Ever wondered how the old Yankee Stadium bathrooms were cleaned and destroyed once the team moved across the street? Here’s your chance to see how. This upcoming Thursday, the National Geographic Channel will air “Break it Down: Yankee Stadium.” The show starts at 10 p.m. so Yankee fans can watch it after the team finishes up their evening affair with the Chicago White Sox.

After the jump, another clip from the program showing the seating sections from the old park coming down. A tip of the hat to Alex Belth at Bronx Banter for this one. Read More→

The following post is written for commenter Ross in Jersey, who told me he would donate $1 for every Tex RBI to the RAB Pledge Drive if I wrote an entire article without periods or ending punctuation and still had it make sense, and I figured  the flame comments I’d get from people lacking in reading comprehension were a small price to pay for helping inner city kids

"It's April, so I can only hit home runs when 40,000 no ones are here" (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

One of the reasons the Yankees are such amazing winners is that they have the financial power to make up for a lacking farm or surround the farm talent with high-powered free agents like CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira, and one of the places that that virtually unlimited cash flow comes from are the droves and droves of fans that pour through the gates of Yankee stadium to see these people play – the “Yankee Universe,” as it’s been coined by the Yankees organization, is one of, if not the biggest fan following in professional sports, and plenty of fans are at home ready to shell out cash, hop on a subway, train, car or bus and head to the House that Ruth (or perhaps Jeter, nowadays) Built, and people take notice when the seats aren’t filled in the stadium in the Bronx – no matter what the reason is for that and regardless of the numbers that count or the rest of the stadiums around the country, and quite frankly, the attention that has been drawn to the record-setting lows in the new stadium (sounds scary now, huh?) is pretty absurd

The record-setting low that was set for attendance in Yankee Stadium 3 was 40,267 – only 40,267, really – and that seems like a decent number of fans to turn out for one game in any sport, in any organization, and keep in mind, it doesn’t matter to the Yankees how many people actually show up to a game, just how many people buy tickets, because even if you make the stadium look empty on TV (and on a cold day, Legends needs no help with that, zing), you’re still contributing to the massive Yankees cash flow, and honestly the bottom line is all that matters when we get down to the nitty gritty of the whole thing, because looking embarrasing on TV does not pay Mark Teixeira, but buying a season ticket package and deciding not to go to a game does

Those people with season tickets who decided not to come are not, by default, Yankee haters, nor does that make them terrible fans, especially because a usual April day in New York is chilly, with a cold breeze and often rain and the third game of the year has no leverage for people to brave the weather to show up, such as is the case during Opening Day – that record low was set on a cold (average 49°F, with a low of 41°F), rainy, windy day – just the kind of day no one wants to be outside for an extended period of time for, and if you have season tickets and don’t mind blowing the money, the perfect day to skip a ballgame or StubHub your tickets, and unless you’re desperate to see the Yankees, no one on StubHub is flying to pick up tickets for such a miserable day, and that’s really what it comes down to after all – people go to ballgames to have fun, after all, and sometimes the weather just makes having fun impossible, and so there’s no reason to show up

For a little perspective on the matter, a table:

Obviously, small sample size applies, but all of these teams have played two different teams at home, and I’m fairly sure that the oh-so-terrible showing of 40,267 fans will not lead the Yankees to become bottom feeders or force them to start shedding salary – what matters to the team’s wallet is how many tickets are sold, not how many people show up, and the wallet is the most important part of an organization that uses its massive financial might to help itself win

Moral of the story: no one likes going to a baseball game when it’s miserable out, even if your team is amazing, even fewer people are interested in low-leverage April games that happen to fall on those miserable days, and the Yankees, once again, have the power to make something that means absolutely nothing newsworthy

For the league's most transit-accessible ballpark, Yankee Stadium is surrounded by too many parking lots.

Throughout the last few years, I’ve followed the Yankee Stadium parking problems fairly closely. It fits in quite nicely with my urban planning hobby, and it also highlights the institutional problems with urban development planning in New York City. Essentially, the city added over 2500 parking spots in the South Bronx as the Yankees decreased stadium attendance and Metro-North opened a new station to serve the stadium. When the city’s Economic Development Corporation picked a company with a history of defaulting on its bond payments, well, nothing good could come of it.

As early as September, we first heard that Bronx Parking was in trouble. Their revenue stream fell far short of projections, and the company was, as recently as mid-March, in danger of defaulting on its bond payments. We had already reported in October that parking prices would increase 50 percent for 2011 with more rate hikes on the way.

