Check out my other reviews by clicking the links in the list below. List is my personal ranking of favorite to least.

All photos were taken by me.

Yankee Stadium – Bronx, NY



My first ballpark visit of 2017 was Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees. It opened in 2009 and currently seats 47,422. This park was #11 of 30 for me.

Yankee Stadium is located in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The original Yankee Stadium stood from 1923-2008 one block from the new Yankee Stadium. The site has since been converted into a public park called Heritage Field that is home to multiple ball fields. I love that they didn’t turn the old site into a parking lot like a lot of teams would’ve done.

While doing some research on this park prior to going, I read a lot of reviews and heard opinions from friends saying they weren’t too fond of this park. I think that may be due to the fact that they visited the old Yankee Stadium and then felt the new one lost the charm that was found in the original. It kills me that I never got to visit the old Yankee Stadium, so my review is based on my opinion of a billion dollar structure. Keep that in mind.

If you’re in New York, getting to Yankee Stadium to extremely easy via the Subway. The B, D, and 4 trains all drop you at Yankee Stadium – 161 St. Station. You exit the station, cross the street, and you’re in line to enter. The Subway is $2.75 each way. Can’t beat that.

I’ve heard driving actually isn’t as bad as people make it out to be if that’s your only option. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to deal with traffic as it is never predictable. I’ve heard parking can be found for $10. Not sure where those spots are. You’re probably better off paying $35 to park closer.

The Bronx has a reputation for being a tough part of New York. The area around the stadium is safe. NYPD and security is crawling everywhere outside the stadium on game days and also at the Subway station. Plus you’re surrounded by at least 40,000 Yankee fans. No need to worry.

The original Yankee Stadium was saw nothing but history. 26 of the 27 Yankees’ World Series Championships were won while the team played in the old Yankee Stadium. The old stadium just wasn’t feasible anymore even after many renovations from 1974-1975. So how do you leave a stadium that held so much history? By building a state-of-the-art replica right across the street for $1 billion+.

The home plate entrance (Gate 4) is a replica of the original Yankee Stadium’s home plate entrance from 1923.

The outside of the stadium is beautiful. When you get off the Subway and see it in front of you, you get one of those “oh shit, this is Yankee Stadium” moments. The line to enter was pretty long, but I got there as soon as gates opened so fans were lined up, and Yankee Stadium has a pretty extensive security check before entering. You can take food into Yankee Stadium as long as it’s in a clear bag, which is awesome.

My first thoughts once I walked in and went up to the seats to get a good view of the field was that this place is massive. Yankee Stadium is beautiful. It still feels brand new even in it’s 8th season.

The Great Hall is located off the main concourse of the lower level on the first base side, or you can enter a gate that leads straight into it. It’s a massive hallway with tall ceilings and tons of banners of Yankee legends. It feels like you’re in a mall.

There’s a Hard Rock Cafe in the Great Hall along with the entrances to two clubhouse stores. There are a few higher-end restaurants throughout the park if stadium food isn’t your jam.

I really liked how wide the concourses were especially with how many people Yankee Stadium fits. You’ll never feel overly congested. It feels like there’s a place to buy food or grab a beer every few feet. I was recommended to try the garlic fries by a few Yankee fans, but because I was in NY I felt the need to snag some Nathan’s hot dogs. It’s baseball. Nothing wrong with the classics. As for beer, you’ll find the standards, and way too many craft beers to choose from. That’s not meant to be taken as a bad thing. Something for everyone.

I thought it was really cool how above each concession they had a tribute to each World Series Championship team starting with 1923 and ending with their most recent in 2009. No other franchise in sports requires the whole lower level concourse from foul pole to foul pole to make sure each Championship year is recognized. Easily the most iconic franchise in all of sports.

There were two things that I really loved about Yankee Stadium. Number one: The frieze that runs around the park just under the upper deck roof. There is a flag for every team in baseball on the roof too. Number two: The best part of the park, Monument Park.

This is something I really wish I could’ve seen before it was moved into the new stadium, but Monument Park is awesome. There was a period in time at the old Yankee Stadium where Monument Park was actually in the field of play. Now you can see all 21 (22 when Jeter officially goes in) retired numbers and plaques for those players under a netting located behind the center field wall just beyond the 408 foot mark. The line to Monument Park closes 45 minutes or so before the first pitch, so make sure you get there beforehand. I could ramble about it for awhile, but just check out a few of the pictures I got.

