Made it out to both exhibitions, here's what I got.
First off, the exterior is breathtaking and fresh. Not entirely new, we saw it get built and we've all seen the mockup drawings, but there really is a elegant and classy freshness to going the extra mile, and you see where that 1.5 billion went immediately, because that stone isn't cheap, but it gives an immediate leg up over the recent trend in urban construction of red brick and more red brick. Not to totally diminish it, but when you start to travel from town to town and they look the same, you can't say that of this place. I hope they keep up with the power washing on it though, that will dim quickly if they don't
Parking seems like it could be a nightmare, but in all honesty, both days, I got out of the stadium faster than I EVER have. However, the wrinkle is, there is a ticket vending machine you have to swipe through to exit. But the lots have TONS of staff directing you to the most expedient exit and I zipped right out of there. Don't know if this was opening day button polishing or they really plan to keep this staff on, but since they are banging you for 19 bucks to park, its money that I'd actually consider well spent if I wasn't waiting forever to exit through the 3 or 4 exits in a garage. If not maintained, this could be a cluster F, but if they are sensible and keep the bars open postgame, maybe it'll be ok.
My brother in law made the observation as we were walking in, a MUCH diminished prescence in exterior vending. Again, maybe they didn't want to bring out the dog and pony show for two games and then shut down for two weeks, but there seems to be a concieted effort to funnel you inside.
And inside, well, wow. I was largely opposed to the new stadium, but as far as a compromise to progress, I was very happy it was staying in the Bronx at the same address as opposed to Jersey or the West Side. But walking into that great hall, it'll take your breath away. First game there, rain was threatening, but it'll catch some amazing late day light and I'm sure that place will look like heaven. Lots of open air and light and just a stark contrast to the beautifully confined cooridors of old. Grand Central feeling. Great walking around and watching our jaded city actually have their jaw drop when looking at something. Can't even fathom when the last time something this grand was built in the city(apart from the Jackie Robinson Routunda at Citi which i hear is also terrific). Big old video board at one end, and a cool effect of probably 10 or so yankee banners, one side, black and white players from the 20's-50's and the other side with guys from 70's through the recent era. Everyone with their number retired is represented, except for perhaps Rizzuto who strangely I don't recall, and on the flip, only O'Neill, Winfield, Nettles and Randolph aren't retired. Probably a 4 story room, nice.
From there, you have to pass through the gauntlet of two merch stores that are probably the size of your average Borders. There is at least another two elsewhere in the stadium, you'll not want for swag in this joint, and I took a walk through and you'd never know there was a recession going on, as Yankee hats, bats, pennants and g-damn garden gnomes(yes yankee garden gnomes) were flying off the shelves. Passing through the store, out into the concourse...
And there it was.
You had a great view at the old stadium, actuallly photographed BRILLIANTLY in "Big", the Tom Hanks flick. In the old stadium, you'd trudge through the sludge and cold, dark grey concrete cramped cooridors before edging to a tunnel that would funnel you out, and from this darkness, the impossibly vast green field. An effect that I don't know if its unique but it was stark, just coming from that claustrophobic blackness into BOOM that big bright field.
Now, that is gone, however, the compromise is acceptable. Because instead of that *BANG* reveal, you get a slower, rolling one, but thats because the entire middle concourse is wide open. Its a trend that started in part from what I can tell at the Cadillac of new construction, Camden Yards, and I've seen personally perfected at PNC Park which was a foul poul to foul pole openness. Yankee takes it one step further, as from wing to wing on lower concourse you get this BRILLIANT wide open panorama of the whole field. To me, its a view thats reminscent of one of the better kept secrets of the old park, where the back end of the lower tier was always empty(at least until the past few years), so you buy your upper deck ticket and sneak down. Panoramic view, but you lose popups, but I saw some great pitchers deal from right over a batters should at about hundred feet away from 12 bucks to sit in the upper tank. This view feels the same. Lost popups, but you still feel the field. And apparently these will be part of the standing room experience, which would be fine by me, I like watching the game this way, and you're always close to get a beer.
