Basketball City, that puffy structure off the West Side Highway on West 23rd Street will need to leave tomorrow, since the city wants to get working on continuing to improve Hudson River Park. The fight to stay at Pier 63 (which the Villager called "political football" back in 2004 when its lease expired) even escalated to the point where Basketball City claimed bankruptcy in an attempt to stay, while parks advocates have been eager for the facility to leave. Crain's reports Basketball City's owners are looking for a new space, but they do not think they'll find anything until next year. One partner, Bruce Radler, said, "We'll easily lose 50% of our revenue." Until then, Basketball City "will continue to run some of its corporate and youth leagues renting space in an ad hoc consortium of school gyms."
The NYPD's Mounted Unit had been in the space underneath Basketball City's bubble; the unit is now at Pier 76.
