MLB
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/New_York_Mets.svg/150px-New_York_Mets.svg.png
New York Mets

2x Champion:
1969, 1986





Haven't seen it mentioned. Don't like the location unless they are gonna build around it. The interior is eerily the same as Camden Yards. I really, really like the exterior though. Very much like Ebbets field, which is very elegant. For those wondering what a retro park is, look no further. Modern inside, with a classically styled exterior. Usually with an odd shape to it instead of a perfect square or circle.

Details Emerge For New Mets Stadium

The new stadium will be built just to the right of the existing shea.
By JEFF FEINMAN

As pitchers and catchers head to Florida to join the Mets for Spring Training, the Queens Tribune has obtained a detailed report of the expected plans for the brand new stadium that will be home to the New York Mets. The $609 million stadium will hold 44,100 seats (an 11,900-seat reduction from Shea Stadium) and is expected to be ready for opening day 2009 after construction begins this summer.

The new stadium will be situated in the east parking lot of the current stadium, taking up approximately 74.5 acres. The design of the new stadium will emulate the historic Ebbets Field, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As baseball fans and visitors flock to Met games, they will note that the stadium’s brick exterior will be lined with steel sculptures representing the many bridges that connect the different boroughs of New York City.

The New York Mets’ front office has not released any design plans or models of the new structure as of yet.
Mets’ VP of Media Relations Jay Horowitz said that he and his staff are withholding comment until a detailed press conference that he said will take place within the next week.

A previous Ebbets Field style ballpark was shown off in 2001, but it had a retractable roof and other different features.

The Empire State Development Corporation, which provided the report, said there would be a public hearing on the proposed stadium Feb. 27 at Flushing Town Hall. “The purpose of our participation in the project is to maintain a world-class sports franchise in Queens and to facilitate the development of a major venue for sporting and other events,” read and ESDC.

Mets fans will be treated to a number of elegant and unique services that are not present in Shea Stadium. The Field Level will have an enclosed concourse called the “Home Plate Club,” consisting of 10 suites, lounges, bars, restrooms, and up-close views of the field. Above that is the Main Concourse, which will have plenty of space for fans to roam. This level will hold the Ebbets Club, similar to the current Diamond Club, and picnic area seating. Outfield seating will have a larger slope to position fans closer to the field.

As stadium visitors file up the escalators and elevators to the upper tiers, the first thing they see will be the suite level, with 35 suites and upgraded concession stands. A Business Center will be directly above a rotunda, offering space for business meetings and functions. It is also believed that a bridge will connect this level to the administration building in right field.

The Club Level, which will accommodate press and media, will have a sit-down restaurant in left field, seating approximately 500 customers. Moving to the Upper Concourse, visitors will have the opportunity for great views of the field, even from the “nose bleed” section. In fact, the Upper Level is both closer to the field and lower in elevation than the current Mezzanine Level of Shea Stadium.

At the completion of the construction, Shea will be demolished and turned into a parking lot. It is expected that the city will lease the stadium site to the Mets for up to 99 years and the Mets will enter a non-relocation agreement. Officials say the new stadium will have an employment total of approximately 700 jobs and the total revenue generated by stadium operations will be an estimated $1.26 billion over 40 years.

Spokesman Dan Andrews said Wednesday that Borough President Helen Marshall “has always supported a new stadium.”

“We feel there’s a great need and great support for a new stadium,” he said.

The public hearing on the stadium plan will be held at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, at Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.

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Eh. Just doesn't seem very original, and 44,000 seats seems too small for a NY club, even if it is the Mets.

Too many decks, too, left field looks kinda smooshed. At least they aren't building the park around the luxury boxes like everyone else seems to be doing in the US now.

I don't think originality was the goal. I think looking like Ebbets Field was the goal. So you're right, not original. Don't get the decks thing either. 3 decks is pretty normal and less than Shea.

And how do you know about the Luxury boxes? They only mention them in two sections. They don't really say how many there will be total. The size is pretty average and safe. It will probably maximize revenue for the team. I'd bet 44,000 = ~120 luxury suites/boxes.

Examining the bowl again reveals something. There are 3 decks, but 3 very vertical decks. Much like the real early 20th century parks. I think that's pretty cool, and will make an initmate atmosphere compared to most modern parks where the club and lower levels jut out towards the field a lot more.

Bah look at that massive parking lot. Hate seeing all that wasted space. Does any public transportation go to the stadium?

And how do you know about the Luxury boxes? They only mention them in two sections. They don't really say how many there will be total. The size is pretty average and safe. It will probably maximize revenue for the team. I'd bet 44,000 = ~120 luxury suites/boxes.


I guess that came out sort of wrong. When I say "building around the boxes" I mean something like the new NFL stadium in Indy, all of Ford Field, or the stupid new Wrigley thing in center field. Not how many there are.

Bah look at that massive parking lot. Hate seeing all that wasted space. Does any public transportation go to the stadium?

There's a rail line right behind it, as well as an urban neighborhood. Agreed on the parking lot.

As for building around luxury boxes, those people in the boxes are paying customers as well, and pay a lot for those seats. I don't blame owners for designing with boxes/suites in mind. I think Ford Field really did the best thing possible. The view from the regular seats and the boxes is outstanding. Rare.

Looks ok, all things considered, but just ok. The similarities of some of the 'retro' ballparks built in the last decade are leading to a bit of a stagnation in design flair, although they seem popular with the fans, so who am I to argue?

Agree that the outer cladding is nice (if done properly - not just painted concrete) as is the 'stacking' of the tiers in left field (very Tiger/Comiskey/Ebbets etc), but I still thinks it's a bit of a missed opportunity.

Looks nice but haven't they been planning this for close to a decade? I'll believe it when I see it.

Eh. Not impressed.

Looks nice, but looks like all the other new ballparks.

Cookie cutter 21st century ballpark. I do like the right field second deck extending as far as the lower deck though. Very "Tigers' Stadium". There just seems to be too much left field seats though. Who wants to sit in the 3rd deck in left center field?

I would rather keep Shea Stadium, and this new ballpark actually looks as if it seats less people.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/406513p-344214c.html
It looks Amazin!

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.nydailynews.com/images/heads/rope0406a.jpg

With an eye on the future, New York Mets officials stirred up the past on Thursday when they unveiled a stadium design reminiscent of Ebbets Field, the storied home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

One day after the City Council approved several key aspects of an $800 million stadium for the Yankees, Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and Mets owner Fred Wilpon announced plans at Shea Stadium for a new Mets home to be built in the parking lot of the existing ballpark.

Wilpon, a Brooklyn native, has long desired a new home for his team that evokes memories of the glory days of the Dodgers, who moved to Los Angeles in 1958. Eight years ago, Wilpon unveiled a design for an Ebbets Field-type ballpark for the Mets, but it wasn't until last summer that city officials and the team agreed on a plan to replace Shea Stadium.

"This is a historic and rather emotional occasion," a choked-up Wilpon said on Thursday as he recalled visiting Ebbets Field with his father as a young boy. He said predicted the new facility would be a "world class ballpark that, through its unique design, links the past and the future."

Bloomberg called it a "21st-century field of dreams. ... No doubt about it, it's a grand slam for baseball fans and all New Yorkers."

Although the planned stadium still requires a spectrum of regulatory approval, Mets officials hope to put their team on a new field by 2009 - the same year the Yankees expect to be playing in a new home in the Bronx.

The new ballpark in Queens will have a capacity of 45,000, down from the current 57,333, officials said. The seats will be a little wider and provide more leg room. Also, there will be more luxury suites, rest rooms and restaurants.

The Mets are paying $550 million for the stadium and the city is expected to kick in $90 million in capital funds, officials said. The state will provide $75 million for infrastructure improvements around the stadium.

Originally published on April 6, 2006

Is this retro park, part of a movement in baseball, or is this pretty much out in its own?

I like this ballpark. I think it could be better but they are probally a year or two away from ever starting construction so more minor things might be changed. I wouldn't call this a cookie cutter 21st century ballpark. It is designed to bring back several things from Ebbets Field (where the Brooklyn Dodgers used to play) because the Mets were brought into the league to replace the Dodgers and Giants when they moved from New York.

I like it.

Ugly.

Here are some more pictures and stats from the Mets Blog I usually go to (Metsgeek.com). The link for the article on the blog is... http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2006/04/06/now-this-is-a-place-i-can-call-home/

1. The seats, unlike Shea, are designed to face the action and the seats wider allowing fans to be more comfortable while watching the game.

2. There are 10,000 less seats putting the new stadium in the range of other new stadiums instead of the 55,000 plus that Shea has (one of the largest in MLB)

3. More enterances and more restrooms.

4. A concourse that goes around the whole ballpark so as you walk around going to use the bathroom or get a dog and a beer you can still see the action.

5. The seat color will be green instead of blue, red and orange. While this isn't the teams colors it wont look as tacky.

6. The big Neon guys are outside are gone (i wish the kept these guys).

7. There will be clubs and lounges for the people with a few more bucks to spend

The new dimensions...
LF - 335 (Shea is 338)
LCF - 379 (Shea is 378)
CF - 408 (Shea is 410)
RCF - 391 (Shea is 378)
RF - 330 (Shea is 338)




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AWWWWWWW BEAUTIFUL !!!!

As far as the exterior is concerned, it's fabulous, a lovely look that evokes the glory days of Ebbets.

But internally, I think the new Mets Ballpark (or as I like to call it Shea Stadium II) screams 21st century cookie-cutter ballpark, complete with these yuppified amenities (you know lounges, bars, restrooms, luxury suites, etc) In addition, I wonder if all the great things of the old shea will be added, including the Apple that pops up after a homer. I love to look at that every time. Shea Stadium is a place we have all become accustomed too, and while the Shea II will be a brand-spanking new park, It's good to see that at least it is in the same jurisdiction, unlike some teams who move from one part of town to another.

However, I cannot this stress this enough, I hope they keep the Shea name, and I hope they do not tack on some tacky corporate name into the stadium. Sure the park will get some money from it, but that is the thing that basically strips a stadium of its substance and character, thus making it look more superficial. I don't mind if its a local brand or a corporation with a decent name. I'd like it if Nathan's bought the naming Rights, but come on, I don't think any of us would like to go to Quicken Loans Park, or Staples Stadium, or Home Depot Field, or in the worse case scenario Preparation H Grounds.

I said this in the thread in the NYC forums, but I'm really tired of retro stadiums. Admittedly they're trying to stir up memories of New York baseball tradition (the NY Mets were started after both the Giants and the Dodgers left NY) but I think they're chasing somebody else's ghost. It's traditional but it's not their tradition. All these expansion teams (the Mets were expansion the 60s) building stadiums based on teams that came before them-- they're really not celebrating their own history (like the Astros... why build retro when you didn't exist in the 1920s?).

I wish teams started building newer designs that are futuristic and still quirky (compared to the "futuristic" ballparks of the 70s that were just cookie cutter). This doesn't do anything for the advancement of architecture as an art.

I dont care for it. NY City should be able to do much better.

In 30 years, everyone will be glad they build classy stadiums rather than what was supposed to look overly modern.

In 30 years, everyone will be glad they build classy stadiums rather than what was supposed to look overly modern.

thats a good point. Some of the "modern stadiums" look the Space Mountain at Disneyland.

