New $1 billion Yankee Stadium is on deck (state Supreme Court judge OKs tree cutting)

Yahoo ^ | 8/16/06 | KAREN MATTHEWS

[Libloather]

New $1 billion Yankee Stadium is on deck
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
August 16, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- No tears were shed Wednesday for the historic stadium where Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio played out their storied careers.

Politicians and baseball officials who gathered to break ground on a new Yankee Stadium shared memories of the old ballpark but said the new one would be even better.

"Yankee Stadium is an iconic stadium, a place where Ruth and (Lou) Gehrig played, where popes and presidents have spoken," Gov. George Pataki said. "But so, too, will the new Yankee Stadium be an iconic stadium."

Pataki joined team owner George Steinbrenner, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others for the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new stadium, just north of the existing 1923 ballpark.

The billion-dollar Bronx stadium is set to open in 2009.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he remembered going to Yankee Stadium as a teenager.

"I can still feel the joy and excitement as I stared in wonder at the field, perfect in every way," he said. "And there in center field stood the hero of my boyhood, the great Joe DiMaggio. ... Yankee Stadium is an American monument that has endured for 84 years. Today we are breaking ground on a new Yankee Stadium, a new monument and new memories for the coming generations of fans."

Steinbrenner, who complained of the heat, was brief.

"It's a pleasure to give this to you people," he said. "Enjoy the new stadium. I hope it's wonderful."

The Yankees displayed a congratulatory message from President Bush on the center-field scoreboard during the second inning of Wednesday night's game against Baltimore. There were some boos from the crowd.

Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Torre talked about the old ballpark, and the one being built.

"This is a special place. There's no question. But all the renderings I've seen of that new ballpark, it's going to be exciting," he said. "The guys who are going to play in these next couple years and go over there, I'm sure it's going to be a big change for them."

Yankees legend Yogi Berra, superfan Billy Crystal and 81-year-old stadium fixture Freddy Schuman, who patrols the stands with homemade signs, attended the 90-minute ceremony but did not speak.

Schuman, who banged on his trademark frying pan during applause, said later he approved of the new ballpark.

"I feel about the old stadium, but this is progress," he said.

The groundbreaking came a day after a state Supreme Court judge denied opponents a temporary restraining order that would have blocked construction. He found there was no legal bar to cutting down trees to permit a project that benefits the city and the local community.

A few dozen demonstrators carried signs and chanted, "Save our parks," during Wednesday's ceremony, but police kept them far enough away that they could not be heard by the participants.

In Mullaly Park, most of which will be lost to the new ballpark, tennis instructor Sam Fumi said he hoped the politicians would keep their promise to move the tennis courts to a new park nearby.

"We will relocate somewhere, but right now we don't know," he said. "It's sad."

Manuel Perez, a lifelong neighborhood resident who was playing with his two children in the park, said the area's resurgence had meant only higher rents and other costs of living and a new stadium was unlikely to help.

"It's not going to do anything for my community," he said. "Whether we say yes or whether we say no, they're going to do it anyway."

The 53,000-seat open-air ballpark will replace one of the most famous sports arenas in the world, christened with a Ruth home run on Opening Day. Designers plan to restore several elements of the original stadium, including the frieze that hung from the roof, that were lost in a 1970s remodeling.

Yankee Stadium is the third-oldest ballpark in the major leagues, trailing Boston's Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago's Wrigley Field (1914).

The city and state are contributing more than $200 million to the project, including infrastructure improvements. The Yankees will pay the rest, financed through taxable and tax-exempt bonds.

Until a dozen years ago, Steinbrenner had denigrated the neighborhood as dangerous and threatened to move the team to Manhattan or northern New Jersey. But the Yankees expect to draw more than 4 million fans to the stadium this year, making it the eighth consecutive season topping 3 million.

The new stadium will have fewer seats than the current capacity, 57,478, but more luxury boxes. Chief operating officer Lonn Trost said the ballpark would continue to be called Yankee Stadium rather than be named for the highest corporate bidder, though parts of the park would be sponsored.

Construction of the new stadium will involve paving over large portions of Macombs Dam Park and Mullaly Park and cutting down about 400 mature oak trees. The Yankees are to offset the loss of the parks by building new parkland, including three ball fields at the site of the current Yankee Stadium, which will be dismantled.

Backers say the project will create an estimated 3,600 construction jobs and 900 permanent jobs. But the plan met with opposition from some South Bronx neighbors and parks advocates.

Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Parks Advocates, said the stadium foes would appeal Tuesday's ruling and file a federal lawsuit.

"The Yankees were never required to consider practical alternatives to the taking of parkland," he said.

[Libloather]

A few dozen demonstrators carried signs and chanted, "Save our parks,"

Baseball fans say the same thing - no?

