Randalls Island Park has sustained a long and colorful history, leading to the comprehensive sports and recreational facility which today welcomes New Yorkers and other visitors to its shores. The Island’s 480 acres once comprised two separate islands, Randalls and Wards, which for hundreds of years were used not as a public park but as a location for a range of public facilities including a boys’ home, a hospital, and a home for civil war veterans. The islands were first designated for recreational use by Robert Moses, and the park was opened in 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, along with the new Triborough Bridge. In subsequent years, the Little Hell Gate Channel and its adjacent wetlands were filled by debris from construction projects in Manhattan, joining the acreage into a single island. Generations of New Yorkers enjoyed the park, but by the 1980s it had fallen into serious disrepair.

In 1992, the Randall’s Island Park Alliance (RIPA) (formerly the Randall's Island Sports Foundation) was established to revive the park, and began working alongside the City of New York and the Department of Parks & Recreation to develop sports and recreational facilities, maintain the Park and restore its natural environment. In 1999, RIPA, the City and the local community worked together to generate a Management, Restoration & Development Plan for the Park, and in the years since this plan has been largely realized. The transformation began in 2005 with Icahn Stadium, an IAAF-certified track & field facility, which was followed by a renovated golf center, nine acres of restored wetlands, a 20-court tennis center, more than 60 playing fields and miles of waterfront bike and pedestrian pathways. Many of these facilities have utilized parkland reclaimed from institutional use and/or restored from a degraded, inaccessible state. RIPA works to coordinate local stewardship of the refurbished Park through volunteer efforts, and hosts free summer and year-round sports and environmental programs to make the most of the new facilities, restored natural areas, waterfront pathways and green, open fields.

Randall’s Island Park has transformed over the past decade into a world-class sporting destination with outstanding facilities. Icahn Stadium, a world-class track & field facility, is the only IAAF-certified stadium in North America, capable of hosting local, regional and national events. The Stadium offers a full standard 400-meter Mondo running track flanked by 5,000 covered spectator seats overlooking the East River. The Sportime Tennis Center, which is the largest and finest tennis facility to open in New York City in the past 30 years, features 20 state-of-the-art courts, and provides a venue for New Yorkers to watch, train, play and compete. Randall’s Island Park is also home to the Randall’s Island Golf Center, which has been recently renovated and has a large grass tee driving range, two miniature golf courses, batting cages, beer garden and WiFi lounge.

In addition to sporting facilities, the Island is also home to a sprawling event site that, along with Icahn Stadium, hosts a number of special events every year. Located between Icahn Stadium and the Harlem River, the event site has hosted notable concerts, art fairs, and cultural festivals, including the Governor’s Ball, the Electric Zoo Festival, and the upcoming Frieze Art Fair.

The new Randall’s Island brings back to New York City the glory of a park that once hosted a dream roster of national greats including Duke Ellington, Jesse Owens, Pelé and Jimi Hendrix.