New Yankee Stadium, New Beginnings
This year capped off the inaugural season of the New York Yankees in their new, billion-dollar home. There were mixed emotions regarding the new stadium that had to do with the taxpayers’ contribution and the price of the tickets, but once people went inside I can almost guarantee those feelings went away. There is just something about the New York Yankees’ franchise that makes everything more exciting. Also new sports stadiums or arenas are just so inviting, which is probably due to the fact that everything is clean and brand new.
Modern, yet still classic to preserve Yankee tradition, the stadium screams “World Series Champions!” It resembles the old stadium that Babe Ruth used to play in with the white frieze atop the upper deck, Monument Park beyond the center field wall, and the center field view of the Bronx. Besides the backstop behind home plate, the dimensions are exactly the same. The major difference between the two stadiums is that the new one seats four thousand less; however, the seats are wider and have more legroom so that extra money you’re dropping on the tickets allows you to sprawl out more.
The new stadium does not have the history of the old one, but it has begun to make its own history. One of the highlights of the season was earlier on this month when the captain, Derek Jeter, broke Lou Gherig’s franchise hit record which he held for more than seven decades. Anyone who went to that game should probably save their ticket stub because anything that has to do with Jeter is worth something.
I can put money on the fact that the players would much rather be in the new stadium than the old because of their new lockers with touch-screen computers, hydrotherapy pool with an underwater treadmill, and showering surfaces with an anti-bacterial agent that reduces the risk of infection (I bet the Red Sox don’t have that).
The new stadium boasts its own train station, a massive video scoreboard, and a bleacher section that you can now drink in…all of the essentials. Though the restroom to fan ratio decreased, be mindful of how many $10 beers you’re going to drink with a line that stretches from one side of the grandstand to the other. The fact is that everyone should get over to the new stadium, but you might want to eat before you go in before you have to file for chapter five. Maybe someday the cost of enjoying a baseball game will go down. Until then go splurge and get over to the new Yankee stadium because the Yanks just clinched the AL East against the Sox and now there is no turning back. The stadium is new, the team is amazing, and the fans are wild—you’re not just watching a game, your experiencing history!
