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NEW YORK, NY - MAY 07: An overall view of Yankee Stadium during the game between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees on May 7, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Over the past two years, the biggest story at Yankee Stadium has not been the play on the field, but the organization’s insistence to launch a veritable artillery barrage of sound at the fans in an effort to mimic the vibe at a Knicks game and, allegedly, bring the Stadium into the 2020s. While the players apparently like this atmosphere, which seems to abhor silence more than sung-through musical does, the fanbase hasn’t responded nearly as positively, to put it kindly: last month, Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News quoted a fan calling it an “incessant, annoying, droning noise,” and social media is filled with Yankees fans complaining.
I’m not here to rehash this debate. I absolutely agree that the Stadium is currently too loud, and I am absolutely flabbergasted by the fact that the Yankees have yet to listen to captain Aaron Judge, who has suggested that the organization put the speakers in a different spot so the sound gets pumped onto the field instead of at the fans in the stands. But until the team’s sound engineers decide to do this — something that I would be surprised to have happen this year, considering how much work goes into the design and placement of speakers in a large facility such as Yankee Stadium — we need to learn how to best handle the noise.
Fortunately, I have attended eight games so far this season, and, just as importantly, have technical theatre experience. As such, during my visits to the Stadium, I have paid close attention to the audio experience at the Stadium, with an ear towards this post.
Let’s get this out of the way first: no matter where in Yankee Stadium you go, it will be loud. It’s just the nature of the beast: a ballpark is made primarily of concrete and metal, i.e., hard materials that reflect sound. Yes, that means you can’t escape the noise… but in all honesty, you don’t want to escape the noise entirely, either. You’re still going to want to hear the PA announcements and mid-inning music, after all. We’re all about lowering the volume, not eliminating the noise entirely.
So how do we lower the volume? Well, the general answer here is to know where the speakers are, and try to avoid them. Now, of course, this is easier said than done, because in an outdoor space as big as Yankee Stadium, the speakers need to be everywhere.
The “main” speakers seem to be embedded within the new scoreboard unit, between the main scoreboard (the one with the ABS challenge in the picture below) and two side screens (the ones in pink saying “Pitch Challenged”). Without access to the sound engineers’ notes, I can’t say anything with any certainty, but they likely push sound out over the whole Stadium.
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These struggle to reach the concourse, however, and as such, secondary speakers are built into the overhangs — not featured as prominently as the screens that show the YES broadcast and, during the NBA playoffs, the New York Knicks games, but there nonetheless.
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And, since the 400s are higher than the speakers next to the scoreboard, they are themselves supplemented by a set of speakers built into the facade.
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While other speakers do exist — there are some behind the bleachers, I believe, and the sides, stairs, and facades of the Stadium are prime spots to hide speakers and other technical equipment — these are the ones that, from my experience, seem to be the most important to know. These are the ones that are, to use the audio jargon, hot: they are tuned to emit a massive wall of sound. The speakers in the facade are particularly bad culprits — the ones in the overhang recognize that they’re in a relatively confined space, while the ones in the facade are trying to throw sound everywhere in the 400s — but all these speakers contribute to Stadium’s overwhelming sound.
So, how can we minimize these effects? Well, in the upper decks, the solution is relatively simple: try to sit lower down, either in the 300s or in the first few rows of the 400s. This puts you in front of the facade, and thus in front of the speakers embedded within; you’ll be getting not the initial blast of sound, but the rebound of the sound off the Stadium’s back wall. Of course, this comes at a cost, as you’re no longer protected from inclement weather, but let’s be honest, in the grand scheme of things, that’s a fairly small price to pay, as we don’t really schedule our baseball viewing experience around rain.
As it turns out, the solution is also the same for the 200s (and, I assume, the 100s, but those seats don’t pop up on Stubhub in the $15-20 price range all that often, so I can’t say for certain). Getting in front of the speakers really does wonders in minimizing the noise, turning the noise from an obnoxious, ear-splitting bombardment that makes you leave the Stadium with a headache into simply an annoying part of the game experience — not exactly great, but overall, an improvement.
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