The New York Mets have called three stadiums home since their inaugural 1962 season. The NY Mets spent their first two seasons at the Polo Grounds, then spent 1964-2008 at Shea Stadium, and now plan on moving into CitiField in 2009.

Citi Field will be the new home to the New York Mets. Citi Field will become one the newest stadiums in Major League Baseball replacing the NY Mets Shea Stadium. Opening for the 2009 baseball stadium, Citi Field will be located right next door to Shea Stadium in the Queens Borough of New York City. HOK Sport designed the state of the art CitiField that will have plenty of luxuries and modern day conveniences for fans.

The ball got rolling for a new stadium because of New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Originally planned to be located on the West Side of New York City, plans fell through so the alternate spot in Queens was chosen. The Olympic Stadium would have cost $2.2 billion with about $180 million paid for by the city and state and the rest by the federal government. The stadium would have been built larger then what is being built to be able to accommodate the amount of people attending the opening and closing ceremonies.

The New York Mets will contribute $420 million of the $610 million dollar budget for stadium and infrastructure improvements for Citi Field. Similar to neighboring Shea Stadium, fans will be able to get to CitiField via the New York City Subway #7 train and the Long Island Rail Road which stops at the Shea Stadium Station. Citi Field will have a capacity of 45,000 which includes a 4,000 person standing room only section. Citi Field’s exterior will look similar to the legendary Ebbets Field which was desired by Mets owner Fred Wilpon who grew up in Brooklyn. The interior of Citi Field will be very luxurious with a design that resembles the very popular Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland.

The new stadium comes with a 40 year lease that locks the New York Mets into staying in New York City through the 2049 season. The plans for the new stadium were shown for the first time on March 18, 2006. Construction for Citi Field started in July 2006 with the intention to be finished by for the New York Mets Opening Day 2009. Daktronics who is responsible for the scoreboards and video screens in Citi Field intend to install the 12,000 square feet of state of the art electronics in August 2008.

A special section of the stadium has been named the Jackie Robinson Rotunda in dedication to his contribution to Major League Baseball by breaking the color barrier. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is the main entrance to the stadium modeled after Ebbets Field. On November 13, 2006 the New York Mets Organization announced the new name of the stadium Citi Field based on a $20 million dollar per year for 20 year naming rights purchase by Citigroup Inc. The naming rights agreement has a clause in it which could extend the deal an additional 15 years and at a total of $400 million dollars for the first 20 years Citi Field equals the record amount of any sports-stadium naming rights agreement in history.

ESPN has claimed Citi Field will be the host of the 2013 All Star Game.

Comparison between Shea Stadium and Citi Field (From the New York Mets web site)

Shea Stadium was the home to the New York Mets from 1964 till 2008. Currently being replaced by Citi Field which opens in 2009, Shea Stadium is the fifth oldest stadium in Major League Baseball and the third oldest in the National League. Originally named William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, the name was shortened to Shea Stadium. Shea Stadium is located in the Queens Borough of New York City in an area known as Flushing. The final regular season game will be played against the Florida Marlins on September 28, 2008.

So much New York Mets history has happened inside the Shea Stadium confines since 1964 when the NY Mets moved into the stadium. Shea Stadium became a reality by the help of Mayor Robert Wagner Jr., who in 1960 promised every National League owner that by allowing the expansion Mets to join the National League the City would build a brand new stadium. The construction began right away on the new stadium while the Mets began playing baseball at the Polo Grounds with the intention of moving into the new stadium for their second season. However, construction delays made the Mets play their second season at the Polo Grounds before they were able to have Opening Day April 17, 1964 at Shea Stadium. The total cost was $28.5 million. 

Originally the new stadium was going to be called Flushing Meadows Stadium before supporters of William A. Shea, who was credited as the man responsible for bringing National League Baseball back to New York City, were able to change the name to Shea Stadium.

The layout of Shea Stadium is circular, with the seating for fans forming a perfect circle around the baseball field and stopping just beyond the outfield foul ball poles in right and left field. The middle of the outfield contains the bullpens, scoreboards, and some additional bleacher seating. Shea stadium has the ability to turn into a football stadium thanks to the field level seats being designed so they can rotate on underground tracks, but this has not been done since the New York Jets moved to Giants Stadium in 1984. The outside of the stadium is painted blue and neon signs of baseball player silhouettes were added to the windscreens from 1986-1988.

Shea Stadium was designed to allow for expansion to have over 90,000 seats by completing the grandstand around the circle beyond the outfield fence. Plans in 1964 threw around the idea that a dome could be added to the stadium but engineers said because the swamp like area around the stadium the ground would not support the additional weight.

Wooden seats were originally installed with each level of the grandstand painted a different color. During the off season leading up to the 1980 season, the wooden seats were replaced by red, orange, blue, and green plastic seats.

Shea Stadium is located under the flight path of airplanes leaving La Guardia Airport. These airplanes roared over the stadium many times during every game and the noise would drain out radio and television broadcasts.

The 1964 Major League Baseball All Star Game was played in the newly opened Shea Stadium. The only time the All Star Game was played in Shea Stadium, Johnny Callison of the National League Philadelphia Phillies hit a game winning home run in the ninth inning. The New York Mets have never had a pitcher throw a perfect game, but in 1964 the Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, Jim Bunning (who later became a member of the United States Senate and Baseball Hall of Fame), threw a perfect game against the Mets on Father’s Day.

The New York Yankees played home games in Shea Stadium while Yankee Stadium was being renovated during the 1974 and 1975 seasons. On April 15, 1998 the New York Yankees again played a home game at Shea Stadium after a beam collapsed at Yankee Stadium a couple of days before and Yankee officials were concerned about the safety of fans attending Yankee Stadium.

Ironically, one of the New York Mets most famous players in their history, Darryl Strawberry, who was playing for the New York Yankees hit a home run during that game at Shea Stadium. The famous New York Apple, which is located in center field and emerges out of an upside down top hat during New York Met home runs, came half way out of its hat after Darryl Strawberry’s home run amongst roaring cheers from fans.

Shea Stadium has hosted postseason baseball games in seven different years. The New York Mets played home playoff games in 1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000, and 2006 including the World Series games of 1969, 1973, 1986, and 2000. In Shea Stadium post season history, Tommie Agee, Lenny Dykstra, Todd Pratt, Robin Ventura and Benny Agbayani have all hit game winning home runs.

In the history of Shea Stadium, only one player Mets fan favorite Tommie Agee, has been able to hit a home run into the left field upper deck. The date, April 10, 1969, and Agee’s number are marked in the Left Field Upper Deck section where the ball landed. Agee’s teammate Cleon Jones claimed the ball was still rising when it hit the seats and proclaimed it could have been the longest home run ever hit inside Shea Stadium. To rival that, a player who would later become a New York Met, Dave Kingman hit a home run in 1971 that broke the team bus windshield of the visiting San Francisco Giants which was parked outside Shea Stadium behind the left field bullpen. 

The New York Mets theme song, "Meet the Mets", has been played before every home game during Shea Stadium’s history. On May 20, 2007 the Mets had a record crow of 56,438 fans watch the game against the New York Yankees.

The New York Mets played their first two seasons in this hallowed sports stadium. Home to many professional teams and some memorable history.