1.
Baseball park
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A baseball park, also known as a ballpark or diamond, is a venue where baseball is played. A baseball park consists of the field and the surrounding spectator seating. While the diamond and the areas denoted by white painted lines adhere to rules, guidelines for the rest of the field are flexible. The term ballpark sometimes refers either to the structure, or sometimes to just the playing field. A home run where the player makes it around the bases, sometimes a home run over the fence is called out of the ballpark, but that phrase more often means a home run that clears the stands and lands outside the building. The playing field is most often called the ballfield, though the term is used interchangeably with ballpark when referring to a small local or youth league facility. A baseball field can be referred to as a diamond, the infield is a rigidly structured diamond of dirt containing the three bases, home plate, and the pitchers mound. The space between the bases and home is normally a grass surface, save for the mound in the center. Some ballparks, like Torontos Rogers Centre, have grass or artificial turf between the bases, and dirt only around the bases and pitchers mound, others, such as Koshien Stadium in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, have an entirely dirt infield. Two white lines run out from the plate area, aligned with first. These are the lines or base lines, usually differentiated by referring to them as the first base line. If a ball hit by the lands outside of the space between these two lines, or rolls out of this space before reaching first or third base, the ball is foul. If it lands between or on the lines, it is fair, at the end of the lines are two foul poles, which help the umpires judge whether a ball is fair or foul. These foul poles are actually in fair territory, so a ball hits them on the fly is a home run. On either side of plate are the two batters boxes This is where the batter stands when at bat. Behind home is the box, where the catcher and the home plate umpire stand. Next to first and third base are two boxes, where the first and third base coaches guide the baserunners, generally with gestures or shouts. As the baserunner faces away from the outfield when running from second base to third, they see where the ball is
2.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
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Part of Brooklyn Community Board 1, the neighborhood is served in the south by the NYPDs 90th Precinct and in the north by the 94th Precinct. On the New York City Council, the western and southern parts of the neighborhood are represented by the 33rd District, and its eastern part by the 34th District. As of the 2010 United States Census, the neighborhood had a population of 32,926, since the late 1990s, Williamsburg has undergone gentrification characterized by hipster culture, a contemporary art scene, and vibrant nightlife. During the early 2000s, the became a center for indie rock and electroclash. Numerous ethnic groups inhabit enclaves within the neighborhood, including Italians, Jews, Hispanics, Poles, Puerto Ricans, in 1638 the Dutch West India Company first purchased the areas land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg, after the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the towns name was anglicized to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area Bushwick Shore and this name lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore the Strand, farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried across the East River to New York City for sale via a market at present day Grand Street. Bushwick Shores favorable location close to New York City led to the creation of several farming developments, in 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U. S. Engineer, survey the property, Williamsburg was incorporated in as the, Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries, Now all are gone except the now-defunct Domino Sugar. Other important industries included shipbuilding and brewing, on April 18,1835, the Village of Williamsburg annexed a portion of the Town of Bushwick. The Village then consisted of three districts, the first district was commonly called the South Side, the second district was called the North Side, and the third district was called the New Village. The names North Side and South Side remain in common usage today, the New Village became populated by Germans and for a time was known by the sobriquet of Dutchtown. In 1845 the population of Williamsburgh was 11,500, reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburg separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburg in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburg in 1852, which was organized into three wards, the old First Ward roughly coincides with the South Side and the Second Ward with the North Side, with the modern boundary at Grand Street
3.
