_(16664520452).jpg) Downing Stadium during the1964 U.S. Olympic track and field trials | |
 Interactive map of Downing Stadium | |
| Former names | Randall's Island Stadium (1936–1948) Triborough Stadium (1948–1955) |
|---|---|
| Location | New York City,New York |
| Owner | New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |
| Capacity | 22,000 |
| Surface | grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1935 |
| Built | 1935–1936 |
| Opened | July 11, 1936 (1936-07-11) |
| Closed | 2002; 23 years ago (2002) |
| Architect | Robert Moses |
| Tenants | |
| New York Yankees (AFL II) (some games, 1936–1937) Negro league games (1936–1940) Olympic trials (1936–1964) New York Yankees/Americans (AFL III) (some games 1940–1941) Brooklyn Dodgers (CFL) (1966) New York Stars (WFL) (1974) New York Cosmos (NASL) (1974–1975) New York Centaurs (A-League) (1995) New York United (ASL) (1981) Several concerts (1938–2002) | |
Downing Stadium, previously known asTriborough Stadium andRandall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seatstadium onRandalls Island inNew York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at theNew York City Department of Parks and Recreation.[1][2] It was demolished in 2002 and the currentIcahn Stadium was built on the site.
Built onRandalls Island in theEast River as aWPA project, 15,000 attendees witnessedJesse Owens compete at the stadium in theMen's Olympic Trials on July 11, 1936, the opening night of the new facility.[3][4] Downing Stadium also hosted theWomen's Olympic Trials in 1964.[1] Later the stadium hosted the1991 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The stadium was also used as a filming site for aSesame Street segment about The Flashettes girls track team.[citation needed]
Triborough Stadium served as one of two home stadiums of thesecond AFL teamNew York Yankees (along withYankee Stadium) in1936 and1937. The first televisedAmerican football game was held at Triborough on September 30, 1939, asFordham took on Waynesburg. It was for many years the home of the Stuyvesant High School Peglegs and the Cardinal Hayes High School football teams.
NYU's football team also played its last two seasons at Triborough in 1951 and 1952.[5]
In 1966, theContinental Football League'sBrooklyn Dodgers, unable to find a suitable field in Brooklyn (Ebbets Field had been torn down in 1960), played their home games at Downing. (Coincidentally, the football Dodgers wound up playing under the same lights used at Ebbets, as they had been moved to Randalls Island upon the older stadium's destruction.)[6] The club would play only three games at Downing before the league took over the franchise and shifted their remaining home games elsewhere. Eight years later, Downing Stadium became the home of theNew York Stars of theWFL;[7] like the Dodgers, the Stars left the stadium before the season ended, shifting toCharlotte.
Randalls Island was the site of three international soccer matches: the US team playedScotland on Randalls Island on June 19, 1949, with the Scots winning, 4–0, with 17,000 in attendance;[8] on May 27, 1964, theEnglish squad crushed the Americans, 10–0, in front of just 5,062 fans.[9] Another friendly match took place in 1965 between the Argentine teamCA Independiente, winners of the1965 Copa Libertadores, and Spanish giantsReal Madrid, five times champion of theEuropean Cup at the time. The teams drew 1–1 in front of 12,000 people.[10]
A friendly held at the stadium in July 1973 betweenHaiti andMillonarios ofColombia was delayed for more than two hours and forty five minutes by Haitian exiles protesting against theDuvalier regime. At one point, Haitian managerAntoine Tassy took his team to the dressing room and said that they were going home. He later made a call toHaitian Football Federation president Claude Raymond who told him to resume the match, if possible. Then, Serge Charles, a high-ranking member of the Haitian delegation to theUnited Nations, arrived and made another call to Raymond, and the Haitians agreed to go back on the field. Police arrived and cordoned off the field.[11]
TheNew York Cosmos of theNASL moved to Downing in 1974. On June 15, 1975,Pelé made his NASL debut against theDallas Tornado with 21,567 spectators in attendance and a national television audience onCBS.[12] The stadium's condition was derided by team staff and television commentators; prior to Pelé's debut match, the field had broken glass and other litter that was cleared before green paint was added to improve its appearance for television audiences. The locker room roof had holes that were patched hours before.[13] In 1976, the Cosmos moved out, back toYankee Stadium (where they had spent their debut season in 1971); for years afterward, the words "COSMOS SOCCER" remained on the stadium to be seen from the nearby highway viaduct on theTriborough Bridge. Downing's last pro soccer tenant were theNew York Centaurs of theA-League in 1995.
The site was considered for a 48,000-seat capacitysoccer specific stadium, based on the design of theCity of Manchester Stadium, had theNew York City bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics been successful. The plan was shelved when New York lost out toLondon.
The stadium was also used for someNegro league baseball games in the 1930s; it was the home of theNew York Black Yankees in 1938.
The stadium also played host to therugby footballNew ZealandAll Blacks several times, in the course of larger tours to Europe. They last played a New York Metropolitan selection in October 1972, beating their hosts 41–9.[14]
| Date | Teams | Match Type | Attendance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 21, 1972 |  New Zealand 41–9 New York Metropolitan | 1972–73 New Zealand Tour | [14] | |
| September 9, 1989 | Ireland XV  32–7 United States | 1989 Ireland Tour | [15] |
In October 1997, Downing played host to aGaelic football match betweenCavan andKerry; the game was moved to New York in order to commemorate the1947 All Ireland Final between the same teams played at thePolo Grounds.[16]
In May 1989, Downing hosted a number of internationalcricket players fromPakistan andIndia. They played a 40-over exhibition match, the first in a three-game US series which Pakistan won 2-1.[17]
The "North America Cup", as it was known, continued the following May. In 1990,Pakistan playedAustralia, with many regular international cricketers participating from both countries. Australia won the match by 5 runs.[18]
In 1938, the stadium hosted theCarnival of Swing, one of the first large outdoor jazz festivals.
In August 1968, the New York Jazz Festival took place at Downing Stadium. Performers includedRay Charles,Miles Davis,Dizzy Gillespie,Miriam Makeba, andMongo Santamaria.[19]
On August 31, 1968, T.P. Productions presented N.Y. City Fun Festival at Downing, which included performances bySam & Dave,Stevie Wonder,Wilson Pickett,B.B. King,Arthur Conley,Big Maybelle, andthe Mirettes.[20]
After the triumph ofWoodstock the previous year, the three-day New York Pop Festival tried to re-create its success in New York City, opening on Randalls Island on July 17, 1970. Unfortunately, the concert was a bust, as half the big name lineup failed to show up (althoughJimi Hendrix performed a memorable set). What is more, the festival was picketed by several radical groups: some of the protesters demanded that a portion of the ticket sales go to worthy causes (even threatening the box office), while others wanted everyone to get in free. (This was partially accomplished when thousands of concert-goers literally crashed through the gates.)[21]
Once the stadium stopped being a major sports venue, Downing was used largely for concerts, serving as a venue forrock concerts such asLollapalooza in 1994,Pearl Jam in 1996, and theTibetan Freedom Concert in 1997.
The stadium was torn down in 2002 in order to be replaced by a newer, smaller complex,Icahn Stadium, which was completed in 2004. This facility is used primarily fortrack and field.
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40°47′38″N73°55′27″W / 40.79389°N 73.92417°W /40.79389; -73.92417
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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