The slow slide of a postwar Bronx hotel once patronized by the New York Yankees

In the shadow of Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx stands the postwar-era Stadium hotel. And unlike the 2024 pennant-winning baseball team, this hotel building is in rough shape.

It wasn’t always so rundown. Apparently in the early 1960s, with the Yankees dominating the league thanks to players like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, what was known then as the Stadium Motor Lodge “was the in-season home of some Yankee ballplayers,” according to deadmotelsusa.com.

Not only was it a home away from home for some Yankees, but a restaurant that was part of the hotel was co-owned by Clete Boyer, according to a 1963 Dick Young column in the Daily News. Boyer played third base for the Yankees from 1959 to 1966. A 1964 newspaper item refers to Boyer as co-owner of the hotel.

It must have been a hopping place, with MLB players, fans, and locals indulging in an unofficial Yankee-branded hotel, complete with the unique baseball icon on the enormous sign.

But according to newspaper archives, things soon started to slide. In the early 1970s, the hotel is referenced in articles as a welfare motel; another story cited a drug bust.

In 1980, the hotel ran the below ad in the Daily News, positioning itself as a sleazy place for short-stay rendezvous. A 1987 ad in Newsday had the tagline: “Stadium Motor Lodge—where the game is love.”

At some point the name changed to Stadium Family Center, where it served as a shelter for homeless families, per a 2011 Daily News article.

The letters have been removed (traces remain but are hard to read). Now it’s simply the Stadium. The place appears to still house homeless adults—and gets poor Google reviews from residents.

[Second image: deadmotelsusa.com]