Brooklyn
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Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with a Census-estimated 2,636,735 residents in 2015. It borders the borough of Queens at the end of Long Island. Today, if New York City dissolved, Brooklyn would rank as the third-most populous city in the U. S. behind Los Angeles, the borough continues, however, to maintain a distinct culture. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves, Brooklyns official motto, displayed on the Borough seal and flag, is Eendraght Maeckt Maght which translates from early modern Dutch as Unity makes strength. Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a hub of entrepreneurship and high technology startup firms. The history of European settlement in Brooklyn spans more than 350 years, the neighborhood of Marine Park was home to North Americas first tidal mill. It was built by the Dutch, and the foundation can be seen today, however, the area was not formally settled as a town. Many incidents and documents relating to this period are in Gabriel Furmans early compilation, what is today Brooklyn left Dutch hands after the final English conquest of New Netherland in 1664, a prelude to the Second Anglo–Dutch War. The English reorganized the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island as Kings County on November 1,1683 and this tract of land was recognized as a political entity for the first time, and the municipal groundwork was laid for a later expansive idea of Brooklyn identity. On August 27,1776 was fought the Battle of Long Island, the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared, and the largest of the entire conflict. British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights near the sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park. The fortified American positions at Brooklyn Heights consequently became untenable and were evacuated a few days later, One result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 was the evacuation of the British from New York City, celebrated by residents into the 20th century. The New York Navy Yard operated in Wallabout Bay for the entire 19th century, the first center of urbanization sprang up in the Town of Brooklyn, directly across from Lower Manhattan, which saw the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1817. Reliable steam ferry service across the East River to Fulton Landing converted Brooklyn Heights into a town for Wall Street. Ferry Road to Jamaica Pass became Fulton Street to East New York, Town and Village were combined to form the first, kernel incarnation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834. Industrial deconcentration in mid-century was bringing shipbuilding and other manufacturing to the part of the county. Each of the two cities and six towns in Kings County remained independent municipalities, and purposely created non-aligning street grids with different naming systems and it later became the most popular and highest circulation afternoon paper in America. The publisher changed to L. Van Anden on April 19,1842, on May 14,1849 the name was shortened to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, on September 5,1938 it was further shortened to Brooklyn Eagle
4.
Manhattan
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Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the citys historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1,1683, Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world and hosts the United Nations Headquarters. Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough and it is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1062 today. New York County is the United States second-smallest county by land area, on business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170,000 people per square mile. Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York Citys five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, the City of New York was founded at the southern tip of Manhattan, and the borough houses New York City Hall, the seat of the citys government. The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a 1610 map depicts the name as Manna-hata, twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River. The word Manhattan has been translated as island of hills from the Lenape language. The United States Postal Service prefers that mail addressed to Manhattan use New York, NY rather than Manhattan, the area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano – sailing in service of King Francis I of France – was the first European to visit the area that would become New York City. It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, a permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on the citadel of Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam, the 1625 establishment of Fort Amsterdam at the southern tip of Manhattan Island is recognized as the birth of New York City. In 1846, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 to US$23, variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars, as Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked in their history of New York. Sixty guilders in 1626 was valued at approximately $1,000 in 2006, based on the price of silver, Straight Dope author Cecil Adams calculated an equivalent of $72 in 1992. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony, New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2,1653. In 1664, the English conquered New Netherland and renamed it New York after the English Duke of York and Albany, the Dutch Republic regained it in August 1673 with a fleet of 21 ships, renaming the city New Orange. Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the Battle of Fort Washington on November 16,1776. The city, greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the campaign, became the British political, British occupation lasted until November 25,1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city
5.
New York metropolitan area
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The New York metropolitan area continues to be the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States, with the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world. The MSA covers 6,720 sq mi, while the CSA area is 13,318 sq mi, encompassing an ethnically and geographically diverse region. In 2012, the New York metropolitan area was home to seven of the 25 wealthiest counties in the United States by median household income. According to Forbes, in 2014, the New York City metropolitan area was home to eight of the top ten ZIP codes in the United States by median housing price, with six in Manhattan alone. The U. S. Office of Management and Budget utilizes two definitions of the area, the Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Combined Statistical Area, the MSA is further subdivided into four metropolitan divisions. The 25-county metropolitan area includes 12 counties in New York State,12 counties in Northern and Central New Jersey, the largest urbanized area in the United States is at the heart of the metropolitan area, the New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT Urbanized Area. The New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area had an population of 23.7 million as of 2014. About one out of every fifteen Americans resides in this region, which includes seven counties in New York, New Jersey. This area, less the Pennsylvania portion, is referred to as the Tri-State Area. The New York City television designated market area includes Pike County, Pennsylvania, for instance, Long Island can be divided into its South and North Shores and the East End. The Hudson Valley and Connecticut are sometimes grouped together and referred to as the Northern Suburbs, the geographical, cultural, and economic center of the metropolitan area is New York City, which consists of five boroughs, each of which is also a county of New York State. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, with a Census-estimated population of 8,550,405 in 2015, distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles, New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. Long Island is a located just off the northeast coast of the United States. Stretching east-northeast from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean, the island comprises four counties, Kings and Queens to the west, then Nassau, North of the island is Long Island Sound, across which are the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Its population density is 5,571 inhabitants per square mile, Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world. Long Island is the most populated island in the United States, known especially for recreation, boating and miles of public beaches, including numerous town, county and state parks and Fire Island National Seashore. The East End of Long Island boasts open spaces for farmland, passenger rail access is provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Long Island Rail Road, one of the largest commuter railroads in the United States. Air travel needs are served by several airports – most notably Farmingdale-Republic Airport and Islip-MacArthur Airport, within Queens, it is home to John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, two of the three major airline hubs serving the New York City area
6.
