Yankee Stadium History

The new Yankee Stadium opened officially in 2009. The home ballpark for the New York Yankees, the stadium replaced the previous home by the same name which opened in 1923 and closed in 2008. The stadium is the most expensive ballpark in the history of baseball, coming with a price tag of $1.5 billion. Located directly across the street from the old ballpark, Yankee Stadium incorporates a number of the design elements from the prior stadium.

The first regular season game at Yankee Stadium was played on April 16, 2009 when the Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians. In a fitting bit of trivia, the first Yankees hit at the new Yankee Stadium was a Derek Jeter home run.

In it short history, the new ballpark has seen college football games, professional soccer matches, major rock concerts and graduation ceremonies. Some of the acts that have played the venue include Eminem, Jay-Z, Madonna, Metallica and Roger Waters.

Yankee Stadium Tour

Yankee Stadium has a wide variety of sites and amenities for fans to enjoy. In addition to offering stadium tours, the ballpark has the following located on grounds:

Monument Park – features retired numbers of Yankee legends as well as monuments and plaques dedicated to distinguished Yankees
New York Yankees Museum – sports museum dedicated to Yankees memorabilia including the “Ball Wall” of baseballs autographed by past and present Yankees
Hard Rock Cafe
NYY Steakhouse
Mohegan Sun Sports Bar

The stadium contains 63% more space (500,000 square feet more in total than the old stadium) with wider concourses that have open sight lines.

Below is an image of the Great Hall, which features more than 31,000 square feet of retail space and is lined with 20 banners of past and present Yankees superstars.

Great Hall Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium Event Tickets

Image courtesy of Flickr user Kwong Yee Cheng
Credits: Wikipedia