Yankees exec wants Stadium to be major boxing venue

Preparations were under way Friday at Yankee Stadium for Tuesday's home opener against the Angels. But while oversize plastic banners featuring pictures of the Yankees' top players adorned the outside of the stadium, the video board inside displayed the pictures of boxers Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto, who will fight there for Foreman's WBA 154-pound title June 5.

It's the first major sporting event other than baseball at the Stadium, but if Yankees CEO Lonn Trost has his way, boxing will be a regular event on the calendar. It won't disappear, as it did at the old Stadium after the Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton heavyweight bout Sept. 28, 1976.

"This is a major venue,'' Trost said after the formal news conference. "Historically, Yankee Stadium has always had boxing; it's had football; it's had concerts. That's what our eye is on now. In June, we'll have boxing. There will be the bowl game here on Dec. 30. On Nov. 20, we have Notre Dame-Army. Although we haven't announced it yet, we expect to have two concerts here.

"We always had this idea to bring back the history. We just wanted to move across the street. We just moved those ghosts, moved the events, moved the team, moved the championships. Boxing started in 1923 . Boxing is back in 2010.''

Originally, Trost approached promoter Bob Arum about bringing a potential Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather bout to the Stadium. That bout never materialized, and Arum said Friday that Pacquiao won't fight in New York because of tax laws that would take up to 14 percent of his earnings. However, Foreman is a resident of Brooklyn and Cotto, a Puerto Rican, regularly fights in New York.

Thanks to favorable Texas tax laws, Arum took Pacquiao to the new Cowboys Stadium in March for his win over Joshua Clottey. Jets owner Woody Johnson sat next to Arum at that bout, and Giants part-owner Steve Tisch is a friend. So, guess where Arum is headed in the future?

"I'm going to do a fight at the Meadowlands next spring,'' the promoter said. He's uncertain which fighters will be involved, but he said stadiums have weekend dates that need to be filled and interest that needs to be paid and he's just the guy to help.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put up a guarantee for Pacquiao-Clottey, and Arum said, "he made a fortune on the event. He probably made $5 million profit on the concessions and parking.''

Tickets for Foreman-Cotto start at $50 and are $400 for ringside, which will be under a protective canopy. Trost said all the Stadium's restaurants will be open, and he's hoping to create a playoff-type atmosphere.

"Yankee Stadium is a name known throughout the world,'' Trost said. "Bringing boxing back here just adds to the history and memories.''