Concourse wise, really interesting. A very contemporary food presentation, modern, tasteful, clear fonts identifying the vendors, and atop that, probably 5x5 photographs covering each championship season, more or less in order from what I can tell. Each year gets 4 pictures telling the tale, thus Don Larsen's shot is in 1956, etc. And yes, Torre did make it on one of these, good move by the team acknowledging and also diffusing any hype that might come. A little bit of jam up in this space, despite its size, but thats to be expected, everyone's walking around getting their views in, and I'd expect that to be the case for all of this season if not next. Places I saw included Brother Jimmy's BBQ, Johnny Rockets, Nathans, Arthur Avenue Deli, Carl's Cheesesteaks, Dale and Thomas fresh popped corn and Carvel amongst others. Calories on the board just remind you of the havoc you're inflicting. Lines were LONG, despite the many options, but with the open air concourse deal, you can still keep an eye on the game and HD monitors are EVERYWHERE. I remember reading some insane number were ordered for the stadium, like 1000 give or take a couple hundred and you see them. EVERYWHERE.
However, one place they're not, suprisingly, is the bathroom. But not a problem as in years past, as I hit the head at least six times(yes plenty of drinking going on here and 2 hours early both days). I literally never waited as much as a moment for a urinal. Plenty of open availbility which lies in contrast to the past, so the bathroom monitors weren't necessary. Time used to be, between the walk and wait, you could easily lose a half inning taking a piss and this is compartively instantaneous! Bonus!
What else is on the concourse? There is a Steiner sports high end memorbillia stop and a Peter Max Gallery. NY Columnists have taken a very harsh, if not miopic and short sighted perspective on this place, and the one theme they've gone over is "its like a ball park inside of a shopping mall". And I'm trying to decide if this is fair or not, and I tend to say no. Truth is, the place is so friggin big in the concourses, that these are sort of space filling accents, and they don't dominate or take away from the experience in the least. I mean, if you came here and toured it empty, maybe that would be your experience, but with the game and people and flow, that doesn't really seem to be the scene. And the merch stores were TEEMING, OVERFLOWING with people. If people want to buy this crap, which I personally don't get wrapped up in, why make them wait? I remeber at the old Shea store, they had a wait and they'd ration people in as others left. Lunacy to me. if people want to buy this crap, sell it to them.
Keeping with the walk around, signs point you to monument park, but they haven't really fixed this old issue. Its still a batting practice experience after inital discussion that it would be open during the game, which would make sense. I don't know, i guess you could argue it makes it more special, but you have this ultra cool spot, let people check it out. It still gets shut about an hour before the game, and previously thats becasue so much groundscrew and bullpen access happened near it. Its also in CF now and sort of not visible during the games, and the retired numbers are not either. I would have liked to seen them forgo a few ad-bucks and put them on the front of the bleachers in left center so you see them and its sort of similar to the old joint. Perhaps this can be corrected, and maybe it shows better on TV, which I obviously didn't get to watch being there.
From there, you can take the underground tunnel, which actually feels like old Yankee stadium, that will take you to the Mohegian Sun Sports Bar in CF. Lines were way long there, but it looks like a cool view, as you're inside the batters eye. From the outside, it looks like hell though, like some Area 51 observation tower, the really only disjointed and ugly spot in the park. And the notorious obstructed view $5.00 bleacher seats are actually somehow worse than I expected. Just dreadful, but with the standing room space, you could do worse. But good lord, to say only half the field is obstructed is generous to me. If you were to the wall there, i don't think you'd even see the CF. But 5 bucks is 5 bucks, and you'll be paying $2.50 to ride the subway soon enough, and a small coke is $5.00 here, so you get what you pay for!
Atop that awful sports bar in CF is a spot that could be cool, a rooftop patio that lets you get that old ESPN camera view looking at pitcher and batter almost below and above each other if that makes sense. Can't tell if this will be standing room, I saw people chilling, but then the security also shuffled folks along from there, so i dont' know the vibe. Reminscent of the RF space at Camden Yards, but with smaller walls and better sight lines. I'm sure lots of places put that concept to work to good effect and it gets a thumbs up here.
