.jpg) Walter O'Malley andBuckminster Fuller examine the model for the stadium in November 1955 | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 40°41′00″N73°58′36″W / 40.68333°N 73.97667°W /40.68333; -73.97667 |
|---|---|
| Owner | Brooklyn Dodgers |
| Operator | Brooklyn Dodgers |
| Capacity | 52,000 |
| Surface | grass |
| Construction | |
| Built | Never built |
| Opened | Would have been opened in 1960 |
| Architect | Buckminster Fuller |
| Tenants | |
| Brooklyn Dodgers | |
TheBrooklyn Sports Center,in retrospect known as theDodger Dome, was a proposed domed stadium for theBrooklyn Dodgers, designed byBuckminster Fuller to replaceEbbets Field. Meant to keep the Dodgers in New York City,[1] it was first announced in the early 1950s. The envisioned structure would have seated 52,000 people and would have been the first domed stadium in the world, opening roughly a decade before Houston'sAstrodome.[2] The Dodgers instead moved toChavez Ravine in Los Angeles.[3]
The unbuilt stadium, inFort Greene, Brooklyn, would have been located at the northeast corner ofFlatbush Avenue andAtlantic Avenue, on the site of theAtlantic Terminal. It would have cost$6 million to build and been privately financed. The general area eventually did become a sports venue, becauseBarclays Center was built across the street to the south from the Atlantic Terminal, in neighboringPacific Park.
The Dodgers were playing at the 32,000-seatEbbets Field. Feeling that the stadium was too small for their needs, they wanted to move to a newer, more modern facility. Dodgers ownerWalter O'Malley wanted to exploit new revenue streams to capitalize on the rabid fans of the Dodgers. O'Malley commissionedNorman Bel Geddes about renovating Ebbets Field and first proposed a dome. He also talked to Buckminster Fuller to design a domed stadium.[citation needed]
New York City Construction CoordinatorRobert Moses wanted to utilize open space inFlushing Meadows,Queens and build a city-owned stadium there for the Dodgers. This plot of land was eventually occupied byShea Stadium and later,Citi Field, the home of theNew York Mets. Moses also opposed the location of the domed stadium since it would have caused significant changes to theNew York City Subway system.[citation needed]
The proposed stadium's failure is a source of debate today, and proved to be an important factor in the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957. Some think O'Malley purposely proposed a stadium that had little chance of being built and that he privately negotiated with the city while publicly touting the merits of the domed stadium. Others suggest that the domed stadium failed because of Moses' uncompromising personality.[4]
TheAtlantic Terminal Mall now stands on the land where the stadium would have been built. Adjacent to the Atlantic Terminal, in the newPacific Park development, isBarclays Center, where theBrooklyn Nets began play in 2012–13; they were joined by theNew York Islanders from 2015 until 2020 and theNew York Liberty in 2020.[5]
The outfield wall would have been the same distance fromhome plate to center field as down thefoul lines (380 feet to all parts of the outfield); in effect, the wall would have formed one-fourth of a truecircle. (This symmetry is found inSouth Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on the fields where theLittle League World Series is played each August.)[citation needed]
By his revelation that the Dodgers plan to play seven home games in Jersey City'sRoosevelt Stadium next year,Walter F. O'Malley seems to have gained ground toward his goal of building a new ball park for the Dodgers in Brooklyn.
In November 1955, R. Buckminster Fuller and Walter O'Malley peer inside a model of what would have been baseball's first domed stadium, built in Brooklyn years before the Houston Astrodome opened in 1965.
The proposal to give the Dodgers a 300-acre baseball stadium site in Chavez Ravine appeared to be winning in Los Angeles' municipal election tonight.
You're in a room with Hitler, Stalin and Walter O'Malley and you have a gun with two bullets: Who[m] do you shoot? And of course the Dodger fans would say, 'You shoot O'Malley twice.' ... Walter O'Malley is down there in the seventh ring ofDante's Hell on the list of the most vile people of the 20th century. Note: Others defend O'Malley's move, blamingRobert Moses and other New York City officials.
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