Van Cortlandt Park
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Van Cortlandt Park is a 1, 146-acre park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. The park, which is the citys third-largest, was named for the Van Cortlandt family and it was established in 1888 and now contains facilities for sports such as golf, cross-country running, and cricket. Contained within the park is the Van Cortlandt House Museum, the oldest surviving building in the Bronx, and the Van Cortlandt Golf Course, Van Cortlandt Park is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy, the forest in what is now Van Cortlandt Park has been around for 17,000 years, since the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. The Wiechquaskeck Lenapes were among the first recorded people to inhabit in the now referred to as Van Cortlandt Park. They settled in the area around the 14th or 15th centuries, the Lenapes used the geographic features of the area, such as Tibbetts Brook for fishing and flatland areas for farming, to support their community. The strip of land on the Hudson Rivers east bank, between the current-day Spuyten Duyvil Creek and Yonkers, was sold to the Dutch West India Company in the early 17th century, adriaen van der Donck, a Dutch settler, bought the land from the company in 1646. Van der Donck also paid the Indian chief Tacharew, whose tribe used to live on the land and he named the land Colen Donck and built a house upon the land. The house was built between current-day Van Cortlandt Lake and Broadway and it faced south, probably because this was the location of a natural marshland. What is now the ground was used by van der Donck for farming. Upon van der Doncks 1655 death, the Indians launched an attack on the colony and this forced the settlers to flee back to Manhattan, including van der Doncks widow. Following the takeover of the New Netherland colony by the British in 1664, the claim to the estate was awarded to Hugh ONeale, the new husband of van der Doncks widow. In 1668, a portion of the land was sold to William Betts, an English turner, and his son-in-law George Tippett and this property included the modern park parade grounds. Next, Doughty sold a 2, 000-acre tract of land, including the current site of the Van Cortlandt House, to Frederick Philipse, Thomas Delavall, and Thomas Lewis. Philipse bought out Delavalls and Lewiss land shares, making the part of the Philipsburg Manor. Philipses wife died, and he remarried Olof Stevense Van Cortlandts daughter, Philipses daughter Eva later married Jacobus Van Cortlandt, who was Mrs. Philipses brother. The land that Van Cortlandt Park now occupies was acquired by Van Cortlandt from Philipse in the mid-to-late 1690s, in 1699, Van Cortlandt dammed Tibbetts Brook in order to power a sawmill, creating Van Cortlandt Lake as a mill pond in the process. In 1732, Van Cortlandt acquired a parcel from the Tippett family
7.
