How much of Shea is left?

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I heard that demolition work on Shea Stadium's upper deck has begun. Can any of you New Yorkers confirm? How much of it is left?

 

[DontFeedPhil]

I thought you mis-spelled and were asking how much talent does Shia Lebofe have? And the answer would be not much to begin with...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I thought you mis-spelled and were asking how much talent does Shia Lebofe have? And the answer would be not much to begin with...

You must have a rather low opinion of me, to think that I would ask about Shia La Beouf in a *sports* forum.

seriously though: I have since done some checking and apparently the upper deck is starting to come down: Link 1 Link 2

 

[clint g]

I was just by there last week and as far as I could tell the whole thing was up. i saw it from the expressway though so it wasn't an upclose and personal view

 

[CaptainHawk1]

The problem with NYC is that you can't implode or take a wrecking ball to a building to demolish it so it's being taking apart piece by piece form the inside out, at least from what I've been able to tell by the pictures I've seen.

Another thing too is that they have to be careful about ripping out the seats because they sold all of them off to collectors through their website.

I wasn't really saddened by the loss of Shea Stadium until I saw the photos.

-Shawn

 

[Lawrence B]

Here's a recent photo of Shea:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lawrenceboucher/SnapshotsOfNewYorkCity#5287910213201924018

If you want to see more photos, I recommend heading over to the Baseball-Fever forums. They have a section with specific threads on Shea Stadium's demolition as well as CitiField and New Yankee Stadium construction. Lots of photos if you interested in following the progress.

http://baseball-fever.com/forumdisplay.php?f=58

 

[CaptainHawk1]

BAD pic in the post but that's a great link.

-Shawn

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The problem with NYC is that you can't implode or take a wrecking ball to a building to demolish it so it's being taking apart piece by piece form the inside out, at least from what I've been able to tell by the pictures I've seen.

And of course they wouldn't want to risk imploding Shea anyway, for fear they might damage Citi Field which is right next door. Don't know why they couldn't use the wrecking ball though. Unlike up in the Bronx with old Yankee Stadium, they've got plenty of room here.

I wasn't really saddened by the loss of Shea Stadium until I saw the photos.

I'm still not saddened by it. I mean, as much as I consider myself a Mets fan, I knew long ago that Shea's days were numbered. It's a cookie cutter, after all. Those ugly fuckers should have never been built in the first place.

I hope there's no law against imploding stadiums in other places. God, I look forward to the day when RFK Stadium (one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen) is closed down and blown the fuck up.

 

[DontFeedPhil]

Yeah Shea Stadium is one ugly ass stadium...But the new one is nice looking...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I hate to say this, but Shea would have actually looked *better* if they'd enclosed it all around (there were plans to do this but they were abandoned in the mid 60's or thereabouts). As bad as the cookiecutters all were, Shea was in some ways worse, because it was unfinished. From the air, it looked like a giant concrete Pac-Man.

 

[Captain Ice]

Any idea when Yankee will start to come down?

 

[Lawrence B]

Any idea when Yankee will start to come down?

The Yankee administrative offices will be moving into the new stadium next month and they are supposed to start taking things apart in March. However, much of the major demolition won't be till the end of the summer as they will be filming scenes for a new movie, "Keeper of the Pinstripes".

 

[CaptainHawk1]

The problem with NYC is that you can't implode or take a wrecking ball to a building to demolish it so it's being taking apart piece by piece form the inside out, at least from what I've been able to tell by the pictures I've seen.

And of course they wouldn't want to risk imploding Shea anyway, for fear they might damage Citi Field which is right next door. Don't know why they couldn't use the wrecking ball though. Unlike up in the Bronx with old Yankee Stadium, they've got plenty of room here.

Well, that and the city ordinance against it. They can't implode or take the wrecking ball to Yankee Stadium either.

I just found this out last week on the Mets website and was surpirised by it, too.

-Shawn

 

[SmoothieX]

http://www.stadiumpage.com/

This has a series of photos over the course of the demo. It also has Citi Field and new Yankee Stadium construction photos.

Shea was a dump, but it was our dump. All of my favorite baseball memories are there.

 

[CaptainHawk1]

http://www.stadiumpage.com/

This has a series of photos over the course of the demo. It also has Citi Field and new Yankee Stadium construction photos.

Shea was a dump, but it was our dump. All of my favorite baseball memories are there.

Amen to that. My favorite memories are using the men's room and pissing into a troth that hadn't been cleaned in 30 years and God forbid you'd have to take a dump and use one of the stalls because none of them have doors.

The thing about Shea is that no matter where you sat (and I have sat all over that stadium), you always had a great view of the game.

Looking forward to this season: new ballpark, new bullpen... yay!

-Shawn

 

[ToddPence]

Well, Rojan didn't crumble anything off of Lt. Shea's little styrofoam block like he did with Julie Cobb's, so he still should be all left.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any idea when Yankee will start to come down?

The Yankee administrative offices will be moving into the new stadium next month and they are supposed to start taking things apart in March. However, much of the major demolition won't be till the end of the summer as they will be filming scenes for a new movie, "Keeper of the Pinstripes".

And final demolition of the old stadium will be in 2010. Here's a good site that has a complete schedule: linky

The whole thing, including all development, demolition of the old stadium, construction of new practice fields and parklands, will be done by 2011.

 

[Kira's Mom]

Shea was ugly even by baseball stadium standards, but I'll still miss it. Those pictures are making me sad! Like part of my childhood is crumbling. I still miss living in New York sometimes...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Is it confirmed that the old Home Run Apple will sit outside Citi Field? I know they have a new one for use during games, but I seem to remember hearing that the old one will be preserved as a landmark outside.

 

[SmoothieX]

I read that somewhere. Old apple will be outside Citi, with a new apple inside the park. I think it might have been on Paul Lukas's Uni Watch site as he's a big Mets fan.

God forbid you'd have to take a dump and use one of the stalls because none of them have doors.

I had to go midway through a sold out playoff game in 2006. The bathroom was destroyed. 2 inches of standing urine on the floor and piss and shit coating the stalls. I just kinda hovered.

Those pictures are making me sad! Like part of my childhood is crumbling.

Yeah me too! I will miss the neon players on the stadium exterior as well. They screamed 1980s but I loved them.

They say Shea was a cookie cutter, but Citi looks like a modern day cookie cutter to me. Ever since Oriole Park (still the best), teams have tried to evoke that look.