While plans have been on the drawing boards for the past few years for a new retractable-roof stadium for the Mets, a variety of factors have held up the plan. but pressure to complete the deal has increased in recent weeks as both parties, the Mets and the City, want to complete plans before the end of the Giuliani administration in December.
The new stadium will be built in an area that currently serves as Sheas parking lot near the Willets Point junkyards. Fred Wilpon, one of the Mets two owners, wants the facility to reflect the image of Ebbets Field, the old Brooklyn home of the Dodgers. But the plan calls for the old-time baseball feel to be accompanied by some 21st century additions as a retractable roof and hi-tech amusements.
One of the roadblocks on completing the deal for the new stadium was that Wilpons partner, Nelson Doubleday, disagreed strongly with the plan to scrap the existing Shea Stadium, built in 1964, in favor of building a new arena.
Doubleday believed in refurbishing Shea, but Wilpon has been in negotiations to buy his longtime partners 50 percent stake of the team. The two have reportedly had a "tense" relationship since becoming equal partners in 1986.
The Mets have scrapped an original plan for a unique rollaway field. But their plans call for the new facility to be ready by the 2005 season. Both Governor George pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have confirmed that a deal on the new stadium, as well as one on a new stadium for the Yankees in the Bronx, is imminent. Most of the government funds that will go into the deal will reportedly be confined to infrastructure improvements such as roads and transit upgrades. Major new parking facilities are planned for the new Mets stadium in the Roosevelt Ave.-Willets Point area.
Shea Stadium was named for William A. Shea a prominent New York lawyer who was largely responsible for bringing a National League team back to New York after the defection of the Dodgers to California in the late 1950s. Shea was considered state-of-the-art when it opened on April 17, 1964 and it served as home for both the Mets and the NY Jets football team. The stadium was the site for the 1969 Miracle Mets World Series, the 1986 championship, a visit by the Pope in 1979, the famous 1965 concert by the Beatles, and last years Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees. The Jets left Shea in the late 1970s when the owner became displeased with conditions at the stadium.
