The Strange History of Final Games in Stadiums Slated for Demolition (Village Voice)

You won’t find it in the paper (they ran out of trees), but it’s officially a Village Voice article, not a Village Voice blog item: My review, in advance of the final games for Yankee and Shea Stadiums, of other ballparks’ final days, and how they’ve changed over the years from poorly attended loot-fests to extravaganzas of nostalgia marketing:

If you’re hoping to attend the sold-out-since-the-Truman-administration final games at Yankee Stadium (this Sunday) or Shea Stadium (the Sunday after), you’d better be independently wealthy. At last check, final-game tickets for sale on StubHub started at $125 for the Mets and $250 for the Yanks. And that Yankees price is for a seat in the left-field bleachers—one enterprising speculator was seeking a mere $16,000 and change for each of four front-row Bronx ducats.

It was not always thus for stadium swan songs…