Who'd a thunk it: George Steinbrenner shows the class way to build a stadium. The Yanks are on the verge of winning approval to build a stadium just north of the current one--with an outside facade recreating the historic one, and an inside facade rebult, too. (OK, technically the proper name for the inside facade is "frieze," but those alive when Mick bounced a ball off it will always call it a facade too.) The stadium cost? ENTIRELY out of their own pockets. The city will, of course, contribute public improvements, including a parking lot whose revenues go to the city. And the club will keep the Yankee Stadium name.
Meanwhle, the Jets want a stadium in the midst of Manhattan--they too, are about to get it barring a miracle--with hundreds of millions in subsidies (how much depends upon whose accounting one believes), and with the city passing up a better cash deal from Cablevision. And Bow-Tie Tony in DC overpays for a second-rate club, sells naming rights to the Lords of Baseball, pays indemnity to a billionaire Baltimore tort law baron (by surrendering all media rights), and assumes the risk of delays in construction.
The Apple citizenry gets it: the Jet deal ignited a firestorm while the Yanks sail on smoothly. How the crass Steinbrenner could show class while the presumably classy mayor of the nationa's Capitol shows crass will remain one of life's mysteries. I guess DC should also "Let George do it."
Class Beats Crass
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