Drawings of Queens Stadium Unveiled
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The organizing committee for the city’s Olympic bid released drawings yesterday of its revamped stadium proposal – a plan hastily drafted in the two weeks since a state board denied approval for a stadium with a retractable roof on Manhattan’s far West Side.
The retooled proposal represents an addition to the $600 million Mets stadium that the city announced it would help lay the groundwork for in Flushing, Queens. If the International Olympic Committee names New York the host city for the 2012 Summer Games when it makes its announcement next week, the Mets’ 45,000-seat stadium would be temporarily expanded to accommodate 80,000 fans.
The $144 million expansion would be paid for by the city and state governments and the organizing committee, NYC2012, and would provide a venue for the opening and closing ceremonies in 2012 and for most track and field events and the gold-medal soccer competition.
The new design was the product of around-the-clock collaboration among the Mets; their design team, HOK Sport of Kansas City, and NYC2012, according to a spokesman for NYC2012, Laz Benitez. The modifications call for the elongation of the stadium as well as the addition of 35,000 seats. After the games, 25,000 of those seats would be added to Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island to expand that track and field facility.
The new Mets stadium is scheduled to open for the 2009 baseball season. If the city is awarded the 2012 Games, it’s currently expected the Mets would play at the new Yankee Stadium that season.
The founder of NYC2012, Daniel Doctoroff, the deputy mayor, appearing yesterday on WCBS’s “Kirtzman & Co.,” said, “I think we actually have a very good chance” of winning the Games. Mr. Doctoroff said he had no interest in running for mayor in 2009 and said that if the city wins the 2012 Summer Games, he would leave the Bloomberg administration to take over the organizing committee.