Yankee Stadium
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Yankee Stadium is a stadium located in the Concourse section of the Bronx, a borough of New York City. It serves as the ballpark for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. The $2.3 billion stadium, built with $1.2 billion in public subsidies and it is one block north of the original, on the 24-acre former site of Macombs Dam Park, the 8-acre site of the original stadium is now a public park called Heritage Field. Although Yankee Stadiums construction began in August 2006, the project spanned many years and faced many controversies, including the public cost. The overall price tag makes the new Yankee Stadium the most expensive ever built. It is also the home park for New York City FC of Major League Soccer. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner began campaigning for a new stadium in the early 1980s, Steinbrenner at the time was reportedly considering a move to the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. Governor Thomas Kean in 1984 authorized the use of land for a new stadium in the Meadowlands. In a statewide referendum in 1987, New Jersey taxpayers rejected $185 million in financing for a baseball stadium for the Yankees. Despite the rejection from New Jersey, Steinbrenner frequently used a move there as leverage in negotiations with New York City. Steinbrenner agreed in principle, but then backed out of the deal, in 1993, Mayor David Dinkins expanded on Kochs proposal by offering his Bronx Center vision for the neighborhood, including new housing, a new courthouse, and relocating the Police Academy nearby. However, Cuomo lost his re-election bid a few months later, by 1995, Steinbrenner had rejected 13 proposals to keep the Yankees in the Bronx. That same year, Mayor Rudy Giuliani unveiled a plan to relocate the Yankees to the West Side Yard for a $1 billion stadium, however, with most of the funding coming from taxpayers, Giuliani tabled the proposal, fearing rejection in a citywide referendum. He estimated that both stadiums would cost $2 billion, with city and state taxpayers contributing $1.2 billion, at the time, Bloomberg said that publicly funded stadiums were a poor investment. Bloombergs blueprint for the stadium was unveiled in 2004, at the time as the plan for the Mets new stadium. The final cost for the two stadiums was more than $3.1 billion, taxpayer subsidies accounted for $1.8 billion, the Yankees continued to play in the previous Yankee Stadium during the 2007 and 2008 seasons while their new home stadium was built across the street. The community was left without parkland for five years, after the worker was exposed by co-workers, he was forced to help exhume the jersey. The worker has since claimed to have buried a 2004 American League Championship Series program/scorecard and these attempts didnt have much effect upon the home team, though, the Yankees went on to win the 2009 World Series at the end of their first MLB season in the new stadium. The new stadium is meant to evoke elements of the original Yankee Stadium, the exterior resembles the original look of the 1923 Yankee Stadium
8.
Barclays Center
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Barclays Center is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The arena is part of a $4.9 billion future business, the arena is currently home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League. The arena also hosts concerts, conventions and other sporting and entertainment events and it competes with other facilities in the New York metropolitan area, including Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and Prudential Center in Newark. The global recession of 2009 also caused financing for the project to dry up, as a result, the start of construction was delayed until 2010, with no secure funding for the project having been allotted. Groundbreaking for construction occurred on March 11,2010, and the arena opened to the public on September 21,2012 and it held its first event with a Jay-Z concert on September 28,2012. The arena and the Brooklyn Nets are currently owned by Mikhail Prokhorovs American holdings, the arena was conceived by Bruce Ratner of real estate developer Forest City Ratner Companies, the New York division of Forest City Enterprises that Ratner founded. The move had marked the return of league sports to Brooklyn. The arena was initially projected to open in 2006, with the rest of the Pacific Park Brooklyn complex to follow, due to these legal and financial troubles, the development deal seemed headed towards failure or collapse. Frank Gehry, an involved in the projects initial designs said, in March 2009, I dont think it is going to happen. The New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of Ratner on May 16,2009, a hearing for the appeal was scheduled for October 14,2009, with a decision to be issued no sooner than November 25. Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov agreed to a $200 million deal on September 23,2009, to become an owner of the Nets. The Nets played two games at Prudential Center in October 2009. The two preseason games were successful, and a deal that would have the Nets play at the Prudential Center for the 2010–11, negotiations nearly fell apart, when the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority refused to release the Nets from their lease at Izod. Negotiations resumed, and on February 18,2010, the Nets finalized a deal that would move them to the Prudential Center in Newark, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state using eminent domain for the project on November 24,2009. Empire State Development Corporation Vice President Warner Johnston indicated that the agency is committed to seeing the project completed, another potential roadblock to this development resulted from the Appellate Courts negative decision regarding a similar eminent domain case, brought against Columbia University. This landmark case could have new life to the case being brought by the community group Develop Dont Destroy Brooklyn. Groundbreaking for the project occurred on March 11,2010, the first concrete was poured into Barclays Centers foundation on June 29,2010. The arena began construction on November 23,2010, with the erection of the first steel piece
9.
