The Dodgers were playing at the 32,000-seat
Ebbets Field. Feeling that the stadium was too small for their needs, they wanted to move to a newer, more modern facility. Dodgers owner
Walter O'Malley wanted to exploit new revenue streams to capitalize on the rabid fans of the Dodgers. O'Malley commissioned
Norman Bel Geddes about renovating Ebbets Field and first proposed a dome. He also talked to Buckminster Fuller to design a domed stadium. New York City Construction Coordinator
Robert Moses wanted to utilize open space in
Flushing Meadows,
Queens and build a city-owned stadium there for the Dodgers. This plot of land was eventually occupied by
Shea Stadium and later,
Citi Field, the home of the
New York Mets. Moses also opposed the location of the domed stadium since it would have caused significant changes to the
New York City Subway system. The proposed stadium's failure is a source of debate today, and proved to be an important factor in the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957. Some think O'Malley purposely proposed a stadium that had little chance of being built and that he privately negotiated with the city while publicly touting the merits of the domed stadium. Others suggest that the domed stadium failed because of Moses' uncompromising personality. The
Atlantic Terminal Mall now stands on the land where the stadium would have been built. Adjacent to the Atlantic Terminal, in the new
Pacific Park development, is
Barclays Center, where the
Brooklyn Nets began play in 2012–13; they were joined by the
New York Islanders from 2015 until 2020 and the
New York Liberty in 2020. The outfield wall would have been the same distance from
home plate to center field as down the
foul lines (380 feet to all parts of the outfield); in effect, the wall would have formed one-fourth of a true
circle. (This symmetry is found in
South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on the fields where the
Little League World Series is played each August.) ==References==