While most of the feedback from fans and media members about the new Yankee Stadium has been overwhelmingly positive, a few writers found some items that bothered them about the new place. In the interest of full disclosure, I do have to admit that I have not yet been in the Stadium, so it is hard for me to properly assess its flaws and virtues, but I will try to address a few of the points made by Ken Davidoff and Joel Sherman. Neither thinks that the Stadium is lacking in function or beauty. Rather, the both complain about the corporate feel to the place, and suggest that the Stadium stands as a monument to greed and arrogance in these tough economic times.
From Davidoff:
It is a palace, and also a prison.
It is an affirmation of everything the Yankees have accomplished in their remarkable history. And a condemnation of sorts, a sentencing of forever being set apart from every other sports franchise – for better and for worse….
So what’s the problem? No biggie. Just an understanding that by opening something this large, self-congratulatory and expensive, particularly at a time when so many people are suffering, the Yankees are screaming their mission statement.
Davidoff is not talking so much about the specifics of the Stadium as he is referencing the overall architectural concept of the Stadium. He feels that it is entirely representative of the George Steinbrenner way, all pomp and bluster with a touch of arrogance. Quite frankly, I would not have it any other way. The Yankees have never presented themselves as a friendly, cuddly team that wants to be loved. They are a team that wants to be admired, to be respected as they impose their will on other clubs. It would have been incongruent for them to build a Stadium such as CitiField, where the operative adjectives are “comfortable” and “cozy.” The Yankees make a lot more sense in a place that is “majestic” or “palatial,” words that Davidoff uses to describe the new place.
From Sherman:
The new Yankee Stadium has just about everything you would want in a modern sports facility, except charm and a sense of proportion…..
Yet the place brought nausea, not nostalgia. It just feels like the wrong time in the history of this country and this city to be opening up the George Mahal. When the project was initiated 2 ½ years ago, the Yankees could not have known what the state of the economy was going to be now….
However, the new Stadium didn’t make me think of the place just across the street. It made me think about Vegas or Disney World, since it made me think of a fake place designed to manipulate my emotions and get into my wallet.
“We don’t see it as ostentatious or flashy,” Hal Steinbrenner said. “We see it as classy.”
For me, class is out. In truth, sadly, the Yanks have conjured up a building that defines them: cold, corporate, over-privileged. At a financially distressed time in which Bud Selig has appealed to teams and players to be more fan friendly than ever, the Yanks have constructed even more of a moat between their players and those paying for all the goodies.
The Yankees got a bit unlucky in this regard, as Sherman would be praising the place along with everyone else if the economy was not in dire straits. However, Joel is entitled to feel that the Stadium is lacking in charm, although I wonder if he would feel the same way if the Stadium had been paid for with private money. His review of the Stadium really is not about the building at all. Rather, it is colored by the process which brought the place into existence, something that will not matter nearly as much once the economy bounces back. I want to know more about the aesthetics of the place, the things that will color my experience in the Stadium ten years down the road, when this economic crisis has (hopefully) faded from memory. In that regard, the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. From Jay Greenberg:
The design of the new Yankee Stadium, said Hal Steinbrenner yesterday as it opened its doors for the first time, was not to be “ostentatious or flashy, but classy while making the amenities as nice as we can for the fans.” And the Yankees nailed it, almost as perfectly as, wire to wire, they nailed 1998.
The design of the new Yankee Stadium, said Hal Steinbrenner yesterday as it opened its doors for the first time, was not to be “ostentatious or flashy, but classy while making the amenities as nice as we can for the fans.” And the Yankees nailed it, almost as perfectly as, wire to wire, they nailed 1998.
It has things borrowed from other retro-parks: out-of-town scoreboards marking outs and men on base, expanded food choices, plus wider seats and concourses. Best of all, the new place has the blue: Yankee midnight blue is the color of every seat, giving the place a symmetry and elegance that the other new palaces, for their emphasis on quirky corners, lack.
As I said above, the Yankees were going for class and majesty, with a healthy dollop of historical reference thrown in. The Mets can have charm. It’s not like they have anything else.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
10 Responses to A Few Negative Reactions To The New Stadium
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Honestly, while Sherman and Davidoff are entitled to their opinion, I almost feel as if they wrote those columns to draw attention to themselves.
But at least they are no longer complaining about obstructed seats like Muschnick still is. I discovered during my time there yesterday that the obstructed seats debate was severely overblown.
I did see some pictures from the front and back of that section. Its not so bad from the front, but the ones against the wall in the back cant see the whole left or right field. However, thats a 5 buck seat, so deal with it.
Yeah Moshe, I sit a section over where there is no problem, but I did move over to see how bad it was. If you are in the last row and all the way to the right, you can’t see center or left. Plus the tv’s are impossible to see fro mthat angle. So I can see them having a gripe. But as you said, its a $5 seat, be happy to be there. And if your really can’t stand it, go stand in the food court, or basically anywhere else in the stadium. You can see the field from everywhere.
Also what would people rather have, a $5 seat which can also act as a standing room only pass or just have that area roped of?
Exactly- its a standing room only ticket for 5 bucks which also gives you a place to sit and see 75% of the field.
My understanding was that the new stadium was to be, more than anything else, a modern, updated version of the original Yankee Stadium. The original house that Ruth built was supposed to be overwhelming. It was supposed to be stadium that knocked the socks off anything else in existence at the time.
So what’s wrong if the new one does exactly the same thing?
Exactly, could not have said it better myself. It is grandiose and maybe even over the top, EXACTLY AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE.
I wish I was able to be there tonight to see the place. Unfortunatley for those of us living out of town (Boston) we are stuck with Fenway Park and I can tell you going to fenway sucks when you are a Yankee fan and when you use the restroom. I cannot imagine how any fans could complain about a new, nicer, cleaner experience. As far as Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff if you gave them free tx for the rest of their lives in the Luxury Suites they would still complain. I am excited about seeing the place on TV so please enough about the 2600.00 tx I mean how many of us would be able to afford those anyway.
Mryankee…my question is where in Fenway do you sit when you go? I’ve only been once (it wasn’t a yankee game so I sat quietly) but I had no problems with the bathrooms. Then again I was up in the grandstand. Is it the bleacher areas that are really bad?
I second this- grandstand conditions were fine. That Stadium is quite cramped, however.
Seriously Davidoff? You’re not writing about the f-ing lovable Cubbies. You’re writing about the Yankees. Have to some pride in your team.