Mets Casino: Owners Reportedly Wanted Gambling Site Near Citi Field

The Mets owners reportedly wanted a casino to be built next to Citi Field, but were turned down in their bid to combine baseball and gambling by the Bloomberg administration.

Sterling Equities, the parent company of the New York Mets, proposed a “a massive casino with gaming tables and slots,” the New York Post reported. The casino would also come with a 500-room hotel and 1.8 million square feet of retail space.

The Mets casino proposal was more than just a pipe dream, CBS New York pointed out. Fred Wilpon & Co. offered $100 million for the 62-acre site, and the company had the Shinnecock Indian Nation on board to operate the casino.

Bloomberg has proposed plans for the site near Citi Field, but it does not include a casino.

“The submission that included a gaming use was quickly dismissed as unviable,” a New York City Economic Development Corporation spokesman told the Post. “A different plan is now moving through the approvals process for a project that will create a dynamic new destination, hundreds of units of affordable housing, and thousands of jobs.”

There appears to be an opening for the Mets casino proposal to return, should the companies still be interested. The Bloomberg administration reportedly turned down the team’s owners because city officials believed the government approval process would take too long.

But that might be coming to an end. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature are considering a constitutional amendment to bring legalized casino gambling to the state, and have cited the location near Citi Field as a good possibility.

The Mets casino proposal would likely need the permission of Major League Baseball to have a gambling site linked to the team.