Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium

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Walter O'Malley and Buckminster Fuller examine the model for the stadium in November of 1955
Walter O'Malley and Buckminster Fuller examine the model for the stadium in November of 1955

The Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium was to replace Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers to allow them to stay in New York City.[1] The Dodgers instead moved to Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles, California.[2] First announced in the early 1950's, the envisioned structure would have seated 52,000 people and been the first domed stadium in the world, opening roughly a decade before Houston's Astrodome.[3] The stadium would have been located at the southeast corner of Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, on the Atlantic Yards site. It would have cost $6 million to build and been privately financed.

[edit] Background

The Dodgers were playing at the 32,000 seat Ebbets Field. Feeling that the stadium was too small for their needs, they wanted to move to a newer, more modern facility. Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley wanted to exploit new revenue streams to capitalize on the rabid fans of the Dodgers. O'Malley commissioned Norman Bel Geddes about renovating Ebbets Field and first proposed a dome. He also talked to Buckminster Fuller to design a domed stadium.

New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses wanted to utilize open space in Flushing Meadows, Queens and build a city owned stadium there for the Dodgers. This plot of land eventually became Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets. Moses also opposed the location of the domed stadium since it would have caused significant changes to the subway system.

The source of debate today, the stadium proved to be an important reason for the Dodgers to leave Brooklyn in 1958 and settle in Los Angeles. Some think O'Malley purposely proposed a stadium that had little chance of being built and that he privately negotiated with the city while publicly touting the merits of the domed stadium. Others suggest that the domed stadium failed because of Moses' uncompromising personality.[4]

Today, the land that lay fallow for half a century after this failed proposal is being turned into the Atlantic Yards, with a more modest arena, the Barclays Center, put forth as the new home of the New Jersey Nets.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "City Officials to Help Dodgers Get New Stadium and Stay Here.", New York Times, August 18, 1955, Thursday. Retrieved on 2007-08-21. "By his revelation that the Dodgers plan to play seven home games in Jersey City's Roosevelt Stadium next year, Walter F. O'Malley seems to have gained ground toward his goal of building a new ball park for the Dodgers in Brooklyn." 
  2. ^ "Baseball Club Holds Edge in Chavez Ravine Test.", New York Times, June 4, 1958, Wednesday. Retrieved on 2007-08-21. "The proposal to give the Dodgers a 300-acre baseball stadium site in Chavez Ravine appeared to be winning in Los Angeles' municipal election tonight." 
  3. ^ Walter O'Malley. Retrieved on 2007-02-14. “In November 1955, R. Buckminster Fuller and Walter O’Malley peer inside a model of what would have been baseball’s first domed stadium, built in Brooklyn years before the Houston Astrodome opened in 1965.”
  4. ^ "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush", HBO. Retrieved on 2007-08-21. "You're in a room with Hitler, Stalin and Walter O'Malley and you have a gun with two bullets: Who do you shoot? And of course the Dodger fans would say, 'You shoot O'Malley twice.' ... Walter O'Malley is down there in the seventh ring of Dante's Hell on the list of the most vile people of the 20th century. Note: Others defend O'Malley's move, blaming Robert Moses and other New York City officials." 
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