When Steve and Alex Cohen purchased the Mets for a record-setting $2.4 billion in 2020, the owners made two things abundantly clear.
First, Steve Cohen said that he would be disappointed if the Mets did not win a championship within his first three to five years of ownership. And second, Cohen has stated that he wants to develop the area around Citi Field into an entertainment area anchored by a casino. So far, neither objective seems close to being attained.
Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
We all know about the pursuit of a championship. Three seasons into ownership, the Cohens have one playoff appearance that resulted in a quick October exit. They also posted the highest payroll the game has ever seen in 2023, only to do an abrupt about-face in late July, selling off veteran players at the trade deadline and using financial leverage to acquire high-level prospects. The Mets are looking at a 2024 season (year four of ownership) for which they have to re-build at least a third of their roster, already stating that they’re out of the top-tier free agent market, committed to building “brick by brick.”
The entertainment area/casino plan (named “Metropolitan Park” with a price tag of $8 billion) comes in and out of the news. Earlier in November, NYMag published an article by Andrew Rice, in which the author provided a rundown of where the Cohen land-development idea currently stands.
Let’s start with the end. There is a long way to go before the area around Citi Field can be developed into a top-class entertainment area with a casino. There are many reasons for this. Perhaps the most prominent is that the state of New York plans to allow three casinos to be built in New York City (to realize billions in revenue for the state) in the coming years, and there is significant competition for where those casinos will go and who will own them.
Jay-Z and real-estate firm SL Green want to build a casino in Times Square at the former site of the MTV studios. A firm called Related is proposing a plan for a casino in the Hudson Yards area, and the company that owns Saks Fifth Avenue is submitting a plan to have a casino in the top three floors of the iconic retailer’s location in Manhattan. As one might imagine, there are also bids for a full casino to complement the racetrack at Aqueduct.
Another challenge Cohen faces is that there are other plans for use of the land around Citi Field, one such plan calls for a school, a soccer stadium (that would share parking lots with the Mets), and affordable housing. According to the article, Cohen feels that his plan can co-exist with this one, but he may be withholding his agreement to share the parking lots until those advocating this plan (including Mayor Eric Adams) agree to back his development idea.
To complicate the matter further, environmental groups are opposed to development in the area, citing the propensity for flooding and the potential consequences that may cause.
How is Cohen, who does not back down from a challenge, facing the obstacles in his way? He’s selling, and selling hard. He has hired an architecture firm named “SHoP” that has meticulously rendered how the area could look. That plan is shown to politicians and community leaders at every opportunity. Cohen routinely invites influential people to Mets games, and brings them to Citi Field during the offseason. Some are impressed, others are less easily swayed.
From the NYMag article:
(Queens borough president Donovan) Richards says Cohen impressed him with his efforts at community engagement, which have been led by lobbyist Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, a former City Council member whose district included Willets Point. She has run the community forums at Citi Field, which Sully told me had yielded an overwhelming consensus. “They want good-paying jobs,” Sully said. “They want jobs with upward mobility. They want jobs with job training, and they want jobs with child care for people who need it. Jobs, jobs, jobs.” A casino would create construction jobs, hospitality jobs, card-dealing jobs — and all of them union jobs.
(State Senator Jessica) Ramos’s position gave her the power to determine whether the casino would be built. While Aubry had introduced the alienation legislation that Cohen needed, for it to become law she had to put forward a counterpart bill in the State Senate. “I’m deeply skeptical,” she told me when we met at an Ecuadoran restaurant in Corona one afternoon in September, “and I have a lot of needs.” For starters, she said she was seeking a firm commitment on the use of union labor and a binding agreement that would hold Cohen to his promises of community benefits.
Ramos, 38, has aspirations that are larger than Queens; there is speculation that she is thinking of running for mayor against Adams. She told me that Cohen’s lobbying team had been pestering her to take a politically charged position before she was ready. “I do resent the pressure,” Ramos said. Actually, she seemed to be enjoying the opportunity to bat around the billionaire like a cat with a ball of string.
Local politicians and civic leaders may have an influence, but the decision on which areas get casinos will be made at the state level, including governor Kathy Hochul. Cohen is trying to win two battles simultaneously.
While it would be nice if the area around Citi Field had more to offer, as is the case in many other cities, here’s hoping that Cohen focuses on the “team-on-the-field” battle for now. Once he gets that one right, Mets fans probably will not care much about Citi Field’s surroundings.
