Timetable: hoping to open in 2009. Reason: money and convenience -- the current Stadium is old, congested (but not filled with trash and rats, Bawstin fans!) and lacks the luxury amenities of the newest ballparks. Two interesting notes, first AP writer Ronald Blum's candor:
Yankees officials said earlier this year they hoped to start construction in 2006 and move into the new ballpark in 2009, a timetable that would be ambitious given the delays that frequently occur in construction in New York.
Delays = BS environmental lawsuits and mob-operated construction crew work schedules.
Second, this rather brilliant bit by the Yanks that would allow them to avoid sending money that other teams use to beat the Yanks:
The Yankees and New York City's government agreed several weeks ago to a memorandum of understanding for the new Bronx ballpark. The team will pay for the stadium on its own, and the cost of paying off the bonds used to raise the money will be deducted from the Yankees' locally generated revenue. That will lower the Yankees' revenue sharing payments to the commissioner's office.
Get that? Big Stein will pay down the bonds with money he'd normally have to send to richer-than-Midas cheapskates like Carl Pohlad and Jerry Reinsdorf.
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