New York 2012 Announces Olympic Stadium At Queens Site

During a press conference at City Hall Sunday night (GMT -5), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that an agreement has been reached with the New York Mets baseball team to build a new stadium by 2009 that would be converted to an Olympic stadium in 2012, should NYC2012 win the Olympic bid.

On Monday New York 2012 will ask the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive to modify New York's Olympic plan.

The stadium, to be located in the current Shea Stadium parking lot, would be funded by the Mets and the City would pay for the needed associated infrastructure.

At the end of the 2011 baseball season, the stadium would be converted into the Olympic stadium and the Mets could play in Yankee Stadium for the 2012 season (The Yankees have agreed with this plan).

The International Broadcast Center would be located at nearby Willets Point, and the Stadium would be only 16 minutes from the Athletes Village.

The Mayor said "New Yorkers aren't quitters, we just don't walk away from our future", and although he said NYC2012 could have withdrawn from the race, it was not a desirable option.

"We want to do what's right for New York City."

NYC2012 will ask the IOC Executive Committee for the unusual opportunity to change their plans on Monday.

The Mayor said, "we will move quickly to present our plans" to the IOC.

Although he admitted it will be a "tougher sell than if we had gotten our first choice", the Mayor said "we have to go and play the best hand we can get and play it as well as we can".

He added, "it wasn't our first choice but it sure was an awful good alternative". Write or read comments about this article

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