Breaking it down, NYC & 2 new stadiums.

So last weekend I had the great opportunity to finally get to see the new Yankee stadium thanks to my good friend Jose who scored 4 tickets through his big shot of a boss who is a season ticket holder. Earlier in the season when I gave my 2009 season preview I mention that as soon as I got the chance to view the 2 new ballparks that I would give you my input & break down their differences, well I finally scored some free tickets and so here are the long awaited reviews. Keep in mind that I was only there for 4 innings and so I may have missed a thing or two along the way but here it goes, remember I am a Met fan.

So as we drove over & got close to the new stadium, looking at it from the outside what I saw was what looked to be was a replica of the original 1923 version of the House that Ruth built, it looked exactly the same from what I had seen in old magazines pictures only the lettering's that displayed the Yankee name in front of the main entrance was in Gold. From a short distant away on the right, you can still see the old Yankee stadium standing there as if trying to remind you I'm the real deal here,. unlike Shea Stadium which no longer is around today, the Yankees still haven't done away with the old landmark and so it just sits now only today it is covered in a mesh like tent looking waiting to be demolished, kind of sad.
As I entered the stadium it was time to compare, I had already gone to Citifield several times this year so I knew what I was going up against, walking through gate #4, the grayish cemented walls that surround the entire stadium inside and out was another quick reminder of the old one outside, as I moved forward you are immediately reminded by Yankee history unlike Citifield where it was hard to find any Mets history at all, rows and rows of Yankee past is on display all around the stadium corridors with Yankees black and whites completely surrounding the place with it's rich franchise history.

So as I made my way to my seats which went for $175 a pop, the view of the field where I was sitting at was perfect, the seats were heavily padded in a soft foamy cushion and as I sunk into them it gave me the sense that I had arrived, arrived to the good seats, and since we had 4 tickets we were able to sell off the other 2 too 2lucky Yankee fans in their 60's who we lured off the ticket line & sold to them at $50 a piece, boy were they happy to see us, and with the money we used it for beers and hot dogs as this had to be the deal of the year at the new Yankee stadium, now that's the way to roll. From where we were sitting what stood out the most was this gigantic video screen which of course was in high definition, WOW! that thing was huge and crystal clear like you never seen before, I here that the only other stadium with a screen bigger then this one is where the Dallas Cowboys play, it was enormous. As I kept on looking around for more of the new from my seats, it was hard to find more of what stood out & that's because much of the new stadium looked the same as the one across the street, from the padded navy blue outfield walls, to the way the upper deck & the foul lines formed, to the facade which looked made out of some plastic looking material and not like the concrete looking facade the originator had, it was a replica only this one was spanking brand new like right out of the box, and a lot more modern.
After 2 innings it was time to walk around and check out the rest of it, walking around the newer ballparks is something that offers more to the fans then the older parks where you pretty much sat in your seats the entire game, the newer ballparks play out more like an amusement park, this is good for today's impatience fans, especially on blow outs. Because of this the parks are a lot more spacious, the hallways are a lot wider and so more space and more fans gazing around the park then actually watching the game, and no more tight quarters, but of course this was to be expected and so both parks are a lot more roomy. The food lines were not as pack as in the old stadiums and that of course is because the selection is a lot wider, there was so much extra food to choose from that you didn't get in the old parks like tacos to even some prime steaks from the NY Steak House restaurant and they even had a Hard Rock Cafe, Citifield's equivalent to this is the Delta Sky 360 Club and the Acela restaurant which is located in left field by the foul pole, these parts of the park are really for the exclusive yuppies types so don't expect to get in not even just to check it out not without the exclusive tickets, this goes for both parks. Getting towards the outfield area, a section that is very important because this is usually where you would get the new amusement ballpark kind of feel in the newer stadiums, in this area the new Yankee stadium disappointed me and in my eyes and it was where it fell short to the one in Citifield, when you got to this point in the New Yankee stadium you entered this entrance that reminded you more of a subway tunnel as now you were now caught off from viewing the playing field, sure they have flat screen TV's to keep you posted with the action out on the field but IMO this was a downer. The outfield area in Citifield is an area where it stays opened to the air, kind of like AT&T Park out in San Francisco. This was an area where Citifield wins big over the new Yankee stadium, it had a lot more to offer especially when it comes to character, from the Pepsi porch out in rightfield with it's 2nd deck that hangs over fair territory, to the picnic area which include numerous walkways like the Bridge, to the several features for the youngsters to enjoy themselves in like the Mr. Met miniature wiffle ball field where the popular figure can be reached to have your picture taken with, and the 2K Sports FanFest which is the beginning of an extended family area. This area at Citifield had a lot more going on then in the new Yankee stadium where it was mostly a closed out area.

