Mets Announce Series Of Changes At Citi Field For '10 Season

Citi Field Changes Are Designed To Embrace The Mets' History

Mets officials have announced a series of changes at Citi Field for '10 "designed to embrace the team's history," according to Adam Rubin of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. The team is "responding to a fan backlash that the inaugural season at Citi Field embraced the team's Brooklyn Dodgers predecessors and ignored the club's own" past. The right-center field bridge now will be called "Shea Bridge" after William Shea, for whom the team's former ballpark is named. Other areas of the ballpark "will be named after Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver." Citi Field "already has an Ebbets Club, the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and a facade based on the Dodgers' old Brooklyn home." The Mets also "confirmed plans for a revitalized Mets Hall of Fame and Museum adjacent to the Rotunda" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/22). In N.Y., Bart Hubbuch noted Citi Field's stairwells are "being painted blue and orange, more team logos are being placed inside the stadium and the front of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda will be festooned with banners honoring former Mets greats and blue and orange flowers." The Mets admitted that the changes are "mostly the result of a loud outcry by fans during Citi Field's debut season over the lack of franchise history" (N.Y. POST, 11/22).