Fixing Citi Field: 5 Action Items

Here at Y2K we're all about a bias to action. We see problems and we want to be part of the solutions.

That's why, when Jeff Wilpon asked, I could hardly refuse offering my top five actionable suggestions for enhancing Citi Field.

Let me be clear: I think Citi Field has a lot going for it. As a physical structure, as something you behold from the parking lot or the 7 train or the vantage point of a Goodyear blimp, it's a beautiful presence.

What needs fixing is what's under the hood. It all comes back to the same complaint that's been registered since the day Citi Field opened for business: to look at it you'd never know the Mets played there.

As an organization, the Mets seem to be sensitive to this charge; at the All Star Break the team mounted its championship banners on the wall in left center field, a welcome change.

What I'd like to do here is make suggestions for 5 other "welcome changes" that the Mets could implement. Some of these suggestions are novel, others you've heard before elsewhere; either way, I've then ranked each of them on a 1-10 scale of feasibility -- 1 being extremely difficult to implement, 10 being extremely easy to implement.

So without further ado and in no particular order:

1. Murals, placards, neon lights... Do something with the stairwells.

Exiting and entering the stadium or just walking between levels it never going to be anyone's highlight of going out to a ballgame. But as it is, the stairwells between levels are about the most depressing places at Citi Field.

They don't have to be. Rather than seeing Fuhrer-bunker gray all around you, why not do something with the vast swaths of empty wall?

Remember those massive placard photographs they had hanging around Shea Stadium, the ones with pictures of Casey or Piazza or the '86 Mets celebrating? Those pictures meant something to the fans; we'll never have the history of the Yankees, but those pictures told you you were part of something, something that had its own charm and mystique.

Not feeling the pictures? Why not use the neon light player cutouts that used to be on Shea's exterior? Or why not let school children come in and paint murals of happy children at the ballpark (like we had in the stairwell at my school growing up)?

The possibilities are limitless, and it might be the easiest possible upgrade out there. But please, ANYTHING would be better than what we have now.

Feasibility rating: 9.

2. Give the Security guards and field attendants blue, orange, white, or black parkas... anything but Phillie maroon.

This one is so obvious it hurts. When I ask who in the Mets organization is ensuring quality control, ask who the person is that signs off on all the key decisions, these are the things I'm wondering about.

Who in their right mind would have authorized the field attendents at the Mets' ballpark to wear the color of their biggest rival? It boggles the mind.

But put that aside. This is an easy fix. The Mets have not one, not two, not three, but four (!!) uniform colors to choose from. Personally my vote would be for blue-based parkas, but blue, orange, black (it's slimming!) or white, the only way they can go wrong on this one is if they keep it the way it is.

Feasibility rating: 10.

3. Make "Shea Club" boxes.

The Mets have 38 seating categories, including the Big Apple Reserved, Empire Party Suites, Caesars Club, Metropolitan Box Gold, and, of course, Ebbets Club.

The fact that there is no Shea Club is inexplicable. The Mets called Shea Stadium home for 44 years, what other criteria exists for getting a suite named in your honor?

More than semantics, it would tell the fans that you respect the place of Bill Shea and Shea Stadium in the team's history. Indeed, Bill Shea is the sine qua non of the entire organization -- he deserves that respect.

Particularly in light of the Ebbets Club (note, there is no Polo Grounds Club), the lack of a club in Bill Shea's honor is kind of disgraceful.

Feasibility rating: 10.

4. Establish a museum on the history of National League baseball in New York.

In a sense, this would be the ideal way to enter the ballpark. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda, while beautiful, doesn't feel entirely right today, and will feel even more bizarre years from now as more and more people with a memory of the Brooklyn Dodgers pass.

If you could have a do-over, a rotunda commemorating the history of National League baseball in New York would be, to my mind, a really powerful way to enter the stadium.

But what's done is done. I still think an installation on the history of NL ball in New York would be a really cool addition to Citi Field.

For one thing, it would give the New York Giants their due. No matter what the Wilpons might want to believe, the heritage of the team contains the Giants as well as the Dodgers, and as a fan of the Mets, I'm intereted in that history, too.

But more importantly it would create a living, breathing space to commemorate the history of the Mets. Again, there's a really compelling story there, one that Mets fans want to know about.

Is it possible? Good question. I wonder if some of the office space in right center field could be converted into this museum. If there's a way to do it the Mets should look into it.

Feasibility rating: 4 (?).

5. Please, paints the seats blue and orange and the outfield walls blue.

In my role as a blogger I often have to look for pictures of Mets players. What strikes me as I look through the options presented on Google images is there's a major difference between pictures of the Mets at Shea and pictures of them at Citi Field.

When you look at a picture of a Met at Shea (one of him swinging the bat or high fiving another player), you can tell he's at the Mets' home park. There's blue on the walls all around him, and the seats you can see through the fans are orange. You know immediately. It's home.

With none of those flourishes, Citi Field does not immediately situate you in the home of the Mets. Really, it could be any team's ballpark, the Mets just happen to play there.

Come to think of it, that's the source of this entire exercise to begin with.

Feasibility: 10.

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So there you have it, my top 5 ways to enhance Citi Field. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Did I leave any great ideas off the list? Curious as always for your thoughts.

- A.F.O.M.G.