From http://www.mlb4u.com/proposed.php

Address: Just north of the existing stadium, between 161st and 164th Streets, and between Jerome and River Avenues in Macombs Dam Park in the South Bronx
Opened: April 2009 (Groundbreaking: Aug, 16, 2006)
Style: Open-air
Capacity: 51,800/54,000
Playing surface: Grass
Dimensions: Same as Yankee Stadium
Architect: HOK Sport
Builder/Constructed by:
Price: $1.02 billion/$930 million ($75 million from New York State for parking facilities and $165 million from City of New York for parkland along the waterfront and other work related to the stadium, including demolition of current stadium and $800 million from Yankees)
Stadium owned by: City of New York (Yankees pay no rent or property tax)
Naming rights deal:
Other notes: The Yankees will lease the stadium for 40 years. The draft plan calls for the trust fund to be endowed in annual increments of $700,000 over the 40-year life of the Yankees lease. The team will pay about $50 million a year for 40 years to pay off the bonds used to finance stadium, but no actual rent will be collected. It also calls for the Yankees to reserve at least 25 percent of the construction contracts for Bronx-based companies, at least half of which would be run by women or members of minorities. At least 25 percent of the construction and post-construction jobs would also go to Bronx residents. An administrator hired by the Yankees will monitor the team to ensure it is compliant, according to the draft agreement. In addition, to the $28 million trust fund, the Yankees must distribute 15,000 free tickets each season to Bronx groups. The proposal also calls for the team to pay $100,000 a year to maintain parks around the stadium and distribute $100,000 a year in "equipment and promotional merchandise" to schools and youth groups in New York City. There was no requirement, however, that the $28 million, which would be distributed over a 40-year period, be spent in the South Bronx, the site of the stadium and its replacement.

[NormsRevenge]

The House That Ruth Built

sayeth the Raven

Never More..

bummer

[phoenix0468]

I'll bet the contractors will come up with some way to save most of the trees. At least I would hope they could. I'm no tree hugger, but being a countryboy, and having climbed many, I am fond of them.

[LouD]

I've always wanted to seen a game there.

I will have to make a point to go watch the Sox kick the Yankee's @ss there sometime before 2009.

[maximusaurelius]

Based on what I've seen and heard, few baseball fans in NYC care all that much. People seem to accept that the 70's renovation really killed the old stadium. (My father, who's been going since 1940-something, disagrees.) They also don't seem to care that the city could save the stadium, because the city owns the stadium. They also don't care that the present stadium could be refurbed, as they're doing for Fenway, or that the new stadium will reduce the number of available seats outside lux boxes.

In the 1980's Steinbrenner threatened and threatened to move the team out of the Bronx, and tear down the stadium, because he wasn't drawing enough. Now we just about hit 4 mill, and this is how Steinbrenner thanks us regular joes.

Also, the NYY PR has been brilliant. They quieted the sentimentalists at first by saying the stadium would be left up, at least the "most recognizeable" aspects etc. Gradually that changed, and now it looks like the current stadium site will (1) not be a Stadium; and (2) may be a parking lot.

All so we can have a "tin can" replica of Camden Yards.

After they tore down Penn Station, people said, "never again." And here it's about to happen, again.

For shame - a city with no soul will get precisely what it deserves.

[Broker]

I will always remember the POLO GROUNDS and forever forget Shea Stadium.

[llevrok]

so they take a perfectly good venue (I've been there a number of times), with history so unique, making money hand over fist - but soak the taxpayers for $200Mil so they can have more luxury boxes?

Some stadiums make sense when they resurect an area of a city or are woefully inadequate. This one makes no sense other than for George's ego.

[Deo volente]

I'm shedding a tear, and I hate the Yankees!

It just won't be the same.

[PistolPaknMama]

Bread and circus.

[1rudeboy]

Public/Private Partnership! Run for the hills!

[Chode]

The city and state are contributing more than $200 million to the project, including infrastructure improvements.

and yet NASCAR/F1/IRL/CART/NHRA tracks accross the country ALL manage to turn a profit without the kind of money lavished on baseball and football by the government.

[NormsRevenge]

I remember the old Met in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Never attended MLB games anywhere else except at Candlestick. Traditions die hard and so do memories , fortunately.

[NormsRevenge]

Yogi Berra was speechless. Wow..

[Verginius Rufus]

Isn't it kind of tacky to announce the replacement of the House that Ruth Built on the anniversary of Bath Ruth's death?

Was superfan Hillary there?

[Roccus]

Take the numbers with a grain of salt. When Lindsey first tore down the Stadium in the 70's the total coast of the 'rehab' was supposed to be $24mil. The last I heard was that they were at $125mil and still counting. Later, George moved the fences in. (Twice I believe) The main reason he wants a new park is so that he can have more luxury suites. The home team gets a much greater percentage from the suites than they do for the rest of the seats. The new park will also have mall-like retail areas which means more $$$ for the owner.
Now I've been a National league fan since the days of Da Bums. I was a Met fan from the Polo Grounds through till I left the Apple in '02 (my interest did wane in the latter years) but I'll say one thing for George. He puts money back into the team. Unlike the owners of teams like Mill. and Pitt. Those owners, as soon as the profit sharing went through, just lined their own pockets and threw mediocrity on the field.

[nopardons]

It's NOT going to be a "tin can replica of Camden Yards"; it's going to be a replica of the original Yankee Stadium...without the poles and the current blindside of some seats.

The '70s renovation helped some ( those damned poles ! ), but there were still quite a number of people who couldn't see the entire field; especially in the nosebleed seats.

Penn Station was one thing....this is completely different! The new Yankee stadium will look just like the House that Ruth built, but be more comfortable and memorial park is being brought over, piece by piece and will look the same too.

[nopardons]

Shea's to be rebuilt too.

[Michael.SF.]

Never attended MLB games anywhere else except at Candlestick.

The Stick? Possibly the worse location for MLB in the history of the game.

If you have not been the Pac Bell, oops, SNC Park, you should go. Excellent stadium.

[nopardons]

Thanks for the ping and BTW...though I LOVE Yankee Stadium ( though I HATE it, now that it's smoke free ), I think that building the new one is a good idea.

[PackerBoy]

All major sports teams should be owned by their communities, like the Green Bay Packers. They are never going to move. Period. And no prima donna owner is ever going to threaten to do so, either.