Monopolizing Monopoly: Times Square Is the New Boardwalk

Sept. 12, 2006 — -- For generations of Monopoly players, Boardwalk was the place to be, at least if you could afford to buy the property, erect a few houses or a hotel, and mortgage friends and family members into bankruptcy. Starting today, you may have to set up shop in Times Square.

The newly unveiled "Here and Now" edition of Monopoly, which hits stores Thursday, represents the biggest changes ever for the game, which has sold more than 250 million copies in 80 countries and been translated into 26 languages.

Hasbro is rolling the dice on the 71-year-old game as the company recasts the famous board with properties coming from 22 cities across the United States -- Atlantic City's monopoly of the Monopoly names has been broken up like the once mighty AT&T.

Times Square is the new Boardwalk. Fenway Park is the new Park Place. What would Yankee fans have to say about that one? New York gets Times Square, but the House That Ruth Built is not even mentioned.

The placements on the board were decided democratically through a tally of votes. "We had 8.5 million votes coming into our Web site," said Pat Riso, spokesperson for Hasbro Games. "New York City got more votes than any other individual city, and they got Boardwalk."

Long-suffering Cleveland Indians fans will find further insult to their injuries when they see Jacobs Field is one of the two lowest-rent "purple properties." First, the river caught on fire, then it was really miserably cold there in the winter. Next, the Browns left and came back. Hasn't Cleveland been through enough already?

"Cleveland's on the board, so that's a good thing," said Riso. "We've gotten calls from cities that aren't on the board, so they should be pretty happy about that."

Once you open this new Monopoly box, get ready for a surprise. Most of the game pieces on the board have been cleverly replaced and updated with some well-known brands.

"When we decided we were going to create a new game, we asked ourselves 'What would the Monopoly game look like if it was created today?'" said Riso. "We made a list of those companies whose products are extremely relevant in the here and now."