New York City: Yankee Stadium (for the New York Yankees vs Kansas City Royals) (July 2018)

My spouse and I and a family member attended a Yankees game on a Saturday afternoon in late July 2018. The New York Yankees played the Kansas City Royals, and the Yankees lost 10-5.

Yankee Stadium is located in the Concourse neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. In 2009, it was built one block north of the original Yankee Stadium on the 24-acre former site of Macombs Dam Park; the 8-acre site of the original stadium is now a public park called Heritage Field. The new Yankee Stadium is the most expensive stadium ever built. The Yankees won the 2009 World Series at the end of their first MLB season in the new stadium.

The stadium is made of 11,000 pieces of Indiana limestone, along with granite and pre-cast concrete. It features the building's name V-cut and gold-leaf lettered above each gate. The interior of the stadium is adorned with hundreds of photographs capturing the history of the Yankees. The New York Daily News newspaper partnered with the Yankees for the exhibition "The Glory of the Yankees Photo Collection", which was selected from the Daily News' collection of over 2,000 photographs. Sports and The Arts was hired by the Yankees to curate the nearly 1,300 photographs that adorn the building from sources including the Daily News, Getty Images, the Baseball Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball.

The stadium exterior resembles the original look of the 1923 Yankee Stadium. The interior is a modern ballpark with greater space and increased amenities; however, it features a playing field that closely mimics the dimensions of the old stadium. The current stadium features 4,300 club seats and 68 luxury suites. The stadium seats 50,287 fans, with a standing room capacity of 52,325.

Many design elements of the ballpark's interior are inspired by the original Yankee Stadium. The roof of the new facility features a replica of the frieze that was a trademark of the previous ballpark. In the original Yankee Stadium, a copper frieze originally lined the roof of the upper deck stands, but it was torn down during the 1974–75 renovations and replicated atop the wall beyond the bleachers. The new stadium replicates the frieze in its original location along the upper deck stands. Made of steel coated with zinc for rust protection, it is part of the support system for the cantilevers holding up the top deck and the lighting on the roof. The wall beyond the bleacher seats is "cut out" to reveal the 4 subway trains as they pass by, like they were in the original facility. A manually operated auxiliary scoreboard is built into the left and right field fences. The "Great Hall" has seven-story ceilings and features more than 31,000 square feet of retail space; it is lined with 20 banners of past and present Yankees superstars. Monument Park features the Yankees' retired numbers, as well as monuments and plaques dedicated to distinguished Yankees. In addition, he New York Yankees Museum displays a wide range of Yankees' memorabilia. A "Ball Wall" features hundreds of balls autographed by past and present. The centerpiece of the museum is a tribute to Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series, with a commemorative home plate in the floor and statues of Larsen pitching to Yogi Berra. Along with a facsimile of a current locker from the Yankees' clubhouse, fans can view the locker of the late Thurman Munson, which sat unoccupied in the previous stadium's Yankee clubhouse in honor of Munson.

The ballpark offers a wide choice of restaurants, including 25 fixed concessions stands, along with 112 movable ones. Full-service restaurants include Hard Rock Café, NYY Steak, and Mohegan Sun sports bar. 
We visited Yankee Stadium on an incredibly hot day, and the Yankees didn’t win, but we still enjoyed the game.