Welcome To CitiField
After a deal was constructed for the new Shea Stadium to receive $20 million a year from Citi Group for naming rights, the stadium was named Citi Field. Not a bad day at the office considering the team is looking at $400 million in the next 20 years. Then of course, you have the Sterling area that will be named after Delta Airlines as well as a substantially large area behind home plate. However, this is just the beginning to many benefits the stadium has for its fans.
On Opening Day in 2009, you will see the unveiling of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, which is basically the entrance to the ballpark. You'll notice when viewing photos that it is almost identical to the entrance of Ebbets Field so many years ago. In fact, once you begin to look over all the benefits that the new stadium has to offer, one of them isn't increased seating capacity. You'll find that what used to be a stadium with over 57,000 seats available will now only have around 45,000.
The seats at the new stadium will also be a little larger, making for a more comfortable day at the ballpark. All of this is great, but the best news of all for New York baseball fans is that the Mets are committed to remain in Queens until at least 2049. Incredible as it may seem now that Citi Field is an inevitability, but the new stadium may not have happened, at least not so soon were it not for New York Coty losing its bid to host the 2012 Olympics. This paved the way for the Mets to build a new stadium.
It's hard to believe that this may have never happened so soon considering the original plans were built around winning the bid to hold the 2012 Olympics. However, everything fell through and eventually opened the door to the Mets organization for a new stadium. Granted, it would have happened anyways, but the timing couldn't have been better. So take a look at all the images of construction and the computerized blueprint of what the finished product looks like.
Soon Citi Field will be completed and fans will be able to see and enjoy the park in person. Shea stadium will be missed of course, but we'll always have our memories. The opening of Citi Field will be a new era in Mets history - and you could be a part of it!
Tagged with: Baseball
Filed under: Baseball
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