Shea Stadium - Definition and Overview

Shea Stadium

Location	Flushing, Queens, New York
Opened	April 17, 1964
Capacity	55,601
Owned By	City of New York
Architect:	Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury
Dimensions: Left Left-Center Center Right-Center Right	338 ft. 378 ft. 408 ft. 378 ft. 338 ft.

Shea Stadium is a baseball stadium in Flushing, New York where the New York Mets play.

It is the longtime home of the New York Mets and the historic site of the world's first stadium concert (which featured the Beatles on August 15, 1965). Shea Stadium's first game on April 17, 1964 was the culmination of a project that cost $28.5 million and took 29 months to build. It was originally to be called Flushing Meadow Park -- similar to the name of the public park that's south of Shea -- but a movement was launched to name it in honor of William A. Shea, the man that brought National League baseball back to New York. It was also the first stadium capable of being converted from baseball to football and back using two motor-operated stands that moved on underground tracks.

Shea has been the home of the Mets since its opening in 1964. The New York Yankees played its home games in Shea Stadium during the 1974 and 1975 seasons while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. The NFL team, New York Jets, played at Shea from 1964 to 1983. The New York Giants played at Shea in 1975.

The stadium, which cost $25.5 million, was intended to be expandable to 90,000 seats by extending the middle and upper decks around the outfield and building a dome above the stands. During the 1960s, there was a move to accomplish this, but the idea was dropped after structural studies concluded that the stands would be unable to support the weight of the dome after all.

The stadium is generally regarded as one of the loudest in the major leagues, not because of the crowd noise, but because of the proximity to La Guardia Airport.