News has been scant about the Yankee Stadium construction. While my flickr photoset of the construction shows the glacial pace of building a stadium, we haven’t really had confirmation that new Yankee Stadium is, as I half-guessed earlier this month, well behind schedule.

That is, we hadn’t had confirmation until this morning. As The New York Sun notes, construction on Yankee Stadium is three months behind schedule in some places, according to people working on the site. The Sun reports:

On the other side of town, at the new Yankee Stadium, the heavy metal extending skyward, toward the baseball gods, is less visible. The concrete façade that will form the exterior of the stadium is constructed behind home plate, and workers are expanding it along both base lines. However, it extends just a short distance toward left and right field, and the steel framework for the upper deck is constructed only in the area behind home plate.

An ironworker who was working at the stadium this weekend and did not give his name said the construction of the concrete façade is three months behind schedule. He also said the portion of façade he was working on yesterday was supposed to be up by April.

The Yankees organization refused to participate in this article. A spokeswoman for the Yankees, Alice McGillion, denied that the concrete façade is behind schedule. “We are not behind. Absolutely not,” she said. “We are different than the Mets. We are not following the Mets’ way of doing things. We are doing it our own way.”

Well, if you take a look at the state of CitiField and the state of the new Yankee Stadium, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that Yankee Stadium is behind schedule. I was at Shea this past weekend, and the stadium there is much further along than the $1.2 billion behemoth in the Bronx. I’m sure the Yanks will get the stadium open in time for Opening Day 2009, but the clock is ticking.

In other stadium news, the city is having problems finding someone to run the parking garages. New York has come under fire from anti-public funding advocates for doling out $70 million to the garages around the stadium. News that the latest developers may default on another taxpayer-funded project may rankle more than a few residents.

It’s never a slow day in Yankee world. Is Kyle still on the team too?

I’m no fan of the New Yankee Stadium. While I understand the economics behind the Yanks’ desire for a new stadium, I don’t see the problem with Yankee Stadium.

I know I’m not alone, but Yankee fans have been underwhelmingly quiet about the new stadium. There were no protests to speak of, and the most vocal advocacy groups fighting the stadium were those rightly concerned with the loss of valuable park land in the South Bronx. The Yankees wanted their new stadium, and they will get one that will look just the one in Philadelphia which looks just like the one in San Diego which looks just like the one in Milwaukee and so on.

So the team will get its new playground, but we fans will get a giant surprise: The best seats in the house won’t be there anymore.

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Taken from the street and at various points along the left field rotunda, you can check out the slide show here.