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William A. Shea Municipal Stadium usually shortened to Shea Stadium, is a baseball stadium in Flushing, New York. It is the longtime home of the New York Mets and the historic site of the world's first stadium concert (which featured the Beatles on August 15, 1965).
Shea Stadium's first game on April 17, 1964 was the culmination of a project that cost $28.5 million and took 29 months to build. It was originally to be called Flushing Meadows Stadium Park – similar to the name of the public park that's south of Shea – but a movement was launched to name it in honor of William A. Shea, the man who brought National League baseball back to New York. (Earlier, New York City official Robert Moses tried to interest Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley in this site as the location for a new Dodger stadium, but O'Malley refused, claiming that if the Dodgers played anywhere but Brooklyn, they would cease to be the Brooklyn Dodgers.) Shea was capable of being converted from a baseball stadium to a football stadium and back using two motor-operated stands that move on underground tracks; it has not been done since the New York Jets football team decamped to Giants Stadium in 1984. Shea has been the home of the Mets since its opening in 1964 and hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game that same year. The New York Yankees played their home games in Shea Stadium during the 1974 and 1975 seasons while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The Yankees also played one "home" game at Shea in 1998 after a beam collapsed at Yankee Stadium, destroying several rows of seats.
The NFL's New York Jets played at Shea from 1964 to 1983. Quarterback Joe Namath passed for a record 4,007 yards here in 1967, and in 1968 led the Jets, then a member of the American Football League before its final merger with the NFL, to the AFL championship and later an upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in Miami, Florida. The New York Giants played at Shea in 1975.
The stadium, which cost $28.5 million, was intended to be expandable to 90,000 seats by extending the middle and upper decks around the outfield and building a dome above the stands. During the 1960s, there was a move to accomplish this, but the idea was dropped after structural studies concluded that the stands would be unable to support the weight of the dome after all.
The stadium is generally regarded as one of the loudest in the Major Leagues, not necessarily because of the crowd noise, but also because of its proximity to LaGuardia Airport.
A red Big Apple representing the City of New York emerges from the Mets Magic Top Hat, a giant upside-down black top hat, and flashes whenever a Mets player hits a home run. Located beyond the center field wall, just to the right of the 410 foot mark, the apple features the Mets logo and the words home run in big letters. Prior to 1984, the hat featured the words "Mets Magic" in honor of the slogan used in 1980 declaring that "The Magic Is Back".
For 40 years, the Mets' theme song, "Meet the Mets", has been played at Shea before every home game. As of the home game played on the night of June 10th, 2005, the Mets have played more games at Shea Stadium than the Brooklyn Dodgers did at the legendary Ebbets Field. Stadium rock was born here in August 1965, when The Beatles opened their 1965 North American tour at Shea Stadium to a record audience of 56,000. The stadium has hosted numerous concerts since. The most recent was a three-night engagement by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in early October, 2003.
Pope John Paul II was also among those hosted by Shea Stadium, in a large gathering in 1979.
Shea Stadium has also held several legendery professional wrestling events from the World Wide Wrestling Federation. The first show took place on September 30, 1972, when Bruno Sammartino battled WWWF Champion Pedro Morales to a curfew draw. Sammartino would again headline a Shea Stadium show against Stan Hansen following an incident where Hansen broke Sammartino's neck. (the injury was legitimate, however the injury came off of a botched bodyslam and not Hansen's feared Lariat clothesline. The latter was the excuse given to put the lariat over as a dangerous finishing move) The second Shea Stadium show saw Sammartino achieve a measure of revenge when he beat Hansen via countout on June 25, 1976 in front of a crowd of 42,000. The Shea Stadium crowd also treated to a match aired live from Japan featuring boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Japanese wrestling star Antonio Inoki. The match would later be considered by some as the first Mixed Martial Arts or Ultimate Fighting match. The final Shea Stadium show took place on August 9, 1980, again headlined by Sammartino, as this time he wrestled former protege Larry Zbyszko in a steel cage at the "Showdown at Shea," drawing 40,671 fans. Sammartino won the contest, and the card featured an undercard match-up of two men who would later draw over 93,000 fans at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan for Wrestlemania III, as Andre the Giant beat Hulk Hogan.
Shea Stadium can be reached via the New York City Subway using the 7 train, at the Willets Point-Shea Stadium station, along with the Long Island Rail Road.
New Mets Stadium
- Main article: New Mets Ballpark
On June 12, 2005 a plan for a New Mets Ballpark in Willets Point, Queens in the parking lot of Shea Stadium was announced. If approved it is to be completed for the 2009 baseball season. The plan was to use the stadium for the 2012 Olympics while the Mets would play at the New Yankee Stadium in The Bronx for the 2012 season. This would have put the Mets in much the same situation as the Yankees were in 1974-1975 when they played in Shea Stadium while Yankee Stadium was renovated. Despite New York's loss of the 2012 Olympics to London, the Mets still plan to build their new stadium in time for the 2009 season.
The new stadium is planned to have a capacity of 45,000 and have an exterior façade reminiscent of Ebbets Field and Tiger Stadium with an interior that many have stated evokes design features of newer ballparks, most notably Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Projected cost of the new stadium and other infrastructure improvements is $610M, with the Mets picking up $420M of that amount. The agreement includes a 40-year lease that will keep the Mets in New York until 2049.
External links
Robert Moses projects | American Football League venues | Defunct National Football League venues | Major League Baseball venues | Queens, New York City | Sports venues in New York City | 1964 establishments | MLB All-Star Game venues | Cookie cutter stadiums
"Shea Stadium"