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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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Amazing picture, Jen. Somehow you got Mayor Bling to look just like Rev. Jim from Taxi.
"Shelly, if you don't want to give me that stadium, well... okey dokey!"
first off congratulations to the mets fans; you certainly deserve a better stadium than Shea has become. what a sewer pit!
taxpayers will still pay for infrastructure - because we should regardless of location.
the mets will pay to build their home, as they would have anyway, as the yankees will soon, as the jets would have on the west side.
this probably doesn't help or hurt our chances for the olympics much either way - but don't get out the welcome mats anytime soon for queens.
we don't reclaim a NY NFL team. NJ enjoys all that tax revenue.
we don't get super bowls and NCAA finals games. doesn't affect us much since we've never gotten them before - why would we ever want that kind of exposure or income in the future.
we don't get large venue concerts/events. enjoy the rotten sound at MSG, the nasty trip to the swamp in NJ, and keep jimmy dolan rolling in marching powder.
we don't get the west side developed any time soon, or sold at any real value. if there will ever be housing built look for some more trump brass palaces to line the river.
now get out there and put the pressure on silver to follow through on ground zero, to get bruno thrown out of office, elect a real governor, have NYC secede from the state, and retrurn NYC to its rightful place as the capital of the world - culturally, socially, and financially.
"the manhattan"?
whoo!! a stadium to replace shea! thankfully, the mets will no longer have the worst stadium in baseball.
Come on tien. It’s not that bad.
It’s a horribly tacky Stadium yes, and perhaps their nosebleed seats are the only seats in baseball where you really can get a nosebleed. But its unique and I love it all the same.
They deserve a new stadium just as much as the Yankees do. Such luck, but of course this is the plan NYC should’ve given to the IOC from Day One.
Flushing Meadows Corona and the area around Shea indeed needs redevelopment very badly.
Fuck Manhattan! Now we have a REAL Bid
Worst stadium in baseball? HI THERE!
built on a landfill - next to a bay that is a sludge dump - on the approach for LGA. wind/noise/stink - we take the worst prize now and forever!
"taxpayers will still pay for infrastructure - because we should regardless of location."
yes, let us all subsidize the hobbies of the few!
ewww!
Complaints Complaints...
We can revitalize the sludge dump near Shea with Mutant fish and Water Coloring so it’ll look cleaner then it really is. Aint that enough?
I think with this 2nd plan the city is saving a lot more money, at the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Oops. Millions
"yes, let us all subsidize the hobbies of the few!"
hobbies? how about commerce? jobs? tax revenue?
construction workers
construction products
stadium employees - on and off season
maintenance/food service/merchandising
transit workers
cab drivers
tv & radio engineers and technicians
advertising agencies
concert promoters
ticket scalpers
local services and shops
professional sports stopped being a hobby a long time ago and became an entertainment business. people are willing to pay - so let them! personally i wouldn't drop $300 to see madonna or celine, but more power to those who would, and grudgingly to them if they can get it.
I can only imagine what could happen to Lower Manhattan if Bloomberg had as much enthusiasm for rebuiling Ground Zero as he does for getting the Olympics. Glad he never forgot about 9/11.
'jehhhhnnnny whyyyy don't yooooou luhvvvv me?'
NYC civics lesson 101 - ground zero is under control of the Port Authority; a multi-state entity controlled by the states of NY and NJ. Almost immediately following the destruction at GZ, the mayor floated a very interesting proposal - a land swap, the airports for GZ. If he had succeeded then he would have had some control in the decision making process and timeline for GZ. Instead the useless Gov. of NY, along with the criminal Sheldon Silver have shamelessly allowed that project to stall.
I think that once the city secedes from the state we should implement some immigration and citizenship requirements, along the lines of the 'green card' policy. All wannabees from Ohio, Texas, etc. that migrate to Williamsburgh, Astoria, and the LES should be requred to take a proficiency test. It should explain the city charter, council, etc. Current residents should have to pass as well or risk deportation to Long Island or upsate.
Oscar, you would flunk the test. There is no "h" in Williamsburg. Unless you are talking about the Williamsburgh Bank Tower, of course, but I don't see too many people from Ohio moving there.
It's a good thing they added an essay section onto the new SAT!! I'm on my way to Penn to get a monthly ticket - I just hope they don't re-instate the commuter tax any time soon!!