Excellent and thoughtful look by writer Mark Lamster at the experiences offered at New York’s two new cathedrals of baseball. “Both buildings ply the kind of nostalgic aesthetics that reinforce fans’ bonds with their chosen team… In each case, the feel-good design is the lipstick on the pig of a massive commercial project, financed in large measure by the public and unabashedly aimed at liberating fans from the contents of their wallets.”
I haven’t yet been to the Mets’ Citi Field, but I’ve watched one game at the new Yankee Stadium (Yankees beat the Tigers, 5 to 4). It’s certainly a pleasant upgrade from the creaky grandeur of its predecessor, and I could hardly complain when I saw that lots of problems from the old ballpark had been corrected (having lines of sight from the concessions to the field is fantastic). But in its museum-like — almost mausoleum-like — devotion to nostalgia, the new architecture and the experience it provides just feels to me like a huge missed opportunity. It could have been something new and marvelous created specifically for 21st Century baseball fans; instead, it preoccupies itself and its fans with thinking about the last century. That’s a waste.
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