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April 2, 2009
Past Will Touch Costly New Homes of Yankees and Mets
The New York Times
by George Vecsey
In the age of Madoff, in the age of bailouts, in the age of layoffs, comes the unprecedented spectacle of not one, but two heavily subsidized baseball stadiums opening in New York in the very same week.
...Were these new places really necessary? Yankee Stadium was cramped and outmoded but quite awesome. Shea Stadium was a horror, but it was the Mets’ fans beloved horror. Knowing what we know now about the economy, we surely could have lived with them indefinitely.
The main goal became turning ballparks into resorts, land cruises designed for A.I.G.-bonus-recipient wallets, the games lasting long enough to wring more twenties and hundreds out of the faithful.
Bread and circuses. Shrimp and pennant races. Luxury boxes and follies. Laugh and cry.
...Now we have these swanky new joints. The Mets and the Yankees have made their deals with the devil, the luxury-box trade.
Posted by eric at April 2, 2009 3:30 PM