{"id":38,"date":"2026-08-18T16:43:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shoeleathermagazine.com\/2026\/?p=38"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:38:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:38:54","slug":"everyone-is-betting-on-willets-point-not-everyone-wants-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shoeleathermagazine.com\/2026\/everyone-is-betting-on-willets-point-not-everyone-wants-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyone is betting on Willets Point \u2014 not everyone wants in."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Citi Field and its adjacent parking lots, where Metropolitan Park will be built in the coming years. Source: Jonathan Mak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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In 1975, Shea Stadium was the place to be for New York City\u2019s sports fans. Yankee Stadium was being renovated and the original Giants Stadium was still undergoing construction. It was, and still is, the only year the Mets, Yankees, Jets and Giants called the same stadium home.<\/p>\n

From April to December, over three and a half million fans and 175 games were crammed into a single, overused turf in the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens \u2014 only to watch all four teams stagger through a joyless, playoff-less end to their calendars.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolklore has it that it was an electric environment; it probably won\u2019t ever be repeated again,\u201d Tom Grech, a 64-year-old life-long Mets fan, said.<\/p>\n

Before its sports history, Willets Point was a biologically diverse marshland that became an ash-dumping site in the 1920s when New York ran on coal-fired burners \u2014 a trash-burning operation that inspired \u201cThe Valley of Ashes<\/a>\u201d in \u201cThe Great Gatsby.\u201d When the city was awarded the 1939 World\u2019s Fair, legislators saw the land as cheap and easily transformable to manage crowds.<\/p>\n

The city decided to use the site as a parking lot during two World\u2019s Fairs, a technological showcase that promised a better tomorrow, in Flushing-Meadows Corona Park during 1939 and 1964. The purchase was cheap and displaced minimal residents at the time. Acting as the second Fair\u2019s central point, Shea Stadium was \u201cthe beginning of somewhat of a revitalization,\u201d Grech said.<\/p>\n

Tucked into a northern corridor of Queens, the horseshoe-shaped stadium sat within tangled highways \u2014 the Whitestone Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, Van Wyck Expressway, and the Long Island Expressway running beneath it.<\/p>\n

The Yankees and Giants moved out after the 1975 season, and the Jets stayed around until 1983, when they moved into Giants Stadium in New Jersey with their rivals. The city started demolishing the stadium in 2008, deciding that its structure, built in 1964, was so outdated that it was determined \u201cfunctionally obsolete<\/a>\u201d by the New York Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).<\/p>\n

By the time Shea Stadium was demolished in 2009, its replacement, Citi Field, was already open, hosting its first Mets game in April the same year. Today, the stadium\u2019s former home plate is marked on the gray concrete of Citi Field\u2019s usually empty parking lot, just over a mile from LaGuardia Airport and a 10-minute walk from the edge of Flushing Bay. Now, a controversial $8 billion entertainment hub is set to redefine New York City\u2019s sports and entertainment scene again.<\/p>\n

At the time, the 50 acres of land surrounding what is now Citi Field were just parking \u2014 and in 2026, it\u2019s still just parking. But within the next decade, that gray, flat lot will house not just Citi Field, but a new $8 billion project called Metropolitan Park. The park will follow Mets\u2019 billionaire owner Steve Cohen\u2019s \u201ccommunity-driven vision\u201d of a \u201csports and entertainment park that New York deserves,\u201d\u00a0the development\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0reads.<\/p>\n

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A rendering of Metropolitan Park. Source: Metropolitan Park.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cohen and Queens Future, an LLC that Cohen created to advocate for the project, have touted bringing $1 billion in community benefits: 25 acres of public park space, community athletic fields, a concert venue and a food hall showcasing local Queens vendors.<\/p>\n

But the main driver of money for the development \u2014 and by far the most controversial \u2014 is the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.<\/p>\n

The casino has generated substantial pushback from community members \u2014 from\u00a0protests<\/a>\u00a0starting last October to a\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0filed this April, a last-ditch attempt to stop the casino from being built.<\/p>\n

