August 10, 2009
New Yankee Stadium: Loud or not?
With its roomier seating bowl, is the new Yankee Stadium as loud as the old one? Ross from New Stadium Insider, writing at River Avenue Blues, says no way:
At the old Yankee Stadium — and other great home parks such as Fenway — crowd noise builds in anticipation of a big moment. So far in 2009, the new Yankee Stadium has had small bursts of overwhelming crowd noise, but those have typically been in response to a big moment. The wall of sound that engulfs you and makes you feel like you are a part of something truly special conspicuously absent.
We are left wondering whether that wall of sound will ever return. Is the significantly further recessed (and partially covered) upper deck to blame? Are the fans that can afford to attend games at the new Yankee Stadium even more corporate than the fans at the old one? Did the 6,000-7,000 extra seats in the old place make a huge difference in terms of crowd noise? We probably need to wait until the new Yankee Stadium hosts a playoff series to draw any reasonable conclusions, but as of now, we're disappointed.
Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, writing after Friday night's 15-inning nailbiter, says is too:
Yankee Stadium II made its bones last night, proved it can be a fair acoustic heir, and maybe approach the experience the old joint used to specialize in: feeling like you had a stake in things. Feeling like everyone on the field could hear you. Feeling like a 10th man.
And being one. The games that came before didn't have any of that. This one did. This one lasted until close to 1 in the morning, but when it ended everyone was ready. Everyone was prepared. The best game in the new ballpark, and they screamed as the ball soared, and it sounded sweeter even than Sinatra.
Anyone who was there for this weekend's Yanks-Sox series care to cast their vote? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is front row at a Mission of Burma concert, how loud was it?
Posted by Neil deMause in New York Yankees
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