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Originally Posted by Mark Padgett
Watched the cable special "The Ghosts of Flatbush". It's clips were somewhat redundant but it told me something I didn't know about the Dodgers moving to La-la-land.
If Walter O'Malley could have convinced NY city planner Robert Moses to condemn some rundown buildings in Brooklyn, O'Malley would have built a new domed stadium and the Dodgers would not have moved. Moses wouldn't do it - not because the buildings didn't qualify - but because he wanted to see a new stadium built in Queens instead.
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Actually where O'Malley wanted to put that stadium was in Prospect Heights and building the stadium there would have resulted in a pretty big urban redevelopment plan. At that time there was nothing but open space in Flushing Meadows, both Shea Stadium and the '62 World's Fair were built on the grounds Moses had in mind. I'm not the biggest fan of Robert Moses but it's silly to believe that O'Malley moved his team clear across the country because he couldn't agree with Moses & the city on where to put a new stadium. In fact, O'Malley was offered space in Coney Island to build a stadium, that land is now occupied by the Mets affiliated class A minor league team the Brooklyn Cyclones. What real estate developer O'Malley really wanted was to own the stadium and the ground under it (Moses wanted the stadium to be developed & owned by the city) and even more he wanted to buy into the huge real estate opportunity on the west coast. Moving the Dodgers to LA was an incredibly smart business decision by O'Malley and I suspect he would have made the move even if the city had agreed with all his demands.
BTW, it's interesting to note the proposed site of O'Malley's Brooklyn stadium is about where the proposed new arena for the Nets will be, owned by real estate developer Bruce Ratner. This project includes both high and low income housing along with the arena.