An Olympic Bid Grows... In Queens

When the Public Authorities Control Board essentially rejected the NY Jets bid to build a West Side Stadium over the Hudson Yards, it could have spelled doom for the 2012 Olympic bid. While the defeat definitely threw the organizers off their game, they've come back with a plan that will meet with far less resistance.

Their second choice?

Build the 80,000 seat stadium in Queens. Where? At Shea Stadium.

Or, more exactly, to build a Shea Stadium and turn it into a replica of Ebbets Field that would be expandable to handle the needs of the Olympics.

The designers used Atlanta's Olympic stadium, which was converted into the Braves' home field after the 1996 Games, as their model. But Winters said they concentrated on making better sightlines for fans and bringing the stands closer to the action. The seats that would be removed are in two tiers, instead of the one Atlanta used, making the seating uniform from the permanent baseball section to the temporary sections.

It is an arrangement of convenience, the intersection of the Mets' need for a new home and the 11th-hour rescue of the city's Olympic bid after the West Side stadium plan, a new home for the Jets, failed on June 6. The Mets chose the architects HOK Sport to design their home, which they would vacate for a year while it is converted into Olympic form if New York wins the Games.

As a benefit to the new arrangement, NYC2012 said that when the extra seats were removed to return the stadium to a baseball configuration, some would be used to expand Icahn Stadium, the new track and field facility on Randalls Island, from 5,000 seats to 25,000. That would enable it to be host for major international events.

The New York Post has sketches of the redesigned Shea Stadium, which includes more details about the site plans. The new stadium would be built in the existing stadium parking lot just beyond the outfield. The exterior would be modeled after the old Ebbets Field, which is where the Brooklyn Dodgers used to play before they left for California in 1957. The new 45,000 seat Shea stadium will be built for about $600 million, not counting state and city costs for infrastructure improvements (which are likely to run to $150 million) or the transformational costs (guestimated to be $250 million to be borne by the Olympic Committee and the city and state). By comparison, the original Ebbets Field cost $750,000 to build.

The only part of the plan that might not get support from Met fans is that the Mets will be required to play the 2012 season at Yankee Stadium, which itself will be replaced by a new stadium to be built next door. The new Yankee Stadium will be modeled on the original Yankee Stadium facade, which was replaced in the 1970s when the building was renovated to include the removal of the upper deck from the outfield along with nearly 20,000 seats.

Oh, and if you didn't realize - the costs for a new Shea Stadium that doubles as an Olympic venue would be greater to the City than building at Hudson Yards ($400 million vs. $300 million).