kaufsox
08-13-2007, 11:34 PM
So, had to go to NYC for research and decided to take in a little fun as well. Luckily, the Sox were in town and I not only got to go to Yankee Stadium, but got to see the Sox as well. The short review, in a word, is: dump! I couldn't be less impressed. First, the walkways/concourses were terrribly cramped and contained many bottlenecks that made the getting around the stadium very difficult. Next, the seating was very poor. We had excellent seats behind homeplate, but they were so cramped that it was a bit uncomfortable, especially because I was at the marathon 2nd inning game. I'm not a tall man (5' 9") and my knees were hitting the row in front of me and I'm not a large man (175 lbs) and was quite pinched in the seats. To quibble a bit, there weren't even cup holders. I know that is a bit petty, but even Wrigley could figure out cup holders. The field itself wasn't very impressive either. I knew logically that the lines were short, but seeing it in person made it real. 318 down left and 314 to right are very cheap and it didn't disappoint two of the Sox home runs would have been fly outs anywhere else. The only positive for the physical aspects of the Stadium that I can muster are the restrooms. They were clean and for a 50K crowd, not very busy.
Other aspects of the park that really didn't do much for me were the food, souvenirs and atmosphere. The food was just average and kind of like the cup holder complaint, they gave out packets of mustard. What is this, a high school football game? This is supposed to be the premier team of MLB, get some mustard pumps. I did like the gift shop, but the choices were pretty limited, very little from other MLB teams and the choices for men and kids were nothing to write home about. I did find the women's selection very good, so I was able to get my wife a nice shirt. Finally, atmosphere. To hear ESPN tell it, Yankee fans are, to almost directly quote Chris Berman " a little more knowledgeable, a little more into the game." rubbish. The crowd seemed to be made up from either tourists, like me, or your basic crank, like any other park. The fans around me spent more of their time complaining about the heat than watching the game. And what many Yankee fans have complained about when going to USCF is all of the between inning activity. It may come as a shock to Yankee fans, but they do all of the same stuff, for the most part. No, they don't have the Pride team, but they do the scoreboard stuff. The reason people don't think the Yankees do these things is that the sound system is absolutely terrible. I could barely make out the music or announcements. If I wasn't looking toward the scoreboard, I would have never known the "hat game" was going on.
After all of that, I'm glad I went and got to see the Stadium before they implode it for a parking lot in 2009. I definitely don't need to go back in its final year, and wouldn't return if it was going to remain. Like I said, a dump.
Other aspects of the park that really didn't do much for me were the food, souvenirs and atmosphere. The food was just average and kind of like the cup holder complaint, they gave out packets of mustard. What is this, a high school football game? This is supposed to be the premier team of MLB, get some mustard pumps. I did like the gift shop, but the choices were pretty limited, very little from other MLB teams and the choices for men and kids were nothing to write home about. I did find the women's selection very good, so I was able to get my wife a nice shirt. Finally, atmosphere. To hear ESPN tell it, Yankee fans are, to almost directly quote Chris Berman " a little more knowledgeable, a little more into the game." rubbish. The crowd seemed to be made up from either tourists, like me, or your basic crank, like any other park. The fans around me spent more of their time complaining about the heat than watching the game. And what many Yankee fans have complained about when going to USCF is all of the between inning activity. It may come as a shock to Yankee fans, but they do all of the same stuff, for the most part. No, they don't have the Pride team, but they do the scoreboard stuff. The reason people don't think the Yankees do these things is that the sound system is absolutely terrible. I could barely make out the music or announcements. If I wasn't looking toward the scoreboard, I would have never known the "hat game" was going on.
After all of that, I'm glad I went and got to see the Stadium before they implode it for a parking lot in 2009. I definitely don't need to go back in its final year, and wouldn't return if it was going to remain. Like I said, a dump.