MTA, Cyclones and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Partnership Encourages Riders to #TakeTheTrain #TakeTheBus to Coney Island
View Photos of the News Conference
View Video of First Pitch, National Anthem and Special Employee Honors
MTA Chairman Pat Foye showed off his pitching skills on Thursday, when he joined the Brooklyn Cyclones and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for a special ‘MTA Night’ at Maimonides Park. Foye threw the first pitch which was successfully caught by Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Randy Peers to kick off the 6:30 p.m. Brooklyn Cyclones game against the Aberdeen Ironbirds.
The Brooklyn Cyclones, who played their first home game in more than 600 days on May 18 at the newly named Maimonides Park, are located only steps away from MTA New York City Transit’s (NYCT) Coney Island-Stillwell Av Station which serves the D F N and Q lines. In addition, the B36 bus stops at Maimonides Park, while the B64, B68 and B82 stop at Coney Island-Stillwell Av station.
A news conference was held before the event with the MTA Mask Force, organizational partners, local elected officials and Cyclones mascot Sandy the Seagull to kick-off ‘MTA Night at the Park’ and further the MTA’s #TakeTheTrain, #TakeTheBus campaign.
The first 300 fans into the park received MTA-branded #TakeTheTrain #TakeTheBus masks. Four MTA employees were honored during the Cyclone’s Community Champion Spotlight for their heroic work and dedication throughout the pandemic. Those employees were Ricky Brackett, Assistant Transit Management Analyst for the Department of Subways; Tremayne Cradle, Traffic Checker for NYCT; Kingman Tam, Hydraulics Maintainer for NYCT and Robert Worthy, Surface Line Dispatcher for NYCT Bus. Brackett also sang the night’s National Anthem.
Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the New York Transit Museum (NYTM), located in downtown Brooklyn, which has gone through challenging times through the pandemic. The museum closed its doors to the public on March 13, 2020, to keep employees and visitors safe from COVID. NYTM appreciates all the support during recovery in hopes of reopening soon.
“As a lifelong Mets fan, it was a thrill to be here tonight with many of our colleagues, and two partner organizations who are so vital to the borough's growth and economy, ” said MTA Chairman & CEO Pat Foye. “ Celebrating and honoring several of our heroic employees and throwing out the first pitch only made MTA Night at the Park even more special.”
“I am really looking forward to seeing more people come off the buses or filing out of the Stillwell Avenue Station, ready to enjoy Coney Island and baseball,” said Gary Perone, Assistant General Manager for the New York Mets High A affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones. “Mass transit is vital to the borough and all of New York City.”
"When you grow up in Brooklyn, baseball and public transportation are a way of life," said Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Peers. "When more people are riding the train or bus to Maimonides Park to cheer on the Brooklyn Cyclones, they’re supporting the city’s critical infrastructure and patronizing local businesses along the way that will be essential to the borough’s economic recovery. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is proud to get on board with the MTA and the Brooklyn Cyclones on this important team effort to boost ridership and rebuild the borough’s economy."
“We are so excited to welcome New Yorkers to the end of the line again for a safe, happy summer out here on the Coney Island beach and boardwalk. I encourage everyone to #TakeTheTrain and enjoy all that Southern Brooklyn has to offer,” said Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus. “This would not be possible without the men and women who keep the trains and buses running. I thank the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and the Brooklyn Cyclones for partnering with the MTA to honor transit workers who have kept New York running through the most challenging of years.”
"The New York Transit Museum has called Brooklyn home for the past 45 years. And Brooklyn baseball and mass transit have been linked for over one hundred years when a team took its name from having to dodge vehicles throughout the borough and the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers were born,” said New York Transit Museum Director Concetta Bencivenga. “We are proud to be from Brooklyn, committed to telling stories about how transit has shaped our region, in awe of the men and women of the MTA who rose to the challenges of these past 15 months and grateful to the Cyclones for tonight's support of our museum."
The Brooklyn partnership announcement coincides with the MTA’s #TaketheTrain, #TaketheBus campaign which features “New York is Open” images of the region’s alluring open spaces that can be reached by MTA services, such as Coney Island – encouraging people to use the MTA’s trains and buses to get out and explore all the region has to offer.
More About Brooklyn Cyclones
The Brooklyn Cyclones are the High-A affiliate of the New York Mets. The team has welcomed nearly 5,000,000 fans to the ballpark through the first 19 seasons in franchise history. The team won the New York-Penn League Championship in 2019 – their final season as a member of the short-season classification. The team has also been honored with the Bob Freitas Award (2005 & 2014) in recognition for their outstanding promotional efforts and the prestigious Larry MacPhail Award (2017) in recognition for their outstanding work on the field and in the community.
Maimonides Park, the home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, hosts 60 regular-season home games each year, as well as high school, college, and youth league baseball games. The ballpark also hosts numerous charity events, concerts and other sports like rugby, soccer and lacrosse.
More About Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is among the largest and most influential business advocacy organizations in New York, having spent the last hundred years developing and promoting policies that drive economic development and advance its members interests. The Chamber is the voice of Brooklyn’s business community, offering the resources, programs, tools and direct support businesses need to continue creating jobs and opportunities in their communities.
More About New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history and one of the premier institutions of its kind in the world. Since its inception over forty years ago, the Museum – which is housed in a historic 1936 IND subway station in Downtown Brooklyn – has grown in scope and popularity. For nearly 25 years, the Transit Museum has also operated a Gallery & Store in Grand Central Terminal. To learn more, visit nytransitmuseum.org.
More About the #TakeTheTrain, #TakeTheBus Campaign
The MTA’s #TakeTheTrain, #TakeTheBus campaign which launched on May 16 in conjunction with 24/7 subway service resuming for the first time since May 6, 2020, to encourage New Yorkers to return to a more reliable, cleaner system than the one many last used before the pandemic arrived in New York.
The launch of the campaign coincides with recent ridership increases in the system, with more than 2.3 million daily weekday riders on subways over the past few weeks and weekday bus ridership reaching 1.2 million. Recent combined Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road ridership of 200,000 is dwarfing the combined average of 23,000 of a year ago, with weekend ridership now approaching 60% of pre-pandemic weekend levels.