“Is it cool playing in Yankee Stadium?” asked Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon earlier this season. “It’s OK. I don’t think you can say it’s the same stadium that housed those great teams in the ’40s or ’50s.”
And this, which I'm sure many of us in Red Sox Nation echo:
“The stadium that everyone oohed and aahed about is long gone,” said Papelbon. “Don’t be crying about the end of this stadium. That one is home to the Evil Empire. Still some great players, but not a team that everyone seemed to love like a member of their family.”
By the time near the end of Stadium I, the Yankees were only drawing 1.2 Million Customers per year in the Place. It was Bat, Ball and Cap days that actually put the team at those figures with massive crowds, but the rest of the time, the place was over half empty, except on weekends when 25K crowds were the norm. Their current crowd surge was due to a winning team and incredible marketing that the Stadium II was around for 85 Years, when in fact it was a 32 Year Old Stadium:
ReplyDeleteThe Site wasn't in continuous use, as it didn't operate in 1974 and 1975