New Yankee Stadium Critique

On Monday I had the opportunity to go to the Red Sox vs Yankees game at the new Yankee Stadium.

I had originally purchased tickets in section 300, however, thanks to my friend Jared and his connections, we were able to sit in section 113. Despite the two hour rain delay and chilly weather, it was worth the wait as I did get to watch the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

Here are my thoughts on the new Yankee Stadium.

 

Pros

New stadium, old stadium, one of the better parts of going to Yankee Stadium are the bars that surround the stadium. It is what makes Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium, Fenway Fenway and Wrigley Wrigley. You can’t beat it. We decided to go to Stan’s for a drink.

After the drink, we decided to head into the stadium.

If you want to look at the bright side, one of the benefits of a two hour rain delay is that I was able to see everything the stadium had to offer. I think the first thing you notice when you walk into the stadium is the size of the stadium and in particular, the concourse.

It is huge. It’s a football stadium with a baseball field inside of it. The other thing you notice right away are all the tributes the Yankees make to their past.

You can’t walk anywhere and not see a picture of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle or Joe DiMaggio.

The new Yankee Stadium has a ton of food options. Everything from The Hard Rock Cafe to Brother Jimmy’s BBQ to The Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

They also have a sushi station, slider station and even a farmer’s market. Believe it or not, the food was reasonably priced, which is odd because everything else, including tickets, are disgustingly overpriced.

I went to the slider station and had the 3 chicken slider with fries combo (man am I fat). It was $10 which I thought was a pretty fair price. I didn’t get quarter sized chicken. The portion was pretty ample.

 

Cons

This stadium was clearly built for Joe Hedge Fund, Joe Park Ave and Joe CEO.

Joe Average? Sorry, you are not welcome here.

If you are Joe Average you get to sit 400 ft away from home plate. I mean, what stadium has a high end art gallery in it? What stadium charges $2,650 for a seat?

It has become class warfare in the Bronx.

The people working at Yankee Stadium had no clue about anything. I asked four different people what would happen with my ticket in the result of a rain out? I got four different answers.

I didn’t think it was that hard of a question. I also couldn’t believe that during the entire rain delay there were no announcements of what was actually going on. No announcements that there was an actual delay (even though common sense told us there was) and no announcements as to what time they were shooting for the start of the game.

Ridiculous.

 

Overall Gameday Experience

I would give the new Yankee Stadium an 8.5 out of 10. Too many empty seats in the lower section and the stadium caters too much to the wealthy.

Takes away the experience for an average fan.

One other thought about the new Yankee Stadium. Someone will hit a ball out of that stadium. I don’t care what the dimensions say, RF looks like it is 200 feet away. If one of those big left handed hitting sluggers like Hamilton, Fielder, Howard or even Delgado get a hold of one, I think they could hit one completely out of the stadium.