New Yankee Stadium

Guide Note:

In 2009, the New York Yankees will begin playing in a new ballpark, across the street from the original Yankee Stadium. The new stadium will keep the original Yankee Stadium name.

Fast Facts:

1. Location: Bronx, New York
2. Broke ground: August 18, 2006
3. Opening: April 2009
4. Surface: Grass
5. Capacity: 53,000 (51,000 plus 2,000 standing room only)

Construction on the new Yankee Stadium began in 2006 and the structure is slated to be completed by Opening Day, 2009. According to the plans for the stadium, it will retain the same dimensions of the original ballpark. The Stadium will also restore the original frieze which ran the extent of the ballpark's upper deck before 1973. The outside of the stadium will be surrounded by a wall, within which will be located over one million square feet of retail space for stores, vendors, and other businesses. The stadium will feature 60 luxury boxes, a nearly fourfold increase over the current stadium; and the stadium will be constructed so that fans will be lower down, but further away from the action than they would have been at the original park.

Sometime after construction began on the stadium in 2006, a worker, Gino Castignoli, in an attempt to curse the new park, buried a jersey bearing the name of Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz beneath what would become the new Yankee dugout. Word of Castignoli's deed leaked out, however, and in 2008, the jersey was exhumed from its grave and given to the Jimmy Fund. Placed on eBay, the jersey sold for $175,000, with all proceeds benefitting the Fund.