Posts Tagged ‘stadium’

Did You Ever Notice That Stadium Souvenirs Come In All Shapes And Sizes? In case you didn’t notice, stadium souvenirs aren’t only the trinkets you buy from the vendor stands! There are some unusual stadium souvenirs that are creeping into the marketplace. Old stadiums offer a piece of history that many fans want to save for themselves, but stealing pieces of stadiums that are closing have been landing some people in jail. In fact, there were a number of New York fans that got themselves arrested trying to steal a piece of the action. One tried to steal third base-literally, along with a hunk of turf!

Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium fans were swiping stadium souvenirs that ranged from pieces of seats from Shea Stadium to pieces of the red-white and blue outfield bunting that decorated Yankee Stadium! Leave it to New York…..of course, the teams want to make sure Stadium fixtures stay in their control, but somebody even stole a Yankee Stadium toilet seat. Stadiums that are older and get closed allow the teams to sell the rights to stadium souvenirs for profit and charity. That means you can buy bricks, seats and other parts of the stadiums because it has become a fund-raising event for all of the major league teams that have a stadium closing in their recent history.

Chicago White Sox’s Comiskey Park closing netted more than a million dollars for charity and other teams want to do the same thing. In fact, in the case of the 86-year old Yankee Stadium and the Shea Stadium, there was a third-party company hired to salvage the stadium souvenirs and the team gets a cut of the action, along with the City of New York, who owns the stadiums.

While Yankee’s players scooped up cups of dirt on their own, anything else they wanted had to be bought, when going on the auction block. Some of the sports fans that love stadium souvenirs just want a piece of a memory, but there are many that buy them as an investment because there is an active market in stadium souvenirs, just like there is with other types of sports memorabilia. It seems that stadium closings have created a sports souvenir class that appeals to many people, just make sure you are purchasing from authorized contractors offering a COA!