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/67157.htm
A BALLPARK N.Y. CAN LOVE
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April 18, 2006 -- The New York Mets' owners made it fairly obvious yesterday what they think of naming the team's new stadium after the great Brooklyn Dodger barrier-breaker, Jackie Robinson: It's not a bad idea - but money matters more.
And that's truly a shame.

Because in this case, the two goals might be quite compatible.

Indeed, as we noted in this space yesterday, securing a pot of cash (in return for what?) might not be the best service to the Mets' bottom line - if instead they act to shore up their link to New York.

And how better to do that than by naming their new stadium after someone New Yorkers loved and admired?

Someone who showed New York - and America - what can happen when a man is truly judged by the content of his character, rather than the color of his skin?

Someone like Jackie Robinson.

Alas, that doesn't seem to be the Mets' thinking: "We will appropriately recognize those who have contributed immensely to our team, our sport and our society - including Jackie Robinson - in a variety of ways in the new ballpark," team spokesman Jay Horwitz told The Post yesterday.

But then he got down to business: "The procurement of a naming-rights partner is essential to the financing, [thus the Mets] will continue ongoing dialogue with leading blue-chip corporations regarding their association with our team and our new home."

Terrific.

"Blue-Chip Stadium" - that'll set the turnstiles spinning.

Let's be clear here: The Mets are under no obligation to do anything they believe will damage their bottom line, and a big chunk of stadium financing these days is the sale of naming rights.

That is, for teams that either care nothing for tradition and history - or have no tradition and history.

Like, say, the Houston Astros.

They play in Minute Maid Park - which used to be Enron Field, before the word Enron became synonymous with corporate corruption. (The Astros had to pay $2.1 million to get back the rights.)

Do the Mets really want to walk down that road?

Even if they do, the team shouldn't think that New Yorkers have absolutely no legitimate interest in the matter.

Mayor Bloomberg's office wasn't speaking for the record yesterday, other than to note that the matter is up to the Mets.

But that's not entirely true.

The fact is that some $165 million in taxpayer funds are slotted for necessary infrastructure work for the new park.

That's the equivalent of some 35 percent of the Mets $550 million investment, and while it's certainly government's job to provide the basics of a functioning site - sewers, water lines, roads - it remains that everyday New Yorkers have a big stake in the project, too.

Right now, cheap chislers like City Councilman Hiram Monserratte are being permitted by Speaker Christine Quinn to shake down the team for cash for the "community," meaning jobs and other goodies.

That's disgraceful, but instructive. It means that everybody concerned concedes that government has more than a rooting interest in the outcome of the undertaking, and must be placated.

In that light, Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki - who are each putting up a share of that $165 million pot - need to make clear their preferences.

They should take a tip from their city's first black city comptroller, Bill Thompson, who says naming the facility after Robinson is "about something more than just money; it's about principle."

Thompson stressed how important it is "not to let children forget" about how Jim Crow prevailed "just a few decades ago" and about the "many sacrifices" made to overcome it. "A stadium named after Jackie Robinson allows people not to forget," he said.

Or, as Kansas City Monarchs superstar - and unofficial Negro Leagues ambassador - Buck O'Neil put it yesterday: "Jackie Robinson Stadium - that would be something. When they do build it, I've got to come."

So will New Yorkers.

In droves.

http://www.queenstribune.com/news/1152869169.html

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Work has already begun at Shea. Tribune Photo by Jeff Feinman

Mets Stadium Finances Get OK From City IDA

By JEFF FEINMAN

The New York Mets had their city funded financial assistance approved on Tuesday by the New York City Industrial Development Agency, and the beginning of construction on their new stadium came a step closer.

Both the Mets and Yankees new stadium projects are expected to bring in more than $1.5 billion in private investment to the Bronx and Flushing, and will relieve the city from very high maintenance and capital repair costs.

“The new stadium for the Mets will give a tremendous boost to the local economy of Flushing and will be a major New York City attraction for a long time to come,” said Interim IDA Chairman Joshua Sirefman. “I’m pleased that today’s board approval set the stage for this project to move forward so the team can start building the stadium.”

For the Mets $600 million stadium, the IDA will issue about $528 million in tax-exempt bonds and $104 million in taxable bonds. The taxable bonds will be payable through the team’s rent payments.

According to City Council Finance Committee Chairman David Weprin (D-Hollis), the new stadium is expected to create more than 3,500 direct jobs and a total of more than 6,000 jobs through direct and indirect employment.
The new 44,000 seat stadium, slated to open in 2009, will mimic the brick façade of the legendary Ebbets Field and will offer many state-of-the-art amenities, such as a left-field restaurant and a spacious interactive media center.

The deal is now contingent upon the Internal Revenue Service approving the issuance of tax-exempt bonds for most of the financing, considered by insiders to merely be a formality. Site preparation has already begun in Shea Stadium’s parking lot.

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http://www.nycedc.com./About_Us/getPressReleasePreview_detailxx.cfm?id=359

NYC Industrial Development Agency Authorizes Financing Assistance for New Stadiums for Yankees and Mets ( 7/11/2006 )

New York City, July 11, 2006 – New York City Industrial Development Agency (IDA) today granted final approval for financing assistance for the New York Yankees and New York Mets to allow for the construction of new, state-of-the-art stadiums adjacent to each existing ballpark. The projects will bring more than $1.5 billion in private investment to the South Bronx and Flushing, Queens and relieve the City from maintenance and capital repair costs that would likely have exceeded rent payments at the existing stadiums by more than $113 million over the next 40 years. The issuance of the tax -exempt bonds for both projects is contingent on the receipt from the Internal Revenue Service of a favorable private letter ruling.

The IDA also approved financing for three industrial companies in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. IDA is administered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

“New stadiums for the Yankees and Mets will give a tremendous boost to the local economies of the South Bronx and Flushing, Queens and will be major New York City attractions for a long time to come,” said Interim IDA Chairman Joshua J. Sirefman. “I’m pleased today’s Board approval set the stage for both projects to move forward, so the teams can start building the stadiums and create the nearly 16,000 construction jobs they are expected to generate.”

IDA will issue about $920 million in tax-exempt bonds and $25 million in taxable bonds to build the new stadium for the Yankees. The project will result in roughly 9,700 construction jobs and 615 permanent jobs, excluding concessions. For the new Mets stadium, IDA will issue about $528 million in tax-exempt bonds and $104 million taxable bonds. The new Mets stadium will result in about 6,100 construction jobs and 970 permanent jobs, including concessions.

The tax-exempt bonds for both projects will be payable from Payments In Lieu Of Taxes or PILOTs, a structure approved by the City Council on April 25, 2006. The taxable bonds for both projects will be payable from rent payments made by the teams. IDA intends will also use exemptions from real property tax, mortgage recording tax and sales tax in connection with the projects.

Ive been changing my opinion on the field. I now love the black exterior. However, I wish they could go a little more modern for that location.

Blah,blah,.blah A few years ago the retro ballpack design became very popular by now its played out every stadium looks the fucking same already, I have a feeling bud selig has somethign to with this. Everytime that idiot talks he saids something about how many stadiums have been built since he has been commisioner, unfortunatly most of these stadiums look like cookie cutter, retro's

It looks pretty good, but I always like these kinds of stadiums...

Mix Ebbets with Coors Field then you have this ballpark.

It is def. not my favourite design, I like the stadium as it is, with the 3/4 cirkel, it is way more in balance mop, this new design def. is not, maybe they want to make something multifunctional of it or something, but pure baseball wise I do not like it, specialy when you see the inside pics, not my cup of tea!

I have a feeling that by the time this stadium is completed, its style will be dead by then.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/nyregion/20station.html

After Rail Station Promise to Yankees, M.T.A. to Give Equal Treatment to Mets

By THOMAS J. LUECK
Published: July 20, 2006

Three months after committing $40 million to a new Metro-North rail station at Yankee Stadium, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday signaled its intent to spend as much for improvements on subway and rail links to Shea Stadium.

The plan for Shea, which the authority has said is needed to extend equal treatment to the city’s two major league baseball clubs, won preliminary approval from the Long Island Rail Road committee of the authority’s board. At a meeting yesterday, the committee recommended that $8 million be spent over the next two years to study long-term transit improvements for Shea, and to undertake minor improvements to the stadium’s existing subway and commuter rail platforms.

The committee also voted to make a “similar level of commitment” to Shea that it had made with the $40 million authorized for a Bronx rail station near Yankee Stadium. The recommendations need the approval of other committees, including one of New York City Transit’s, which operates the subways, as well as the authority’s full board.

But approval is widely anticipated when the full board meets on Wednesday, since Peter Kalikow, the authority’s chairman, has implied publicly that he supports the plan. The Yankees and Mets, both planning new stadiums next to their current ballfields, have said that they need better links to public transportation.

Yesterday’s vote, although expected, provoked a fresh round of questions about the authority’s spending from some transit advocates, since neither the Yankees nor the Mets have committed any of their own money to the transit projects.

“The M.T.A. is starved for bucks,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. “If the Yankees and Mets want these improvements, they should participate financially.”

Timothy O’Brien, a spokesman for the authority, declined to say whether the Mets had been asked by the authority to help defray the cost of the proposed Shea Stadium transit improvements. He said any such request would “depend on the feasibility study and what it calls for.” A spokesman for the Mets, Jay Horowitz, declined to comment.

The transit projects planned for the stadiums would be paid for, at least in part, by what is left of $645 million that the authority set aside in the 1990’s to extend subway access to La Guardia Airport. That project, championed by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, never got off the ground, and the authority has used about half of the leftover money to buy several private bus lines and build a new bus depot on Staten Island.

John C. Liu, chairman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee and a frequent critic of the authority, called the money left over from the 1990’s “a slush fund” that should be spent more aggressively on transit improvements.

Yesterday, he said that the plan for Shea was “good news for Mets fans,” but that the authority’s management of its own finances “still leaves a lot to be desired.”

Mr. Liu’s district in Flushing lies just east of Shea Stadium, and his constituents would benefit from improved subway and Long Island Rail Road stations. While he did not directly criticize the preliminary transit plan for Shea, he admonished the authority to pay for other improvements.

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http://www.nycedc.com./About_Us/getPressReleasePreview_detailxx.cfm?id=360

For Immediate Release
July 19, 2006

Contact:
Andrew Brent/Janel Patterson 212-312-3523

Statement by Interim IDA Chairman Joshua J. Sirefman on the IRS' Rulings on Tax-Exempt Bonds for New Stadiums for the Yankees and Mets ( 7/19/2006 )

New York City, July 19, 2006 – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued two private letter rulings to New York City Industrial Development Agency (IDA) confirming that the IDA may proceed with issuing tax-exempt governmental bonds to be used by the Yankees and Mets to construct new stadiums. The favorable rulings follow authorization by the IDA Board earlier this month for the financing of both stadiums. Seeking a private letter ruling from the IRS is not unusual in large project or structured financings in order to provide certainty on the tax analysis of a transaction. The ruling related to the Yankees project was received on July 12, and the ruling related to the Mets project was received today.

“At the heart of the Bloomberg Administration’s economic development strategy is the goal to create jobs and spur private investment in all five boroughs, and these state-of-the-art ballparks will go a long way to do that,” said Interim IDA Chairman Joshua J. Sirefman. “I’m glad the IRS confirmed we could help make these projects happen by authorizing tax-exempt bonds, the result of which actually will mean increased tax revenue for New York City.”

