Citi Field

Citi Field is a baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, in the borough of Queens, New York City, United States. Opened in 2009, Citi Field is the home of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. The ballpark was built as a replacement for the adjacent Shea Stadium, which had been demolished shortly before Citi Field's opening. Citi Field was designed by the company Populous. The $850 million baseball park was funded with $615 million in public subsidies, including the sale of New York City municipal bonds that are to be repaid by the Mets with interest. The payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park. The first game at Citi Field was on March 29, 2009, with a college baseball game between the St. John's Red Storm and Georgetown Hoyas. The Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and 4, 2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular-season home game was played on April 13, 2009, against the San Diego Padres. Citi Field hosted the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, marking the second time the Mets have hosted the event (the first being in 1964, the inaugural season of Shea Stadium). The naming rights were purchased by Citigroup, a New York financial services company, for $20 million annually.