New Yankees stadium set to debut in 2009

NEW YORK -- The House that Ruth Built will be replaced by the House that The Boss Built, if all goes according to plan.\nThe New York Yankees scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to announce plans for a new $800 million ballpark, which would be built adjacent to the current Yankee Stadium and could be ready by the 2009 season.\n"I think it will be sad," Yankees manager Joe Torre said Tuesday. "They'll have limos and vans to take the old ghosts over to the new stadium."\nJust last weekend, New York City and the Mets announced plans for a new $600 million ballpark next to Shea Stadium.\nThe team has spent years planning the new stadium, which will have a capacity of at least 50,800 -- approximately 6,000 seats fewer than the current ballpark -- but could be expanded to about 54,000. It would be constructed in Macombs Dam Park, to the north of the current stadium, and financed by the team.\nYankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 to a Babe Ruth home run, is the third-oldest park in use in the major leagues, younger only than Boston's Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago's Wrigley Field (1914). Yankee Stadium was renovated extensively in 1974-75, but the team has long desired a modern ballpark with more luxury suites and wider concourses. Since moving into Yankee Stadium, New York has won a record 26 World Series titles.\nThe stadium plan calls for the new ballpark to resemble the original Yankee Stadium in many of its details, and the dimensions of the playing field would be identical to the current ballpark. It would have 50-60 suites, up from 18 in the current stadium.\nYankees owner George Steinbrenner, New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg planned to attend a Wednesday news conference announcing the stadium, Steinbrenner spokesman Howard Rubenstein said. The Yankees hope to start construction in 2006 and move into the new ballpark in 2009, an ambitious timetable, given the delays that frequently occur in construction in New York.\nApproval from the state Legislature and City Council is necessary. The state would contribute about $70 million to increase parking from 7,000 spaces to 11,000, and the city would replace the lost park land as part of the deal. A new commuter train station and expanded ferry terminal also is part of the plan.\nThe Mets' new ballpark would be used for the 2012 Olympics if the International Olympic Committee votes July 6 to award the event to New York. That plan was drawn up after last week's collapse of the proposal to build a retractable-roof stadium in Manhattan for the NFL's Jets and the Olympics.\nThe Yankees and New York City's government agreed several weeks ago to a memorandum of understanding for the new Bronx ballpark. The team will pay for the stadium on its own, and the cost of paying off the bonds used to raise the money will be deducted from the Yankees' locally generated revenue. That will lower the Yankees' revenue sharing payments to the commissioner's office.