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:banana:

looks nice! Congrats. shea looks like a dump.

Still not overly fussed about the design of the new ballpark and am dissapointed with the reduction in capacity over Shea, but I'm sure it will be a great place to watch baseball and the corporate name rolls off the tongue fairly well (better than Citibank Financial Services Field or something or that ilk!).

No matter how you look at it, it's impressive that both the Mets and Yankees are going ahead with new stadiums - they are also both very lucky that they are able to build right next to existing structures despite their urban locations (anyone familiar with the problems faced by London football/soccer teams when they want to rebuild will appreciate that!). Now if only the Giants and Jets could both build new seperate stadiums...

looks nice! Congrats. shea looks like a dump.

Shea may be a dump, but as a NYC'er, it was our dump.

Shea may be a dump, but as a NYC'er, it was our dump.

lol. i love the attachment mets fans have to Shea. maybe ill come out there this summer to catch a Dodgers game there. Im going to be there this weekend and im going to the Lakers Knicks games. it looks like im making my NYC arena tour before they are all torn down and replaced. Gotta see Yankee stadium too.

lol. i love the attachment mets fans have to Shea. maybe ill come out there this summer to catch a Dodgers game there. Im going to be there this weekend and im going to the Lakers Knicks games. it looks like im making my NYC arena tour before they are all torn down and replaced. Gotta see Yankee stadium too.

And I'm a Yankees supporter !! I just appreciate being able to go to a dump and watch a baseball game, not an entertainment complex designed to suck my wallet dry.

And I'm a Yankees supporter !! I just appreciate being able to go to a dump and watch a baseball game, not an entertainment complex designed to suck my wallet dry.

great point. I love the Staples Center, but i have to mortgage my house to see a game and have a beer. Thats why i Really really loved the Forum. It was all about the game.

great point. I love the Staples Center, but i have to mortgage my house to see a game and have a beer. Thats why i Really really loved the Forum. It was all about the game.

The game is an afterthought now. It's an excuse to build a dollar sucking monstrosity.

I like the stadium.
But I would prefer a modern exterior.
What i dont like though are the western-looking floodlights

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:banana:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spmets0209,0,2887204.story?coll=ny-sports-headlines

Citi Field rising in Queens
BY DAVID LENNON
Newsday Staff Writer

February 8, 2007, 5:33 PM EST

Standing in the middle of a windswept dirt lot, with a wind chill in the teens, it was difficult to imagine David Wright or Jose Reyes occupying this very spot on Opening Day of the 2009 season.

But that's the timetable for Citi Field, and with an iron-and-steel framework slowly rising beyond the outfield wall of Shea Stadium, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said today that the project is right on schedule.

"There's no reason it's not going to be great," said the enthusiastic Wilpon, who led a group of reporters through the Hunt-Bovis construction site. "All the seats are going to be better. You're going to be closer to the field. The sightlines are going to be better. It's just so vast right now, it's barely taking shape."

The only distinguishable part of the 45,000-seat stadium, which was inspired by Ebbets Field, is the first segment of the rightfield concourse. An elevated steel framework already is in place, giving visitors who climbed the tower a feel of the eventual sightlines from that vantage point.

When the ballpark is finished, that concourse will stretch around the inside of the stadium, providing a 360-degree view of the field, much like Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Wilpon also pointed out the different materials that will give the stadium its character, from the brick that will line the exterior to the faux limestone blocks and gray-accented windows.

Wilpon and a group of Mets officials visited a number of stadiums before working with HOK Sport to design Citi Field, which has borrowed various details from the firm's previous projects, such as Pittsburgh's PNC Park, Baltimore's Camden Yards and the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

At this point, Wilpon said the ballpark is "within 1 percent" of its estimated $600-million budget, and it won't be long before fans can get a better feel for the stadium itself - just by watching the construction from their seats at Shea.

"Knock on wood," Wilpon said. "Everything has gone as planned."

ehh.

I actually like Shea Stadium, and I don't see how is it a cookie-cutter stadium when just about every other stadium looks nothing like it.

I actually like Shea Stadium, and I don't see how is it a cookie-cutter stadium when just about every other stadium looks nothing like it.

That's because all the other 60's/70's cookie cutter stadiums have been knocked down. Now all these new retro parks are all cookie cutter stadiums. Same cycle different design.

That's because all the other 60's/70's cookie cutter stadiums have been knocked down. Now all these new retro parks are all cookie cutter stadiums. Same cycle different design.
Precisely! :yes:

At least this time around, these stadia are designed to accomodate one specific sport well as opposed to the concrete donuts which accomodated two sports, both poorly.

:hug:

actually some of the new baseball parks actually make rather good venues for international soccer games....

looks better than the old one
buty why smaller and why always retro?
and all MLB stadiums have small roofs

looks better than the old one
buty why smaller and why always retro?
and all MLB stadiums have small roofs

Retro because it's the latest baseball stadium fad since 1993. Smaller because less seats = more season ticket buyers and higher prices - trading in the blue collar fan for the white collar fan, and small roofs are always silly.

I think the retro trend is attempt to make up for the loss of so many great stadiums that were wiped out in the name of "progress". They replaced places that were beautiful and integrated with their neighborhoods with ugly, characterless stadiums in seas of parking.

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:(

This shot was taken yesterday by Flash over at Cityscapes.

http://metroscenes.com/newyorkcity/images/nyc_metroscenes2007_29.jpg

how does the rate of construction compare with the two new parks?

^^ I don't know, since I'm a true outsider. But from looking at them, they appear to be going up very fast!

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17886836/

Baseball building boom bites Big Apple
Construction breaks ground as Yankees, Mets build competing ballparks

NEW YORK - The home plate of the New York Mets is marked with green paint in the gravel. The infield is a construction site teeming with men in hard hats. The seats of Yankee Stadium rumble not with cheers and boos, but with cement mixers and excavators.

Forty-three years after the last major league stadium was built in New York City, both the Yankees and the Mets will play their home openers against the backdrop of two huge construction sites. Fans will be able to get a look at both their teams and their future homes, which are rising alongside the familiar ballparks.

Construction of both stadiums started last year, and they are scheduled to open in 2009, joining a building boom that has remade the face of baseball over the last decade.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Jeff Wilpon, chief operating officer of the Mets. “The rest of the country’s now going to be looking at New York and saying, ’Wow, look what they just did.”’

The new $800 million Mets stadium will be called Citi Field, part of a 20-year sponsorship deal between the Mets and Citigroup Inc. that is reportedly worth more than $20 million annually. The new $1 billion Yankee Stadium is going up just north of the House that Ruth Built, which will be demolished once the new ballpark is built.

The Mets start the regular season on the road and play their home opener April 9 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Fans attending games at Shea during the 2007 and 2008 seasons will be able to watch the new ballpark rise in a former parking lot beyond the outfield — and via Webcam on the Mets’ official site.

“We thought the whole process is something that’s exciting to people,” Wilpon said.

During a visit to the Queens construction site last week, the six towers that will house Citi Field’s stairs and elevators were in various stages of completion, and two 35-ton trusses awaited being positioned for the scoreboards. Home plate was marked in green paint.

Wilpon said construction was on schedule.

At the new Yankee Stadium, 10-story cranes are visible from the street, but a wooden fence painted black shields the site from close inspection.

The best view of the new stadium is from the elevated subway platform on the No. 4 line. During a stop there last week, cement mixers churned and excavators scooped dirt as the structures that will be the stands took shape under scaffolding.

The Yankees, who open their season at home Monday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, declined to discuss the new stadium or to allow a reporter onto the site.

Parks advocates sued unsuccessfully to halt construction of the new Yankee Stadium because it required paving over large portions of two city parks and cutting down hundreds of trees.

“The community did not have the resources to launch an adequate legal defense for their issue,” said Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Parks Advocates. “It’s really sad.”

The Yankees promised to pay for new parks to offset the lost green space.

Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner of the city Department of Parks and Recreation, said the biggest piece of new parkland won’t be built until the existing Yankee Stadium is demolished in 2009. Ballfields, basketball courts, a soccer field and a running track will replace the historic ballpark that Babe Ruth christened with a home run. “It’ll be a real Mecca for active recreation,” he said.

A smaller park just west of the existing Yankee Stadium will open this spring, Kavanagh said.

The Mets and Yankees join a long list of teams that have built new baseball parks in the last few years.

Like other stadiums that have opened since Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore pioneered the retro look in 1992, both of New York’s ballparks will feature old-time touches designed to evoke baseball’s storied past.

Yankee Stadium’s designers have incorporated elements of the original stadium, including the frieze that hung from the roof, that were lost in a 1970s renovation.

Citi Field will have a multi-arched exterior facade recalling Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ home before they left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

The link with the Dodgers will be made explicit with a Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the entrance. The rotunda will pay tribute to the Dodger great who broke major league baseball’s color barrier in 1947, and will include a statue of him.

Wilpon said his father, Mets owner Fred Wilpon, grew up attending games at Ebbets Field and wanted to recreate the experience for younger generations. “He really felt it was a piece of him and he wants other people to have that feeling walking through the rotunda,” he said.

Both new stadiums are supposed to be more intimate and at the same time more opulent than the ones they are replacing, with fewer seats but more luxury boxes.

Citi Field will have a capacity of 45,000 including standing room. It replaces the 57,333-seat Shea, which opened in 1964.

The new Yankee Stadium will have 53,000 seats, down from the current capacity of 57,478. The current Yankee Stadium was built in 1923 but was extensively remodeled in the 1970s. It is the third-oldest ballpark in the major leagues, trailing Boston’s Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (1914).

The dimensions at Yankee Stadium will not change. The playing field at Citi Field will be smaller than Shea down the lines but larger in the gaps: 335 feet to left field, 408 to center, 330 to right. Shea is 338 to left, 410 to center, 338 to right.

$20 for standing room tickets ehh?
I actually like standing room tickets, sorta like the old terraces from England, but without actual supporters....

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007/news/regionalnews/ball_park_woes_drive_shea_fans_batty_regionalnews_c_j__sullivan_and_clemente_lisi.htm
METS MESS

BALL 'PARK' WOES DRIVE SHEA FANS BATTY

By C.J. SULLIVAN and CLEMENTE LISI

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007/photos/news023a.jpg
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007/photos/news023.jpg
PACKING 'EM IN: The construction of Citi Field in the Shea lot has made parking at the stadium so tight (above), that fans couldn't hold their traditional tailgate party before yesterday's sold-out home opener.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04102007/photos/news023b.jpg
Fans like Steve and Jeffrey Vargian, Theresa Nastasia and Larry Steiner (from left) couldn't hold their traditional tailgate party before yesterday's sold-out home opener.

April 10, 2007 --

Fans who drove to Shea Stadium yesterday for the Mets' thrilling come-from-behind victory in the home opener not only had trouble finding a parking spot; they also couldn't tailgate once they got one.

The construction of Citi Field has taken away 2,200 spaces, forcing fans to park in several auxiliary lots - some as far as a mile from the stadium, but all costing $14 - at the Hall of Science, the World's Fair Marina and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

And as if the inconvenience of walking or taking a shuttle bus weren't enough, the parking problems also halted traditional tailgating parties.

"We went from a pregame barbecue on grass under a tree to now, where I ate a bologna sandwich with my foot on my car bumper," said Jeffrey Varjian, 42, a banker from Millburn, N.J., and one of the 56,227 fans who watched the Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-5.

