Construction crews worked this week at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium to prepare for the Mumford and Sons concert on Wednesday. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
Thousands of people were expected to flood into Forest Hills for the first concert held at the iconic Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in 16 years on Wednesday, leaving area residents both concerned about the massive crowds and excited for what some hope could revive a time when the world’s biggest entertainment and sports stars flocked to the neighborhood.
Mumford and Sons, the Grammy-award winning band from Britain, played their bluegrass-rock hits that have garnered them accolades across the globe to a sold-out crowd at the 90-year-old stadium that has previously drawn the likes of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. The concert is the first in a series of 19 musical events scheduled for the next three years, according to representatives from the West Side Tennis Club, a century-old venue that owns the stadium and is located next to the site that once hosted the U.S Open Tennis Championship.
“I know there will be tons of people around, and they might be drunk or rowdy, but I’m excited for it,” Andrea Fitzgerald, who lives near the stadium, said this week before Wednesday’s concert. “It’s nice to know that the stadium might finally start looking alright; it’s been dilapidated for so long and is just a blight on the neighborhood. I hope things start to change now; our neighborhood deserves that.”
The stadium, which hosted the U.S. Open until it was moved to the larger Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 1977, stopped holding concerts in the 1980s because of complaints from residents about noise and parking problems – something West Side Tennis Club officials have said they have worked hard to address this time around. For example, Bob Ingersole, the tennis director and facilities manager at the West Side Tennis Club, has said the new lineup of concerts would end around 10 p.m. in order to ensure loud music would not emanate from the stadium in the late night hours.
The facility, at which some of the biggest names in rock history have played – including Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, and The Who – had become rundown in recent years and, when legislators pushed for it to be landmarked, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission ruled in 2011 that the site was in too poor of a condition to be considered for landmark status.
While construction work has been ongoing at the stadium for the past month, some civic leaders said they don’t believe the site can ever land the prestige it once had.
“That stadium is beyond repair,” said Barbara Stuchinski, president of the Forest Hills Community and Civic Association. “They put in some benches so people could go to the concert, but you’re not going to restore it to its glory days. Move forward. Find another plan. Do something with that land.”
Still, other residents said they’re thrilled that the concerts could bring an influx of people to the neighborhood’s shops and restaurants. A number of area businesses prepared for the crowds, including the restaurant Banter, which provided live music after the show, and Jack & Nellie’s planned to open its doors earlier than usual to accommodate concert goers looking for something to do before the show.
And, residents said, they’re happy that construction to prepare for the concert will be over.
“The construction has been very annoying,” said Hank Arora, who has lived across the street from the stadium since 1995. “But before this, the place was disgusting. There were racoons running around; it looked awful, so hopefully this makes it better.”
By Anna Gustafson
