Why The Old Yankee Stadium DIED

The original Yankee Stadium was built for $2.5 million by one private owner in 1923 and demolished in 2010 so the most profitable franchise in baseball could replace it with a $2.3 billion building financed with over a billion dollars in public money. This is the full story of why the old Yankee Stadium died, and what it cost the city of New York and American taxpayers across the country to let it go. This video covers the complete history of the original stadium, from the moment the New York Giants evicted the Yankees from the Polo Grounds in 1920 to the Little League games now played on the ground where Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Derek Jeter once stood. You will learn how Ruth hit the first home run on opening day and asked God who would hit the last one, how the stadium was purchased by New York City using eminent domain in 1971 and renovated with $160 million in public funds only for George Steinbrenner to begin campaigning for a new building five years after it reopened, and how the replacement was structured using tax-exempt bonds that the Brookings Institution calculated cost federal taxpayers $431 million — people who will never attend a Yankees game in their lives.