Yankee Stadium

On Saturday, we paid our first visit to the new Yankee Stadium. Unlike our trip to Citi Field last month, we had a beautiful day. It was the tenth anniversary of David Cone’s perfect game. Cone was on hand to toss the ceremonial first pitch to Yankee manager Joe Girardi (photo below), who was his catcher on that historic day.

The Yankees are the city’s best pro team, but they have the lesser stadium. In every respect, we found it inferior to Citi Field, including food service, seating, wayfinding, traffic flow, and subway connections. After the game (a 2–1 Yankee victory), it took us about 45 minutes to exit the stadium and get into the subway, about twice as long as it took at Citi Field. Fewer of the seats are covered at Yankee Stadium than at Citi Field. I would not want to be here in the rain.

If I didn’t know otherwise, I would think the two stadiums were constructed about twenty years apart. Citi Field is state-of-the-art. Yankee Stadium already feels obsolete.

Of course, the Yankees have one thing the Mets don’t: a winning team.

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