November 07, 2009

Yankee Stadium demolition begins

Helicopter photos of Yankee Stadium taken on Wednesday and Thursday show that a backhoe has begun gobbling up the Yankee Stadium bleachers, marking the first major structural demolition of the old ballpark. David Lombino, a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, says that "the dismantling work began this week," adding: "Major pieces of the stadium, which will be visible from outside the stadium, will begin to be dismantled next month."

Demolition was originally slated to begin in the spring, but the last seven months have been taken up with removing seats and other items for sale, setting up scaffolding, and other non-demolitiony exercises. Conveniently or not, this means that fans celebrating the Yankees' World Championship (and, apparently, Beer Pong Thursdays) were spared the sight of a half-torn-apart stadium crashing their party.

More on the demolition schedule, and the long-delayed replacement parks that are supposed to replace the stadium once it's gone, in my Village Voice article.