NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) -- The new scaled-back New York Mets baseball park will be more compact than Shea Stadium with a fond salute to Ebbets Field.
The Flushing stadium, to be built over the next three years in the current parking lot, will seat 45,000 fans, 10,000 less than Shea, with standing room for 2,500, Newsday reported.
The outfield fences are one to 13 feet closer and plans were junked for a retractable roof, like the seating capacity a casualty of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
There will be angled seats for improved sight lines and contoured levels to bring fans closer to the field.
The stadium, to be named for a corporate sponsor, begins construction in June and is expected to cost $600 million even with the cutbacks.
Exterior brick and a rotunda are among the memories dedicated to Ebbets, where the Dodgers played until 1957.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among those on hand for unveiling of the plans, called the new stadium a "21st-century field of dreams."