Varjian said it was impossible to set up grills and tables because of the limited space and the rush to get a spot.

His brother, Steve, 30, who lives in Middle Village, Queens, said the "parking lots were full of cars" when he got there at 9:30 a.m., some 31/2 hours before the first pitch.

"Luckily, taking the subway or Long Island Rail Road is an easy alternative," he said.

To alleviate the parking problems, NYC Transit will run extra No. 7 trains to Flushing and the LIRR will increase service on the Port Washington line on game days.

Harold Eylward, 30, of Manhattan, said he normally drives to Shea, but hopped on the 7 instead.

"The parking this year is ridiculous," he said, as the train came to a screeching halt in the Willets Point/Shea Stadium station. "The train is very easy."

During last year's playoffs, ridership on game days reached 13,300 on the 7 train and 12,000 on the LIRR.

The problems yesterday didn't end with limited parking and no tailgating.

Once inside Shea, fans complained that concession prices had never been so high.

"You can only afford to go to one game a season," said George Gunn, 42, a retired NYPD officer who took his two daughters, Rose and Bridget, to the game. Gunn said he paid $4.50 for a medium soda and a total of $50 for food.

"If the prices were lower, I would take the kids more," he said.

Larry Steiner, 58, a retired teacher from Roslyn, L.I., agreed, saying he shelled out $7.50 for a 12-ounce beer.

"The prices are out of this world," he said. "It's like being held up for a Budweiser."

clemente.lisi@nypost.com

Credit to Stadiumpage

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/sports/baseball/01sandomir.html

Latest Developments in a Crosstown Rivalry

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: May 1, 2007

Home plate at Citi Field in Flushing is marked by a patch of Astroturf. In the Bronx, an outcropping of New York schist was leveled by chisel hammers attached to earth movers to clear the land for the future home plate at the new Yankee Stadium.

The pitcher’s mound in the Bronx will be where a yellow Dumpster rests, while a steel span in Flushing that emulates the Hell Gate bridge over the East River will soon support the concourse in right-center field.

The Mets and the Yankees are racing to open their new stadiums by opening day 2009. Those passing the construction sites — huge rocky pits that are filled with cranes, earth movers, steel, giant pieces of precast concrete — see the concrete frame of one stadium rising in the Bronx over former parkland and another one of steel ascending over parking spaces beside Shea Stadium.

“This place is so big, so wide open now, but when it’s filled with grass and seats, it will envelop you,” said Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets, as he walked through the Citi Field site during a recent tour.

Behind him, Shea remains, a vestige of an unadventurous period in sports architecture. “A dull, dingy place,” Wilpon said.

In his office, Wilpon keeps a miniature replica of Ebbets Field, a daily reminder of the architectural muse of Citi Field. It includes the rotunda through which Brooklyn Dodgers fans, including his father, Fred, the Mets’ principal owner, used to enter. He removed the tiny rotunda piece from the rest of the model and said, “Fred can tell us how it used to smell in there.”

A reimagined rotunda, which will be named for Jackie Robinson, is also beginning to take shape; so is the footprint of the Great Hall, a meeting place, among other things, through which many of the fans visiting the new Yankee Stadium will enter. It will stand 60 feet high and span left field to right field, along 161st Street, from Jerome Avenue to River Avenue.

“It will be unparalleled, similar in scope to the Grand Central Station waiting room,” said Valerie Peltier, a managing director for development of Tishman Speyer, on a tour of the Yankee Stadium site last week. Tishman Speyer is overseeing construction of the $800 million stadium. Jerry Speyer, the company’s president, is on the board of Yankee Global Enterprises.

Executives from each team said that they were not competing with each other over who would have the better ballpark. It is almost enough that the deals were made, with city and state contributions for infrastructure and other nonconstruction costs, to let the teams build new ballparks. Since 1991, 18 new major league stadiums have been built.

“After nothing happening for 15 or 20 years, it’s all happening here in the same time period,” said Dave Howard, an executive vice president of the Mets. Beside the ballparks, the Devils’ arena in Newark is nearly done, the Jets and the Giants are planning construction of their shared Meadowlands stadium, and the Nets hope to start building their arena in Brooklyn soon.

The first level of the steel structure in Flushing is nearly in place, with yellow caution tape flapping in the wind, affording a raw view of a design fiat: fans will be able to see the field nearly anywhere they walk along the 40-foot-wide concourses, except from behind the Sterling luxury boxes that are 18 rows from field level, a club on the Promenade level and a restaurant in left field.

“In the old stadiums, nobody thought about that,” Wilpon said.

Three levels of concrete structure are in various stages of completion at the new Yankee Stadium, more along right field than left. Rakers, 40-foot pieces of steel onto which the seats will be installed, will be arriving next week. A crane to handle the steel is being assembled.

The construction already obscures a portion of the rusted elevated train tracks and takes place around a New York City Transit substation that will eventually be blocked by the giant outfield scoreboard.

Nascent dugouts are visible in little excavations several feet below field level across a rocky landscape from which 350 cubic yards of dirt were removed before construction began. The future site of Monument Park is below a platform that supports several office trailers.

“The most interesting thing to me,” said Lonn Trost, the chief operating officer of the Yankees, looking over the site, “is to take the tradition of Yankee Stadium, replicate it here, and provide fans with something new.”

The new stadium will have the same field dimensions as the current one, with more seats angled to the infield. It will also resurrect the original exterior with limestone, concrete and granite, and recreate the frieze that ringed the stadium, with 39 sections of white-painted steel weighing six tons each, to be made in Quebec. The new frieze should not turn green in the air, as did the old copper one, which was removed in the 1974-5 stadium renovation.

Some of the 24,000 pieces of precast concrete that will comprise the Citi Field exterior are already in Flushing, some weighing 1,000 pounds. The front of each piece is covered with bricks, which are sliced lengthwise to reduce the weight yet create the impression of a brick facade. It is so different in architectural ambition and style from the original Shea design of blue and orange tiles arranged over exposed ramps.

“By the end of this season, most of the exterior facade will be in place,” Howard said. “It will look like the virtual model we have online.”

Shea still serves a purpose, beyond housing the Mets for two more seasons, and it is not simply to underscore the limits of the dual-purpose stadiums. Inside an unused section of the World’s Fair-era hulk, the Mets have built a showroom that depicts what the 10 Sterling and 40 Excelsior luxury suites will look like (the former will have bathrooms modeled on the Four Seasons restaurant’s). Various types of seats can be tested for comfort.

The team is also using the showroom to assess carpeting, tile, color and other design schemes — Jeff Wilpon, who grew up in the family’s real estate development business, can offer a spiel about terrazzo floors — for the suites, clubhouses and concourses. The concourses may have glazed wall tile.

“I want to know what we’ve designed before we sell it,” Wilpon said.

The $600 million stadium will reflect its era, as its predecessor did. Shea’s opening was envisioned for 1962, the Mets’ inaugural season, but after delays, it took about two more years to complete. The original Yankee Stadium took an astonishingly quick 284 days to finish in time, providing the team with a home of its own after being told to leave the Polo Grounds.

“How often do you get to build Yankee Stadium?” Peltier said. “Never.”

Well, almost.

Credit to Stadiumpage and Metsblog

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I love the Mets(but hate the Yanks). I Love New York. I Love the New Stadium. I Love the style too!

I think having A New Stadium "CITI FIELD" is a great idea. The New Yankee Stadium and the New Citi Field both will have less seats but more luxury boxes now that the two present stadiums. This means that the value of the seats would probably increase atleast 25% due to the fact that demands will increase while suply will decrease. Having more Luxury boxes will bring more rich people to the park(which can spend more in the park) and i think making the Citi Field like the old Ebbets field would give it a historical touch to its architecture which for me is a great idea(unlike the New Yankee Stadium which is almost going to be the same as the present one) !:)

I am so excited to see the METS in 2009.Hopefully they be a good team like now.

I LOVE NY!:lol:

huh?????????? wtf? great, skrew the working class people with these crap stadiums.... that's what this country's about the past 20 years anyway.

LOL You really do hate this.

will there are transit public to this stadium? :bash:

will there are transit public to this stadium? :bash:

Yeah, the train is right next to the stadium, same train that serves Shea, and the Tennis Center.

Yeah, the train is right next to the stadium, same train that serves Shea, and the Tennis Center.

To clarify, there is both an elevated subway line and a commuter rail line that connect to Shea, as well as the new stadium. There is also a water ferry service that connects to both the current and new stadium (for people who aren't lazy enough to walk underneath North Blvd.), and there are connections to 3 highway systems as well.

The New Yankee Stadium and the New Citi Field both will have less seats but more luxury boxes now that the two present stadiums. This means that the value of the seats would probably increase atleast 25% due to the fact that demands will increase while suply will decrease. Having more Luxury boxes will bring more rich people to the park(which can spend more in the park) and i think is a great idea

This is the part that is driving me nuts a week later. I still don't get how any of this is good news to the blue collar / middle class sports fan?
How the hell is having less seats and more luxury boxes thus more rich people at the game a good thing?????

This is the part that is driving me nuts a week later. I still don't get how any of this is good news to the blue collar / middle class sports fan?
Just to add my :2cents: you do realize our country has been slowly destroying the middle class for the past few decades yes? This is not just sports it is everything.

How the hell is having less seats and more luxury boxes thus more rich people at the game a good thing?????
It is good for the owners it gives them more money. There is no room left in the big four for non-wealthy people. NONE! If you want sports for the average person, attend minor league games where the entertainment is still cheap.

:hug:

This is looking good - still not sure which I prefer between this and the new Yankee stadium, but it's great for NY that both are being rebuilt, if only the Jets/Giants could do the same...

I'm probably going to be in NY at the end of August and am hoping to catch a game at either one or both of Shea/Yankee Stadium before they flatten them. What's the situation with tickets - can you usually buy them at the gate (assuming it's not a big rival matchup/important game) or are they generally advance sale only?

I bought them from the box office the day before for both Montreal @ NY Mets and Boston @ Yankees.

Great experience.

This is looking good - still not sure which I prefer between this and the new Yankee stadium, but it's great for NY that both are being rebuilt, if only the Jets/Giants could do the same...

I'm probably going to be in NY at the end of August and am hoping to catch a game at either one or both of Shea/Yankee Stadium before they flatten them. What's the situation with tickets - can you usually buy them at the gate (assuming it's not a big rival matchup/important game) or are they generally advance sale only?

Why not also come out to see a New York red Bulls game at Giants Stadium ?
We have Juan Pablo ANgel and Claudio Reyna.

Great photos. Love seeing these new stadiums under construction.

June 20

http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/5181/56453524pe3.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9899/2339236820100987497arhnir1.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/3300/2581631460100987497joxiua1.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1705/2715163050100987497lqakcm5.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/6305/2262874810100987497snrgnx7.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1648/2516094090100987497zsbudm2.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/163/2156545540100987497rrzzhm6.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1260/2459450260100987497nvfwrd7.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/3125/2629137110100987497lveecf0.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/8838/2824367310100987497mqngpi7.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/3371/2889429240100987497ymdmxd1.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9740/2651317050100987497nengno1.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4229/2592185670100987497osoimb0.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/5441/2047504450100987497tqgdsn6.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/418/2079189240100987497clmxvo9.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/5782/2740337860100987497frgwrd8.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/315/2000048720100987497rocdoc3.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/1381/2081572470100987497gftnjx0.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9372/2659372170100987497zairoo6.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/6800/2101455840100987497cmoflv7.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/4890/2424506970100987497jsmnpz3.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/7691/620citi3wu1.jpg

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/5198/620citi4wg4.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/582/6205ol1.jpg

beautiful!!! the metroplitans are gonna LOVE this stadium!

http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/queens/2007/06/26/2007-06-26_meet_the_mets_new_home.html
Meet the Mets' new home!

