to the head of security and then the press people. Still no go. They gave us clear plastic bags to carry our stuff and said we could store the backpacks at a bowling alley across the street for $5 “at your own risk.” But the game was about to start, and “at your own risk” didn’t sound promising. We put everything in the plastic bags and ditched the backpacks. Considering that you could bring in just about any other kind of bag, the ban seems a little arbitrary. The tickets, we later saw, do say “no backpacks” in fine print. But still.
It’s a long piece, well done…and the verdict is Citi is better which is no surprise. Even Yankee fans admit that.
www.metspolice.com
@metspolice
