Yankee Stadium: the perfect place to hold your concert, sporting event, or Bar Mitzvah. Honestly, after once seeing the Knicks City Dancers perform at a Bar Mitzvah, no degree of extravagance could surprise us. And yet... this does raise the bar pretty high. Jonathan Ballan, the lead bond lawyer for the financing of Yankee Stadium, has booked the place for his son’s Bar Mitzvah in June. All of his son's buddies must be pretty pumped—they'll basically be getting the run of the place, with access to all the VIP lounges and control of the scoreboard for 30 minutes. (Control of the scoreboard... so important.) There's just one little snag.
The stadium is now in negotiations to host a boxing match that very same night between Yuri Foreman, the World Boxing Association’s 154-pound champion, and Miguel Cotto. Foreman, an observant Jew, is a heavy hitter in the orthodox Jewish community in New York, and stadium officials expect some 30,000 fans to show up for the fight. They're even planning to schedule the bout to start at 11:30 p.m., so everyone can get there after sundown on Shabbos.
As the Times reports, the Bar Mitzvah would still be going strong into the evening, and the orthodox fans "would probably not enjoy seeing a montage of Ballan family photos on the scoreboard." Tough negotiations are now underway between Ballan and Foreman's manager Bob Arum, who's offered to give everyone in the Bar Mitzvah party seats for the fight, autographed souvenirs, and a private meeting between Foreman and the boy before the bout. But Ballan is reportedly driving a hard bargain. "The price of the Bar Mitzvah is at issue," Arum tells the Times. Yes, price—that's exactly why Ballan chose Yankee Stadium for this modest, low-key affair!
