(Newsday posted the following article by Samuel Bruchey on its website on June 24.)
NEW YORK — With the sizzling Mets drawing big summer crowds to home games and construction set to begin on a new ballpark for the team, transit officials are urging the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to explore new ways for Long Islanders to get to Shea Stadium without having to drive.
MTA spokesman Tim O’Brien said over the last two months the agency has been looking into the feasibility of building a Long Island Rail Road station on the main line at Shea and could announce its findings as soon as June 28 when the MTA board meets.
Right now, Mets fans who take the railroad to Shea — about 25 percent of Mets tickets are purchased by Long Islanders — must get off at Woodside, Queens. From there, they take the Port Washington LIRR train, which goes to the stadium, or the number 7 subway.
“It shouldn’t be so difficult to see a game,” said MTA board member Mitchell Pally.
It is not lost on Mets fans that the MTA has said it will spend $40 million on a new Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. In April, Pally wrote a letter to MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp asking that the Mets receive equal treatment to their crosstown rivals.
“The lack of direct rail services [to Shea] for a large portion of the Long Island population forces them to use their automobiles to and from the stadium, causing substantial traffic congestion,” Pally’s letter states.
Complicating access to Shea via train is that parking at every stop along the Port Washington line is reserved for residents only. So a fan who wants to drive to a stop along that line and take the train directly to Shea isn’t able to park.
Mets fan Helen Germanakos, 44, said her husband, Lou, and sons, Peter, 15, and Dean, 19, drive to several games each season, always leaving homes several hours before the first pitch.
“I would be more willing to put my younger son on the train if I knew he didn’t have to take the subway,” said Germanakos, of Syosset. “It would make life much easier, just to get on and be able to go directly there.”
The Mets are in first place in the National League East and attendance at Shea is up about 15 percent, with the team on pace to draw more than 3 million fans this season. Last year’s attendance was 2.8 million. Approximately 4 to 5 percent of those fans take the LIRR.
When construction begins this summer on the new stadium, parking will become an even bigger problem. By August, as many as 2,000 parking spots — about 25 percent of the available ones — will be lost, said Dave Howard, executive vice president of business operations for the Mets. The new stadium is scheduled to open in 2009.
Many of the lost spots will be temporarily replaced, Howard said. But the replacement spots will be farther from the stadium, requiring fans to walk several minutes or take a free shuttle service provided by the Mets organization, Howard said.
“We’re going to try to minimize most of the inconvenience,” Howard said.
For some fans, that inconvenience is well worth a new stadium — not to mention having a winning team.
“Who cares if there’s no place to park, we’re getting a new stadium!” said Scott Resnik, 32, of Mastic. “And, we’re in first place. It’s all fine by me.”