Tenant: New York Mets (NL)

Opened: April 17, 1964

Surface: Bluegrass

Capacity: 55,601 (baseball)

Archictect: Praeger-Kavanaugh-Waterbury

 Shea Stadium was the first stadium capable of being converted from baseball to football and back using two motor-operated stands that moved on underground tracks. The Stadium itself is constructed mostly from concrete, similar to that of the Vet.  Shea is the noisiest outdoor ballpark in the majors because it is in the flight path of La Guardia Airport. The story goes that when the city scouted out stadium sites in 1962, they went during the winter, when flight paths into La Guardia are different, so they never anticipated the aircraft noise.  Recent plans were drawn up to add 15,000 seats and cover the stadium with a dome. Those plans were scrapped when studies showed the stadium might collapse under the weight of a roof.  Though Shea is a great ballpark, the Mets plan on building a new ballpark in Queens some time in the next ten years. The owner said that he wanted the new park to resemble Ebbets Field with a retractable roof.