Wednesday's announcement of an $800 million palace worthy of baseball's true royals means the inevitable end of something dear. The Stadium is a trusty friend, unchanging through thick and thin, a place filled with countless special memories. But so was my childhood bedroom, and I couldn't wait to get out of that joint.

When I had the opportunity to party like a maniac at Syracuse University for four unsupervised years, did I stay home and cling to existing memories or did I seek new and more exciting opportunities that would lead to even better memories, like power chugging and high-octane vomiting? It was a no-brainer, and so is the decision to build Yankee Stadium 2.0, for these reasons:

Spare me the ghosts of Babe and DiMaggio and all that crap. Lou Gehrig would never walk into the Stadium today and say, "Wow, looks the same." First, he's dead, and he can't walk. Second, so much of the place has changed.

It would be one thing if the dugout bench was exactly the same and you could sit where Babe farted, if the field dimensions were the same, if the defining facade had remained intact throughout. What are we preserving here, GPS coordinates?

Maybe you'd keep an otherwise outdated music hall around because Chopin played there, even though the stage, piano, curtain and seats were all changed. But not if you were limited to only music hall in the great city of New York.

We're not knocking down the Louvre to build a Dinky Donuts. We're not changing uniforms just for the sake of sales. We're building a tangibly better Yankee Stadium experience. I know, you wanna sit in the same section you did when you were 8 and going with your pop. Well, how 'bout allowing the millennium's newest sports fans a crack at starting their own memory scrapbook in an even better park? And not just aesthetically. There will be more parking, a renovated surrounding area, the ability to move around and take pics, widened concourses, new bathrooms to not take a dump in if my life depended on it, more concessions stands, seats closer to the field, etc.

The place is going to be amazing, built by HOK Sport + Venue + Event, the same folks who gave us the widely celebrated new stadiums in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. You think they're not gonna try to make this one the absolute best?

I hear the Mets are also in the running for a new stadium, built by Port-A-John.

We're bringing over the best aspects of Yankee Stadium: the Yankees and us fans. Talk about ghosts all you want, the stars of the show are baseball's rock-star team and the people who pay them. I'm not talking about Steinbrenner and Co. I'm talking about us. With baseball's economic climate being the way it is, our sport's fans have more impact on results than any in the pro game. Great fans also effect college recruitment and, of course, are a huge influence on won-loss records. How do colleges recruit? In part by having great facilities for the players, paid for by the fans. Well, we're gonna have one awesome facility for the players and us.

We're gonna rock that joint. We're the ones who have as much control as anyone in terms of making it the best Yankee Stadium possible.

Maybe we'll have a surrounding environment to speak of. Proximity aside, there's nothing redeeming about any of the current River Ave. pre- and post-game hangouts. You pay $7 for a 12 oz. Coors Light in sweatpits filled with total trash. It's like sitting in the bleachers, but without all the class. Maybe we'll have more options, some new joints, some competition that may knock down prices and force bar owners to actually give a shit about their customers.

You might even wanna spend an entire day in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Dare to dream.

Quote of the Night: Yankees announcer Bobby Murcer, calling Jason Gimabi's titanic, upper-deck walk-off home run Wednesday: "High and fairly deep to right field..."

Today's Yankees Links:

• Verducci: Yankees Have Hitter More Useless Than Giambi — Womack's really been awful. Might have to start thinking of him as a full-time pinch-runner or hitter in a bunting situation.

• A Gentler Boss Riding Into the Sunset — Harvey Araton writes in the New York Times that "the blustery Boss who was twice suspended by baseball is replaced by this kinder, gentler George, bidding now to be remembered as the municipal benefactor who picked up the $800 million tab."

• Bringing Magic Across the Street — My old pal Bob Dittmeier pens a piece for MLB.com on his experiences at Yankee Stadium, a place he describes as such: "It is a functional baseball stadium perfect for a city that likes its baseball down and dirty. It's best fan-friendly attribute is not wide concourses, but the fact that the subway will leave you right at its doorstep. No tailgating, no TGIF. You go in, do your baseball, and get out."