Easily the best part of the park. So much baseball history.

Yankee Stadium is a hitter’s paradise. The dimensions of the field are identical to that of the old, post-renovation Yankee Stadium. Most notably the short distances down the lines. 318 feet to left and 314 feet to right. 399 to left center, 385 to right center, and 408 to dead center where Monument Park is. The ball really likes to carry here, so this stadium sees a lot of home runs.

One of the best parts of the actual game at Yankee Stadium is the Role Call led by the Bleacher Creatures. The Creatures pack Section 203 of the right field bleachers and these fans are some of the most loyal in all of sports. They call out the name of each player in the starting line-up during the top of the 1st and don’t stop until the player acknowledges them. Each player has their own unique way of acknowledging the Creatures. It’s pretty cool. If you plan on sitting near them in the other team’s colors, be ready to take some crap.

Many people make general assumptions of the Yankees fan base as whole simply because they hear stories about the Bleacher Creatures heckling opposing fans, but the Yankee fans were all respectful towards the Baltimore fans that I sat near in attendance. You’ll be fine anywhere else in the stadium, unless you’re a Red Sox fan while Boston is in town.

I also got a good laugh when the grounds crew members doing a mid-inning infield drag stopped their work to do the YMCA. All in good fun. Also, when the Yankees hit a home run, the stadium lights flash. I had never seen anything like that and thought it was really cool.

The worst part about Yankee Stadium is the price. I don’t care about the beer prices or the food prices, those are a given at all sports venues these days (other than Miller Park, I see you Milwaukee), but the ticket prices.

I loved the seats that I was able to grab on StubHub. Be sure to check through the Yankees site to get the face value of the tickets to make sure you’re getting a good deal if that is the route you go for tickets. A big thing at Yankee Stadium is that the seats closer to the field often look empty because they’re so expensive. The seats that are filled are often taken by middle aged men in dress shirts that just got off work or CEO-looking guys in suits and ties. There’s no way any person pays for season tickets down in the Legends Club, so it kind of makes sense. They probably get the tickets from their company.

You can get solid prices for seats in the 400 level, but this stadium is so massive that you’ll be pretty far from the action in terms of height. All the seats have a ton of space and a lot of the seats in the 100 and 300 levels are padded. Most seats have great site lines of the field. There is a bleacher section or two that has a limited outfield view due to being next to the batter’s eye.

If you go the StubHub route, then you NEED to have the app. This isn’t a suggestion, you actually have to have the tickets digitally through the app to scan them to get in. They don’t accept printed tickets anymore. Not sure how it works if you purchase from the Yankees website, so make sure you look into that if that applies to you.

Something else I wasn’t too fond of at Yankee Stadium is that there isn’t much of a back drop. Next to the massive jumbo-tron are a bunch of brand advertisements, and why not? I’m sure the Yankees clean up handsomely selling that ad space at the sport’s most expensive park. If it wasn’t there you would have a view of apartment buildings in the Bronx, so maybe it isn’t too bad and it kind of works at Yankee Stadium.

Post game crowds aren’t likely to flourish to the surrounding area. There are some bars and food options, but there aren’t many family-like spots to go sit down or anything. Your best bet is to head back to Manhattan and find something there. I’d suggest sticking around inside the park post game and enjoying some Sinatra with the Yankees faithful win or lose.

I picked a pretty good game to go to. I saw Manny Machado hit the longest home run since the stadium opened in 2009. I saw Aaron Judge hit 2 home runs, where one came off the bat at 119 mph. I saw Jacoby Ellsbury hit a grand slam for the Yankees and Mark Trumbo hit a grand slam for the Orioles. I also got some free baseball which resulted in a Matt Holiday walk off home run. The Orioles were up 9-1 in the 6th and 11-4 in the 7th. The Yankees won 14-11 in 10 innings.

With Yankee Stadium you’re getting an experience, even if most of the history happened a block away. You’re still at the home park of the 27-time World Champion Yankees. You may not get to see too many games at Yankee Stadium, so make sure you get the most out of your visit and enjoy what this great park offers.

Overall, 8/10.