Downing Stadium
The old Downing Stadium on Randalls Island
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| Former names | Randall's Island Stadium (1936–1948) Triborough Stadium (1948–1955) |
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| Location | New York City, New York |
| Owner | New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |
| Capacity | 22,000 |
| Surface | grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1935 |
| Built | 1935–1936 |
| Opened | July 11, 1936 |
| Closed | 2002 |
| Demolished | 2002 |
| Architect | Robert Moses |
| Tenants | |
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New York Yankees (AFL II) (some games, 1936–1937) Negro League games (1936-40) Olympic trials (1936–1964) New York Yankees/Americans (AFL III) (some games 1940–1941) Brooklyn Dodgers (CFL) (1966) New York Stars (WFL) (1974) New York Cosmos (NASL) (1974–1975) New York Centaurs (A-League) (1995) Several concerts (1938–2002) Tibetan Freedom Concert (1997) |
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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.
Built on Randalls Island in the East River as a WPA project, 15,000 attendees witnessed Jesse Owens compete at the stadium in the Men's Olympic Trials on July 11, 1936, the opening night of the new facility. Downing Stadium also hosted the Women's Olympic Trials in 1964.
Triborough Stadium served as one of two home stadia of the football New York Yankees of the second AFL (along with Yankee Stadium) in 1936 and 1937. The first televised American football game was held at Triborough on September 30, 1939, as Fordham took on Waynesburg. NYU's football team also played its last two seasons at Triborough in 1951 and 1952.
In 1966, the Continental Football League's Brooklyn Dodgers, unable to find a suitable field in Brooklyn (Ebbets Field had been torn down in 1960), played their home games at Downing. (Coincidentally, the football Dodgers wound up playing under the same lights used at Ebbets, as they had been moved to Randalls Island upon the older stadium's destruction.) The club would play only three games at Downing before the league took over the franchise and shifted their remaining home games elsewhere. Eight years later, Downing Stadium became the home of the New York Stars of the WFL; like the Dodgers, the Stars left the stadium before the season ended, shifting to Charlotte.
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