Steve Cohen Unveiled Plans For An $8 BILLION, 50 Acre Park Next To Citi Field That Will Have Bars, Restaurants, A Casino, Live Music Venue, Tailgating, And So Much More
Today, Steve Cohen and Queens community leaders unveiled Metropolitan Park, a vision to transform the 50 acres of asphalt around Citi Field into a revolutionary sports and entertainment park. This reimagined space will bring together fans, neighbors, and visitors with 20 acres of new public park space, world class entertainment, and authentic global cuisine from local restaurateurs. The park will be a year-round entertainment destination for the enjoyment of not only the people of Queens and the New York region but for international tourists as well. Metropolitan Park embodies the spirit of New Yorkers to become the next great New York landmark.
The result is a vision that delivers:
- An investment of $8 billion
- Nearly 15,000 good-paying permanent and construction jobs
- 20 acres of new park space and 5 acres of community athletic fields and playgrounds
- Climate-ready infrastructure including solar, green roofs, and flood mitigation
- Visionary entertainment complex with a Hard Rock hotel, live music venue, and gaming
- New connections to the waterfront, park, and surrounding community
- Queens food hall
- Accessible and renovated mass transit station
- Improved and modernized road network, bike paths, and parking infrastructure
Did Uncle Stevie do it again or did Uncle Stevie do it again? It's crazy to see a New York owner take over a team and not only do everything he promised but actually overdeliver. I know the 2023 Mets were an abject disaster but even then Cohen pivoted and essentially bought a farm system using a bunch of underperforming veterans along with his best friend, Cash.
For as long as I can remember, Mets fans have been bummed about their team playing in the middle of a vast wasteland. Now we are going to have a state of the art spot to eat, drink, and be as merry as the Mets allow us to be. Plus we will be able to (responsibly) gamble, enjoy some live music, save Mother Earth's ass with solar panels, and maybe even have a parking lot that doesn't make us want to drive off a bridge because we just waited an hour in traffic after getting our guts ripped out by the Mets. What a concept!
I don't even know what a tailgate park is, but I know a fucking love it and can't wait to host a Barstool At The Ballpark tailgate there. No matter what the tailgate park has or doesn't have, I imagine we'll be able to do more fun stuff than burn shit like goddamn hood rats.
I'm sorry for being crude but my brain is still coming to grips with that this is all being built on that old pile of rubble behind Shea/Citi. It's like if Pride Rock had replaced the elephant graveyard with a lush rainforest that gave the animals everything they ever wanted.
I've always been jealous of the atmosphere Yankees fans had around their stadium and all they have are a few dive bars in the middle of the South Bronx. Now Mets fans will have a gigantic oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle to mingle before, during, and after games while future generations will have no clue of how desolate it was around Shea Stadium.
Not only will Mets games actually have a vibe but the US Open becomes a much bigger destination since it won't just be a bunch of people going to a tennis stadium surrounded by concrete. You know what that will lead to? More tomfoolery like this!
The only thing missing from the plans are chop shops where your car can get taken apart then sold bit by bit to support organized crime. Maybe that's in the 2.0 of the blueprints, I'm not sure. But for now, I love everything about these plans, especially if they come with meaningful games in September or dare I say OCTOBER! Thank God for Steve Cohen, who actually is my God. So I guess it's more like thank Steve Cohen for Steve Cohen.