New MLB Stadium - NY Yankees

The start of a baseball season is upon us.  Every team is starting with new hope and optimism with an eye toward October.  But on April 16, the sporting world will convene in The Bronx, NY, for the official open to a new chapter in all of sports–the opening of New Yankee Stadium.

The new palace officially opens for business, and as the saying goes, the rich get richer.  With all those luxury boxes, season ticket prices (and willing-and-able customers and no salary cap), the Yankees will continue to sign the best of the best. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the most revered and vilified franchise in sports has again set the bar out of reach. The state-of-the-art facility will be home to a new set of players that will create new memories and historic moments like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Maris, and so many other pin-striped icons did across the street in the old cathedral.

This year, the Dallas Cowboys will open its new facility.  But it’s just not the same.  The Cowboys and Texas Stadium never carried the aura that the Bronx Bombers and Yankee Stadium did.  Texas Stadium was never considered as a ‘cathedral,’ never a real home-field advantage.  The football equivalents of the Yankees just don’t have a mystique coming close to the pin-striped Bronx Bombers.

Jeter, Rodriguez and Rivera will bridge the past with the future with all the latest technology.   Meanwhile, across town the Mets will open Citi Field but will do so unceremoniously, as the heaviest of sport’s heavyweights has the grandest of openings.

Pete Sabatini of Examiner.com attended Friday night’s exhibition game vs. the Cubs and says that the New Yankee Stadium is everything it is cracked up to be in his blog “Yankee Stadium Living Up To The Hype” (http://www.examiner.com/x-650-New-York-Yankees-Examiner~y2009m4d4-Yankee-Stadium-living-up-to-the-hype).  As you might expect from any opening of this magnitude, there were a few glitches–lost tickets at Will Call, broken credit card machines were examples. But Mr. Sabatini states that any issues should be fixed in no time, as the Yankees have clip-board carrying quality control staff (none of them named George Costanza) watching every move of its patrons, doing what they can to ensure best possible experience.

If you have ever been to Yankee Stadium even as an opposing team’s fan or even a casual fan, the fact that Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Maris, and Munson gave you chills as you walk up the ramp to your seat, thinking about all those legends that played on that very field.   Though seemingly impossible, it seems like the Yankees have been able to bring that aura to the new yard.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Yankees continue to be the envy of MLB as it maintains its iconic status as the face of America’s Past Time.  They continue to set the standard of class for the rest of MLB (sorry Red Sox, but it is what it is).

We are sad to see the old cathedral go.  But the next chapter of this storied franchise is about to unfold.   We can’t wait.

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