The billionaire owner of Major League New York City baseball team, the Mets, is attempting to leverage land for a potential future NYC casino. Steve Cohen has not agreed to a potential deal in which fans of New York City FC could park at the Mets’ Citi Field when attending soccer games at the future Willets Point stadium.
Cohen is, instead, holding out to win one of only three available Big Apple casino licenses, which will be awarded sometime next year. The May/June issue of Gaming America covers the New York City casino bid process in greater detail.
Willets Point stadium is only part of a development project by Queens Development Group, as the plans also include an affordable housing apartment building and a school. The apartments will be located across from the Mets’ stadium and ready for occupancy by 2026.
The Mets and NYCFC have overlapping seasons and the teams will have to coordinate on parking and land use as soon as Cohen is willing. Queens Development Group’s planning documents state, “parking for attendees of events at the soccer-specific stadium would be … at spaces surrounding Citi Field, via an agreement with the Mets.”
Cohen leases Citi Field’s property from the city of New York and has not yet signed this agreement. He would need to employ park alienation, a state-authorized procedure, in order to actually build a casino on Citi Field’s parking lot, as it is legally considered parkland.
An alienation bill was introduced in March with a view to making the potential casino into a reality. All 14 members of a local council polled by local newspaper The City were opposed to a casino at Citi Field, even after lobbying efforts by Cohen.