Our tix were in Section 104 and Section 105. I purposely stubhubbed them and they are fantastic. Right Field is still 314 down the line, but the wall used to belly out on its way to right center, but the porch is now having a slight belly and then a straight wall feel which should make the famous short porch that much shorter. On top of that, no walkway in front of the seats, now seats go straight to the wall and you look like you could pick the RF's pockett. Now, something glorious happened yesterday where the soundsystem went down and there wasn't a deluge of sound effects and songs driving you batty(although, unprompted, no one stood up at the 7th inning stretch). The Section 39 guys did an accapella God Bless America(which is sadly still here, no offense to anyone, but this stadium should have been the break to retire this for a while, but better than Cotton Eye Joe and the YMCA which tragically also made the trip). That silence gave the place a wondeful throwback feel and just let you enjoy the game and let it breathe, such as it could with gale force winds. But before the system broke down, my buddy and I and a few other livelier fans were getting on Milton Bradley's case and he absolutely heard us, because when a guy got off a line about him being overpaid, he did the "money pinch" sign with his fingers and then patted his butt. And Nick Swisher, what a phenomenal guy, he DEFINATELY heard us and had fun with us in the 7th and 8th. I'd say the porch was at best at quarter capacity at this point, and he's like 30 feet away in a soundless stadium and every so often he'd reply and he was having fun with us. He'd flick his hair when we called him "Nicky Mullet" and after he threw back in on a single, I hit him with "Thanks for the ticket to the gun show" and he then flexed his arm and the whole place went crazy. We got his attention in the 9th, some little 3rd grader in the front row there with his dad for the kids birthday. "Nick Nick we need a ball" and he actually came over and flipped one to the kid. I hope the guy plays, he seems awesome and he'll be a favorite, he already is with us!
There are negatives though. The Bleacher fans have REALLY been marginalized. I know the party line is that the box seats subsidize the cheapies, but where as the RF bleachers used to be 5 feet off the field, they're an easy 50-100 feed back from the box seats. When i first heard about box seats going in front of them, I thought it was ok, thinking 4 or 5 rows. Its more like 10 or 15 and they really get pushed back and while they were still loud enough for roll call, it would be great to have them in RF to get on top of the opposing outfielders like the old days. Hopefully families don't dominate these RF seats.
One architecual drawback that is not AS BAD in person as in concept is the loss of the upper deck as a home run target proper. The whole field recedes much more gradually now and thus you don't get that upper deck overhand feel, so putting one there is a poke. Being that it was as dramatic a visual statement about the old field as the facade, this will take getting used to, but on TV and at the game, I think its an adjustement I'll make. Hell, I have to, don't I, at least until the New Stadium gets built in 2030.
My biggest concern however, is a loss of homefield advantage. The place actually looked pretty empty. Day 1 was a rain issue and the weather was no prize, but come on, these are the first two days! Now, there had to be no shows, but the other issue I think is, there is so much to see and do food wise, between the Rich guy places and the public spots like the Hard Rock Cafe(didn't make it there, it didn't appear to have a field view) and the Mohegian bar and the great concourse space. I could see the place simply not being as loud and intimidating as it used to be(of course, thanks to the new higher end clientelle too, a problem at Giants games too). We'll have to see how the sound goes here, it may actually have better acoustics since the noise could be more concentrated and directed thanks to the more closed "bowl" feeling of the outfield, and I don't know what goes into home field advantage anyway. It didn't stop Josh Beckett or Jaret Wright as youngsters here, but you've definately watched guys melt down in the games here. Time will tell, but it was louder than i thought for the Teixera, Jeter and Cano home runs, so maybe it'll be ok.
What else can i share? Leather padded "movie theater" puffy seats and the legroom and butt room is fantastic. A big improvement, and it seems like a neeed one given the way they'll feed the fatties at this place!
All in all, an A- of a park. The comments about the overly concrete feel are right, but hopefully that will age and "character up". I respect that they went for state of the art and didn't try to manufacture some kind of retro tradition. That brilliant concrete will fade and blend better soon enough and it'll feel like home, trust me, those old bleachers weren't any more charming than these, they were just old as hell. As these two will one day be.
Definately have to recommend checking it out, cool experience!
OK, now at least it makes sense to me why the facade is not there. Did not realize this.
I LOVE IT.
I LOVE IT.
