The Construction of Yankee Stadium
Col. Jacob Ruppert, part owner of the Yankees
The Yankees faced tremendous opposition in trying to build a new stadium after they were evicted from the Polo Grounds, nearly as much as they did when they first moved to New York. Public opinion in New York was against the Yankees building a stadium. The government and the public felt that there was a very severe housing shortage in New York City, and that this shortage was a more pressing problem than building a new baseball stadium. They felt that the space left in the city should be used to build more homes, not for business or popular entertainment. The Yankees went ahead with trying to find a site anyway. Ruppert and Huston quickly ruled out Manhattan, because there was little land, it was too expensive, and it was too difficult to excavate the solid granite bed that was under the island. They kept searching, and on February 6, 1921 announced that they had purchased a site in the West Bronx at 161st street, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds, for $675,000 from the Astor Estate. It was a great location because it was easily accessible from Manhattan, with the Lexington Avenue subway and the Sixth and Ninth avenue Els running to it. It also was near many cross town surface routes in the Bronx. The press lauded the purchase.
The site of Yankee Stadium in 1922
However, not everybody was happy about the stadium plan. Construction of the stadium was held back a few months by local opposition to it, and then even longer as Ruppert and Huston waited for the prices of labor and material to drop. They finally started building the stadium in 1922.
The Construction of Yankee Stadium
The stadium took 9 months, and $1.8 million to build. It was the most imposing and largest field of the day. This new baseball cathedral, Yankee Stadium, had a capacity of 58,000, by far the largest in the majors at the time, but 74,000 fans were reported to have shown up on opening day, April 18, 1923. The average park at the time seated 25,000. In additions to it's immense size, Yankee Stadium had other innovations that made it unique for its age. It had a mezzanine level that used steel support beams to support it, providing seating in a normally unused space. The upper deck was partly cantilevered, providing more seats closer to the diamond. It had telephone booths, 16 toilets, and refreshment counters on all levels. However, there was very little parking, but most people traveled by public transportation anyway, so there was little need for any.
Yankees Yankee Stadium and the Bronx
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