So I've already elaborated on the pathetic attendance in the lower levels but here's a run through of some of my other thoughts on the stadium.
~First and foremost the stadium is HUGE! It's massive. The concourses are 2 1/2 to 3 times bigger than they used to be. You can walk around field level and see the field from basically anywhere in fair territory. The only time you're shielded from the light of day is when you walk under the bleachers. It's immeasurably better than the old stadium in maneuvarabilty. I could basically sprint around on field level to the food if I wanted to, and I was pretty close to doing that.
~When you walk in the stadium there's really a wow moment and then from there, you'll get some things that take away from the wow feeling.
~The first thing that kicks you in the groin is that everything is ridiculously expensive. I walked around the entire field level searching for something that I didn't think would require me to cut off my leg and hand it to the cashier as payment for food. It was nearly impossible to find. Eventually I decided on getting a massive plate of Nachos from Latina Cantina, or whatever its called. It was 9 bucks. Had approximately 1400 calories, they told me on the board, was decent, but not really what I was looking for. I was actually pretty disappointed with my food options. I could only find one place in the upper deck that I could by a sausage and the line was massive. If I wanted a Johnny Rockets cheeseburger I would have needed to drop like 10 bones. The pulled pork sandwhich was like 12 or something like that. Steak Sandwhich 15 bucks. Seriously everything is outrageously and annoyingly priced.
~It cost me ten bucks for like a 20+ ounce Budweiser. But I got a commerorative cup. Two of them actually. YAY 20 dollars for two plastic cups. Not really expecting much less from them, but 11 dollars for a Guiness that was likely smaller than the Budweiser just seemed a bit too steep for me to purchase. (Yes I'm relatively cheap)
~The lines for the food were still a massive clusterfuck.
~I'm not really sure where to park anymore, but the lot I used to park in across the street from the bat, is a hike to the stadium. And it's 19$ bones to park. Yay money.
~Sitting in the upperdeck and looking at the field, I honestly didn't feel like I was in a new building, unless I was of course looking at the 9000 foot flat screen in centerfield. The dimensions and field and behind the plate look pretty similar so it really does feel like you're in "Yankee Stadium".
~Unlike the Mets and their homage to all things Dodgers, the Yankees have pictures of their World Championships and heroes everywhere. So when you're in the stadium you absolutely positively know this is the Yankees ball park.
~Because the concourses are open air and have a view of the field, if you buy a cheap seat you can essentially just stand behind the last field row and watch the game there the entire time. It's actually a pretty baller view of the game.
~I like the out of town scoreboard. Showing who's on, who's pitching, who's up, etc. is a nice touch. Allows me to stop checking scores on my phone.
~Some things to me are a bit weird. The art gallery and the live lookin butcher shop are probably the main two culprits.
~Honestly I think restaurants in stadiums are stupid. Why go to a restaurant in a stadium and pay for a ticket and pay 3 times for your food if you're not going to even experience the actual game?
~Oh and all those empty seats pissed me off and are mostly likely negatively jading what was really a sweet experience. Especially considering I only had to sell one of my kidneys for the Nachos and beer. What a steal.
Comments
The worst part is that our taxes go to building these monster stadiums, then when they are done they fuck us doubly hard by charging ridiculous prices.
The Yankees get Tax free bonds to sell to whomever they choose. They have to pay those bonds out over the course of their life. So the Yankees are funding the 1.5 billion themselves. The issue is that the stadium will technically be owned by NYC so the Yankees and Mets won't have to pay yearly property taxes and the bonds they use to raise money are also not taxed allowing them to give a lower yield to investors than they normally would have to.
However, the new Yankees stadium seems ridiculous in being huge and expensive but it is not really any surprise.