Chelsea Piers
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Chelsea Piers is a series of piers in Chelsea, on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The piers replaced a hodgepodge of run-down waterfront structures with a row of grand buildings embellished with pink granite facades, the piers are currently used by the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex. In addition there is a center, a golf club with multi-story driving range. Sky Rink has the only ice skating rinks in Manhattan. Historically, the term Chelsea Piers referred to the luxury liner berths on Manhattans west side from 1910 to the 1930s, with ocean liners such as the Titanic becoming bigger and bigger, New York City was looking for a new passenger ship dock in the early 1900s. The Army, which controls the location and size of piers, ship lines were reluctant to build north of 23rd Street because infrastructure was already in place, including the High Line railway line and a train station near the river at 23rd Street. New York City solved the problem in a way by actually taking away a block of land that was the 1837 landfill that extended Manhattan to 13th Avenue. The controversial decision included condemning many businesses, the city was unable to condemn the West Washington Street Market and was left to remain landfill. The market ultimately closed and the dock was converted to a facility that was used to load garbage barges headed for the Fresh Kills Landfill. The only section of 13th Avenue that remains is behind the sanitation facility, the landfill is now called the Gansevoort Peninsula. The new piers were designed by the firm of Warren and Wetmore. Most of the major trans-Atlantic liners of the day docked at the piers and they played pivotal roles in the RMS Titanic, the two most memorable moments for the pier were with the Lusitania and Titanic. The RMS Lusitania left her Cunard Pier 54 in 1915 before being torpedoed by German submarine U-20, the RMS Titanic was destined for the White Star pier 59 when she sank. Survivors were rescued on Cunards RMS Carpathia, the Carpathia dropped off the Titanics lifeboats at Pier 59 before going back south to Pier 54 where she unloaded the passengers and survivors. Thousands of people assembled at the dock to greet the ship, during the summer of 1920, a dramatic rally was organized on July 31 at the White Star Line docks. A reported 15,000 New Yorkers turned up at Pier 60 at the foot of West 20th street to make sure Lloyd George would allow Mannix passage to Ireland, a luxury liner row was built between West 44th and West 52nd Street to handle larger liners in the 1930s. During World War II the piers were used to deploy troops, the piers had catastrophic fires in 1932 and 1947 that destroyed some of the south piers. New construction resulted in new cargo piers used by the United States Lines, in July 1936, the Chelsea Piers were the point of departure for Jesse Owens and the United States Olympic team as they left for the Summer Games in Berlin, Germany
10.
Madison Square Garden
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Madison Square Garden, often called MSG or simply The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Located in Midtown Manhattan between 7th and 8th Avenues from 31st to 33rd Streets, it is situated atop Pennsylvania Station. The Garden is used for basketball and ice hockey, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown and it is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League, the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, and residency to singer-songwriter Billy Joel. The Garden opened on February 11,1968, and is the oldest major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area and it is the oldest arena in the National Hockey League and the second-oldest arena in the National Basketball Association. MSG is the fourth-busiest music arena in the world in terms of sales, behind The O2 Arena. At a total construction cost of approximately $1.1 billion and it is part of the Pennsylvania Plaza office and retail complex. Several other operating entities related to the Garden share its name, Madison Square is formed by the intersection of 5th Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in Manhattan. It was named after James Madison, fourth President of the United States, two venues called Madison Square Garden were located just northeast of the square, the first from 1879 to 1890, and the second from 1890 to 1925. The first Garden, leased to P. T. Barnum, had no roof and was inconvenient to use during inclement weather, Madison Square Garden II was designed by noted architect Stanford White. The new building was built by a syndicate which included J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, P. T. Barnum, Darius Mills, James Stillman and W. W. Astor. It was 200 feet by 485 feet, and the main hall and it had a 1, 200-seat theatre, a concert hall with a capacity of 1,500, the largest restaurant in the city and a roof garden cabaret. A third Madison Square Garden opened in a new location, on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, from 1925 to 1968, groundbreaking on the third Madison Square Garden took place on January 9,1925. Designed by the theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it was built at the cost of $4.75 million in 249 days by boxing promoter Tex Rickard. The arena was 200 feet by 375 feet, with seating on three levels, and a capacity of 18,496 spectators for boxing. Demolition commenced in 1968 after the opening of the current Garden and it finished up in early 1969, and the site is now where One Worldwide Plaza is located. The new structure was one of the first of its kind to be built above the platforms of a railroad station. It was an engineering feat constructed by Robert E. McKee of El Paso, public outcry over the demolition of the Pennsylvania Station structure—an outstanding example of Beaux-Arts architecture—led to the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
11.
