"Taxpayers to foot demolition bill" amNY 04/24/06

Taxpayers to foot demolition bill

BY TED PHILLIPS
amNEWYORK STAFF WRITER

April 24, 2006

The city of New York owns Yankee Stadium and taxpayers will be paying to take it down.

The original estimate was $23.9 million, but Parks Department spokesman Ashe Reardon said that's been revised to $15.6 million for the demolition of the stadium and some buildings along the Harlem River waterfront.

Shea Stadium, on the other hand, will be demolished by the Mets rather than the city, Reardon said.

The Yanks will play their last season at the old stadium in 2008. For the following nine to 12 months fans will get a different kind of show as cranes get to work taking down the upper decks and the rest follows. Asbestos and lead paint removal are expected to last a month, and the stadium's steel frame will be salvaged for scrap.

The demolition company will be chosen at a future date by a competitive bidding process, Reardon said.

An icon vanishes
In the original plan, released last year, some of the field-level seats would have been preserved as well as the field itself. But in order to connect the field to adjacent parkland, the original field and other remnants of the stadium will disappear. The field is currently about 10 feet below the level of the sidewalk and will be raised, and a new baseball field put on top. The new park will open in 2010.

A collector's bonanza
Posterity's loss will be the collector's gain as the city sells off every salable piece of the stadium. Want to watch the game in the same seat you saw A-Rod hit that homer? The almost 57,000 seats will be on sale. According to the New York City Industrial Development Agency, the city expects to get $10 million by selling off parts of the storied stadium.