The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 through 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the sport of polo. Bound on the south and north by 110th and 112th streets and on the east and west by Fifth and Sixth (Lenox) avenues, just north of Central Park, it was converted to a baseball stadium when leased by the New York Metropolitans in 1880.
The New York Giants were a professional American football team with the American Professional Football Association whose only season played was in 1921. The team has also been referred to as the Brooklyn Giants and Brickley's Brooklyn Giants. The Brickley's Giants were the first of 17 professional football teams to represent New York City at one time or another. The team was founded in 1919 by Charles Brickley, who received All-American honors while at Harvard. Brickley's Giants played two games in their only season, losing to the Buffalo All-Americans, 55–0, and the Cleveland Tigers, 17–0. It was the second-shortest-lived franchise in APFA/NFL history, behind only another former New York APFA team, the Tonawanda Kardex, who played only one game in the same 1921 season.
Coogan's Bluff is a promontory near the western shore of the Harlem River in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. Its boundaries extend approximately from 155th Street and the Macombs Dam Bridge viaduct to 160th Street, between Edgecombe Avenue and the river. A deep escarpment descends 175 feet (53 m) from Edgecombe Avenue to the river, creating a sheltered area between the bluff and river known as Coogan's Hollow. For 73 years, the hollow was home to the Polo Grounds sports stadium.
Maimonides Park is a minor league baseball stadium on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. The home team and primary tenant is the New York Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones of the South Atlantic League. The stadium has also hosted other teams as well. The NYU Violets Baseball team began playing at Maimonides Park in 2015, and the New York Cosmos soccer team of the NASL played the 2017 NASL season there. Rugby United New York of Major League Rugby began play in 2019 with MCU Park as its home field.
Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five professional football teams, including three NFL teams (1921–1948). Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960 and replaced by the Ebbets Field Apartments, the site's current occupant.
The Mitchel Athletic Complex is part of the Mitchel Field complex, located in Uniondale, New York, on the site of the decommissioned Mitchel Air Force Base. The facility is owned by Nassau County. It is used mostly for football and soccer and also sometimes for athletics. The athletic complex was built in 1984 and was renovated in 1997; it hosted track and field and soccer events during the 1998 Goodwill Games. Mitchel Field is also home to Nassau Coliseum, Nassau Community College, Hofstra University, Lockheed Corporation, and the Cradle of Aviation Museum.
Ridgewood Park, also known as Wallace's Ridgewood Park or the Wallace Grounds, and frequently confused with Grauer's Ridgewood Park, was a baseball ground in Ridgewood, Queens, New York. Both Wallace's and Grauer's are shown in Belcher Hyde's Map of Newtown in 1915. The baseball field was part of a larger entertainment area bounded Wyckoff Avenue, Covert Street, Halsey Street, and Irving Avenue. The baseball field was southwest of the Long Island Rail Road's Montauk Branch tracks. Eldert Street, although depicted on the map as running through the baseball grounds, was not cut through southwest of the railroad tracks and the road remains interrupted there today. Originally the park was in Queens County, before its incorporation into New York City in 1899. This facilitated Sunday baseball playing, including the charging of admission, beyond the reach of Sabbath enforcers from the then-city of Brooklyn.
Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball stadium at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey. It opened in April 1937 and hosted high-minor league baseball, 15 major league baseball games, plus championship boxing matches, top-name musical acts, an annual championship drum and bugle corps competition known as "The Dream" (1946–1983), important regional high school football and even soccer matches. It was demolished in 1985.
Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It was demolished in 2002 and the current Icahn Stadium was built on the site.
Sports in the New York metropolitan area have a long and distinguished history.
Throughout the years, a number of teams in the National Football League (NFL) have either moved or merged.
Oakland Park was a ballpark in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was used by the New York Giants for their first two home games in 1889. The park was opened in the spring of 1888, as the new home of the Jersey City minor league club Jersey City Skeeters. The Jersey City club disbanded in July 1890, but the park continued to be used by other local teams for several years.
Macombs Dam Park is a park in the Concourse section of the Bronx, New York City. The park lay in the shadow of the old Yankee Stadium when it stood, between Jerome Avenue and the Major Deegan Expressway, near the Harlem River and the Macombs Dam Bridge. The park is administered and maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The majority of Macombs Dam Park was not open to the public from August 2006, when construction began on the new Yankee Stadium, to April 2012.
Aviator Sports and Events Center is a sports and events center in Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York City. Operating as a concessionaire of the National Park Service (NPS), Aviator has refurbished four historic aircraft hangars and the surrounding grounds in partnership with the NPS. The area includes 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2) of indoor sports and event space along with adjoining outdoor turf fields and free parking for 2,000 cars. Aviator provides a variety of sports and league play, including basketball, football, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating, lacrosse, soccer, and volleyball. Parties, field trips, camps, and birthday celebrations are held at the facility.
Dexter Park was a public park located in the neighborhood of Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, just north of Eldert Lane and Jamaica Avenue, not far from the borough line with Brooklyn. It had a long early history starting in the 19th century as a recreational park, which replaced a racetrack.
Robert Millar was a soccer player who played as a forward and the coach of the United States national team at the 1930 FIFA World Cup. During his at times tumultuous Hall of Fame career, he played with over a dozen teams in at least five U.S. leagues as well as two seasons in the Scottish Football League. He finished his career as a successful professional and national team coach.
Flushing Fields is a public park in the northern section of the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The site of this park was purchased by the Memorial Field of Flushing Corporation in 1921 at what was at the time open farmland. From its beginning, the park served as the home field for the softball, soccer, football and track teams from Flushing High School. The name of the park and monument at its southern section honor residents of Flushing killed in the First World War.
Dyckman Oval was a sports venue in the Inwood section of the northern end of Manhattan, New York City. It was best known as a home for Negro league baseball, but was frequently used for other events, including boxing, wrestling, football, soccer, amateur baseball, and even ice skating competitions. It existed from about 1915 through 1937.
