Editing Shea Stadium (section)

===Planning and construction===
The origins of Shea Stadium go back to the [[Major League Baseball relocation of 1950s–60s|relocations]] of the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] and [[New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]] in 1957, which left New York without a [[National League (baseball)|National League]] baseball team.

Prior to the Dodgers' departure, [[New York City]] official [[Robert Moses]] tried to interest owner [[Walter O'Malley]] in the site as the location for a [[Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium|new stadium]], but O'Malley refused, unable to agree on location, ownership, and lease terms. O'Malley preferred to pay construction costs himself so he could own the stadium outright. He wanted total control over revenue from parking, concessions, and other events.

New York City, in contrast, wanted to build the stadium, rent it, and retain the ancillary revenue rights to pay off its construction bonds.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walteromalley.com/docu_detail.php?gallery=1&set=17&pageNum=1&docuID=133|title=Historic Documents: September 12, 1957 – September 7, 1962|work=walteromalley.com|access-date=February 20, 2010|archive-date=December 19, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219074254/http://www.walteromalley.com/docu_detail.php?gallery=1&set=17&pageNum=1&docuID=133|url-status=dead}}</ref> Additionally, O'Malley wanted to build his new stadium in Brooklyn, while Moses insisted on Flushing Meadows. When Los Angeles offered O'Malley what New York City would not—complete ownership of a stadium—he left for southern California in a preemptive bid to install the Dodgers there before a new or existing major league franchise could beat him to it. At the same time, [[Horace Stoneham]] moved his New York Giants from [[Manhattan]]'s [[Polo Grounds]] to [[San Francisco]] (although he originally considered moving them to [[Minneapolis]]), ensuring that there would be two National League teams in California, and preserving the [[Dodgers–Giants rivalry|long standing rivalry]] with the Dodgers that continues to this day.

In {{mlby|1960}}, the National League agreed to grant an expansion franchise to the owners of the New York franchise in the abortive [[Continental League]], provided that a new stadium be built. [[Mayor of New York City|Mayor]] [[Robert F. Wagner Jr.]] had to personally wire all National League owners and assure them that the city would build a stadium.

Unlike O'Malley, the owners of the franchise that would eventually become the Mets felt Queens was the logical home for their new team's ballpark. From the outset, they wanted to secure the loyalties of both Dodgers and Giants fans, and feared a team in Manhattan or Brooklyn would be seen as a ''de facto'' revival of the respective borough's former franchise, thus possibly alienating fans in the other borough. A club playing in Flushing Meadows (located roughly the same distance from Manhattan and Brooklyn) would not only likely avoid the same perception, but presumably capture the loyalty of fans in Queens as well, thus potentially confining support for the [[New York Yankees]] of the [[American League]] to their home borough of [[The Bronx]] on the mainland.

Nevertheless, Moses and [[William A. Shea]], the New York lawyer who had led the effort to bring [[National League (baseball)|National League]] baseball back to New York, faced a problem. New York state law of the time did not allow cities to borrow money in order to build a stadium. The only way for the city to finance a stadium would be to demonstrate that the stadium could pay for itself. With this in mind, Moses and Shea proposed to have the new team pay substantial rent in order to pay off 30-year bonds. This provision would come back to haunt the Mets years later; they would never live up to that monetary commitment, and the ensuing financial woes would be an albatross around the team for years.<ref name=SABRMets>{{cite web|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/new-york-mets-team-ownership-history/|title=New York Mets team ownership history|author1=Leslie Heaphy|publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|date=2017}}</ref>

On October 6, 1961, the Mets signed a 30-year stadium lease,<ref>{{citation|title=Mets Lease New Park|agency=Associated Press|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=000fAAAAIBAJ&pg=5543,1094365&dq=new+york+mets&hl=en|newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|date=October 7, 1961|access-date=June 3, 2014}}</ref> with an option for a 10-year renewal. Rent for what was originally budgeted as a $9 million facility was set at $450,000 annually, with a reduction of $20,000 each year until it reached $300,000 annually.

In their inaugural season in [[1962 New York Mets season|1962]], the expansion Mets played in the Polo Grounds, sharing the facility with the [[New York Jets|New York Titans]] of the upstart [[American Football League]] which had begun play in 1960. The original plans were for both teams to move to a new stadium in [[1963 New York Mets season|1963]]. In October 1962, Mets official Tom Meany said, "Only a series of blizzards or some other unforeseen trouble might hamper construction."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://metsfantasycards.blogspot.com/2013/08/|title = Shea Stadium History Pt. One- the House That Shea Built: 1964–1980|date = August 31, 2013}}</ref> That unforeseen trouble surfaced in a number of ways: the severe winter of 1962–1963, along with the bankruptcies of two subcontractors and labor issues. The result was that both the Mets and the football team (by then renamed the Jets) were forced to play at the Polo Grounds for one more year.

[[File:Shea Stadium 1964.png|left|thumb|220px|<!--A game at-->Shea during its inaugural [[1964 New York Mets season|1964 season]]]]
It was originally to be called "Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium"<ref name=lmtrdbk>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bd9iAAAAIBAJ&pg=4010%2C4671795 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |agency=(AP photo) |title=Ground breaking for new stadium |date=October 31, 1961 |page=8}}</ref><ref name=tinge>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3bBeAAAAIBAJ&pg=6095%2C2309587 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |agency=Associated Press |title=Tinge of Brooklyn marked ground breaking for stadium |date=December 14, 1961 |page=16 }}</ref><ref name="fmpms">[http://i36.tinypic.com/vcqnnk.jpg Scanned image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030122117/http://i36.tinypic.com/vcqnnk.jpg |date=October 30, 2008 }} of the groundbreaking ceremony in which it is named Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium.</ref> – the name of [[Flushing Meadows–Corona Park|the public park]] within which it was built – but an ultimately successful movement was launched to name it in honor of Shea.<ref name=open/>