Check It Out: The New Stadium at Lincoln Center!

If ever there was any doubt that the new broom at Lincoln Center was reversing not only priorities but also the mission of the place, witness the scene last weekend in which the fountain on the Plaza disappeared and was replaced by a basketball court, complete with bleachers, courtesy of Nike.

In his column of August 21, appropriately titled Requiem for Mostly Mozart, New Yorker critic Alex Ross writes, "Unless all these buildings are torn down and replaced by a stadium, Lincoln Center will always be best suited to events of the sit-down-and-listen variety."

What he posits has come too close to comfort.

Ross continues, “Lincoln Center now radiates disdain for those who wish simply to listen to music they love in a comfortable hall.’’

Not to mention those who walk out of an evening at the Metropolitan Opera and onto the floor of a noisy  gymnasium.

Is the Lincoln Center board of directors paying attention? Is mission to be obliterated in favor of pop culture?