A guest column brought to you by Sean O…
Less than a decade ago, Fenway was on its last legs. Its dark, dirty concourses and cramped seating stood in stark contrast to the new generation of ballparks springing up around the country. The dissatisfaction with Fenway came to a head on May 15, 1999 when then-CEO John Harrington announced New Fenway Park, a clone of Fenway with larger concourses, wider (and more plentiful) seats, but with all of the iconic charm of Fenway Park. As the television commercial said at the time,
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Well said. But with the Yankees opening a brand new shiny new Toilet Bowl next season I still would like to see the Red Sox move into a 45,000 seat Retrackable Stadium sometime in the future. (I know the chance of that happening are 0). In the future the Yankees will have more money to spend because of the new Stadium. The Red Sox will have to keep on drafting well and be smart with free agent signings.
Yes, Troy, but drafting well and being smart about FA’s is the correct way to field a superior team anyway. Gone are the days of emulating the Steinbrenner Yankees. Look at what their $200M bought . . . again.
The Rays are now leading the way, on a road paved by Billy Beane and others. The New Yankee Stadium is, I am told, a financial beast. Let’s repeat that “a financial beast”. Good for the Steinbrenners, not so good for baseball . . . we are losing the actual House that Babe Built, and no amount of spin will confer that status to the new money machine. And, as happened with tearing down the Boston Garden, Hank may wish he could fill those high priced seats.
Baseball is far more than Las Vegas style entertainment, and that Eiffel Tower, Pyramids and Florence Villas are simply not real. Nor is the new Yankee Stadium. Sorry to say it is now just another of thousands of cookie-cutter stadiums built purely for profit, in which love for the game takes a beating. The House they are tearing down is the Yankee’s House, the same house made legendary by what went on there. Who would cheer if Notre Dame in Paris was scrapped for a new one with bigger pews. Awful though.
Thanks to the anti-money-ballers in NYC, Fenway Park, not the House that Babe Built, is now baseball’s Cathedral.
And it is as beautiful and comfortable as it is profitable and historic. Good article Sean. Good job Henry Group. Keep it going for the 200th anniversary celebration in what will then be a place of pilgrimage.
Sorry. Replacing Notre Dame de l’Isle is an “Awful thought.” Actually, more like reprehensible.
What a lovely ode to Fenway. Thank you, Sean O.
HKS designed the red brick ballpark in Arlington, not HOK.