Cohen will be building a casino next to his baseball park.
Major League Baseball’s New York Mets owner Steve Cohen may have not had much fun watching his baseball team fall apart during the 2025 season. But he got a big consolation price from the New York state gaming commission’s facility location board as the board selected his and two other proposals for gambling licenses in New York City. Cohen plans to turn the 50-acre parking lot next to the ballpark into a casino resort with 1,000 hotel rooms and a gaming floor with 5,000 slot machines, 400 table games, and a sportsbook. The plan includes 18 restaurants and bars, an indoor pool, spa, and fitness complex, 20,000 square feet of retail shopping, almost 100,000 square feet of convention facilities, three parking garages, and 25 acres of public green space.
The United States Tennis Association, with its complex across the street on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue, initially objected to the plan because a lot of parking spaces will disappear. But the USTA and the city reached a deal whereby there will be plenty of parking for the US Open which is held during the last week of August and the first week of September. There will be also plenty of parking available for soccer games at the new venue that will open in 2027 for Major League Soccer’s NYCFC franchise.
The New York Gaming Facility Location Board awarded three licenses. One goes to Cohen and Hard Rock International who will operate as Queens Futures in Flushing Meadows. Resorts World, which has operated a racino in Queens’ South Ozone Park for the last 14 years, gets the second Queens license. The third goes to a Bally’s project in the Bronx near both the Whitestone Bridge and the Throngs Neck Bridge are in the running for a New York City casino. The three locations are in close proximity.
Each of the bidders has a sports element. The South Ozone Park property includes Aqueduct Racetrack. The track though will be closed down perhaps as early as 2026 when renovations are completed at Belmont Racetrack on the Queens-Nassau County border as the New York Racing Association plans to consolidate its operations. Bally’s owns Golf Links at Ferry Point which is New York City’s only links-style public golf course. Cohen may not have won the World Series in 2025 but he now gets to build a casino and village surrounding his Mets’ ballpark and a chance to make some big money.
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