Monday, October 19, 2009

COMMEMORATIVE BRICK DRIVE TO SAVE GATE 2 - Press Release

OLD YANKEE STADIUM PARK

"SAVE THE GATE"
COMMEMORATIVE BRICK DRIVE

Proposed by Citizens and Groups
from Around the Country to Help
SAVE HISTORIC GATE 2
at the
"The House That Ruth Built"


For the purpose of saving historic Gate 2 at Old Yankee Stadium, non-profit baseball groups historyoftheyankees.com, the Committee to Commemorate Old Yankee Stadium & the Committee to Commemorate Babe Ruth - representing and acting on behalf of Baseball fans, historians, architects, historic preservationists, and other concerned citizens, groups, and relevant experts from New York and around the nation, has researched, developed, and proposed a public fundraising campaign to the City of New York, entitled the "SAVE THE GATE" Commemorative Brick Drive.

This Commemorative Brick Drive will be similar to ones throughout Major League Ballparks and other leading sports venues throughout the world, such as the highly successful programs employed by the Mets at Citi Field (Fanwalk), the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, and the Cleveland Stadium - "Heritage Park."

Based on Committee studies and expert estimates, legacy bricks at plazas & walkways encompassing the new parkland and ball fields encompassing the historic site of Old Yankee Stadium could generate generate from 10 to 20 Million dollars - depending on exact design. This would provide the City of New York more than ten (10) times the amount of funds needed to save historic Gate 2!!

Legacy brick plazas & walkways would also dramatically increase YEAR-ROUND tourism and visitation to the much-in-need Old Yankee Stadium neighborhood - where residents and businesses have lost critical revenues with the Stadium's closure and destruction. Saving Gate 2 will make the new park one of the most respected and profitable in the country. These brick plazas & walkways would also simultaneously enhance the currently poor aesthetics of the preliminary "Heritage Field" plan, exponentially improving the historic and cultural "disconnect" decried by historic design experts. (Adding extra elegance and attraction, the commemorative bricks can be made in magnificent blue, white and gray combinations, in unique tribute to the Stadium's unparalleled place in history.)

The Parks Department's preliminary plan for the historic Old Yankee Stadium is the highly controversial and criticized "Heritage Field", which retains absolutely NOTHING from Old Yankee Stadium. This as yet unapproved plan has been emphatically objected to by officials, experts, and fans, who regard it as historically, architecturally, and aesthetically "bland" and "inauthentic". It's MOST tragic failure is that it omits saving anything from original Yankee Stadium - a fatal flaw easily corrected with the saving of the 1920's era Gate 2. (The Parks Department abruptly withdrew from their October 5 appearance before the NYC Design Commission, where they were scheduled to defend against these widespread and well-informed criticisms in a Public Hearing before New York City Design Commission, which oversees the aesthetic and architectural suitability of all public projects in New York City.)

Parks Department has told the media (without providing any evidence whatsoever ) that the cost of saving Gate 2 - the original Stadium's most glorious remaining element - is too prohibitive, claiming (without providing any evidence) it would cost "10 Million dollars". Architectural and structural engineering experts assess the cost at only 1 Million dollars, less than the cost of demolishing and removing the Gate. In other words, experts believe it will cost less to save Gate 2 than to destroy it!!!

In any case, the "SAVE THE GATE" Commemorative Brick Drive would eliminate any cost concern - providing up to 10 Million dollars - thereby saving a majestic part of America's greatest and most historically important stadium, thereby assuring that the historic site of Old Yankee Stadium be more properly preserved, protected & commemorated - making it one of the premier urban parks in America - rather than the deplorable architectural, aesthetic, cultural, and historical flop that's now proposed by the Parks' Department.

For further information, please call or write the contacts below - who can also put you in touch with historians, preservationists, architects, and other relevant experts, helping to save the gate.

SAVE THE GATE videos prepared by Committee to Commemorate Old Yankee Stadium members can be seen at:
http://www.ultimateyankees.com/savethegate.htm. See, for example: "TOP 9 REASONS TO SAVE THE GATE" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyqyl1WJuJM, a musical summary of why the Gate should be saved (to Four of a Kind's "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"), which includes a brief depiction and description of the proposed SAVE THE GATE Commemorative Brick Drive (at "Reason No. 7", 1:04 - 1:14)




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Information provided above was derived from consultation with architectural, historic preservation, and fundraising experts, and review of documentation published by Fund Raisers, Ltd.[ http://www.fundraisersltd.net/home.php]
which oversaw the very well received and successful fundraising brick programs at Citi Field & Madison Square Garden,
and many other premier venues around the nation.

______


For Further Information, Please contact:


Brad Turnow
historyoftheyankees.com
(516) 523-4749
(631) 874-5754
bhturnow@optonline.net

and/or

Tim Reid
Committee to Commemorate Old Yankee Stadium
(754) 368-1295
savethegate@gmail.com


_______________

The Committee to Commemorate to Old Yankee Stadium has three urgent missions:

1) To Preserve Old Yankee Stadium Gate 2 as a commemorative feature at Old Yankee Stadium Park.

2) To name the new park site of Old Yankee Stadium "OLD YANKEE STADIUM PARK", a majestically unique and infinitely more appealing, accurate, and appropriate name. The currently proposed name has been condemned by historical and architectural experts (as well as legions of informed fans and concerned citizens) experts as grossly bland, ambiguous, and inappropriate. Indeed, there are many dozens of Heritage Parks and Fields across the country, including the Cleveland Indians "Heritage Park" - right in the AL East!!!

3) To name the baseball field in Old Yankee Stadium Park, "BABE RUTH MEMORIAL FIELD" in tribute to the most renowned player and icon in Baseball history, and to replace "BABE RUTH MEMORIAL FIELD" which until the destruction of McCombs Dam Park (on the site of new Yankee Stadium) was a "permanent" tribute to Babe Ruth's immortal and unparalleled contributions to the City of New York.

In the near future, we will also be applying to the U.S. Department of Interior for long-overdue National Landmark status for the site of Old Yankee Stadium, which will provide even further funds available to the City of New York for the preservation of Gate 2.

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