A band of fans is targeting Gate 2, one of the few parts of the previous Yankee Stadium that survived the mid-1970s rebuilding, to be saved from the demolition ball — but so far the city and the team are ignoring the idea.
A band of fans is targeting Gate 2, one of the few parts of the previous Yankee Stadium that survived the mid-1970s rebuilding, to be saved from the demolition ball — but so far the city and the team is ignoring the idea.
When the New York Yankees and the city of New York finalized plans for a new Yankee Stadium, the game plan was to reuse the former facility; one plan had the original playing field intact as well as the grandstand in a configuration appropriate for baseball and other events. But over time those plans were dropped — with no input from the pubic — and now the city just plans on tearing down the entire ballpark without leaving a piece of intact. The field will be there, surrounding by commemorative plaques and trees.
A group of fans is fighting that fate for Yankee Stadium, and they've put together a plan that would leave Gate 2 intact (as shown in the illustration above). You can learn more about their plans at their website, savetheyankeegate2.com, but basically they're not against most of the demolition work slates for the facility. Considering Gate 2 can be traced back to the original opening of Yankee Stadium (and let's face it — not much left in the ballpark can be traced back that far, as the mid-1970s renovation pretty much removed most of the old place), their plan is a nice piece of historic renovation.
One problem: with demolition of Yankee Stadium scheduled to start in the near future, the activists are being ignored by both the city and the Yankees. Why the rush to tear away all of the original House that Ruth Built? There's no extra money in it for the Yankees or the city. But the Yankees don't answer phone calls, while also ignoring press inquiries . For a team that's looked mighty bad in recent months thanks to some boneheaded pricing decisions, ignoring the call of preservationists in New York City — a city that's still reeling over the loss of Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds decades earlier — seems utterly stupid.
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