Don't get me wrong the new Yankee stadium does have things that are better then in Citifield like the video screen which I mention and the history display is always a good thing, but after that not much else stands out, another thing I have to mention is that while I was writing this review I did some extra resource online on Yankee stadium just in case I had missed something, remember I was only there for 4 innings, while doing this research I have to say that I did not come across and missed the Yankee Museum, now I don't know if this is an area that is blocked to the average fan which makes it hard to believe, but for some reason I did not come across that while walking it, nor did I come across the area where they have the high ceilings and the hallways showing Yankee picture banners, an area called the The Great Hall, that area I completely miss and that area for sure is not blocked from the fans, I seen it on TV and it looks amazing but I for some reason did touched on that, I wish I had done my resource before going out to see it.

In my opinion the new Yankee stadium messed up big time in the outfield area of the stadium where they could had at least made Monument Park the main attraction for the fans to have it as their walk through section during the game, in fact the new monument park is not even visible anymore unlike the old monument park where it was at least out in the opened air only you could not view it during the game, it is now closed out entirely and pretty much hidden, what a downer again.

From the beginning when the Yankees announced that they were building a new stadium my question was did they really need a new stadium? and in doing so did they really think that when building this new park that they can just make it look like the old one and that it would be as if they were still in the old ballpark? To me replica's are never as good as the original thing, and I know this was not a complete replica, but because they built most of the angles the same way it reminded you of the original House the Ruth Build.

Because of this you were not all that much surprised of the new Yankee stadium by the way the field looked, what you were seeing was mostly the same things only more modern, where as in CitiField the surprise was that you didn't see the ugliness that was Shea stadium anymore so of course it was refreshing to Met fans who now had a park they can enjoy watching a game in, when you 1st saw Citifield everything was
new to you, it was new angles with new colors and all kinds of new nick knacks throughout the park, and so it was all new to you only the HR Apple made it's way to Citifield. The main entrance at Citifield is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and to many Mets fans their gripes is why honor a guy who did not play a single game with the Mets, I can see their beef but here was a pioneer who did his thing in NYC for the NL Brooklyn Dodgers who are no more and if not for the Brooklyn Dodgers leaving to LA there would be no NY Mets, and not only that Jackie Robinson opened doors to minorities not only in the world of sports but politically, Jackie Robinson may have not been a Met but I don't see this as a bad thing but as an honor, what he did happened in the NY baseball scene so it is only fitting that the NL Mets do this honor. Another gripe of Citifield is that it resembles the old Ebbets Field but again to each his own, I like nostalgia. The Rotunda is a spacious entrance to the park but to be honest I thought it could had been done better.

Again they are both great places to watch a game but Citifield had more to like and that's just my opinion, it just had more originality to it. They both have their flaws and they both have things too like and vice versa, but Citifield felt more like a ballpark where as in the new Yankee stadium it gave you that corporate buzz feel to it. The new Yankee stadium fell short in my eyes because of it's blandness and for the way it plays out on the field, bandbox small, and my displeasure with Citifield was that it lacked history, but at least that can be easily fixed which they have already begun doing so just last month, also Citifield plays big and so the Mets can claim that they have the park that is probably the hardest place to hit one out in the majors, and I think that is a good thing, no cheapo deluxe here. I'm sure some of you will disagree with me especially Yankee fans who will have a hard time excepting this because for many years Yankee stadium was the landmark that is Yankee Stadium, and for many years Shea was The Eyesore, but now the Yankees no longer play in the house that Ruth built but instead in the house that George Steinbrenner built, and for Citifield, it no longer reminds you of Shea.