THE NEW CATHEDRALS: CHAPTER 8, PART ONE

EARLY NEW YORK STADIUM CONSTRUCTION HISTORY:  AN OVERVIEW

“New York has historically been the center of organized sport in America, the locus of national media, and the urban area most intensely studied by sports historians.”  New York led the way in construction of venues that linked sports entertainment to admission fees.  New York was also the site for having a paid rights-based model for sports broadcasting.  There were a number of different ballparks used in the early days by teams.  The Union Grounds was an ice skating rink that was converted into a ballpark.  Washington Park then became popular followed by Capitoline Grounds, Eastern Park, Ridgewood Park, Ambrose Park, and the Satellite Grounds. 

STADIUM CONSTRUCTION IN NEW YORK:  FROM THE PROGRESSIVE ERA TO SHEA STADIUM

New York fielded more professional teams for each sport than any other city.  At the end of the Progressive Era, New York was slow to move towards working with modern concrete and steel facilities.   The only reason New York eventually turned to using concrete and steel for construction was due to a severe fire of a primarily wooden facility.  The New York Highlanders, renamed the Yankees, prior to Yankee Stadium, played in Hilltop Park.  When the stadium was build, it was the last major league stadium to be built using concrete and steel.  The stadium was opened to the public on April 18, 1923 and received front-page coverage from the New York Times.   

YANKEE STADIUM RENOVATION AND THE DEPARTURE OF THE GIANTS

The decision to renovate Yankee Stadium in the 1970s was due to Mayor John Lindsay.  Sportswriters argued that the stadium’s attendance problems were caused by the “lousy neighborhood” and that renovation would not matter to attendance.  Even still “the Yankee Stadium project demonstrated how important sports had become as an index of a community’s major league status.  This massive renovation was prompted by a desire to demonstrate to the nation that New York was a vibrant leader, not a weakened dinosaur.” 

THE 1990′s AND THE PUSH TO BUILD NEW BALLPARKS

CBS sold the Yankees to a little-known Cleveland shipbuilding executive named George Steinbrenner for a mere $10 million.  Steinbrenner then starting bidding on free-agent players which was something that Marvin Miller, baseball’s labor leader, was starting to change the future of baseball economics.  (1973)  Steinbrenner was able to generate a large amount of revenue due to the fact that baseball’s media bidding structure was localized.  Even with this, Steinbrenner still believed that Yankee Stadium was a liability due to its limited number of skyboxes and older construction.  Steinbrenner and the city fought for years in attempts to build a new stadium.  It was not until Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was elected that the Yankees and the city began to work together.  Giuliani and the Yankees faced two major hardships in the 90’s that hurt their chances for getting a new stadium.  First, in 1994, MLB cancelled its season due to labor disputes.  Second, in April of 1998, a 500-pound steel beam crushed a seat below, prompting fears that the stadium’s physical condition could present a major safety hazard.  The incident caused national media to follow the stadium issue more closely.  Although baseball started back up after 1994, and the stadium was reopened after a thorough city inspection in 1998, many people did not support the building of a new stadium.

NEWS COVERAGE:  THE NEW YORK MEDIA AND YANKEE STADIUM

Two major events brought stadium-related coverage to New York.  The first being the 1998 incident with the 500-pound steel expansion joint, and the second being Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon’s announcement that he wanted to work with the city to replace Shea Stadium  These two events prompted front-page coverage in all the New York newspapers.

CONCLUSION:  THE YANKEES PUSH TO REPLACE YANKEE STADIUM

Many Yankee fans regarded the old Yankee Stadium as an ancient landmark, a larger-than-life shrine that contains the trappings of Yankee legends.  In 2001 the Yankees announced ambitious plans to build an $800 million retractable-dome stadium in the Bronx. The plan required splitting cots with taxpayers and went nowhere.  The Yankees then scaled back plans, and in 2004 offered to pay all $700 million of costs for an open-air facility.  By January of 2005, estimates had risen to $800 million for the new ballpark but the Yankees still agreed to pay full costs. 

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