Check out the Times's 360° panoramic shot of the last night at the House that Ruth Built. (A bit dull photographically, don't you think?)
Don't think I'm sentimental. The new Yankee Stadium, built by a billionaire for his millionaires to play in, like pretty much every other major sports stadium, is a fraud on the public: erected with public funds, it will seat fewer people but have far more luxury boxes so corporate types can live large without paying anything back into the tax base. (Sky boxes are tax deductible.) But at least the billionaire will get richer so he can keep hiring more millionaires, and the unwashed masses who actually pay for it all can watch the games at home. What's television for, after all?
Roughly 3,500,000 people attended the last game. (Well, that's how many people will be claiming to have been there 20 years from now.)
______________________
Mike
Featured Comment by Lambert: "'The House That Ruth Built....' Remember the Curse of the Bambino (Babe Ruth)? In the off-season of 1919–1920, the Boston Red Sox sold Ruth to the N.Y. Yankees, and legend has it that Ruth felt slighted and put a curse on the Red Sox so that they would never win another championship.
"In the early 2000s, the Yankees ownership entertained the idea of tearing down the house that Ruth built. Well, guess what? Ruth lifted the curse off the Red Sox and cast it upon the Yankees. I said this back then and everyone laughed at me. No one's laughing now, least of all spoiled Yankees fans. The Yankees have not been able to win another championship since. And the Red Sox have won two.
"The question is: Will the curse be buried in the rubble of Yankee Stadium, or will it live on? Stay tuned."
Mike, you should definitely start another blog where you discuss various topics unrelated to photography.
Not that I mind reading them here, but I'm sure you would have interesting views to express on so many things that it would make sense to have another place devoted to it.
I know I would read it.
Posted by: Charles Lanteigne | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 03:19 PM
Thank you, Charles, for that nice vote of confidence, but I fear you would be in a quite small minority. I might entice 10% of TOP readers to visit another blog on a regular basis, but I doubt anyone in the wider world would be interested in my blatherings. In general, throughout my writing life people have only been interested in what I have to say about photography. (Of course, I don't TRY very hard, and I have quite a weak ego, and in today's very competitive world both striving and an undeservedly high self-regard are baseline requirements....)
But thanks, anyway.
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike J. | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 03:45 PM
I could never figure out why cities finance stadiums. They don't finance gas stations or convenience stores, why should they finance a facility for the exclusive use of a guy who already has a billion dollars? Or maybe it's just some kind of convenience (the loan) that doesn't cost the city anything, because it gets paid back with interest, so the city actually makes money in the long run? I don't know...but I'd like a simple one paragraph explanation if anybody has one.
JC
Posted by: John Camp | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 04:12 PM
Charles,
Regarding another blog for Mike. One of the charms of *this* blog is that Mike is free to comment on whatever he pleases, photographic or not. Two blogs would dilute the interest (for me). I like it this way big time.
Just another point of view...
Posted by: Michael Tapes | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 04:21 PM
It's disgusting- and I'm a born Yankee fan! A friend who works at a ticket agency says choice box seats will go for $825- that's the prescalper price...
For the record, standing at ground level back of home plate and looking up in either direction towards the original facade (a portion of which was saved by the bleacher/scoreboard area) that ringed the entire stadium before the 70's renovation wqs one of the most majestic and awe inspiring vistas ever created by man. Then again, if you had a seat behind one of the pillars- you were downright screwed.
Posted by: Stan B. | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 04:36 PM
Mike,
I would read another blog of yours too.
This analysis I call spot on. May I add, that the unwashed masses watching the games at home even lay down a monthly wage or more for the new tv screen--voluntarily (hopefully this is the right word in this context...).
The fact that the masses don't even understand such simple correlations makes me afraid that nothing, absolutely nothing will change in the foreseeable future.
best always
Andreas
Posted by: Andreas | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 04:52 PM
Just to clarify- by "pillars," I meant the support beams that both held up the grandstand and obstructed your view should you be seated behind one at the original, non-renovated Yankee Stadium.
Oh, and that's $825 for a choice, regular season box seat...
Posted by: Stan B. | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 05:41 PM
JC,
I think I can do it in two words: "civic pride." A city with a pro sports team is just a bigger deal than a city without one, and the city fathers (and mothers?) would seemingly do whatever it takes to get or keep a pro sports team. They think it's an overall benefit to the community. I don't know the specifics with the new Yankee Stadium, but if the negotiations proceeded along standard lines, Steinbrenner (the owner) probably threatened to move to the team out of the city (to NJ, say) in order to get the concessions he wanted, and the city caved against the threat. That's just standard practice--I have no idea whether it was done in this case or not.
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike J. | Monday, 22 September 2008 at 06:53 PM
I enjoy your comments on any given subject. Keep 'em coming.
Posted by: michael | Tuesday, 23 September 2008 at 12:28 AM
Mike,
Steinbrenner first tried that "move 'em out strategy" all the way back in the seventies before the initial renovation. And it was laughed "out of town" even then. The Jersey Yanks? The Bayonne Bombers?
The question is- who'll be able to afford the house that greed built?
Posted by: Stan B. | Tuesday, 23 September 2008 at 02:40 AM
"...and the unwashed masses who actually pay for it all can watch the games at home. What's television for, after all?"
Don't forget that the Yankees established, own and now show most of their games on the YES Network. TV is not free. Most people now watch TV via cable networks, and adding the YES Network to cable programming in New York costs EACH and EVERY cable subscriber in the New York area something like $2 a month (I don't know the exact numbers, but it was something like $1.95/month), even if they aren't Yankees fans and even if they don't watch or care about baseball.
This has got to be the greatest scam imaginable. It's a bigger scam than public financing for a stadium and a bigger scam than high priced seats. It is essentially a $2/month Yankees tax on every household in the NY metropolitan area. THIS is how the masses pay for it all.
Posted by: mcananeya | Tuesday, 23 September 2008 at 05:26 AM
Im not a Yankee Fan, but i am a baseball fan from NZ, my home city is looking to build a new stadium for Rugby Football and we the tax payer are expected to contribute to this. When the plans were first announced it was going to cost $188 million NZ dollars, now the current estimate is approx 280 million, this for a stadium that will not meet requirements for Top level international rugby games by only seating 33,000 instead of 35,000. Oh yeah, our population base in Dunedin is 120,000 people, and a large portion of that are Students attending University...
Posted by: Hayden H | Tuesday, 23 September 2008 at 09:34 PM
Let those who watch the game subsidize it — no others. As for cities being "bigger deals" with pro sports than without, what does that mean??
Posted by: Mike | Wednesday, 24 September 2008 at 12:29 AM