Well, the stadium is open.  And there’s one thing on which everyone can agree.  It’s big, and it’s crazy fancy.

For some, this is a plus. Take, for example, the Yankees.  They like having a bigger dressing room, lockers with touchscreen computers, a chef.

Sound decadent?  Well, Brian Bruney said it best when he said, “We are not a regular team. We are the New York Yankees, and it has to be nicer.”

Ah, one only wonders why we’re a team universally despised.

Joba Chamberlain commented, “There’s so many places to go that I think you’re going to play hide and seek with yourself.”

Well, I guess whatever keeps you off the roads and out of trouble.

Among the other perks, the players will no longer have to deal with the burden of outdoor parking.  And I say, it’s about time.  I mean, all those pesky fans, yelling their names begging for autographs.  For the thirty seconds it takes to get from the locker room to the car that is. Lord knows what a nightmare that must be.  If only there was a way to eliminate the fans from the picture entirely.  You know, while still making that enormous paycheck and having a stadium full of people around to cheer for them when they make the big plays.

But those in the bunch who are somewhat more sentimental-I like to call them the real Yankees-couldn’t help but compare the new stadium to the place that for years they’d called their home. Posada remarked that the dimensions looked about the same.  Jeter felt a little too guilty to revel in the splendor of his new stomping ground while his old one still stood across the street awaiting demolition, saying, “It’s a new house, and it’s going to take you a while until you feel like you’re home.”

But Mo, on the other hand, feels that home is where the heart is, commenting, “It’s like a house-if you don’t have a family, it’s not a house.”  Love that guy.

Still, while the guys in the Yankees camp seem to be more or less embracing their new stadium, not everyone has given it such a glowing review. This morning, the New York Post ran a rather distressing, yet, not totally surprising, article written by Joel Sherman about his experience at the park.

He described it as charmless, lacking in proportion, and completely out of touch with the current economic reality of most of Americans. In short, he sees it as a $1.6 billion symbol of why it is that everyone just can’t seem to stand us.  It is, according to Sherman, just another way for the Yankees to set themselves apart from the baseball community, the people, the world.   To assert their better-than-you-ness.

Though, I suppose that’s the point, according to Brian Bruney.

Well, assuming that’s the point, then they sure as hell did a great job with their ticket pricing.  Even Hal Steinbrenner himself admitted that, as I suggested a couple weeks ago, yeah, maybe given the state of the global economy, they might have possibly slightly overpriced a few of their tickets by just a little tiny bit.

Their average ticket price is $72.97.  Last year it was $41.40.   In Boston, where we hate it, the average ticket price is $50.24.  The cheapest average ticket can be found in Arizona–$14.31.  Of course, in exchange for paying so little, you have to live in Phoenix, which is arguably even more of a pit than Boston.  So it’s probably not worth it.

Hal Steinbrenner did make an effort to show that he understood the struggles of the common man by making the following statement.  The bold parenthetical comments are courtesy of occasional guest blogger Chris Yamaoka:

“We understand that a lot of our fans are struggling. I mean, this is the worst recession in a most of our lifetimes,” he said. “But at the same time I think baseball has always been an escape for people, you know? [An escape that, regrettably, they will no longer be able to afford.] And I think what we’re going to provide here is an unbelievable experience for thousands and thousands of our [wealthier] fans that, despite the troubles they’re [reading that other people are] going through right now, maybe they’ll be able to get away for two or three hours, get [away from the commoners and] their minds off things. And we’re going to make that experience, you know, tremendous.”

The good news for poor Yankees fans is that they will still be able to buy partial-view bleacher seats for five dollars.  And before you get all up in arms about your obstructed vision, poor people, just remember this isn’t Hal’s fault.  After all, he wasn’t the one who made you poor.  Plus, to quote Chris, “Poor people don’t need to see the third base side of the diamond.”