sports

By George, A New Stadium

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The NY Yankees have announced they are building a new stadium in a deal worth around $800 million that is being almost totally privately funded. That means its coming out of George’s pocket, not yours or mine, for the most part which is a breath of fresh air. In a nice bit of creative financing, the stadium will be financed by 40-year tax-free bonds issued by a local development corporation created by the city and state. The Yankees will have to shell out about $50 million a year in interest payments but that cost has the nice benefit of allowing the yankees to pay significantly less in revenue sharing each year to the rest of Major League Baseball. Why fund other teams when you can fund the construction of your own stadium? Very smart and shrewd move guys, I applaud you.

I for one am thrilled by the idea. I love the current stadium and have loved (though not necessarily enjoyed – losing games suck) every second that I have spent in it. The fact is though that its old, it needs to be updated and it needs to generate more revenue that it currently does, especially if the Yankees are to remain the Yankees. So, a new stadium at some point to me was a definite. It just was a matter of when, where and how. So, when the stadium proposal was publicly unveiled, I was very happy to see that it contained lots of good details, like how the current stadium will be kept for the use of local amateur, high school and college leagues and how “not only will the new house retain the feel of the current ballpark with identical field dimensions and bullpen placements, but many planned features will actually recapture some of the original features eradicated by the extensive renovation that was done on the old stadium from 1973-75.”

When I was a kid, when Steinbrenner would rumble and threaten moving the team to NJ, I quaked in my little sneaks and prayed that moving day would never come. Over the years it was been a nagging fear and now I don’t believe it will happen. The Bronx Bombers stay in the Bronx. Period.
After the jump, check out pics of the new stadium.

Aerial view of Yankee Stadium from southwest
View from behind home plate
View of the front entrance
View of Monument Park and the Batter’s Eye Club
politics

I am the Ostrich

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I’ve basically been depressed by the upcoming election and the incredible Yankee debacle that I witnessed last week so I haven’t been posting. I’m still catching up on the sleep I missed by watching all of those 9 hour baseball games and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that Boston is up 2 – 0 in the World Series. I’m also trying to wrap my head around the idea that GWB might actually win again and that about 50% of the country actually likes him and/or his job performance well enough to vote for him again. As Madeline Albright said on the Daily Show last night, “Voting for him legitimizes what happened in 2000.”The latest news from Reuters puts GWB up by 3 points. What the fuck gives? Seriously, I’m acting like the current administration because I have just stopped reading my usual news sources and have buried my head in the proverbial sand because I just don’t like anything that the newspapers are publishing. Not to say that I’m turning into a GWB myself, I will pay attention to reality again soon, I’m just waiting for election night and for the World Series to end. God helps us on November 3rd if Boston has won the World Series and GWB is our president for another 4 years. I might just take off from work for the rest of the week and drink Jim Beam all…day…long…