Westminster 2023 – Welcome to Queens

By Amy Fernandez

In the immortal words of John Lennon, “Strange days indeed.”  Although there’s no shortage of daily weirdness to confirm that sentiment, the thought of Westminster cutting ties with NYC ranks very high on that list. Even so, there’s no question that the club has gotten restless in recent years. After splitting the show between MSG and the Piers for several years and another couple of shows in Tarrytown, the club has finally revealed the location of Westminster 147–and no one would’ve put bets on this choice. Welcome to Queens!

Despite a century of annual treks to New York, most dog people are acquainted with Queens solely through Arrivals and Departures at LGA and JFK. You don’t know what you’ve been missing. Situated east of Manhattan, this is the city’s largest and most diverse borough.  Unlike Manhattan, Queens is ideal for dogs and half the price. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Here’s the plan. Westminster is scheduled for May 8-9 at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. Their annual Masters Obedience and Agility Championships are tentatively set to take place the preceding Saturday, May 6. Conformation judging commences on Monday, May 8 for Hounds, Toys, Non-Sporting, Herding and evening group competition. Sporting, Working and Terrier breeds are scheduled for Tuesday along with their respective groups and BIS.

Keep in mind that there is some dog show history attached to this location.  For decades, Queensboro Kennel Club held its show at Flushing Meadow Park. Of course, that was an outdoor show in late October, which didn’t always work out great. Things are different now.

Westminster will take place at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center which is best known as the home of the U.S. Open. Evening judging will be held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. With a 24,000 seat capacity, it is the largest tennis stadium in the world. Let’s hope they truck in those super cool palm trees again. Okay, maybe they have no logical significance.  After the past two years, that exotic touch of tropical luxury has become a symbolic and popular feature Westminster.

May is a long way off but it’s always good to know where you’re going.

Just shy of 900 acres, Flushing Meadows, in northern Queens, is one of New York’s largest public parks. Like much public park land, this one earned that lucky designation by default. Comprised primarily of salty wetlands, the territory was deemed useless for building or farming by Dutch settlers. Although it has never enjoyed the celebrity status of Central Park, city planners originally envisioned it as an outer borough version of that meticulously designed landscape. However, that concept never quite materialized for multiple reasons. In the meantime, the gigantic marshland was ideal for fishing, crabbing and duck hunting and as recently as the 1930s, Depression-era New Yorkers relied on Flushing Meadows for hunting, fishing, trapping and firewood.

In the 1920s the city renewed efforts to develop it as a public recreational space, mainly by dredging and filling in the marsh with trash. That’s when it first came to fame in The Great Gatsby, when the protagonists drove by on their ill-fated trip to New York.  The 1939 World’s Fair kicked off the next attempt of civic improvement. One of those post-fair buildings was originally slated to become the future home of the UN. That plan was ditched in 1951 when city engineers wisely decided that marshland was not the best substrate for major construction.

Flushing Meadows finally inched into the spotlight in 1964 when it again became the site of the World’s Fair. That two-year national celebration left the park with a few iconic structures like the Queens Theater, the Hall of Science and the 140-foot Unisphere, which has become a perennial backdrop of films. In addition to Men In Black, Spiderman, Captain America and Iron Man have all capitalized on this iconic image. (Apparently, superheroes seem to favor this location). And anyone who watched the King of Queens also got a look at Flushing Meadows in the opening sequence.

More recently, a $66 million dollar makeover has spruced up the park considerably, adding an indoor pool, a skating rink and a boat house to create New York’s largest recreational complex. In 2009, Citifield also replaced Shea Stadium, which is best known as home of the Mets. Other on-site attractions include the Queens Zoo, the Queens Museum, the Botanical Garden and the marina.

Flushing Meadows has hosted the U.S. Open since the late 1970s when the popularity of tennis outgrew the capacity of Forest Hills Stadium.  In contrast to Forest Hills, Flushing Meadows offers the advantage of access from the Whitestone and Throggs Neck bridges to the Grand Central and the Van Wyck. The Long Island Expressway runs along the park’s southern border.  It is literally minutes away from both major airports.  That proximity to an international transportation hub comes with the usual convenient hotel, dining and car rental options.

Yes, I realize that Westminster is an all-encompassing, exhausting experience but that’s no excuse to skip all the other fun stuff to do around here. Queens offers every imaginable type of cuisine–at a fraction of NYC prices. Actually, that’s true of things in general. Our local beach, Rockaway, consistently ranks as one of the country’s top ten beaches–plus it’s free and dogs are always welcome. It’s also got seals, dolphins and great surfing all year-round. If you head out there definitely stop at New Park Pizza.  It really is the best.

Queens offers everything that you like about NYC minus all the stuff you don’t.

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