How do Detroit’s Comerica Park and New York’s Yankee Stadium measure up? By James Montgomery New York’s Yankee Stadium Photo: Dave Gillum/ Diamond Images/ Getty Images On Thursday night, Eminem and Jay-Z will kick off their Home and Home concert series with a pair of shows at Detroit’s Comerica Park. Since he’s representing the home team, Em will headline both Comerica concerts, and when the series switches to New York’s Yankee Stadium on September 12-13, Jay will get top billing. Though we could spend endless hours discussing the two men who made these shows possible, it makes equally as much sense to take a look at the stadiums they’ll be playing in since, like Em and Jay themselves, they’re both icons of their respective cities. The similarities don’t stop there: Both Comerica and Yankee Stadium replaced beloved venues that played host to Major League Baseball for decades (the old Tiger Stadium — then called Navin Field — opened in 1912, and Yankee Stadium took its bow in 1923, as “The House That Ruth Built”). Both were designed by the Kansas City, Missouri, architecture firm Populous. Both have since played host to a World Series and an All-Star Game. And both go to great lengths to pay homage to their respective cities’ heritage and heroes. But those things are all mostly superficial. Because when you get down to the stats, Comerica and Yankee Stadium are about as different as two icons could be — sort of like Eminem and Jay-Z, when you think about it. So with Home and Home about to begin, here’s a look at the two places where Em and Jay will reign supreme: Comerica Park Nicknames : CoPa, Comerica, Comerica National Park (until they moved the fences in) First Opened : April 11, 2000 (the Tigers beat the Seattle Mariners 5-2) Price Tag : $300 million Capacity : 41,782 Dimensions : Left field, 345 feet; left-center, 370 feet; center field, 420 feet; right center, 365 feet; right field, 330 feet Signature Food Item : A coney dog from Leo’s (inside the stadium) or Lafayette Coney Island (outside). Also, since the Tigers are owned by Mike Ilitch — founder of Little Caesars — there is an abundance of pizza on hand too. Key Features : Comerica is certainly the only pro stadium in America to feature not only a carousel, but a Ferris wheel too. There’s also a massive beer hall, a water feature in center field that synchronizes music to spraying fountains (it’s officially called “Liquid Fireworks”), a series of six epic sculptures that pay tribute to Tigers greats Ty Cobb, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Willie Horton, Al Kaline and Hal Newhouser (legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell is also memorialized with a statue), and, perhaps most notably, eight heroic statues of actual Tigers strategically placed throughout the ballpark. Previous Concert Experience : The Dave Matthews Band were the first act to play Comerica in the summer of 2000. And since then, big names like the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, KISS and Aerosmith have all done the same. Eminem actually played a concert at Comerica in 2005, too, as part of his Anger Management Tour. Yankee Stadium Nicknames : The Stadium, the Bronx Bandbox, the Launching Pad (the ball tends to fly out of the place, if you couldn’t tell) First Opened : April 2, 2009 (a team workout day for fans); first regular-season game was April 16, 2009 (the Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians 10-2) Price Tag : Somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, though some estimates go as high as $2.3 billion. Capacity : 52,325 (including standing room) Dimensions : Left field, 318 feet; left center, 399 feet; center field, 408 feet; right center, 385 feet; right field, 314 feet Signature Food Item : A steak sandwich from Lobel’s (if you can stand the wait), fried pickles from Brother Jimmy’s. There’s lots to eat here, though, strangely, most of the pizza is terrible. Key Features : Aside from the beyond-expensive tickets for seats in the so-called “Legend’s Suite,” probably the grandiose limestone exterior, which matches the exterior of the old Yankee Stadium, or the iconic frieze that lines the upper deck, just like it did during the Babe Ruth days. There’s also the iconic Monument Park in center field, which honors previous Yankees greats, and the massive Great Hall, which does the same. What can we say? The Yankees are big on tradition. Previous Concert Experience : None. The September 12 Home and Home show will be the first show played at the new Yankee Stadium. Share your thoughts about the ballparks in the comments below! Related Photos Jay-Z And Eminem: Stadium Face-Off MCs And Their Hometown Stadiums Related Artists Eminem Jay-Z
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Eminem And Jay-Z Concerts: Comparing The Ballparks
