There it is, my first glimpse of the New Yankee Stadium and what a view it is. As many of you probably know there's been a decidely mixed bag of reviews of this controversial new home of the yankees. Aside from the alledged home run problem, critics have claimed it to be too big, too extravagant too much designed to take your money and less to watch a baseball game. Indeed, these claims certainly have their merit and there is some truth to them, but while it is a stadium with flaws, I can say without hesistation that it is an amazing park. As the Yankees always do, ownership has always sought to one up the competition and be recognized as the biggest and best, and they did not disappoint with their new home.
One of the first improvements over the old stadium experience I noticed immediately was the parking. Now this sounds like a silly thing to be impressed by, as most stadiums just have a big parking lot you enter, but as most Yankee fans know that's not the case in the Bronx. Indeed, even if I got to the game on time, I spent the better part of a half an hour driving in the very shitty area of the Bronx that surrounds the stadium looking in vain for a parking lot or garage. This is a major pain in the ass and an incredible time and money waster, as I know many times I was forced to park in private lots that charged ridiclous fees like 40 bucks, or lots that were essentially back alleys that I was lead into by guys who looked like they were homeless. In short, it really fucking blew to park in Yankee Stadium, but now that all changed. Just within sight of the stadium you're directed into a shiny new parking garage that is adjacent to the stadium across the street. Its pretty big so you can get lost in it, but instead of showing up in the second inning I was at the game on time because parking was a sinch. Throw in the fact that it was only 19 bucks (if you've ever parked in New York you know you could do a lot worse) my viewing experience was already exponentially better before I even walked into the damn place.
The Stadium itself continues exceed expectations after situating yourself and your car. Just across the street from the old stadium and the parking lot, you can't help but be amazed how much bigger the new Stadium is from the outside and in. When you finally get in the place, which is also very easy as there are enterances all around the building and the lines move rather quickly, you enter the Great Hall and the name does not disappoint. Well lit with sunlight coming through the large window panes the cathedral high ceilings give a feeling of vastness that no stadium I've ever been to comes close. Indeed the sum of all these parts feels more like a cathedral or a palace than some place where they play baseball.
As I was admiring the splendor of the new park and its imposing entrance, I was quickly approached by one of the gazillion stadium workers there to ensure everything goes right. She was polite and curteous but deliberate, quickly determining where my seats were to send me in the direction I needed to go to keep the masses moving. For certain, her and all of the other stadium employees holding those stupid "How can I help you?" signs were in fact very helpful and informative. I have heard that these same people told a bunch of fans a game was postoned causing the mini riot outside the game, but at least from my experience they were really great.
From there I made my way to the concessions and then to my seat and much like Citi Field I was impressed by the quality and quantity. They had several stands all with different kinds of food like cheesteaks, garlic fries, pulled pork standwiches, as well as standard ballpark food and everything I had (which was a lot) was great, fresh, awesome tasting and they gave it to me in a timely and effecient manner. All that said, the prices were fairly outrageous for food at a ballpark, souveneir beers were ten bucks, cheesteakes were ten pulled pork sanwiches were ten, pretty much everything was really expensive and I spent a small fortune. But for the money I did get a very high level of quality but perhaps not as much of choice as they did in Citi Field, the new yankee stadium was hardly lacking.
Finally, after all that the experience when you finally get to your seats is one to remember. I was lucky enough to get some free field level seats in right field so I got a good look at everything and its quite a ballpark to say the least. From the ridiclously large high def screen in center, the comfortable seats that are pratically like sitting on your couch, the sight lines and everythng else made my experience a memorable one. This however, does not mean I am not without my criticisms of the layout. Like many others I have an issue of the closeness of most of the seats, perticularly the bleacher seats. If you've ever been to old yankee stadium you know the bleacher creatures are one of the strengths of the park, the most racoucus and beligerent fans the yankees have cram together on bleachers and just give the opposition hell , while being pratically on top of them and thus unavoidable. But now, the bleachers (which was one of the few totally packed areas I might add) is practically on an island apart from the rest of the seats. The right field ones especially are behind the bullpen so they hardly get a chance to do any damage, they're hardly even in the park! Indeed, like they always do the creatures were causing some serious havoc up there with fights and everything you'd expect from the fanbase's biggest group of assholes, but if you were anywhere else than where I was sitting you hardly knew it was going on! For sure, this is easily the biggest weakness of the stadium, as the designers seemed to have willingly removed one of the teams biggest strengths.
Overall, it was a great experience, despite the fact that Yankees sucked some serious cock most of the game (I'll leave my comments about the team's best attempt to ruin my experience another time). Despite what some critics have said, when there came a big moment, at least in my section the place was rocking and it was an exciting time all around. I would not consider myself one who waxed poetic about the "old" stadium, mainly because it wasn't really the stadium of Mantle and Ruth, it a stadium built in the 1970s that took all the old stadium's best traits and shit on them, so I was glad to see improvements made and they did not disapoint one bit. The Yankees made a great and wonderful stadium and at least from my experience they ran very well. The prices of course are ridiclous and need to be adjusted but you're not paying for a cut rate stadium, its worth every bit the 1.5billion they spent. The issue of the empty seats clearly needs to be addressed and hopefully with some price adjustments they will fix it but when they do it will be a suitable heir to the house that ruth built.
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