Wednesday, April 8, 2009

USTA wants more bang out of Ashe Stadium


From Sports Business Journal via Atlantic Yards Report:

U.S. Tennis Association managing director Danny Zausner has made no secret of his desire for an NBA or NHL team to inhabit Arthur Ashe Stadium if a roof were built to enclose the facility.

The proposal the USTA sent to 10 to 12 architects to develop a roof confirms his wish: The group expects designers to address how a covered, 22,547-seat building could be used for basketball, concerts, boxing and other events.

Proposals are due April 16, with a selection expected May 30. The final design presentation is set for Aug. 14.


And from an earlier report:

The USTA’s proposal will also ask architects to submit an alternative plan to design a roof covering two smaller, side-by-side USTA facilities in Queens, 11,000-seat Louis Armstrong Court and the 6,000-seat Grandstand.

17 comments:

Kevin Walsh said...

It's not a bad idea. The Nets could come in, and you wouldn't have to rip up Prospect Hts.

Oops, too late...

www.forgotten-ny.com

Anonymous said...

That roof should've been on the new home of the mets.Then perhaps we could have had a ny football team,etc.

Anonymous said...

That Roof..
The HUGE bidding results will likley seed a new cheap stadium on the NYS Pavillion property.

The USTA is taking more of this taxpayers park for corperate and private use every year !!

That roof could have been on the OLD home of the Mets.
There was nothing wrong with Shea and it was built to add a roof in the future

Anonymous said...

Our favorite theft of public land. Why not put the roof over the entire Flushing Meadow park and kick the riff-raff out?

After all, it's only the home of two World's Fairs and the the major cultural and recreational venue for Queens.

Don't forget, bread and circuses, we can line up Nero for the fall of the Empire City of the Empire State.

Anonymous said...

Wah wah wah, I don't like having one of the world's premier sporting events in my park!, wah wah wah . . .

Anonymous said...

That "wah, wah, wah" stuff sounds more like our crybaby Evan!

Or is it coming from the offices of Davidoff Malito & Partners?

Counselor Jeffrey Chester, who was their handservant, sponsored the original sellout of public parkland to the USTA.

Wattsa matta Jeff....USTA not making enough money like you all thought?

Anonymous said...

Actually Shea Stadium was originally designed to be expanded to the east and structurally sound enough to take a dome which would have made it a cost effective multi use facility!

Master builder (G-d forgive me) Robert Moses planned it that way.

You can say a lot of bad things about him but he certainly knew how to cover all bases when it came to building.

Talk about a mega-boondoggle!

This spendthrift attitude
is getting out of hand!

First...they tear down Shea...throw $400,00 at Shulman for services rendered during extremely bad economic times...build Shitty Field...and now some more crap to steal even more money from us taxpayers.

ALL THIS WHILE BLOOMBERG IS CUTTING VITAL SERVICES, CLOSING HOSPITALS, REDUCING LIBRARY HOURS,
ELIMINATING FIRE HOUSES, etc.

But fat old Granny Claire gets almost 1/2 a million dollars for her golden parachute.

Thanks Mayor Mike!

Don't let this rat face little Nazi bastard see a third term!

Anonymous said...

Empty your kishkas on your shoes yet Evan?

I'll bet he'd like to know who's criticizing him so vociferously on QC.

A little hint... you obese little mamma's boy...someone who once stood very close beside you!

H-m-m-m....wait 'til we get to the good stuff.

Nah....that's for the feds!

Anonymous said...

To Mr. Wah, Wah, the Tennis Stadium was in Queens when I was a child, and the empty land at Flushing Meadow was available for public use.

I cannot afford to sit in that Stadium and pay $10.00 for a glass of water.

No children will ever run through that land like I did when I was school aged.

Instead, we will have a bunch of obese adults getting fatter watching other people play a sport.

Here is a concept: room for parents and families to walk, look at flowers and plants, picnic, play catch etc...

Too bad if private interests have to pay private parties a fair price to purchase their land.

I understand that children lost their park when Yankee Stadium went up too.

Oh well, we know childish adults are more important than real children, and that means you Mr. Wah, Wah,

Anonymous said...

Flushing Meadows is one of the biggest parks in all of NYC, and the City is developing a master plan to increase its greenspace and better its layout. The USTA is a wonderful facility and a crown jewel of the park, with great facilities for public use. It also hosts a grand event that brings business and excitement to Queens. Your comments are just plain silly.

Anonymous said...

Alienation of parkland is not "silly."

Anonymous said...

City has a master plan to increase its greenspace.
---------------------------
Oh yea, how about publishing some spacific details for the taxpayers ?

How does Greenspace significantly increase in FMCP without seeding a soccer field, plowing over 15 fountains, the Unisphere or wetlands ?

Perhaps the city is referring to the airspace used by of some recently planted shrubary canopy's ?

Thats fine for birds and butterflys ...speaking of.
You people like Marshall Clairol Schulman need a big F-butterfly nets over your heads. All the chemicals have reached your brains

Anonymous said...

I think that Counselor Jeffrey Chester or his tennis partner Dave Dinkins just chimed in with this "crown jewel" crap!

Notice how everybody retreats to Manhattan or Connecticut environs after their visit to US open?

They wouldn't dare set foot in Flushing!

Uh....how do you improve green space when you remove parkland counselor?

Anonymous said...

"alienation of parkland"

If the parkland was freed up, you'd be complaining about too many illegal immigrants using it.

The city owns the tennis facility. The USTA rents it, albeit with a lot of influence.

In lieu of a amphitheatre restoring the NYS Pavilion (which would be amazing), I've always thought they should do a concert series at Arthur Ashe throughout June and July. It'd be beneficial to both the city and the USTA. I don't think a roof would bring a hockey or basketball team. It's still a bit out of the way except for LIRR'ers. The Citi parking lots are way too far away to accomodate a winter sport.

Keep the roof off, and bring a summer concert series back to Queens.

Anonymous said...

Let it be known that I personally worked on the tennis courts they just recently opened next door to "Ashe Stadium", and I can tell ya for a fact that the carpenters, tapers and painters were all non-union and very unskilled workers. In fact alot of them were unskilled in "English too. The U.S.T.A. spent alot of money on those trades and I can tell ya that the money went to the contracter and not his employeess, they get less than minimum wage. I know cause I spoke to the ones that spoke "English" and he told me so. Also the unskilled carpenters who did the fire stopping around the consession stands were done imprpoperly. I a fire starts in one of these stands, the workers may get seriously injurded a worse, a fatility. It is funny how the U.S.T.A. does'nt even know of the violations. You get what you pay for and I guess the saftey of the workers and the public come second when it comes to money. They build this roof on the stadium, I hope they use a union trade, a skilled worker, a legal immergrant.

Anonymous said...

Actually concerts were suggested for the now demolished "Aquacade" site....light pop and classical.

But thanks to Granny Shulman and her racist agenda it's now gone.

Why did I even bring up "racist agenda" ?

Because the serious promoter of
that idea for the Aquacade ...WHO HAD THE MONEY IN HAND TO DO IT....happened to be "a person of color".

Merely a coincidence, you say?

I doubt it!

Anonymous said...

I heard about him.

Wasn't his name Charles Atillies
or something like that?

He was racially mixed and you know those bigoted Forest Hills Jews would never tolerate a "schvartza" running a venue that close to them!