NYers: So this is the last year...

[Mr. Laser Beam]

...for the old Shea and Yankee Stadiums. Anyone else just a wee bit nostalgic about that?

For me it would definitely be more for Yankee Stadium than Shea. I am a fan of both the Yankees and Mets, but I lean more towards the Yankees. And Yankee Stadium is obviously more historic than Shea, it's been around a lot longer.

Anyone else making special trips to New York this year to see the last games at both places? I go there all the time anyway, but I'm going to see a LOT of baseball this year.

And I cannot WAIT to see the new ballparks. I've seen what the new Yankee Stadium (it will still be called that, right? No lameass corporate name attached to it?) and Citi Field will look like. Those parks are freaking SWEET. And best of all, they're baseball-only: none of this multipurpose cookie-cutter crap! :thumbsup:

 

[Captain Ice]

Not a New Yorker, but tearing down the current Yankee Stadium is a crime.

Also, isn't it on the National Register of Historic Places?

Am happy that Shea will be gone though - those cookie cutter parks were a good idea to experiment with, but in execution, they really suck.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One of the (many) reasons for replacing Yankee Stadium is surely because of what is happening with Shea. It wouldn't have been a good idea to have the Mets have a brand new ballpark but not the Yankees. Ticket sales might have dropped.

And it would seem that the new Yankee Stadium holds more true to the original design than the current one does. On the outside, the new stadium is specifically being made to resemble the original configuration. (As is being done at Citi Field, whose exterior is made to resemble Ebbets Field)

 

[tomalak301]

I thought next year was the final year for Yankee Stadium.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought next year was the final year for Yankee Stadium.

No, it's this year.

2009 is the first year for both Citi Field and New Yankee.

 

[Exit8A]

I definitely have to pay my last respects to Yankee Stadium, before they move into New Comiskey Park East. While I am sure the outside and the "Great Hall" will look great, the interior of the stadium from the artist renderings looks too much like US Cellular Field when it first opened. And that's not a good thing.

As for corporate sponsorship, I did hear that they are keeping the name "Yankee Stadium", although they are toying with doing something like "Yankee Stadium at <insert name here> Plaza", or putting corporate naming on the entrance gates. To be honest, I wouldn't be too saddened if they did put corporate naming on the new stadium, as there is no history in that ballpark, yet. However, corporate sponsorship on the old one would just be a sacrilege.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I've only *recently* become hooked on baseball, so I admit I don't have as much a connection to Yankee Stadium as a real New Yorker would. I have been going there for a few years, though, and even I'll be sad to see the old one go. But I'll be happy to see the new one, too, there's new memories and new history to be made there.

That being said: I really hope they get that Metro-North station built there. It'd help to not have to take the subway all the time. Fucking 4 train is always so crowded trying to get out there for a game.

 

[Mallory]

Yankee Stadium is hallowed ground and I'm glad that I was privileged enough to watch a few games there over the years.

 

[Captain Ice]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

While I am most definitely NOT a Yankees fan, tearing down the current Yankee Stadium is a crime. Can't they turn it into a museum or something?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

While I am most definitely NOT a Yankees fan, tearing down the current Yankee Stadium is a crime. Can't they turn it into a museum or something?

No room.

 

[Deadpool]

I`m so happy they are getting rid of Shea. I love the place but I want my Citifield now and I can`t wait for Johan to pitch opening day in that beautiful place. Hopefully I can find tickets to be there without selling a kidney.

As for the house that steriods built over in the Bronx. Those bums can keep their martinti bars and confrence rooms. We play baseball over in Queens

 

[donkey]

I've got tix to both stadiums this year, but only 1 Yankee game. Going to at least 6 Mets games! Yeah! Lets Go MEts!

 

[TerriO]

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

While I am most definitely NOT a Yankees fan, tearing down the current Yankee Stadium is a crime. Can't they turn it into a museum or something?

No room.

I thought they were going to leave some of the existing stadium intact, and use it as a practice field/museum? Or did I miss that change of plans? Because if I did, I'm more pissed off about this than I already was. And I was pretty pissed about it to begin with.

Boston and Chicago get the historic stadiums. Chicago, that doesn't piss me off so much, but the notion that the seriously annoying contingent of Red Sox Nation will have one more thing to have to gloat about just makes me

 

[Scout101]

^heheh, good.

On a serious note, though, I'm going to have to try and get to a Yankee game this year. Never been to the Toilet, would be nice to see it before they tear it down. History and all. They start waxing poetic about the ghosts in Yankee Stadium and all that, though, and not sure I see it. Ruth was a drunk; if they put a bar up in the new stadium, I'm sure his ghost will manage to wander across the parking lot to the new place

 

[SmoothieX]

I was under the impression the Yankee Stadium grounds would remain intact and still be used for other events.

I grew up a big Mets fan and have been to many games at Shea over the years. After having been to a few other, more modern stadiums in recent years, it really is a bit of a dump. A nostalgic one though, and I will make the haul down there to catch a game this year. Citi Field sure looks purrty though.

I went to college right by Yankee Stadium and saw many games there too. Maybe I can catch a day game at one then hop a train to the other.

With the public funding involved, the only fair way to do it was to allot money for both stadiums at the same time.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I was under the impression the Yankee Stadium grounds would remain intact and still be used for other events.

The grounds, yes. The stadium itself, no. I think they're going to build practice fields where the old stadium used to be.

 

[TerriO]

Okay, that's f**king sacrilege.

 

[Tom Servo]

Okay, that's f**king sacrilege.

Even as a die hard Red Sox fan I agree. The only way they should be making a new stadium, is if they keep the old one in some fashion.

I hope they keep Fenway when the time comes to replace it.

 

[Scout101]

The time has LONG since come, and they HAVE kept Fenway. Actually, they've improved on it a LOT over the past 8 years or so that the new owners have had the team.

It's a shame that they're doing this to Yankee Stadium, gotta be a way they could have kept it up to date without a problem. And it's not even THAT out of date. It's just a problem that they don't have enough luxury boxes, so they can't squeeze enough ticket money out of the fans. That's really the big reason for the move. Gotta pay off those 200+ Million payroles somehow. Plus the Mets are getting a new park, and they gotta keep up with them...

Actually, really a shame. With a little creative scheduling, they probably could have worked it in such a way that the Yankees played home games in the new Mets stadium for a portion of the 2009 season. That way, they could have started rennovating Yankee Stadium the day after the season ends in 2008, and by probably halfway through the 2009 season, they could have been finished with major rennovations in Yankee Stadium, and been reopened for business.

They've taken on fairly major rennovations EVERY offseason in Fenway, and they manage to open on time every year. If the Yanks KNEW they had to be finished by, say, after the all-star break in 2009 at the latest, that would have given them from October 2008 until late July 2009 to make the changes they needed, probably plenty of time.

Probably would have been uncomfortable for both the Yankees and the Mets that year, but they could have worked it in such a way that it would have worked, I'd think...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Plus the Mets are getting a new park, and they gotta keep up with them...

That's probably a big part of it, yes. There's no way the Yankees management would let the Mets get away with having a new park without them having one as well. It's the very essence of competition.

And since Shea obviously needs to be replaced (it's a cookie cutter, after all), then that pretty much sealed Yankee Stadium's fate right there.