Citi Field ballpark isn't set to open until '09, but field's taking shape

BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON

Tuesday, June 26th 2007, 4:00 AM

Beyond the bleachers at Shea Stadium, construction crews have spent months drilling and hammering away at the Mets' new ballpark - and here's a look at what they've accomplished so far.

Queens' next field of dreams, Citi Field, isn't set to open until the 2009 season, but it's taking shape faster than a Jose Reyes' run around the bases.

Metal girders are forming decks of seats where the next generation of Mets faithful can wear their orange and blue with pride.

And the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, where fans will enter the state-of-the-art stadium, has risen as a tribute to the man who broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. But that's only a preview of what's to come.

Inspired by the design of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Citi Field is being built to have the most intimate atmosphere in the game - not to mention attractions like an interactive Mets museum.

New Yorkers lucky enough to score luxury box seats are sure to get great views of David Wright making stabs at third and Carlos Beltran tracking down fly balls in center.

Yes, the Amazin's and their fans have a lot to look forward to - besides Pedro Martinez's return from the disabled list, whenever that might be.

im so pumped for this new stadium. to people saying it screws the working class fan, you do realize that 45,000 is still a hell of a lot of seats. Sure its 10,000 less that current but all the games don't sell out as it is, there will still be plenty of seats to go around (at least after the first year or two where the park will be packed).

The reason they feel screwed is b/c they feel that the ticket prices will go up when this new stadium is built as it has been the case for others.

Taken 7-28-07

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/07/Citi_Field_Construction_7-28-07.jpg/800px-Citi_Field_Construction_7-28-07.jpg

I think they should place the cardboard cut-out of the skyline that sits on top of the scoreboard from Shea Stadium and move to the one at Citifield.

http://www.twintowersalliance.com/sw0.jpg

Taken 9-15-07 by Eric Okurowski

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Citi_Field_9-15-07.jpg/800px-Citi_Field_9-15-07.jpg

http://img40.picoodle.com/img/img40/9/9/19/f_metsm_7eca81e.jpg (http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/9/9/19/f_metsm_7eca81e.jpg&srv=img40)

http://www.stadiumpage.com/newmets/Shea_Section8_91507.jpg

Taken 9-15-07 by Eric Okurowski

http://www.stadiumpage.com/newmets/Shea_Section8_91507.jpg
i never realized that it was that close to shea..and so clearly visible.

reminds me alot of cinergy field/GAB in cincinatti when it was built.

just you never had to demolish a part of shea in order to build the new stadium.

very class..i love the round rotunda or whatever you call it at the front of the new park.

very good

I've heard that the new stadium is so close to Shea that in April David Wright hit a home run into the construction site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/opinion/nyregionopinions/07CImiller.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
You Gotta Expand

By STUART MILLER
Published: October 7, 2007

THE Mets — from General Manager Omar Minaya to Willie Randolph, the team’s manager, to nearly every active player — made one disastrous mistake after another this season, leaving fans with a winter’s worth of bitter bile to remember 2007 by. Yet the Mets’ ownership is on the verge of making a much bigger, and probably irreversible, error — one that will leave fans feeling abandoned every year from 2009 on. While the team’s hubris was a major culprit in the September free fall, a lack thereof means the new ballpark, Citi Field is going to be too small, cutting thousands of Mets fans out of the action.

Sure, Shea is far from fan-friendly, and a new stadium with more leg room, better sightlines, more bathrooms and concession stands will be a wonderful thing. And many of Shea’s upper-deck and outfield seats are crummy and often empty; even this year’s record-setting paid attendance of 3.85 million for the 81 home games meant nearly 10,000 unsold tickets per game (since Shea can hold more than 56,000 spectators). So it’s logical and — in an era overrun by unnecessarily grandiose projects (the Freedom Tower, Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards) — even heartening that the Mets designed something more intimate and suitably scaled.

But the Mets, so used to playing second fiddle to the Yankees in terms of pennants, headlines and attendance, are actually thinking too small. The new ballpark will seat only 42,500; there’ll be room for 2,500 standing-room-only spots, which are pretty unappealing for a three-hour ballgame. (The Yankees’ new stadium will also be smaller, at 53,000; but while the Yankees will almost always be a bigger draw, the Mets’ capacity isn’t even in the same ballpark.)

In 2007, the Mets surpassed the 42,500 mark in 63 games, more than three-quarters of the total (and the 45,000 mark in 56 of those games); last year, even without a tight divisional race the Mets surpassed the 42,500 mark 42 times (and 45,000 36 times).

Right now many disappointed and disillusioned Mets fans may not be able to think about going to see this club play, at least not until the manager learns how to motivate players and handle a bullpen and until the shortstop matures and the veterans show leadership and passion. But come spring, many will be filled with hope again and by the time 2009 rolls around and the team has a shiny new ballpark, it seems logical to presume that the Mets could continue averaging more than 45,000 fans per game — if there were enough seats.

Sure, there’ll be down years, but the Mets shouldn’t be building a stadium while planning for a return to the dark days of players like Lenny Randle, Alex Trevino, Vince Coleman and Bobby Bonilla or the mismanagement of M. Donald Grant and Al Harazin. If the team remains competitive throughout the José Reyes-David Wright era, then it’s as if the Mets are purposely planning to regularly turn away thousands of loyal fans, which could ultimately weaken the fans’ ties to the team, reducing both merchandise sales and television ratings, an especially costly decision for a team that owns its own network.

If it’s not too late, the Mets should adjust their blueprints, ideally to 49,000 seats. Adding more seats is especially crucial because so much of Citi Field will be devoted to luxury suites. These playgrounds for the rich and corporate are a fact of life in all modern ballparks so it’s not worth whining about them, but the current plan features only about 33,500 seats for the public. In other words, the team is adding nearly 25 percent more luxury boxes but shrinking by 22 percent the number of seats for the average fan.

The Mets are, naturally, increasing ticket (and concession) prices in Citi Field and in the age of online ticket services, costs will actually soar even higher than expected given their scarcity. At opening day this year, which was attended by more than 56,000 fans, a seat three rows from the top cost $90 per ticket from Stubhub.com while a good loge seat went for $160. That already prices out far too many Mets fans — especially those looking to bring their children — and those fans will increasingly be frozen out unless the Mets make Citi Field a big enough field for everyone in the city.

Stuart Miller is the author of “The 100 Greatest Days in New York Sports.”

good article.

I also like the fact that editor also blurbs how overrated the FT and Atlantic Yds complex are in that article.

Always wondered how easy it would be to add 5-10 thousand seats to this design. 42,500 is way to small.

Just some recent shots I noticed from Flickr.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2288/2154246957_e863aa36d1_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/2154245783_a6af06f5a9_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2369/2149542397_b043e5ef86_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2149535827_91366b00fa_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2336/2138524250_785e818781_o.jpg

Wow... it looks fantastic. Any pics of the Rotunda yet?

About time for some updates, where have they been? No activity since October? And how about the new Wanker(Yankee) Stadium? Get on the ball people!:soapbox:

It's really coming along. Are we sure it won't open in time for the 2008 season?:lol:

Wow... it looks fantastic. Any pics of the Rotunda yet?

The construction of the Rotunda is best seen in the second pic.

Are they going to demolish the current Shea Stadium?

Are they going to demolish the current Shea Stadium?

According to wikipedia, it will be dismantled according to new york state law

Very nice design.

It seems to be pretty well connected. How many Subway/commuter rail "lines" pass through those two stations in the last photo?

My fav MLB tema gets a very nice stadium
+ 50.000 would be perfect :D
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/photogallery/year_2008/month_02/day_01/cf2361790.html

Hm, What we need to do is put pics of Citi and New Yanker stadium side by side so we can vote on our favorite in the New york area.

I think its hard to say, because Yankee one is more "stadium" and Mets one more retro Ballpark :D

It's really coming along. Are we sure it won't open in time for the 2008 season?:lol:


Thats what I was thinking lookig at that last pic. Looks like if they hurry they could be ready by the all star break like seattle did when safeco opened.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/CitiFieldConstruction2008-02-02089.jpg

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/466/95982918wj7.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/2716/17916688qu2.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/CitiFieldConstruction2008-02-02017.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7016/71260772gb5.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/CitiFieldConstruction2008-02-02022.jpg

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/9757/31863643zo4.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/CitiFieldConstruction2008-02-02007.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1338/58565083fy1.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/4551/66117603ka9.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6425/11832543ev1.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/580/52612230ig7.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1800/44621536da8.jpg

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6044/79177504lm7.jpg

I wish some MLB team would build a brand spanking new MODERN ballpark for once. All of these retro parks (Camden Yards et al) essentially look the same now.

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6044/79177504lm7.jpg

Is the old stadium bigger then the new one? It´s higer for sure no?

Is the old stadium bigger then the new one? It´s higer for sure no?

Yea, about 10,000 more seats.

I wish some MLB team would build a brand spanking new MODERN ballpark for once. All of these retro parks (Camden Yards et al) essentially look the same now.

Its not a modern game though

Neither is football...nor soccer. Nor most other sports. I just wish we had some sort of Allianz Arena for baseball. It's always the same...bricks, arches, rotunda.

http://detectovision.com/pics/safeco_field.jpg

http://www.sportsevents.net/events/images/oriole_park_at_camden_yards.jpg

http://www.imaybeknittingaranchhouse.com/archives/ameriquest.jpg

I have to say that i like in some way the retro ones more

ya, retro and baseball just seem to go together.
What about montreal? The Expos play in the most modern design building out of all of them.

the Minnesota twins new stadium is a modern design. So is the Nationals new field.

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/min/photogallery/year_2007/month_10/day_30/cf2288893.html

Nationals Ball Park
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/was/images/ballpark/ph_aerial_1024x663.jpg

Most parks are going to have the stone exteriors.

I really like Citi Field.

I have to say that i like in some way the retro ones more

I don't necessarily dislike them either. I'm just saying that it's getting kind of repetitive.

What about montreal? The Expos play in the most modern design building out of all of them.

:sly:

ya, retro and baseball just seem to go together.
What about montreal? The Expos play in the most modern design building out of all of them.

Something is totally wrong with that last part. :ohno:

I also like these retro Parks and the New Mets Ballpark is one of my favourites.

Generally I really don't like modern Ballparks (like Nationals Ball Park f.e.) but the one in Tampa (I think) with the stunning roof looks great.

wow, i just saw this. the plans for the New Stadium for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/photogallery/year_2007/month_11/day_28/cf2312900.html

The biggest surprise of the 2007 offseason to date came on November 9 when the Rays announced that they were in negotiations to potentially build a new $450-million, 35,000 seat, open-air baseball stadium at the site of Progress Energy Park/Al Lang Field, their current spring training facility on the St. Petersburg waterfront, to open by 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rays_Ballpark

$450 millions...holy crap. Why are these American stadiums so goddamn expensive?

