KeySpan Park

KeySpan Park is a minor league baseball stadium in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York City. The home team is the New York Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York - Penn League. Official seating capacity is 7,500.

Features include a concourse with free-standing concession buildings and overhanging fluorescent lamps in different colors, evoking an amusement park atmosphere. In addition, the park overlooks the Atlantic Ocean as well as the famous Parachute Jump. KeySpan Park was built on the old site of Steeplechase Park, an old-time Coney Island amusement park that closed in 1964 amid crime and general deterioration of Coney Island and the subways that run to the area.

Part of a general reinvestment in the Coney Island neighborhood, the park opened in 2001 with a capacity of 6,500. Demand for Cyclones tickets was so great that the team added 1,000 seats in a right-field bleacher pavilion within three weeks after the park opened. KeySpan Park prohibits fans from bringing outside food into the stadium, a policy in every minor league stadium, but not in effect at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

KeySpan Park was paid for with public money, as well as the Staten Island Yankees’ Richmond County Bank Ballpark, which were both part of a deal that involved both the Mets and Yankees. The Yankees had to approve the construction of KeySpan Park, and the Mets had to approve the Yankees’ minor league park, since the Major League Baseball organizations share territorial rights to the New York City market, and have veto power over each other (and any other MLB organization). If the combined minor league stadium project did not involve both the Mets and Yankees, it is likely that it would have not happened.

The park’s naming rights were sold to KeySpan Energy, a utility company whose primary holding is the former Brooklyn Union Gas.

Concerts

In the ballpark’s short history, a number of concerts have taken place. Concerts at KeySpan Park have been general admission, with ticketholders only allowed on the field or in the stadium, without the ability to switch sections. Fans who have tried to pass security and move between the field and stadium have been removed from the concert.

In 2003, Björk performed at KeySpan park.

In the summer of 2004, the jamband Phish began its last tour with a two-night stand at KeySpan Park, with a guest appearance by rapper Jay-Z, a native of Brooklyn, on the second evening. The first concert was simuelcast in movie theatres and in 2006, released (along with selected songs from the second night) as a concert album and DVD under the name Phish: Live in Brooklyn.

In 2005, the stadium hosted the Across the Narrows Festival along with Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Also, in 2005, The White Stripes performed one of their recent tours following the release of their album, Get Behind Me Satan.