Today, just a few short hours away from Opening Day and as fans from all over prepare to drive to the stadium, we know that parking prices at the Yankee Stadium lots will be $35 per car this year. That total could increase to $42 in 2013 and to $55 by 2015, Bloomberg News reported.

As the parking new percolates throughout those who rely on the garages for safe storage of their automobiles during the season, the good news for Bronx Parking and its bond holders is that the company will not default on its payment due tomorrow. For now, it can still dip into its reserve fund to meet its obligations. Still, Bronx Parking is changing the management of the garages, filing more detailed expense and revenue reports and working to improve signage along the Major Deegan to draw in more paying customers. As Juan Gonzalez of The Daily News noted, the city doesn’t expect to receive the $17 million in back rent any time soon.

For years, this parking issue has been on the minds of South Bronx residents and politicians. Those who do own cars — a small percentage of the area’s permanent residents are car-owning households — already bemoan the state of parking on game days. The city bars parking in a 10-block radius around the stadium, and while the Community Board is hoping to develop a residential parking permit plan, for now, residents must constantly move their cars during the season. It is far too expensive to park long term in the stadium lots.

Beyond those concerns though, most South Bronx residents wanted parks, not parking lots. They knew the stadium parking supply would far exceed demand and repeatedly asked the city to scale back its parking plans. Some folks think Bronx Parking should ask the Yankees to attempt to sell the spots, but with so many transit options, the number of spots is simply egregious. It was a bad planning decision five years ago, and one with which the city must live for the foreseeable future.

Too many parking lots surround Yankee Stadium.

The conundrum over the Yankee Stadium parking lots is one I’ve focused on frequently over the past few months. The corporation awarded the rights to run the lots has been struggling financially since early September, and despite looming rate hikes, the Bronx Parking Development Co. is about to default on its bonds.

As Crains New York’s Hilary Potkewitz reported yesterday, the company is in dire straits, and the neighbors aren’t happy. Many in the South Bronx had protested the parking lots surrounding the most transit-accessible stadium in the majors, and residents now aren’t happy. Potkewitz reports:

Bronx Parking Development Co., which runs the garages for the new stadium, faces an April 1 due date for a $6.8 million interest payment on bonds issued to fund construction of three facilities. The company had to dip into reserves to make a similar payment in October, and—barring a last-minute renegotiation—all signs point to a default this time.

A default could set up a seizure by bondholders and would leave the garages’ future in question. The property, which covers some 21 acres, was part of parkland taken over to make way for the current incarnation of Yankee Stadium.

The potential irony has some in the community seething. “Our community loves its parks, and we could always use more,” said Pastor Wenzell Jackson, chairman of Bronx Community Board 4, which includes the stadium and the surrounding area. “Now there’s just empty parking garages that are not benefiting the community.”

With that news in mind, there are of course many questions surrounding the lots. Chief among them is the why of it. Why are Bronx parking lots so empty? According to those who run the Bronx Parking Development Company, the answer is a mixture of supply and demand. The company claims that the lots were, at most, 60 percent full during game days, but those running it also claim that the Gateway Shopping Center has been siphoning off cars for far less.

To park in the stadium lots costs well over $20 a game while Gateway charges under $5. Officials claim that 800 cars per game are taking advantage of the price discrepancy, and thus, the company is raising rates to $35-$45 per car in 2011.

Furthermore, the Metro-North stop has been a hit as well. Bronx Parking executives claim that they are losing money as nearly 4000 fans per game take commuter rail to the stadium instead of their cars. From an urban policy perspective, I believe Metro-North provides a better route to the game than a car does.

So what’s next then? Ruben Diaz, Jr. wants to create artificial demand for the parking lots by building a hotel in the South Bronx. “We’ve been working diligently to bring a top-flight hotel to the area near Yankee Stadium,” the Bronx Borough President said in February. “As many of you have heard, the Yankee Stadium parking lots are facing severe financial problems, and we believe one of the garages could be used for the hotel development.”

Still, others would prefer to see the city cut bait on the parking lots entirely. “The first step should be to reconsider how they’re using these parking lots,” Lourdes Zapata, an official with the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp., said to Crains. “Looking at them exclusively for parking is a shortsighted way of looking at development in this area.”

Of course, New York City’s approach to development around Yankee Stadium has always been shortsighted. The city treated the ballpark as though it were in the suburbs and not amidst three subway lines, a ferry and commuter rail with little need for parking. Now, we’ll all pay the price in reduced public space and much higher parking rates. The lots should go, but for now, the prices will just continue to spike ever upward as fewer drive to the stadium.