Collecting Stadium Memorabilia

Sports Collectors Digest has an interesting article for collector's waiting to collect a piece of Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium.

The Yankees and Mets are in negotiations with the city to sell as much of the stadiums as possible before hitting them with the wrecking ball.

I would think Steiner Sports will have some involvement. Steiner sells everything Mets and Yankees on their site from used jerseys to locker room chairs. I sent an email to Steiner Sports today and asked if they would be involved in this effort. I'll post a response as soon as I hear.

I talked to Steiner Sports representatives at an MAB show last year. At the time, they told me they hoped they would be involved and they were also in negotiations with the city and the teams. Rumors on the message boards last year said that NY Mets season ticket holders were offered their season ticket seats for $800 a piece!

I have a jar of Yankee Stadium outfield dirt that I'll blog about later this month. I picked it up during a tour of the stadium in April, 2002.

Steiner also has a deal with the Dallas Cowboys, but so far, Dallas has been selling the seats to Texas Stadium through the team.

If you want real memorabilia from Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, or other stadiums that get demolished, don't purchase the "last season" marketing branded t-shits, coins, and plaques. That's not memorabilia or a collectible, it's probably not worth the material its made out of. However, I think it would look great if you get some the last season branded baseballs signed by Mets or Yankees legends.

There's a great article about the new Yankee Stadium in the current SportingNews magazine. It's still on book store shelves if you want to read more about the revenue and how new stadiums have changed the way baseball teams make money.