Opening day sees varying expectations for Mets and owner’s casino wishes

The New York Mets played their first game of the 2024 season at Citi Field on Friday, March 29, 2024. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

There were two sets of varying expectations resting on the shoulders of the New York Mets and their owner as the team kicked off its 2024 baseball season in Queens on Friday.

The Mets lost their opener on Friday, falling 3-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers. General consensus around the sport has the Mets finishing with a middling 80 wins by the end of the year – Mets owner Steve Cohen, who initially promised a World Series trophy in the three to five years after buying the team in 2020, has not said much to counter that prediction.

But while not much is expected of the team’s on-field play this year, that’s not the case for the organization’s front office. There, new general manager and lifetime Mets fan David Stearns has begun on his attempt to reshape the organization from the ground up, turning the franchise that’s only notched two World Series victories into a perennial playoff team.

But the biggest gamble on the future of the organization is one unrelated to the team entirely, and comes from Cohen himself, who is competing with a dozen other developers to nab one of the state’s three downstate casino licenses so that he can build a $8 billion casino and entertainment complex on Citi Field’s parking lot. Supporters of the project, including a slew of local business leaders, labor unions and several elected officials, expect that Cohen will not only be allowed to build his proposal, but that it will bring unprecedented economic benefit to an area that is slated for a major revitalization over the next decade.

However, neither the team’s expected mediocre season, its general manager’s grand plan nor its owner’s casino dreams were set in stone on Friday. Mets stars Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo could play at their highest levels and lead the team to at least a Wild Card spot in the playoffs – several Mets fans who spoke with the Eagle on Friday even floated World Series hopes. And turning around an entire franchise isn’t an exact science, despite what the Ivy League grad Stearns and his ilk running front offices throughout baseball might have one believe.

As for Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund owner not only faces competing bids for the coveted casino license, he also faces a string of land use hurdles, a growing group of locals vehemently opposed to the project, the demands of several local elected officials – one of whom could tank the project on her own – and a fanbase that may be less willing to support his lucrative casino pursuit if a winning team doesn’t hit the baseball diamond soon.

On opening day, expectations are at their most extreme. But what plays out over the course of a season is often far less predictable.

Playing the odds

The expectation was that the Mets would open their 2024 season on Thursday. An all-day rainstorm in New York City on Thursday thwarted those plans, pushing the Amazin’s opening day to Friday.

And just as the Mets’ opening day game was pushed back, the official start of the race to obtain one of the state’s three downstate casino licenses was also recently delayed.

Last week, the state’s Gaming Commission said that it wouldn't issue the licenses until at least the end of 2025 – licenses were previously expected to be handed out sometime between late 2024 or mid-2025.

The commission said that behind the delay was a desire to allow time for several applicants to resolve potential complex land use or zoning issues. Among those applicants is Cohen, whose project is proposed for a plot of land currently housing Citi Field’s parking lot.

The land is owned by the city and leased to the Mets. It’s also technically designated as parkland.

In order to build the casino and entertainment complex built on the land, Cohen will need Corona’s local state senator and state assemblymember to pass what is known as a “parkland alienation” bill.

Assemblymember Jeffirion Aubry, the longtime representative of the Western Queens neighborhood set to retire at the end of the year, attempted to pass such a bill in the lower legislative house last year. Senator Jessica Ramos has yet to introduce the legislation and after holding three town halls on the project, has yet to announce which way she’s leaning.

There may also be a zoning hurdle faced on a more local level.

Currently advancing its way through the city’s review process is a set of rules that would define how the city reviews zoning changes sought by casino developers.

Because of the particulars of the Citi Field proposal, it’s unclear if Cohen’s casino plan would be subject to the review process.

Mets owner Steve Cohen, who is attempting to build a casino on Citi Field’s parking lot. AP file photo by Mary Altaffer

However, if it will be, it will likely be aided by local City Councilmember Francisco Moya, who, after remaining nearly silent on the project since it was first proposed over a year ago, said on Thursday that he strongly supports Cohen’s project.

“I wholeheartedly believe that Metropolitan Park is in Queens' and New York City's best interest,” Moya said in a lengthy statement issued Thursday.

The local councilmember, who is also an ardent supporter of a separate plan to build a soccer stadium across the street from Citi Field, said that he’d push the state to allow the casino project to move forward. He also said that he would commit to advance “any and all other required actions, including any zoning, land use and Gaming Commission required approvals.”

“If we fail to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, we ensure that the area around Citi Field remains underutilized parking lots for the foreseeable future; and we permanently stymie the future growth potential of Queens,” Moya said. “Let's not allow that to happen.”

Moya said he came around to the project after Cohen said the proposal would create 11,000 union construction jobs, promised to offer local organizations opportunities at the new complex and because of a “commitment to complement and enhance current projects in the area” – New York City Football Club, which will occupy the nearby soccer stadium come 2027, and the Mets are currently in negotiations over whether or not the soccer team will be allowed to use Citi Field’s parking lot during game days.

The councilmember also said his support for the project came after Cohen held a number of “visioning sessions” for Queens residents to weigh in on the project and met with local leaders about it.

But Ramos said in response to Moya’s statement that she’s grown dubious of Cohen and Metropolitan Park’s community engagement efforts, and accused the group of attempting to manipulate public sentiment about the project on several occasions.

“I question the strategy here,” Ramos said in a statement to the Eagle on Thursday.

“This press release, the last minute press conference before my third town hall, the paid canvassers at my first town hall – these are not the open and transparent moves that I would expect from someone claiming to value real, honest community engagement,” the state senator added.

In response to Moya’s support, a spokesperson for Metropolitan Park said: “We are proud to partner with Councilmember Moya on Metropolitan Park and look forward to working closely with him as we transform this area into a space that both the fans and the community can be proud of.”

In addition to the casino, the plan for Metropolitan Park includes building a hotel, 20 acres of new park space, a live music venue, a food hall, bars, restaurants, public athletic fields and several parking garages in the immediate 50-acre area surrounding the baseball stadium.

Ramos is expected to make her decision on the parkland alienation bill in the coming months

State Senator Jessica Ramos takes in opening day at Citi Field on Friday, March 29, 2024. Ramos has the power to make or break Mets owner Steve Cohen’s plan to build a casino on Citi Field’s parking lot. Photo via Ramos/X

Mets fans awaiting entry to Citi Field on Friday who spoke with the Eagle were split on the project.

Dee Matos, a Queens resident preparing to take in opening day with his sister and two friends, said that he’s hoping the project doesn’t come to fruition. He said he was mostly concerned with the potential increased traffic the casino will bring to his home borough.

“Put it in Jersey, or somewhere else,” he said.

But others were more open to it.

“I usually lose most of my money on the Mets, anyway,” said Jim Derenches, who drove to Queens from his home in Long Island on Friday. “Might as well just put it all on black.”

“It’s a coin toss – just like opening day,” Derenches, who described his expectations for the coming Mets season as “very low,” added. “But the odds are against us.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Steve Cohen’s Metropolitan Park proposal would cost $3 billion. That is incorrect. It is an $8 billion project.