Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the heart of the Bronx, at 161st St. & River Avenue. It’s home to a rather shitty baseball team, but more importantly is the home to an MLS team – New York City FC. The stadium, in its two incarnations, is overall pretty timeless and has hosted many a baseball game (& in more recent years, at least since the 2015 MLS season, soccer too). Either way, setting aside my anti-Yankees and pro-NYCFC biases, I do have to acknowledge the fact that this stadium is a pretty big deal in NYC – enough so to where it had to be replaced for the 2009 baseball season with what exists presently. That aside, it’s not going to be the home of NYCFC forever – that will be covered when I cover Willett Point on the LIRR and the 7 line. With that said…
WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS IMPORTANT STADIUM HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING I WRITE ABOUT?! Well, I’ll tell you what: there’s a subway station here!
So, the station is located right outside the stadium, and there’s a connection between the elevated ex-IRT platform (the #4 line), and the underground ex-IND platforms (the B and D lines – not an express station as this station predates the stadium). There’s elevators and stairs connecting each set of platforms, a station agent in the mezzanines, an NYPD presence (no MTA PD??? Weird.), OMNY machines, and the usual countdown clocks and benches and wahtnot. The IND mosaic even has it listed as “161ST ST-RIVER AVE”. Neat! I will admit though, architecturally, Yankee Stadium actually looks pretty beautiful and apparently it’s supposed to resemble the old stadium quite a bit. As for bus connections, there’s a few on 161st St. in front of the stadium. Overall though, it’s not a terrible station.
The good: It’s accessible and it serves the stadium that hosts a rather decent MLS team (presently). There’s also adequate service here to handle the game-day crowds, between both the B/D lines and the #4 elevated. Furthermore, there’s also some green spaces to add to the variety of land uses.
The bad: I can’t think of too much that’s bad – I’m more surprised there isn’t a direct entrance from Yankee Stadium into the subway itself.
Nearby points of interest: A few parks, but more importantly, NYCFC’s home stadium (Yankee Stadium)! Also, the Bronx’s borough hall is nearby.
Transit connections:
Lexington Ave. (Line #4)
6th Ave. (Lines B, D)
MTA bus (Bx6, Bx6-SBS, Bx13 at 161st & River, Bx1, Bx2 at 161st & Grand Concourse)
Overall, it’s not a terrible station. And, in fact, the stadium itself looks quite beautiful on the outside. Though, there was a lot of construction, all things considered.
Rating: 7/10
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…what? Did you really expect me to heavily slander the baseball team that plays here as well? Oh please…I’m saving that for another blog entry. Now, go. Go away. Get outta here!!!
