$1.5 billion and no roof?

I don't understand how the New York Yankees spent $1.5 billion to build new Yankee Stadium and couldn't manage to include a retractable roof with all that money. Comiskey Park (opened 1991, no roof) cost Illinois taxpayers $175 million. Milwaukee's Miller Park (opened 2001, retractable roof that barely works) cost southeastern Wisconsin taxpayers $400 million. In Bronx, all that money and no roof? Inexplicable.

The average price of a Yankees game ticket rose 75% in one off-season from $41.40 to $72.97, tops in baseball. The most expensive ticket in baseball had for a long time been in Boston, due to its smallest stadium in baseball, extremely popular team (200-game sellout streak) and its desire to compete head-to-head with its wealthy New York rival. The average Red Sox ticket is $48.80. After my numerous request to the Cubs to raise ticket prices so their payroll could be competitive, the Cubs' average ticket price is third, at $47.75. And other than seeing the team itself, I think Cubs fans pay for a substandard experience. As I've noted numerous times, the restrooms are disgusting, the concourses are cramped, the seats are uncomfortable and have terrible views, there is no video/replay board, the scoreboard is a joke, concessions are few and far between, and there's no gift shoppe. And there are too many day games. And the upper deck is unsafe. And it takes forever to leave--because of the narrow concourses that were never designed to hold 38,000 fans. Wrigley Field is a national treasure, and maybe it should just hold minor-league exhibitions while the Cubs build a 21st-Century replica with retractable roof in Hoffman Estates.

The Mets replaced their 70's-era dump, Shea Stadium, with a new ballpark. (Yankee Stadium looked like it was from the 1970's as the team completely renovated it in the middle of that decade.) I suspect the revenue streams from those new ballparks in Bronx and Queens will end up making Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium obsolete.