The Yankees have been selling out nearly every game and it shows in the price of scalped tickets. We had bleacher tickets, but we heard a storm was coming so we looked to upgrade to something under a roof. We ended up paying $70 per seat extra ($20 premium), but it was worth every penny.
We don't deal with rain delays much in California, which made this particular one quite entertaining. Gale force winds and sideways rain made tarping the infield a bit of an adventure. Worst of all, we were told by people we met after the game that were sitting in the bleachers that during the rain delay, security staff prevented people from getting onto the concourse for safety reasons. Oh yeah, and they don't allow alcohol in the bleachers, so we were able to get our overpriced drink on in the main reserve area as well.
My buddy's house is somewhat upstate and west of the Hudson River. Because of the alcohol factor, we decided to take the train in. Trains west of the Hudson run parallel with Manhattan and terminate at Penn Station (Madison Square Garden). From there we took the B uptown, which dropped us off at the Stadium. No sweat, and by far the best transit situation in baseball (yes, better than the Giants due to frequency of service).
There's nothing wrong with the seating bowl, save for the lack of suites and club areas. The seats are wide and spacious. The place holds 57,000 but actually has some intimacy because the decks are stacked on top of each other with good overhangs. It's once you get out of the seating bowl that the deficiencies show. Concourses and ramps are terribly cramped. Available space limits the number and types of concession stands.
That won't be the case at the New Yankee Stadium, which will be replete with a true façade. Upper deck seats will be further away, and prices will be completely ridiculous. One nice thing that will come out of it: MTA is building a new Metro North train station for fans coming from the Hudson River Valley and Connecticut.
2 comments:
thanks for the pictures and commentary. I visited Yankee Stadium in May 2002 and took the tour, as the Yankees were out of town. I see that in the old stadium, they painted the concrete. The Oakland Coli, of course, is bare, gray, concrete, looking like a parking garage. And psychologically, gray looks depressing. Does the "white paint" help??
I've always wondered why they wont at least paint the coliseum...I have friends that tell me it reminds them of prison!
...Thats one thing I think its safe to say, that we all agree on that the A's definitely need a new ballpark and the only reason we even have disagreements is because we all love the A's...and we want the best for them...
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