The second thank you of the week to @tomwatson for putting this on my radar.
The full article is here but let’s excerpt..
the Wilpons will now build a million-square-foot “entertainment complex” (don’t call it a mall!) on the west side of their stadium.
Note the WEST side. You know, where Shea was.
I guess it would be good in that there would actually be somewhere to go before games…but the potential of covering the Shea markers makes me sad..and I wonder about the parking situation.
As for the east side…aka 126th…looks like the parking lots will be moving.
This first piece of development is meant to activate the entry to the stadium while also masking a 20-acre parking lot that will be paved behind it. This will facilitate the construction of Willets West because the plan is for the new million-square-foot complex to be built on the stadium’s current parking lots.
And this next piece of what I feel is science fiction really makes me laugh.
The new lot will be fitted with temporary ball fields and community space that will be available half the year, during the Met’s off-season and when the team is away on prolonged road trips. The developers are exploring whether this would be fields that could be driven on top of or temporary structures that need repeated installation, as happens at all-star games, the Super Bowl and similar events.
Riggggggghhhhhtttt….the Mets are out of town for a week, roll out the baseball fields so the kids can play.
Lest any of this worries you..
“This is a great asset for the team and for Queens,” Jeff Wilpon, executive vice-president for Sterling Equities said.
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But… But…. HOW!?
What are the odds of all of these grand plans coming to fruition?
I’m going to look at the bright side…if this somehow goes well, we’ll all be happy. If it is an abject disaster, they’ll probably have to sell the team. If we complain enough, maybe they leave that 8,100 square ft baseball diamond intact as a courtyard inside the mall and build around it. I would hate to tell my grandkids that homeplate at Shea used to be inside Best Buy.
You wouldn’t be the first to have to do something like that if it came to pass:
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/OnTheRoad/Baseball-Parks-Across-America.htm
i hope these pricks go bankrupt way before the first nail is pounded..i don’t think anyone would lend them the money to do it anyway…
Everyone should calm down.
1. Its hardly hallowed ground.
2. It is reasonable to assume that it will be 5 to 10 years before a jackhammer gets near the west parking lot. They have to clean up contaminated soil to the east. Devise a workable solution to have a parking lot/playing fields replace the lost parking space.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been following this Willets Point development plans for a while.
I don’t like the idea of taking away the parking and building over the Shea site, but I would hope that the bases and mound would still be marked inside the mall, like at the Mall of America, or Forbes Field’s home plate inside Posvar Hall on the Pitt campus. I like Steve’s suggestion of keeping the field open in a courtyard inside the mall — unfortunately a space that big in a mall usually only means one thing: The food court. But it’d be cool if they did something along those lines — and maybe put a statue of Carter jumping into Orosco’s arms just in front of the pitching rubber.