The new Yankee Stadium in New York will be pushing the $1 billion mark and at about 54,000 seats.
The new Rays one will be half of that, and the cheapest of the ones currently in design or construction (and witha suedo retractable roof).

450 million is cheap in stadium standards.

Something is totally wrong with that last part. :ohno:

lol I know, what year are we in?!

I am not that enthusiastic about the new stadium, b/c it will usually mean higher ticket prices for the fans.

I am not that enthusiastic about the new stadium, b/c it will usually mean higher ticket prices for the fans.


Less seats and higher ticket prices.

Sounds great! :ohno:

^^ I thought it was more seats

BTW is a expansion possible?

Baseball stadium rarely do expansions. Hell Yankee Stadium got rid of seats in the out field!

I hope its also possible at this stadium :D
BTW i do not understand why the dodgers never play with full capacity
always limited at 56,000

BTW is a expansion possible?

There was a talk about this years ago about expanding Shea Stadium if NYC got the 2012 Summer Olympics, but that bid was lost, so it didn't happen.

Coming along nicely, I like this better than Wankers Stadium (maybe some bias there :) )

I hope its also possible at this stadium :D
BTW i do not understand why the dodgers never play with full capacity
always limited at 56,000

Los Angeles City fire codes restrict the Dodger Stadium capacity to 56,000. Apparently it wouldn't be cost effective to re-permit the stadium to a higher capacity.

Thanks a lot. Do you maybe know the "real" / possible full capacity

Thanks a lot. Do you maybe know the "real" / possible full capacity

I would guess between 57,000 and 57,500. It's true that they added the dugout club and baseline box seating, but they also removed the old dugout box seats... and when they turned the club level seats into suites, that also reduced the seating in that area. I would guess that they added about 2,000-2,500 new seats, but eliminated more than 1,000 old seats.

BTW is a expansion possible?
Were you referring to Shea or this new place? If they wanted to they could probably throw some more seats in the outfield at a later date. :)

the new one

While the name might be from a corperation, it could have been worse.

whats wrong with Citi Field? Sounds cool

Yeah, Citi do not reminds me to the bank.
But Mets field or Mets Park woul be better :D

TmmcTfENr1U

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02082008/news/regionalnews/billy_joel_to_shea_goodbye_483747.htm
BILLY JOEL TO SHEA GOODBYE

By TODD VENEZIA

February 8, 2008 -- Long Island's Billy Joel will be the king of Queens this summer when he stars in the last concert ever to be held at Shea Stadium.

The Piano Man will be saying goodbye to the Flushing ballpark during a concert July 19.

The 2008 season will be the Mets' last at Shea. They're preparing to move to now-under-construction Citi Field, right next door, for 2009.

Joel, 58, showed up at Shea yesterday to promote the show, swinging a bat a few times and holding up a shirt that bore the concert's name: "The Last Play At Shea."

The show will occur during the All-Star break - on the day after the game, which is traditionally a day off for baseball teams.

It makes Joel the only artist to have played both Yankee Stadium (two nights in 1991) and Shea.

Tickets are set to go on sale Feb. 16.

One of the world's top concert draws, Joel took in $40 million in 2007 from only 29 shows, according to Billboard magazine.

Shea ushered in the era of stadium rock with a Beatles concert in 1965, but there hasn't been a gig there during the baseball season since Eric Clapton and Elton John played there in 1992.

todd.venezia@nypost.com

^^ I thought it was more seats


Less. Much less.
Shea = 54, 000 seats
New Shea = 44, 000 seats

Has the Mets or Citi Field release a seating chart/diagram?

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/ap/NY_Mets_Stadium.html
Home run apple will follow New York Mets to new ballpark

by karen matthews / associated press writer

FEB 12, 2008 6:40 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) -- The huge fiberglass apple that pops up when New York Mets players hit home runs will follow them to their new ballpark when it opens next year.

"The big home run apple is coming," the team's chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, said Tuesday during a media tour of Citi Field, the new stadium.

An apple is coming, at any rate. Mets officials said they did not know whether it would be the same fiberglass apple that has popped up like a Champagne cork following Mets homers since 1980.

But a well to house the apple was visible beyond center field at the new stadium, which Wilpon said is on schedule and on budget -- about $800 million.

Some 85 percent of Citi Field's structural steel is now complete, and the tiered concrete that will support the seats and stairways is in place.

The Mets broke ground on the stadium in 2006 and announced a naming deal with Citigroup, which will pay $20 million annually, or about $400 million over a 20-year contract.

Fans will enter Citi Field through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, honoring the black Brooklyn Dodgers great who integrated baseball. Other references to the long-departed Dodgers will include an Ebbets Club Lounge and a section of Ebbets seats.

The new stadium will have a capacity of 45,000 including standing room, compared with 57,333 at Shea Stadium, the team's home since 1964. It's being built next to the old stadium.

Wilpon, son of team owner Fred Wilpon, said he won't miss Shea.

"I was at Shea Stadium groundbreaking in my mother's belly," he said. "To be here for Opening Day should be pretty exciting."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Anyone that dislikes Citi Field aesthetically should be reminded of what was almost built to replace the current venue back in 2001:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g231/mrfusion1/NYM.jpg

It featured a retractable roof that slid over an adjoined parking garage, retractable grass [so it could hosts conventions or stuff like that] and a cantilevered outfield deck. I have a friend whose a huge Mets fan, I still taunt him with this image it haunts him :cheers:

The Yankees has a similarly roofed proposal back then too posted here. (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=18453036&postcount=246) :)

that would have been an awesome stadium

that would have been an awesome stadium

No. Indoor baseball is sterile.

At least they are keeping the homerun apple, which was in a debate for some time in the last year of whether it wiould be there or not.

The homerun apple is the only tradition the Mets have. They might as well keep the blasted thing.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2585/2288763912b5381a952eody0.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2171/22887654201012368940okw8.jpg

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5808/img2158vc0pz6.jpg


http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e108/noblu/IMG_0987.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e108/noblu/IMG_0985.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/273/citi0217083aj8.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8052/citi0217086oc7.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5408/citi0217088ld8.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2866/citi02170821xs7.jpg

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02252008/news/regionalnews/mets_are_citi_slickers_99230.htm
METS ARE CITI SLICKERS

By RICH WILNER

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02252008/photos/bus03a.jpg

February 25, 2008 -- Here's a fresh look at the Mets' new field of dreams in all its glory.

The new Citi Field is patterned after Ebbets Field, the famed home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The new digs are being constructed with a combination of brick, granite and limestone - masonry meant to resemble the Dodgers' old haunts.

In this peek at the stadium's new sign, "citi" appears in its lower-case corporate logo form, while "FIELD" is in all caps and uses the same classic lettering once seen at Ebbets.

Design firm Lippincott created the emblem, which will be officially unveiled today at the Mets' winter home in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The honor will go to team officials, manager Willie Randolph, shortstop José Reyes and new pitching ace Johan Santana.

The sign will be attached to the new Queens ballpark's exterior later this year as the team prepares to open its doors for the 2009 season.

A Citi Field emblem , which has an angular shape resembling a baseball diamond, will also be unveiled today.

Hadn't seen pics in a while. Looks good.

$80 a ticket? Anyone hear anythign like that?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3100/2400340712_dbc1790b91_b.jpg
bigger one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpineinc/2400340712/sizes/o/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2400340824_27fd3b77ce_b.jpg
bigger one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpineinc/2400340824/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57809396@N00/2399335027/sizes/o/

LOL It actually makes Shea look better. From the way they are building this, the Mets could probably play there by the end of the season.

Are you sure that CitiField won't open sometime in 2008? The construction on that facility has been going at a feverish pace!!!:cheers:

I wonder how much glass work will have to be re done do to home run balls on that wall on citi field facing Shea

What I will miss at Shea Stadium.

1. The organist who can do both old and new songs.
2. The neon desinged baseball players at the gates
3. The fact that I attended my very first MLB game there.
4. The fact that it was viewed as having a fan friendly atmosphere that even Yankee Stadium lacked.

I'm glad the home run apple is moving to the new park. I attended my first MLB game at Shea and I'll miss the old park.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e108/noblu/IMG_0987.jpg
Are they actually using using face brick veneer or is the brick effect molded in? The brick shown on the sections ready for erection certainly isn't regular brick. It's certainly disappointing that they're not using real brick but I guess the cost would have been prohibitive! :bash:

its real brick, its just not all there behind the face of the brick

its real brick, its just not all there behind the face of the brick

So that makes it Face Brick Veneer like I suggested? Or is it something else again?

I was hoping the Mets and New York would build a convertible in case they ever wanted to host the Olympics. New York is building these new stadiums, but none of them have track and field capabilities. Its kind of a shame, but I don't think New York will ever get the Olympics now.

These were my ideas for a New York Mets/Olympic Stadium. They're a bit crude, but some people liked them. See more at New Stadium Drawings (http://www.stadiumdrawings.blogspot.com)

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1670/2029/1600/NY%20Olympic%20and%20Mets.3.jpg

There was a plan that actually was given in the plan for the olympics that would have involved in an expansion.

I wonder how much glass work will have to be re done do to home run balls on that wall on citi field facing Shea

Probably they'd wait until the season's over before putting all the glass in. You're right, though. That section does look like a tempting target for batters now. ;)

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/Citi%20Field%202/CitiFieldConstruction200-04-12002.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/Citi%20Field%202/CitiFieldConstruction200-04-12069.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/Citi%20Field%202/CitiFieldConstruction200-04-12071.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/Citi%20Field%202/CitiFieldConstruction200-04-12013.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/citi_field/Citi%20Field%202/CitiFieldConstruction200-04-12018.jpg

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Looks great.

here is how the crowd would react.

Mets Homerun!
crowd: YAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY
breaks glass
crowd: eeeeeeeeeeeee

are those green seats?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/sports/baseball/16jackie.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
Main Gate to Citi Field a Tribute to Robinson

By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Published: April 16, 2008

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/16/sports/16jackie.1.190.jpg
Uli Seit for The New York Times

Rachel Robinson still advances her husband’s goals.

About a decade ago, Sharon Robinson set down the nine values that defined her father, Jackie, and, by extension, guided her family: citizenship, commitment, courage, determination, excellence, integrity, justice, persistence and teamwork.

Those lessons will soon be memorialized on the interior walls and terrazzo floors of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, the grand entrance hall to Citi Field, the ballpark that the Mets plan to complete by the end of the year.

The rotunda, with its brick archways, is an homage to the signature architectural feature of Ebbets Field, where Robinson broke major league baseball’s color barrier in 1947 and played for 10 seasons. It will serve as the stadium’s main gate but is intended to honor the life of Robinson, whom Fred Wilpon, the Mets’ principal owner, first met when Wilpon was a 16-year-old batting-practice pitcher for the Dodgers in the early ’50s.

“At my stage in life, you’re looking for permanence, you’re looking for things that will shore up the future,” Rachel Robinson, who at 85 is still advancing her husband’s civil rights activism through a vibrant educational foundation in his name, said at a news conference at Shea Stadium to announce the plans for the rotunda.

“What the rotunda means to me is we’ll have evidence of the progress we’ve made in the past and we’re going to affect future generations,” she said. “This rotunda is not just a place. It’s a stimulant, where I hope people will feel inspired and linger, and come early to the game, so they can see the rotunda.”

