US News

SIGN-ING UP

The House That Jeter Built has a new sign that unmistakably promises great baseball will be played there.

The words “Yankee Stadium,” solidly etched in gold-leafed stone, were hoisted by crane onto the team’s new South Bronx home this week.

And now there’s rock-solid proof that unlike countless other sports teams that have given up stadium-naming rights to big corporations, Yankee tradition is not for sale.

The words appear on the façade of the stadium’s 30,000- square-foot Gothic-style Grand Hall, which will be the main entranceway to the new ballpark and is expected to offer retail and restaurant space year-round.

“Yankee” went up Monday, and “Stadium” went up first thing yesterday morning, team officials said.

From the outside, the stadium’s elegant limestone and granite façade will have the feel of the 1923 design of the original stadium – the House that Ruth Built – which for now still stands across the street.

Team officials were tight-lipped about the project yesterday, except to say construction is proceeding on schedule for Opening Day 2009.

But the progress on the $930 million stadium is evident: The steelwork appears mostly done, and the dimensions of the ballfield – about the same as the 1923 stadium – are now clear, as are the twin decks of the stands.

Enough construction work has been finished that employees of the team’s media-relations office were able to visit the stadium’s press box this week. It was during that visit that they saw workers hoisting the new sign, and took these pictures.

The new stadium will hold around 51,000 people – smaller than the current stadium’s 57,000 capacity.

And while the look of the façade will be old-school, the stadium’s interior will be thoroughly modern, with improved sightlines, high-tech signage and ample concessions and restrooms.

In the last few weeks, the city has moved ahead with plans to spend $238 million on new parking garages, which won’t be complete until 2010, around the stadium. To the south of the site, work is proceeding on the big Bronx Terminal Market shopping mall.

And sometime amid the building of the new facilities, the old stadium – with all its tradition and memories – will be torn down.

bill.sanderson@nypost.com