Citi Field

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Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. Newly constructed in 2009, it is the home baseball park for Major League Baseball’s New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the adjacent Shea Stadium, which was itself constructed in 1964 adjacent to the site of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair. Citi Field was designed by HOK Sport, and is currently named after Citigroup, a financial services company based in New York City. The $850 million baseball stadium is being funded by the sale of New York City municipal bonds which are to be repaid by the Mets plus interest. The payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park.

The first game at the stadium took place on March 29, 2009, with a college baseball game between St. John’s Red Storm and the Georgetown Hoyas. The Mets played their first two games at the stadium on April 3 and April 4, 2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular season home game is scheduled for April 13, 2009, against the San Diego Padres. The Mets are bidding to host the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field, which would bring the game to the Mets’ home field for only the second time; the first was at Shea in its 1964 inaugural season.

Capacity 45,000

Opened 2009 (planned)

Owner City of New York

Cost $610 million

Architect HOK Sport

Citi Field is located in the borough of Queens, adjacent to the neighborhoods of Corona, which lies to its west, and Willets Point and Flushing to the east. Flushing Bay is to the north, and the rest of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is to the south. Because all ZIP Codes beginning with 113 belong to the Flushing post office, corresponding to the former Town of Flushing before Queens was annexed by the City of New York, and because of its location in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, its location is frequently referred to as Flushing.

Citi Field is reachable via mass transit systems such as the New York City Subway using the 7 train at the Willets Point-Shea Stadium station, and the Long Island Rail Road at the Shea Stadium station, in addition to several major thoroughfares, including the Grand Central Parkway, the Long Island Expressway, the Van Wyck Expressway, Roosevelt Avenue and Northern Boulevard.

Citi Field is adjacent to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the annual US Open grand-slam tennis tournament is held.

Since the construction of Citi Field began, satellite parking lots in Flushing Meadow Park (access from College Point Blvd) have been opened.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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