Metropolitan Park is one of three projects \u2014 along with Bally\u2019s Bronx and Resorts World NYC next to the Aqueduct, due south \u2014 within the five boroughs to receive a historic casino gaming license in December 2025. The award followed an arduous 13-year process that included\u00a0a proposed project in Times Square backed by rapper Jay-Z<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0a physical fight at a public meeting of Coney Island\u2019s Community Advisory Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the other side of Citi Field, just 50 feet across Seaver Way, another almost $800 million development is coming to the area. New York City FC (NYCFC) is set to open its fully electric, 25,000-seater stadium \u2014 New York City\u2019s first soccer-specific arena, known as Etihad Park. NYCFC is owned by Abu Dhabi-based City Football Group, which acquired Manchester City Football Club in 2008, turning the North West English team from a second-division side into one of Europe\u2019s best clubs within a decade. The club hopes to apply the same playbook here.<\/p>\n

The club broke ground in December 2024 and will open just in time for Major League Soccer\u2019s\u00a0transition to a fall-to-spring calendar<\/a>\u00a0in early 2027. It is fully financed by the club\u2019s ownership group, City Football Group (CFG), and is expected to host up to eight soccer matches as part of the 2028 summer Olympics soccer tournament. Wrapping around the stadium\u2019s shadow will be Willets Point Commons \u2014 a 2,500-unit affordable housing development, the largest affordable housing project in the city in 40 years.<\/p>\n

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will affect Willets Point as well. The center hosts the annual U.S. Open at the end of summer, and \u201cis busier than ever<\/a>,\u201d according to\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 fan attendance records were\u00a0smashed in 2025<\/a>. The USTA is trying to keep up with its demand, announcing\u00a0an $800 million investment<\/a>\u00a0to renovate the grounds by 2027 to create more seating and open space.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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What Willets Point looked like through the years. Source: Thomas Byrne via Facebook \/ A map of what Willets Point will look like with Metropolitan Park, Etihad Park and Willets Point Commons built. Source: Metropolitan Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By the time both projects are complete within a decade, Willets Point will be home to a casino, a soccer stadium, a baseball stadium, a tennis stadium, a school and over 2,500 new residents. It will host international sporting events like the U.S. Open and Olympic soccer matches, with the infrastructure around to keep fans entertained outside of sports. They will turn Willets Point into the second-largest sports and entertainment hub on the East Coast, only topped in size by the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in PA, which has its own casino, three stadiums and a park.<\/p>\n

No other neighborhood in New York City is absorbing this much capital, this much construction and this much political consequence at once. These developments will all be within walking distance of one another, and all within walking distance of the immigrant communities that have called this corner of Queens home for generations. What gets built here, and who it gets built for, will define the borough\u2019s next chapter.<\/p>\n

The Casino<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jack Hu and a dozen members of the Queens Anti-Casino group gathered inside a Flushing bodega on a morning in late February. They needed to hide out from brisk, 40-degree weather and iron out the kinks of a planned protest before the neighborhood\u2019s annual Lunar New Year\u2019s parade. The group followed the parade, which included lion dance shows by local performers, a traditional festivity during Lunar New Year. The parade snaked through Flushing along Union Street and Main Street to the Queens Library, where local elected officials and community leaders made speeches. For Hu, it was the perfect opportunity for the group to show their opposition as a collective against the coming casino.<\/p>\n

All 13 protesters \u2014 who passed around signs, posters and flags reading \u201cRacist Casino,\u201d \u201cRescind the Casino License\u201d and \u201c[Governor Kathy] Hochul and [Senator John] Liu Want 2 Build Casinos & Destroy Flushing\u201d \u2014 walked over to the intersection of 37th Ave. and Union. There, they chanted \u201cShame on you\u201d and \u201cNo justice, no peace, get these sell-outs off our streets,\u201d as soon as State Senator. John Liu and other local community leaders walked by holding a large banner.<\/p>\n

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