Over the weekend I made a new friend. Â His name is Shawn and he is the General Manager of McFadden’s Citi Field. Â He was kind enough to invite me out so we could chit-chat about some ideas.
This was more of a business meeting then a reporter session, but Shawn was great and showed me around and told me all about the place – what I am sharing here is from memory and because I’m honorable I asked if he minded if I shared what I saw and he was all about it. Â I think the quote was “we have no secrets.”
I”m very very excited about having McFadden’s at Citi Field. Â It will give us Mets fans a place to meet before games and a place to hang after games. Â Shawn even floated the idea of watching the last two innings of a blowout on the TV feeds in the bar…I can totally see it. Â They’ll have the SNY feed and the raw in-house feed that you see at the concession stands.
The bar is on 126th street, to the right of the bullpen entrance, and the space is very big.  Surprisingly so.  I asked what was there before.  Nothing.  Shawn said there’s similar space on the other side of the stadium (I believe he  meant the right field side but I might be wrong).
When you come in they’ll make an educated guess about where to send you – so when I show up with Mrs. Mets Police and the kids, they’ll profile us toward the tables – and when three 28 year olds in black Franco jerseys show up they’ll be pointed to the bar. Â Makes sense to me!
Although it somehow got in my head that they’d have batting cages, Shawn mentioned that they might do pitching games instead. Â If I owned the place I would go for the option that omits bats. Â Either way it sounds like fun.
As I spent time in the huge unfinished space, I could totally envision the possibilities beyond game day. Â I lived in Queens for a long long time, and I could see McFadden’s being a great place to gather for a big road game, or even just to hang if you didn’t have tickets for a playoff game.
Now on to the pictures – you’re going to look at the unfinishedness and wonder how they’ll be done in time. Â Relax. Â Ever remodel your kitchen? Â It’s amazing what construction guys can do in two days.
Thanks to Ben (metsiesandothermusings.blogspot.com) for two of those pictures.
Some answers to questions that came up when I mentioned I made a trip to Citi Field:
- no David Howard did not have coffee with me.
- I did not see a blue outfield fence. Â I wasn’t inside-inside, but I think a blue fence would have been reported by now. Â In theory there could be a yellow fence or no fence at all.
- I was not inside the Mets museum. Â I openly would love to be invited to the sneak preview of that.
I’ll have more about McFadden’s very soon. Â In the meantime, sign up for the Blue Cap Army if you haven’t. Â It’s helpful for meetings like this if I have an actual quantifiable number of “followers” – hopefully some cool BCA announcements soon, a website for it, and I did set up the twitter @bluecaparmy.
this is behind/underneath CF and LF, right? I walked down that space from the party area entrance by the Mo’s Zone in RF all the way down to where there’s a gate onto the field in LF by the foul line (the group went onto the warning track). It seemed like there was this long hallway from the visitor’s bullpen to their clubhouse (we saw some players from the visiting team) and having empty space behind it made some sense. I wonder how/why the built the park with some empty space like that and left out the Mets museum (at the time). But wonders never cease with the Mets and this ballpark.
Did you learn anything about the decor at McFadden’s Citi Field? Will it look like a Mets place (photos, logos, etc.), or will it look generic like Citi Field?
It’s “behind Center Field” which is part of what they are trying to get in people’s brains so that fans know where to go. Yes, behind CF…well behind the 800 foot sign in CF.
I don’t think I know the answer to your decor question and don’t want to speculate. I’ll ask about it today when I’m talking to them about “stuff.” I really felt the bar was in good hands and that we’ll all like it.
As for the museum, maybe they were running late and decided to wait a year? I would have just said that from the get-go rather than look reactive. All speculative.
This is really going to be a great addition to Citi Field. It always amazed me that you could never get food and a couple beers before a game at Citi. I could also see it as a great place for fans to get together for big away games or even home playoff games.