New Stadium Insider: Comparing Upper Decks (Old Yankee Stadium vs. New Yankee Stadium)

Friday, April 10, 2009

Comparing Upper Decks (Old Yankee Stadium vs. New Yankee Stadium)

Ben over at River Ave. Blues just posted a great review of his experience at the new Yankee Stadium. Please head over there and read his well-written and informational post.

The main takeaway from his review is the striking difference when comparing the old Yankee Stadium's Upper Deck to the "Grandstand" at the new Yankee Stadium:

Old:

New:

We touched on this in our review of the new stadium, but seeing this photo gives us really drives the point home. If you are in the upper deck of the new Yankee Stadium, you are much further from the field of play than you were at the old Yankee Stadium. This, combined with the 1,048 obstructed seats in the bleachers guarantees that the fan experience at the new Yankee Stadium will be worse for the majority of the people in the highly touted "affordable seats."

When you get down to it, the point of going to a baseball game is to see the action on the field. For the average fan, the Yankees have spent $1.6 billion to provide worse views of that action. How can that be considered anything less than a failure?

Comments (21)

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+2 Vote up Vote down

Andrew Fletcher 60p · 833 weeks ago

But 2/3 of the seats are in the lower bowl!!!!!

2 replies · active 833 weeks ago

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StadiumInsider 72p · 833 weeks ago

Lonn Trost, stop posting from Andrew's computer.

Thanks!

haha

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mtrico · 833 weeks ago

I don't think the Stadium is a "failure," but there are a lot of things that should have been better thought through before it was built. The obstructed views are the first thing that come to mind. Those seats in the bleachers are disgraceful, and simply should not be there. The view from the upper deck is pretty good if you are in the horse shoe behind the plate, but if you go out further, it definitely gets worse. Obviously, the biggest problem is the pricing. The lower bowl pricing is just so insane, that many people will never be able to afford to sit down there, and that's a shame. But as far as the stadium itself, they did get a lot of things right.

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Ballyard73 · 833 weeks ago

I like the new park and don't share that point of view
In the old stadium there was no center field bleachers, just a big, black useless space. I'd rather have this option of compromised seating for these 1,048 seats than none at all, especially when coupled with all the amenities. The left field bleachers are much closer to the action then the old stadium, you could'nt pay me to sit in the left field bleachers at the old park, it was in another zip code.
i sat in the upper decks at both sides of this new park, I did'nt even notice the difference to the old park. (I'm not saying there is'nt, I just did'nt notice).
I like this park and don't feel hosed by the Yankees or consider it a failure.

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9nine9 · 833 weeks ago

I'm in the Terrace (300) level, at the midpoint between first base and the right field foul pole. I thought my seats were going to be foul ball magnets. Then I went to the workout and the Cubs game and realized it would likely take a titanic blast to get a ball into the 300 level down the line. That being said, I'm pretty happy with the angle and the view. I'd prefer to be a little closer, like the old ballpark, but such is life.

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Family Guy Pirate · 833 weeks ago

The upper deck in OYS is a better ticket than the upper deck in NYS, I guess is the main bullet point of this weblog post...

1 reply · active 833 weeks ago

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StadiumInsider 72p · 833 weeks ago

Hahah well done!

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Ballyard73 · 833 weeks ago

The photo of the old stadium above does not show the roughly 25 rows of field level seats that resided between the dugout and the overhang of the upper deck. I know the old stadium upper deck had a slightly steeper grade and slightly less space between seats
but it was still roughly 55 rows from the last seat of the upper deck down to the dugout..
couple that with the old stadium field being a little farther out from the seats and I'm not convinced that the differences are as bad as some are complaining about.
Can anybody state what the difference really is ?

3 replies · active 833 weeks ago

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StadiumInsider 72p · 833 weeks ago

I was there, and it is pretty bad.

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Ballyard73 · 833 weeks ago

I was there too, both games and thought nothing of it, I can't tell the difference. I would'nt characterize it as "much further from the field" than the old stadium.
You could put a tennis court behind home plate in the old stadium.

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StadiumInsider 72p · 833 weeks ago

Did you sit out in the seats that are the further recessed (sadly, like my season seats in 428)? You feel like you are a mile away. It was NEVER like that in the old stadium.

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kevin · 833 weeks ago

The upperdeck is further back b/c 2/3 of the seating is on Field Level and the Main Level. The OYS had only 2/3 of the seats in the upperdeck. Many tier box mvp seats in OYS are now on the Main level. The Main Level is a great seat and very affordable.

2 replies · active 832 weeks ago

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StadiumInsider 72p · 832 weeks ago

Which Main Level seats are affordable???

Are you a Yankee shill?

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kevin · 832 weeks ago

Im a Yankee shill b/c I have a different opinion then you? That's pretty harsh on your part.

I share seats in 206 and I feel I have one of the best deals in the stadium. For $45 a pop i'm actually paying less then my seats in OYS in sec. 530 in the Loge.

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TLA · 831 weeks ago

I agree with kevin.

I was in section 50? (I forget, low 500's) in the Loge. I am now in 308. I don't know why, but it seems like I got a better view for less money than I was spending.

I was talking to a guy next to me at the game on Friday. He thought that maybe the darkness of the loge made the game hard to see. The only other thing that I can think of is that I convinced myself prior to attending the game at the NYS that my seats would suck and I was pleasantly surprised to be able to watch the game.

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rpb 15p · 827 weeks ago

The lower levels seats (moat, main and 200 level) are better seats and views in the "fake" stadium. However, the terrace (tier box) and grandstand (tier reserve) seats are further back than the "real" stadium. Remember, both stadiums are 138 feet high. To get an idea of thedifference between the fake stadium gransdstand seats compaired to the real stadium tier level simply take the last 14 rows of the real stadium, add about 10 feet for additional leg room and you have the grandstand seats. The terrace seats are the first eight rows plus additional leg room of the old reserve tier seating. looking at both photos you can get a sense of what I'm saying. I was in row B in teir 2, now I'm in row 10 of 420, my next seat neighbor was in row M in teir 1. We figured that Row M would be about row 1 of the fake stadium and we are now it row U. Whe I sat in the first row of the terrace for batting practice it felt about the same distance as my old tier seat.

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dmoney · 827 weeks ago

Looking at the picture, it's obvious that the Yankee's screwed the upper deck dwelling fan. Where as with the Mets, by default the new stadium would have a better upper deck. The old Yankee stadium upper deck seats were great. Now, they apparently stink.

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SB Game APK · 503 weeks ago

Very nice post. Thanks for sharing with us.

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Virtual Families-2 · 503 weeks ago

Virtual Families-2

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Virtual Families-2 · 503 weeks ago

i like the post. thanks for sharing.

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Gangstar Vegas apk · 430 weeks ago

what a beautiful scenes

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