How pumped is NYC for Yankee Stadium, Citi Field? (New York: how much, buy)

[edsg25]

With little more than a month to go to opening day, what's the buzz like in NYC over the opening of Yankee Stadium and Citi Field?

[DITC]

Why would anyone be pumped for taxpayer dollars to be wasted on one stadium and the bailout of a private corporation who sponsors the other stadium? Why would people be excited for higher ticket prices and fewer seats in a stadium?

[NJ Chutzpah]

well in all fairness, the old ones were too old, and new ones were sorely needed

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by DITC

Why would anyone be pumped for taxpayer dollars to be wasted on one stadium and the bailout of a private corporation who sponsors the other stadium? Why would people be excited for higher ticket prices and fewer seats in a stadium?

even though i asked the question, i'm in full agreement with you about the cost and the obscenity of it all and the current economic era we entered (one which, BTW, ended the excesses of both stadiums forever), but with stadiums planned and built before the "collapse", they are still facts on the ground and a new part of the NYC landscape. As such, I am sure plenty of New Yorkers (and non-New Yorkers) will have a special interest to the start of this new baseball season.

For the record, I'm a Chicagoan and a Cub fan and Wrigley Field with its age, tradition, scale, sense of purpose (a ballpark, not The Palace Of The Universe) and more equalitarian ways is still IMHO the best park in the majors with Fenway coming in a close second.

[Fred314X]

As a lifelong Met fan, I have to say that I'm not quite ready to start dancing in the streets over the prospect of Citifield. Completely aside from the obscenity of the financial arrangements, there's the problem over its size. Ebbets Field was the smallest ballpark in the National League, and the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn because they could not arrange for a larger facility here. Now the Mets have consciously torn down a stadium that sat almost 58,000 in favor of one that seats 45,000.

We don't even have to start talking about what everything involved with going to see a baseball game will cost...assuming of course that you're one of the lucky 45,000 (in a city of eight million!) to get your hands on a ticket. As usual in this day and age, the corporations get a red carpet and the fans get screwed.

Put this all together, and it doesn't paint a pretty picture.

[lhf1979]

I'm excited to watch the games from the comfort of home. Despite all the nonsense, steroids, taxpayer funded stadiums, baseball is still a special game for me and many others and the game itself is bigger than any of this and what attracts me to watching it.

[geos]

CITIFIELD????? Why are they calling it Citifield. They financed it with the money they stole from the people with their Ponzi schemes. They should call it New Yorkers Field or People's Field.

I used to play on the tennis courts across from Shea all the time. I was shocked how much had been done when I returned after being away for a year.

[dman72]

I've already dropped from going to 10 Mets or Yankees games per year to 1 each, because of how outrageously the prices have risen in the last 10 years.

I may go to Citi Field once. I never buy food or drink at the stadium because the mark up is simply highway robbery.

[Cardiff Giant]

Mets fan here and I don't think they should have replaced Yankee stadium.

As for Citifield, bleh. Shea was kind of a dump, though. I attended my first MLB game there though, so it holds special memories for me.

[lhf1979]

Originally Posted by dman72

I've already dropped from going to 10 Mets or Yankees games per year to 1 each, because of how outrageously the prices have risen in the last 10 years.

I may go to Citi Field once. I never buy food or drink at the stadium because the mark up is simply highway robbery.

I never buy anything at Yankee games, I'd rather spend the money in the community at the various eating establishments in the area.