http://www.amny.com/sports/baseball/...,7834569.story
From Newsday
Old Yankee Stadium will come down slowly
BY ANTHONY RIEBER |
anthony.rieber@newsday.com
September 22, 2008
By the time the Yankees open new Yankee Stadium on April 16, 2009, the current Yankee Stadium won't be forgotten.
It won't be gone, either.
The current Yankee Stadium will be demolished relatively slowly, with the main structure still standing well into the 2009 season, according to Yankees executives who have been briefed on the demolition plan but requested anonymity because talks with the city are still ongoing. New York City owns both Yankee Stadiums.
When will the first brick be removed from The House That Ruth Built? Probably not until next March, when the Bronx Bombers are in spring training and the finishing touches are being put on the new Yankee Stadium.
"We're talking with the city about that and we hope to have a resolution this week," one Yankees executive said last night.
The Yankees are scheduled to have a closing ceremony for the Stadium in early November with details to be announced. The team's front-office staff is scheduled to vacate the Stadium in late February/early March to move to the $1.3-billion ballpark being built across the street.
Selective demolition will take place in the spring. Items that are to be sold by the city - including the famed giant bat, a popular meeting place, and the stadium's seats - will be removed during this period. The city has yet to choose a company to handle the work. Nor have sale details been released to hungry memorabilia collectors.
The actual ballpark structure will not be torn down until 2010. It will not be imploded, as other ballparks have been, because the area around the ballpark is residential.
After the ballpark is gone, the city will build a $23-million park with softball, baseball and Little League fields. The parkland is not expected to be completed until 2011.
The timetable of the demolition plan was first reported Sunday by the New York Post.