Later, she walked into the rotunda for the first time. It was 61 years to the day since her husband’s first regular-season game for the Dodgers, an anniversary celebrated throughout baseball Tuesday. She looked down at the construction site, and several construction workers looked up at her in her vivid yellow jacket and applauded.

“It’s like walking into a cathedral in a way,” she said.

The Mets’ tribute to Robinson is meant to be contemplative. There will be an eight-foot blue statue of his No. 42. His values will be illustrated with enormous photos from his life to be mounted in the upper reaches of the rotunda. His famous quotation — “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives” — will be inscribed, along with the values, on a concrete strip above the archways.

“I think of it as a gathering place where people plan to come, to stand by the photos and meditate” on their lives and how they’re helping their communities, Robinson said.

Wilpon said that he expected as many as 30,000 fans a game to walk through the large plaza outside and pass through the rotunda (with its floor measuring 160 feet in diameter), and for others to come by appointment when the Mets are not playing.

“People will say, ‘I’ll meet you at the 42,’ ” he said, referring to the statue.

The rotunda has the 42 statue, but not one of Robinson, he added, “because Rachel’s idea is there are a lot of statues of Jackie and others, and sometimes the likenesses don’t look like the person.”

“Someone came up with the 42 idea, and she embraced it,” Wilpon said.

The rotunda is two or three times bigger than the one in Brooklyn that inspired it.

“But in love and feeling, it will be the same,” said Wilpon, who turns dreamy-eyed when talking about Ebbets Field.

As the rotunda evokes Robinson’s spirit, a museum is being planned at the new headquarters of the Jackie Robinson Foundation on Varick Street in TriBeCa. The foundation awards four-year scholarships of $7,500 annually to deserving minority students, and provides nurturing and other support for them.

The museum, she said, “will not just have artifacts, but it will be a gathering place.”

“Like the rotunda,” she said, “we want people to come in there, we want to have conferences and seminars.” She added: “We accept donations from everyone on every level. I’m just terrible, right? Our president is shaking her head. But we have to get there by ’09.”

It is halfway toward meeting its goal of raising $25 million, with contributions of $1.5 million each from the Mets and Citi, $1 million from the Yankees and $3 million from the Yawkey Foundation, said Leonard Coleman, the foundation’s chairman.

This week, ESPN announced that Rachel Robinson had approved the production of a theatrical film about her husband and Branch Rickey, the Dodgers’ general manager who signed him. It will be produced by ESPN Films; Robert Redford, who will play Rickey; and Baldwin/Cohen Productions.

“Like all films,” she said, “it’s taken longer than anticipated.”

It is said to be nearing completion, but it will not be used until next season.

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I'd say it's pretty much impossible to hit the glass. How many home runs do make it out of Shea?

Not very many. Most of the LONG long balls that go out go to right field. It would have to be a moonshot to left to get that high up on the building.

Before they broke ground for Citifield, you could actually see all the way to the North Shore Towers when sitting on the top level around the center.

Quite frankly I don't know why the Mets are making all this brouhaha about Jackie Robinson, since Robinson never played for them nor was he associated with the ballclub in any way. If there's a ballclub supposed to pay homage to Robinson it ought to be the Dodgers.

I never understood that either. When Jackie Robinson played, the Mets didn't even exist throughout anytime of his career. He retired in the late 1950's in a protest on the Dodgers leaving for LA, which he strongly opposed. I can understand that he was the first black player in the MLB, but it makes no sense to dedicate the new stadium on a team he never played for let alone never faced, and I am not trying to sound racist by saying this. What will be next that the Mets will have to do for the new stadium? Place a dedication for Babe Ruth, who died long before that franchise even existed?

Well think about it. The Mets were spawned by the exit of the Dodgers and Giants. And even though the Dodgers and Giants still exist the Mets are now the NL representatives in New York and they are part of the history of NY NL baseball. I know he didn't really play for the Mets, but he played in NY and the Mets are the one's who continue to educate the newer generation of NY baseball fans about Robinson's legacy.

Well think about it. The Mets were spawned by the exit of the Dodgers and Giants. And even though the Dodgers and Giants still exist the Mets are now the NL representatives in New York and they are part of the history of NY NL baseball. I know he didn't really play for the Mets, but he played in NY and the Mets are the one's who continue to educate the newer generation of NY baseball fans about Robinson's legacy.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Even if the Mets colors were to remember both the Giants and Dodgers, it doesn't make them related in any way or form. If a team must name their sports facility after a player, coach, or even manager from their team, it should be somone who was actually part of it, not someone who was never there. Why not have the Yankees do something at the new stadium for Jackie Robinson since he did play against them in his career, especially in the World Series. Then again, most would be against that since the Yankees were the last team in the MLB to allow for a black player after the NAACP said that the teams should integrate. Why not just rename Dodger Stadium in LA after him since that was the only team he ever played for in his career?

Even if the Mets colors were to remember both the Giants and Dodgers, it doesn't make them related in any way or form. If a team must name their sports facility after a player, coach, or even manager from their team, it should be somone who was actually part of it, not someone who was never there. Why not have the Yankees do something at the new stadium for Jackie Robinson since he did play against them in his career, especially in the World Series. Then again, most would be against that since the Yankees were the last team in the MLB to allow for a black player after the NAACP said that the teams should integrate. Why not just rename Dodger Stadium in LA after him since that was the only team he ever played for in his career?

Well it's more than colors and I think I laid out some of the reasons why the Mets are related to the Dodgers and Giants. Why wouldn't the Yankees do it? They have a much longer history than the Mets there's no reason for them to do it. The Mets don't really have an identity in the past as the Yankees have had. On the other hand the Mets have had a shorter history, but NL baseball in NY has been a larger part of NY baseball history. As I said before the Mets are a part of that history now and if they feel they should honor Jackie then fine. Jackie wasn't just a part of Dodger history, he was a part of NY baseball history.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/04/29/2008-04-29_shea_may_die_but_not_my_memories.html
Shea may die, but not my memories

Tuesday, April 29th 2008, 4:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2008/04/29/alg_citi-field.jpg
Antonelli/News

Citi Field rises over Shea Stadium.

I've been enjoying the Daily News' ode to Yankee Stadium.

But for me, a Brooklyn kid transplanted to Queens, it's like reading foreign correspondence. The stories should carry a Bronx dateline. For me, The House That Ruth Built and Steinbrenner Bilked is as exotic and far away as the Taj Mahal.

I've been to Yankee Stadium a half-dozen times. I used to think you needed a visa to get into the Bronx because it was the only borough connected to the mainland. The handful of times I did go was to see a concert, a fight or the Mets play the corporate Yanks.

So, for me, the wispier nostalgia came on April 8, 2008, when I sat in a $67 loge seat between home and third base realizing that this would be the final Opening Day I would ever attend at Shea.

Sitting there, I was more distressed staring across rickety old Shea to the new Citi Field than I was about the Mets losing to the Phillies. Even after the Mets' calamitous collapse last year, my first postcoma words were, "Wait'll next year."

I will never again be able to say that about my poor old beloved Shea.

Shifting in my seat, looking at Citi Field growing into a handsome, cocky 21st century ballpark was like watching a fair-haired rookie standing on the dugout steps ready to replace an aging legend. (Some Queensies have already decided to memorialize Shea, and register their objection to naming the new home of New York's working-class team after a bank, by transplanting the first two initials from Shea in front of Citi.)

I occasionally glanced at the field or the scoreboard or the instant replay screen when I heard the roar of the crowd. Mostly I just gazed around at the rusty old I-beams, steep rampways and the beautiful memories.

I listened to the throaty fanatics in the upper deck start the "Let's Go Mets!" chant, and saw the beer and hot dog guys navigate the insanely narrow aisles, watched the lovable screwballs with the orange-and-blue painted faces, and the Cow Bell Guy thumping away like the steel heart of Queens, and the old-timers clapping with their sons and grandsons for one last Opening Day at Shea.

It made me feel suddenly lost in time.

When I looked at Citi Field climbing from the parking lot I remembered that as a kid in Brooklyn we used to gulp Borden's milk by the quart so that we could cut the Mets coupons off the cartons. Save 20 coupons and me and my brother John could grab the subway to Times Square, change for the Flushing local, and rush into a loud day game at Shea.

We'd go out there with two 15-cent subway tokens, a dollar to spend and a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and root for the Mets through those agonizing years when Casey Stengel was asking, "Can't anyone here play this game?"

After the New York Titans changed their name to the Jets and followed the Mets from the Polo Grounds to Shea a gang of us would rattle out to Shea on the subway in the middle of the night to be first on line for general admission tickets to see Joe Namath dance into history in gleaming white cleats. We'd play touch football through the night in the parking lot, running button hooks, and long ones, and TDs.

Now, a new stadium was being built on those memories. Shea was going to be dismantled and hauled off into history. In its place will be Citi Field that memorializes Jackie Robinson but offers fewer affordable seats for the working people, like those that filled the stands of Ebbets Field.

You expect a new Yankee Stadium for the rich and corporate. But now the Mets, the second-richest team in baseball, would also offer more corporate boxes, higher ticket prices and fewer working-stiff seats.

Soon the price of a New York baseball game will be the equivalent of a Broadway show, a staggering $300 night for a family of four after tickets, gas, parking, snacks and kids' souvenirs.

No tenement or projects kid will be getting in on milk carton coupons.

Already, loyal fans that show up for bleacher-creature seats pay a different price for games against last-place teams than for games against competitive teams. Excuse me, in Queens "loyalty" is a two-way street.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still root for my Mets until my own last inning.

But as I sat at my last Opening Day at Shea I asked a variation of Casey's old lament, "Can't anyone here play this game for the love of it anymore?"

dhamill@nydailynews.com

Fred Wilpon, the owner of the NY Metropolitans, was a Brooklyn Dodgers supporter. The NY Metropolitans are the natural NYC extension of the BD'ers. With that said, will the new Ebbets Field capture the magic of the old Ebbets Field?

Bah look at that massive parking lot. Hate seeing all that wasted space. Does any public transportation go to the stadium?

~3 bus lines, a subway line, and a commuter rail line have stops/connections there. The parking spaces are actually being reduced in number from what it was before the new stadium started construction. Remember, taking the train to the game is how most people get there, but that won't cut it for concerts and other events, where some people will be driving from far away where the rail networks wherever they live don't have easy connections, such as upstate NY. Plus, the service gets less after 7pm then stops pretty much after midnight on amtrak and njt which you can connect to LIRR to get to stadium at penn station, also metro-north customers see that service stop overnight as well, but normally they can take mero-north to GCT then hop on the 7 subway line out to the stadium. Also, because it's is located next to a large airport, it is a prime location for massing emergency response operations, such as after 9/11. I believe a circus/carnival could also set up camp there.

- Andy

[QUOTE=The Game Is Up;19634533]Probably they'd wait until the season's over before putting all the glass in. You're right, though. That section does look like a tempting target for batters now. ;)

You are correct. They are saving that glass for last. It's not even on site yet.

- Andy

^^ thats a buzz kill

I never understood that either. When Jackie Robinson played, the Mets didn't even exist throughout anytime of his career. He retired in the late 1950's in a protest on the Dodgers leaving for LA, which he strongly opposed. I can understand that he was the first black player in the MLB, but it makes no sense to dedicate the new stadium on a team he never played for let alone never faced, and I am not trying to sound racist by saying this. What will be next that the Mets will have to do for the new stadium? Place a dedication for Babe Ruth, who died long before that franchise even existed?