Aqueduct Racetrack
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Aqueduct Racetrack is a Thoroughbred horse-racing facility and racino in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York City. Its racing meets usually are from late October/early November through April, the track was named Aqueduct after the former Ridgewood Aqueduct. The facility was expanded and a new clubhouse was constructed before the 1941 summer meet, the Equestris Restaurant in the clubhouse opened in 1981 and was the largest restaurant in New York City at the time. Additional renovations were made in 2001,2006, and 2007, currently, one annual meeting is held at Aqueduct, usually from the last Wednesday in October until the first Sunday in May. Races had been run on the Inner Dirt Track between the Wednesday after Thanksgiving until just before the Wood Memorial in recent years, prior to 1977, a summer meeting also was held at Aqueduct, from mid-June to late July. From 1963 through 1967, races run at Belmont Park. The Wood Memorial is Aqueducts the marquee race, which culminates the winter meet, the Remsen and Cigar Mile are major races that begin the winter meet. The track played host to the second ever Breeders Cup on November 2,1985, Aqueduct is the site of the first, and presently, the only triple dead heat for win in a stakes race. In the 1944 running of the Carter Handicap, Brownie, Bossuet, hall of Fame horse Cigar won the first two races in his 16-race win streak at Aqueduct. On May 31,1965,73,375 spectators were on hand at Aqueduct, at the time, it was the largest crowd to ever attend a thoroughbred horse racing event in New York. Champion racehorse Secretariat was retired here before the public on November 6,1973 and he was paraded for the last time to the public and took his last steps on a racetrack here. He was then sent to stud at Claiborne Farm, pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in front of a crowd of 75,000 at Aqueduct on October 6,1995. Every weekend including Tuesdays, a market was operating in the racetracks north parking lot. Aqueduct Flea Market offers a hodgepodge of goods, like bedding, incense and pots, pans and it was opened Tuesdays and weekends year-round for 33 years. This Aqueduct Flea Market, as of 2011, is permanently closed, Belmont Park would have been modified to handle winter requirements which would have included heated stands and the construction of new stables. Aqueduct traditionally has been considered a track frequented by blue collar fans while Belmont Park has a more upscale reputation, Queens Democratic state assemblywoman Audrey I. Pheffer, whose district included Aqueduct, fought the closing of the track which she felt was important to the local community. Any closure at Aqueduct, which is equipped for the winter months, would have required millions of dollars in renovations at Belmont
12.
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. Completed in 2009, it is the baseball park of Major League Baseballs New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the formerly adjacent Shea Stadium, Citi Field was designed by Populous, and is named after Citigroup, a New York financial services company which purchased the naming rights. The $850 million baseball park was funded with $615 million in public subsidies, the payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park. The Mets are receiving $20 million annually from Citibank in exchange for naming the stadium Citi Field, the entire public cost is being borne by city and state taxpayers in New York. The first game at Citi Field was on March 29,2009, the Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and April 4,2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular home game was played on April 13,2009. Citi Field hosted the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, marking the time the Mets have hosted the event. The stadium will host the 2018 NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres, since the 1990s, the Mets had been looking to replace Shea Stadium. It had originally built as a multi-purpose stadium in 1964. The Mets also considered moving to Mitchel Field or Belmont Park in Nassau County, Long Island, Sunnyside Yard in Queens, or the West Side Yard in Manhattan. In December 2001, shortly before leaving office, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced tentative agreements for both the Mets and New York Yankees to build new stadiums. Of the $1.6 billion sought for the stadiums, city and state taxpayers would pick up half the tab for construction, $800 million, along with $390 million on extra transportation. The teams would keep 96% of ticket revenues and 100% of all revenues, not pay sales tax or property tax on the stadium. Business officials criticized the plan as giving too much money to successful teams with little reason to move to a different city, at the time, Bloomberg said that publicly funded stadiums were a poor investment. Under Bloomberg, the New York City government would offer public financing for infrastructure improvements. Bloomberg called the former mayors agreements corporate welfare, the final plans for what is now Citi Field were created as part of the New York City 2012 Olympic bid. After plans for a West Side Stadium fell through, New York looked for a stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies and track
