The Senator Is Upset
Politics is wonderful. Words are weapons. The politicians "announced" the plan. Did you or I have any input? I don't remember being asked, do you? Might a referendum on the issue be presented to the people? Not in 2005.
There will not be a "new Yankee Stadium." There will be a new ball park that will be called Yankee Stadium. Notice how the press release refers to the new park as "Yankee Stadium" but refers to the present Yankee Stadium as the "existing facility." Yankee Stadium ceased to exist after the 1973 season. All that can be said about the present ball park is that its on the same site as Yankee Stadium.
Senator Proximire goes on to say that "...to be a party through New York City's dimwitted contract to make the Yankees richer still so the Yankees can pay huge salaries to take the best players away from the rest of us---that, no red-blooded baseball fan outside New York City will ever permit." How naïve or disingenuous. The only say fans have is whether they will go to the ball park. Oh, sure, some cities have rejected proposals for taxpayer funded stadiums, but such rejections usually result in the team threatening to move or simply waiting for the right time to make its move---either in the political arena or by leaving town.
The Yankees are the greatest name in sports. More than 4 million fans bought tickets to see the Yankees in 2005, generating fantastic revenues. The prices of tickets and food, broadcast rights, and merchandising the Yankees provide the Yankees with funds that are used in attempts to improve the team. And don't blame George Steinbrenner. Fans are willing to pay.
The 2005 Yankees have won the American League's Eastern Division title. It is not easy to get playoff tickets unless one is a season ticket holder. But there is still a way to see the games in person, unless one works for a living. A luxury box for one game of the first playoff round (euphemistically referred to as the Division Series) has a price tag of $17,500, for the second playoff round (the League Championship Series) a cost of $25,000, and for the World Series a cost of $50,000 for a grand total of $92,500. Do you think that if you go to a playoff game, you'll see your junior high school teacher in one of the luxury boxes?
And Senator Proximire
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