Actually he retired because omalley was to trade him to the giants because of the whole civil rights movement which was making the dodgers too high profile in that topic, which robinson had become an outspoken part of. As far as "never played" and etc, remember, that for several years NYC had no national league team. The yankees acted like a bunch of racist baboons, and the dodgers took him in and he played for them for a long time. Very complicated story. Basically since the dodgers left, and no longer represent NYC and the team that broke the color barrier, the NY team that came to replace it chose to instead honor him. It's about time. It should be called Jackie Robinson Stadium, but since the bank won the name rights, they will simply put his name as a major part of the new stadium.

- Andy

^^ thats a buzz kill

You should see the glass be done in mid september, maybe earlier, but they aren't willing to risk damage for most of the full season. It is in storage. It will be most interesting to see the 2 stadiums side by side at the end of september. I want the mets to go all the way this season, obviously, but the architect in me wants that new stadium and its surround completed ASAP. If the mets get into the post season (which looks like it will happen), it will literally delay the new stadium's completion. Makes me feel :bash: and :nuts:.

- Andy

Well then they need to put paper banners up in the place of the windows saying "Hit hear and every one in the stadium gets a free PIZZA from Pizza Hut" It would be a great way to see add space on an uncompleted stadium, bringing in more money, and give the players something to aim for.

I never understood that either. When Jackie Robinson played, the Mets didn't even exist throughout anytime of his career. He retired in the late 1950's in a protest on the Dodgers leaving for LA, which he strongly opposed.

I don't know where you heard that, but that's completely false. Jackie had decided to retire at the end of the 1956 season. He may have been against the move, but that had nothing to do with his decision to retire, obviously, because that decision was made a year before it was announced that the Dodgers were leaving Brooklyn.

My point is that it makes no sense to for the Mets to name their new ballpark after a player who never wore a Mets uniform let alone retired before they were even around.

My point is that it makes no sense to for the Mets to name their new ballpark after a player who never wore a Mets uniform let alone retired before they were even around.

First, it is Citi Field, not Jackie Robinson Stadium. Second, the Mets basically replaced the Dodgers and Giants as New York's NL team when they moved to California. They are modeling the front of the park after Ebbets Field which used to be in Brooklyn. The entrance rotunda is dedicated to Jackie Robinson because of what he did for baseball.

Any updates?

For a home run ball to hit those windows, it looks like it would have to be at least 600 feet, maybe 700+. In other words, it would have to be longer than any home run ever hit in the history of baseball....not happenin', especially in Shea.

Kind of shocked to see it so far along. Will it be finished this year?

The 3d seating chart is up if anyone is interested.

http://www.seats3d.com/mlb/new_york_mets/

Saw some aerial shots during tonight's broadcast, looks awesome so far.

A whole month with no news? WTF New York. Lets see some progress.

Go Mets!! :banana:

A whole month with no news? WTF New York. Lets see some progress.

Link Here (http://www.stadiumpage.com/stpages/citi_index2.html)

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/8536/citi07150832mh8.jpg

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ehhh

Wish they could make it soundproof. The racket of the jetliners roaring directly overhead is very obnoxious. There comes a time when you think to yourself, If another freaken plane flies over this place I'm getting the hell outta here.

Looks like the Shea stadium escalators claimed another victim.

^^????^^

Can't wait until finished

Wish they could make it soundproof. The racket of the jetliners roaring directly overhead is very obnoxious. There comes a time when you think to yourself, If another freaken plane flies over this place I'm getting the hell outta here.

Planes fly over everything, get over it, its doesn't obstruct the game.

Sound proofing a stadium would be pretty damn expensive. The reason they didn't make it a dome was because it would be too expensive so adding the cost of soundproofing a domed stadium would make it astronomically expensive. Anyway its kind of a Shea/Met kinda thing, its part of the team's personality:lol:

Anyway looks pretty good.

Sound proofing a stadium would be pretty damn expensive. The reason they didn't make it a dome was because it would be too expensive so adding the cost of soundproofing a domed stadium would make it astronomically expensive. Anyway its kind of a Shea/Met kinda thing, its part of the team's personality:lol:

Anyway looks pretty good.

Any webcams

Pic from Sunday on the first base side of Shea:
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj31/NYOS87/0810081243.jpg

stadium looks good!! it's going to be a shame to see shea go.

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Wow awesome pics.

What a great looking stadium, so much character and style. Seems to pay respect to the history of the game and IMHO will look great for years to come

Seems to pay respect to the history of the game and IMHO will look great for years to come

Until the fans realize they can't afford to buy seats at the new stadium.

http://i56.servimg.com/u/f56/12/06/09/51/27696510.jpg

What a great photo

The Citi Field signage isn't easy to read, if I was Citibank I'd be a bit pissed.

Could be the photo quality. I'm sure when that baby is lite up everyone will be able to see it:lol: Most games are at night anyway.

Credit to Gary Dunaier for some of the pics

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I am a Yankee fan and even i have to agree this stadium is amazing. Only thing i don't like are the dark green seats they are gonna put in it, i would prefer blue and orange. green seats are so un-original now that EVERY new stadium have them. But apart from that the stadium looks pretty good, congrats Met fans.

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I've always wondered - what's up with all of the junk in right field, and why weren't seats ever built there?

Also, what's up with the little bit of grass over the wall, down the baseline?

I've always wondered - what's up with all of the junk in right field, and why weren't seats ever built there?

Also, what's up with the little bit of grass over the wall, down the baseline?
That junk you're referring to is actually sand and soil used for patching and repairing the field. Likewise the grass you referred to is sod for plugging the grass in the field. The whole area is for the groundskeepers. It's kind of an unusual place to keep this stuff but they don't need any more seats and it's convenient.

I heard the UFL was going to put a team in Citi Field, then heard the Mets denied it, then heard that it was on again.

Surely it won't happen, I mean football tends to rip fields apart and there's no way the Mets would let that happen. Is this a team or city owned facility?

I'm not impress the Shea stadium is way better.

nice ground but not so sure of the colour of the seats

I'm not impress the Shea stadium is way better.

how in the world does shea stadium look better than this?

I'm not impress the Shea stadium is way better.
?? Your eyeballs must be frozen shut from the Toronto winters if you think Shea stadium looks better than Citi Field. Of course given what Toronto's ballpark looks like almost anything would be a major improvement! :lol:

I heard the UFL was going to put a team in Citi Field, then heard the Mets denied it, then heard that it was on again.

Surely it won't happen, I mean football tends to rip fields apart and there's no way the Mets would let that happen. Is this a team or city owned facility?
The Giants and Jets are building a field for both of them to use in the Meadowlands. It's expected to cost over two billion dollars. There's a thread about it in the forums. Based on that I'd say football will definitely not be played in Citi Field.

Well there's also something about an MLS team and as recently as Sept. 11 I heard that the Wilpon's are considering making a bid for another New York area team. Whether or not they'll play in CitiFeild is another thing, I doubt it though.

Well there's also something about an MLS team and as recently as Sept. 11 I heard that the Wilpon's are considering making a bid for another New York area team. Whether or not they'll play in CitiFeild is another thing, I doubt it though.
Another New York football team? That would really be a novelty, of course if there's any city that could support it it's New York! :cheers:

credit islandxtreme26 for these pics:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568195182nzUjWV

From Gary Dunaier:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2962558747_09c3f3af9f.jpg?v=0
(Photo taken October 21, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14504460@N02/2962558747/in/set-72157608258917947/))

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(Photo taken October 21, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14504460@N02/2963430252/in/set-72157608258917947/))

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3271/2963437438_18fb09efca.jpg?v=0
(Photo taken October 21, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14504460@N02/2963437438/in/set-72157608258917947/))

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2962598671_c84f60e439.jpg?v=0
(Photo taken October 21, 2008. © Gary Dunaier. Link to upload on Flickr.com: here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14504460@N02/2962598671/in/set-72157608258917947/))

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While the new Yankee Stadium is getting all the hype, I'm more excited for Citi Field. I don't know what it is about the design, but I love the look of it.

^^ Same here. I like it so much more than the Yankee Stadium...

So when is SHea Stadium going to be torn down?

IDK, its probably going to be about the same time as Yankees Stadium since they're also demolishing it "by hand".

IDK, its probably going to be about the same time as Yankees Stadium since they're also demolishing it "by hand".
I assume that when you say "by hand" you mean that they're not planning on using explosives. If that's the case why aren't they? It's a much faster and cheaper way to demolish large structures and has been used for every other stadium and has been demolished a recently. Safety isn't really a mission, it's been done many times with no damage to other structures nor injury to bystanders. I suppose it's because the union's in New York want to make some extra money.

Yeah that's what I meant, there will be no implosions and what not. But on your other point, I'm not really sure to be honest.

Building implosions are banned in NYC.

^^ Why?

^^ Why?
As I suggested earlier it's probably because of the politicians and the unions. The unions don't want to lose work to allow for a cheaper faster way of doing anything. That's part of the reason construction is taking so long on FT and other new buildings being built in New York.

Along the same lines, here in Kentucky explosive demolition can be used anyplace except on state property? I have yet to figure out a reason for that one!:nuts:

What's the link for the new stadium at the meadowlands?

I stopped by Citi Field on my way to Laguardia the other day; it really is an awesome stadium!

As I suggested earlier it's probably because of the politicians and the unions. The unions don't want to lose work to allow for a cheaper faster way of doing anything. That's part of the reason construction is taking so long on FT and other new buildings being built in New York.

Along the same lines, here in Kentucky explosive demolition can be used anyplace except on state property? I have yet to figure out a reason for that one!:nuts:

You mean unions have some pull down NYC? I find that hard to believe :lol:


This stadium is shaping up to be a great one. Much better looking thant Yankee Stadium IMO.

Here is one my photo from less than a month ago...

http://i36.tinypic.com/f2jv35.jpg

:cheers:

The EL station could use some love as well...........

I'm pretty sure that there will be some renovation, in fact the exit on the side of Shea/Citi has already been changed, I'd Imagine that the actually station would be next in line for a renovation

This stadium is gonna be a major upgrade from Shea Stadium. Which, In my honest opinion, was one of the worst stadiums in MLB.

http://inlinethumb14.webshots.com/41549/2216850210065625104S500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb59.webshots.com/40954/2924435710065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/32153/2100734540065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/37751/2272803510065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb18.webshots.com/3665/2904243400065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb01.webshots.com/44160/2568105650065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/22222/2048213770065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/36609/2012102720065625104S600x600Q85.jpg

TBH I think its a disgrace that the mets averaged 51k this year (obviously inflated by some people seeing it for the last time, but still 47k the year before) and yet they are building this at 45k just so they can charge the earth for tickets knowing the demand will be there :mad2:

they're probably trying to recycle as much as they can. i think just blowing it up would damage a lot of materials?

:dunno:

TBH I think its a disgrace that the mets averaged 51k this year (obviously inflated by some people seeing it for the last time, but still 47k the year before) and yet they are building this at 45k just so they can charge the earth for tickets knowing the demand will be there :mad2:

Sad, but true. That's just how it is with all sports (well top level) these days:(