Featuring Citi Field
Mets Citi Field Dramatically Shrinks on Demand
- A Case Study
The original Citi Field of Flushing Meadows, New York, was completed in 2009. It was the realization of a long-time dream - a dream that was backed by a budget of $800 million. In 2009, the Mets had a new home.
Recently, however, changes had to be made to what initially appeared to be the perfect construction project. Apparently, the field was too imposing even for the home team. It had even been called “The Great Wall of Flushing”.
With an overly larger home field, the New York Mets players were having some trouble hitting home runs at their own field, where they should be at an advantage. Pitchers, on the other hand, were not challenged enough. To target improved overall performance and more neutral gameplay, the in-play surface area would have to be reduced by 2%. The outfield wall would be moved in.
The good news was that the renovations reportedly would not require additional financing because Citi Field was built under budget. The changes are expected to enable the Mets' power hitters, such as Jason Bay and Ike Davis, to perform at the top of their game. The reconfiguration would provide an eight-foot tall outfield wall that would be built in front of the 16-foot original left-field wall; the latter could not be removed due to its structural nature. Two rows of additional seats, which numbered at a hundred, will be installed between the original wall and the new wall.
Call in the Wall Padding Pros!
Sports Venue Padding was selected by the Mets to design and manufacture the safety padding for the new outfield wall. It would also provide custom features, through the digital printout of sponsors' ads, the home run line, and the auto wedge gate pads. Sports Venue Padding offered an improvement over typical sponsor ads, which are usually made of vinyl decals. Vinyl decals can end up cracking and peeling even before the baseball season is over. The sports venue specialist also chose to incorporate the team's color palette on the new wall. The new blue wall was also a response to the disappointment and criticism that arose from fans who considered the original field not reflective of Mets' history.
Overall, Sports Venue Padding can be trusted to provide safe, high quality products and dependable customer service. To be successful The Citi Field renovation project needed an experienced padding manufacturer, given the urgency to finish before the 2012 season begins.
To ensure that everything would be set for Opening Day, which was scheduled on April 5, 2012, Sports Venue Padding had to work alongside fencing companies and had to follow the target installation schedule. It also offered not just safety padding installation, but also digital printing. This way, it did not have to work in conjunction with a few other companies that could be working on the field's customization. The Citi Field project packed a lot of pressure because it had a short timetable and possibly had the future of Mets games depending on it.
The New York Mets availed of all the services that Sports Venue Padding can provide, which consisted of design and engineering, actual manufacturing and production, and finally installation, possibly cutting costs and time by doing so. The Mets baseball team says they will choose to turn to the advanced sports padding experts at Sports Venue Padding by Artistic Coverings for additional projects and maintenance services in the future.
