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Shea is Finally Worthy of NYC's Olympics Bid
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 13, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 13, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Mayor Bloomberg is lucky that New York City has a ton of sports teams in the area, because now the Mets are part of the city's plan to win the 2012 Olympics, with a new Shea Stadium as the centerpiece of the plan. And Mets fans and Queens residents, don't worry: The Mayor is still lukewarm about your team and borough, saying, "This was not our first choice. But when you don't get your first choice, you find what you do have and fight harder to win with that one." Nice one, Bloomby, especially since you have to convince Queens residents and Mets fans to vote for you this fall. Anyway, the details: The Mets will pay for a new 45,000 seat Shea Stadium to be built for the 2009 baseball season, about $600 million, and the city and state will kick in $180 million in infrastructure support; if NYC wins the Olympics, the stadium will be temporarily expanded to be an Olympic stadium serving 80,000 people, with $250 million added to the pot (and old Shea will be an "auxillary" stadium, torn down after the games); and the Mets would play at the new Yankee Stadium if the Olympics come to town in 2012. And Sheldon Silver actually likes this plan. Wow, it's amazing that the Mayor and his aides didn't think of this before. Actually, even though Mike Lupica's panties are in a bunch, Gothamist can understand why Queens was not the first choice: Think tourism, hotels, and just the ability to get to Queens. Still, the Mayor said this was a great thing to happen to Queens and that "New Yorkers are not quitters." No indeed, especially the Mets. To be the underdogs next to the Yankees, to only get this deal after the Jets bow out, oy!
The NY Times has a good graphic of what the Shea-Olympics plan looks like, and Newsday has nice Q&A of the latest in the soap opera that we like to call "As NYC Circles the Olympics" or "The Very Long Days of Our Olmpics Dreams" (an upside is that the athletes' villages would be close to this stadium, being in the same borough and all). What do you think of the plan to bring the Olympics to Queens? While Gothamist was never a fan of the West Side Stadium's design, there was something interesting about a sports complex in the Manhattan.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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