"SAVE THE GATE" COMMEMORATIVE BRICK DRIVE MEDIA RELEASE!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, October 19, 2009


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, baseball groups HistoryOfTheYankees.com, the Committee to Commemorate Old Yankee Stadium & the Committee to Commemorate Babe Ruth - speaking for 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 voluntarily researched and developed 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 Indians' "Heritage Park."

Based on Committee studies and expert estimates, commemorative bricks at plazas & walkways encompassing the new parkland and ball fields scheduled to replace the historic site of Old Yankee Stadium could generate well over 5 Million dollars (as other MLB "legacy" brick memorials have) - depending on exact design. This would provide the City of New York millions of dollars more than is 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 (again 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 unnecessary mediocre and uninspired 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 top authorities in the fields of Baseball, architecture, New York history & historic preservation, as well as with top "legacy brick" fundraising experts.
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For Further Information, Please contact:


Tim Reid
Committee to Commemorate Old Yankee Stadium
savethestadium@gmail.com