The Mets Police

April 16, 2009

Mailbag: Bad Yankee Stadium Review

Robert…on Yankee Stadium reviews.

There are but a handful of people speaking about this atrocity. Hats off to you guys. What happened at Queens could only be an upgrade. The bad news for the Yankees is that they MOVED SHEA to THE BRONX! 1.5 Billion dollar frieze (and someone tell me how to pronounce this word). Everyone is too far from the action (unless you forked over 2500 for the seat) and the outfield/beachers is symmetric poured concrete. How could they screw this up? They only had since the 80s to think about it….

What they should have done was raze the old stadium, move the Yanks to Shea for two years, and then build around the field of Ruth, Gehrig,DiMaggio, and Fred (the chicken) Stanley.

The stadium looks nice on TV (well except for the netting) but when you’re there it’s just not great. As I’ve been observing, it’s Yankee fans saying it!

Sad Yankee Fan has left a new comment on your post “New Yankee Stadium: Just Seems Wrong“:

Met Fans, You have the better stadium. Those green seats make it more real and baseball like. It’s more New York City. It’s a true baseball park feel. Your place will rock in the playoffs! We sacrificed one of the great places you could ever be at for sports in our country. We now have a bogus theme park that could have been built on the Las Vegas Strip. Mr Wilpon really gave thought to old time baseball from his childhood in Brooklyn. The Yankees only cared about maximum earnings potential!

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April 16, 2009

Viva Shea

The Mets may ignore their own history…but this guy doesn’t. We can argue about Cuban politics another day.

From The Hub

The fact that the new home of the Mets is named for its corporate sponsor rather than William Shea, the man who brought the team to New York, is another disappointment to Croatto.

“It certainly put in its time and paid its dues, but it’s still sad to see it go, because it was the only stadium I knew and the only stadium the Mets have known, really,” Croatto said.

“It’s the end of an era, and the fact that it’s Citi Field, the fact that it’s a corporate name, is disappointing.”
As the season wears on, Croatto is hoping that those who purchase his T-shirt will wear them to Citi Field.

For more information on the “Viva Shea” T-shirt, visit Croatto’s Web page at Toast of Manhattan

Full article here.

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@metspolice

April 16, 2009

Obstructed Views At Citi Field (Newsday)

From Newsday’s article entitled Many Fans Unhappy With Views at Citi Field

http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-spmfans1412649426apr13,0,4948370.story

To avoid the panel of glass partially obstructing their view of the field, Zumbach called theMets on Friday and requested an upgrade to a pair of seats a tier below.

“It distorts [the view],” said Zumbach, 53, of New Canaan, Conn. “It’s not horrible, but you have a line going through there and it’s not like you have railings to peek down or go around it. I just think that it’s a problem.”

…

“I was told there were no line-of-sight issues when I bought the tickets. You can’t see anything,” Lipton said, gesturing to areas in left and centerfield that had obstructed views.

Read the entire Newsday article here.

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April 16, 2009

Obstructed Views At Yankee Stadium

As I have been saying, this obstructed views story is just starting. As more and more people visit the new parks, there will be more and more outrage.

(Ha, as I am writing this, the guys are SNY are talking about how the visiting pitchers at Citi Field are complaining that THEY can’t see the field.)

The excerpts below are from this article on NJ.com and are about Yankee Stadium, which has problems of its own.

“You can only see four and half innings of the game from here!” cracked one fan standing behind Bell, who paid 14 bucks for get an up-close view of half the diamond.

Moments after Bell and a couple friends learned their fate, the native of Newburgh, New York, immediately took a photo from his cell phone and emailed a buddy. The title of the email: “Worst Seats Ever???”

…

“What the heck is this?” said another passer-by. “I wouldn’t want these seats if you gave them to me. Somebody screwed up.”

In section 239 in right center field, 11-year season ticket holder Jerry Baratta was ticked off. Baratta and Tom Andria, buddies from Long Island, were displaced from their right field bleacher seats at the old ball park. For the time being, they prayed that there weren’t too many right-handed pull hitters in the lineups.

Read the rest here.

I also found it interesting that the post-game discussion on Michael Kay radio show was about how the crowd didn’t seem as involved as they did at the old stadium. If even Kay is engaging that discussion….wow.

If you have pictures of obstructed views of either park (or any out of town new park, we know about poles at Fenway) please email [email protected] and we’ll post them!

www.metspolice.com
@metspolice

April 16, 2009

Mailbag: Obstructed Views At Yankee Stadium and Citi Field

Some good comments have been coming in…

I got an actual email…not a posted comment,…thought it was a great point:

We know that the old stadiums had some obstructed views. But there’s something about the obstructed views at the new stadiums, particularly at yankee stadium, that just feels wrong. In the case of the yankees its 35 years later. For the mets 45 years. The overall amount of obsctructed view seats have decreased not increased. Also the obstructions in the old stadiums seemed like they were limitations of the architectutal design. The ones in the new stadiums seem diliberate.

Another thing that deosnt seem right is having the mohegan sun name, which is a casino, at yankee stadium. Should they invite pete rose and give him an honorary membership?

Comments About What To Do If Your Seats Are Obstructed

They can move people around all the want, but SOMEBODY is going to eventually wind up sitting in these obstructed view seats. And for a fairly high ticket price too.

and…

As a season ticket holder for many years who had great mezzanine box seats on the 3rd base line at Shea I called the Mets and was told that anything better than our seats in Promenade Section 425 (where we can’t see the left hand corner of the field) were going to cost us more money. I also found out that we are not entitled to eat in that 350 seat restaurant Drew Nierpont is running. It’s only for the ticket holders of the “better” seats. As far as I’m concerned, this whole situation stinks. Citifield is a stadium built by the rich for the rich!