USA - Stadium and Arena Development News

[th0m]

It looks real nice. Better than them 'retro' parks.

[birminghamculture]

Looks good from that Picture.

Cant wait to see some new renders

[PHXbevo]

Originally Posted by Bigmac1212

It's not much, but it's a start.

That's just plain weird.

hey a Tempe forumer!



That stadium looks nuevea-retarded

[Bigmac1212]

Here's a new picture:

[The Mad Hatter!!]

[/QUOTE]

[rantanamo]

Is that the Orange Bowl its sitting next to? OR Pro Player?

[Bigmac1212]

Originally Posted by rantanamo

Is that the Orange Bowl its sitting next to? OR Pro Player?

I think it's the Orange Bowl!

[stlouiscityboy]

I will miss the Old Busch alot. It was the first of its kind and it was design to play off the arch, see all the small archs at the top of the stadium. The new one will be great and i love how they are using the famous St. Louis Red Brick on the new one. I do think building the new stadium so close to the Daniel Boone Expressway was the stupidest things ever done, but hey im not paying for it.

[etched Chaos]

The Baseball park brick design, which is so familiar these days and used in probably every MLB ballpark i know of, is nice and i like it, but it is growing old. True it harks back to the olden days of baseball where the stadiums were part of emerging cities, but surely someone has to say 'No, i wanna innovate, I want to make my park a true beauty.'

Busch Park Mark 2 looks alright, from what i gather you losign a real unique park and getting well another brick based, fills the typical mould replacement.

[rantanamo]

The only reason current Busch is unique is because they tore down its siblings over the last 5 years. St. Louis did a great job of personalizing it though, once football left for Arizona.

[PHXbevo]

I'm just gonna chime in and say ...

Go Cubbies!

and thanks St Louis for sending Phoenix the shitty ass football Cardinals. You could have sent the baseball cardinals instead.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Hobodog

They were a series of stadiums built in the 70s that looked nearly identical. Giant concrete monoliths...let me fish out some pictures.

and all that's left today is Busch, Shea in NYC (minus outfield seating, unlike the others) and ironically temporarilly back in the mix is RFK in DC.

The rest (Cin, Pgh, Philly, Atl and even the Astrodome, which had a Shea-type layout) are history.

What type of sports idiot believed that a park could be built that would serve well the needs of football and baseball?

[asohn]

Taken from the Bergen Record - http://www.northjersey.com

Giants and state applaud plan for bigger, better stadium

Friday, April 15, 2005

By JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER



EAST RUTHERFORD - The New York Giants took a crucial step toward replacing their longtime Meadowlands home Thursday, more than 30 years after the team made the bold decision to move to the swamps of southern Bergen County.

And though it may be impossible to top the magnitude of that earlier event in New Jersey history, Giants executives who joined acting Governor Codey on Thursday in signing a 40-year agreement nonetheless are promising a facility that will scarcely resemble Giants Stadium.

In fact, Giants Vice President John Mara effortlessly offered a lengthy response when asked "what's new?" about the new Giants stadium, which is scheduled to open in mid-2009.

"More dining options, better concessions, more comfortable restrooms, a team store, additional dining and retail components, and brand-new practice and training facilities," Mara said. "It's going to be a sad day for us when the current building goes down, but we've got to deal with reality here."

The reality is that the majority of National Football League franchises are playing in new or extensively renovated facilities. That allows the teams to rake in tens of millions of extra dollars from additional luxury suites, thousands of premium seats costing $150 to $350 apiece and vast concourses that entice consumers to empty their pocketbooks on souvenirs and food.

Now the Giants plan to join the trend by utilizing 75 acres for the new stadium, a Giants Hall of Fame, a large steakhouse-style restaurant, endless aisles of Giants knicknacks in a team store and possibly a private 50-room conference center. The current facility, slightly southwest of the likely new site, takes up a mere 27 acres.

The Giants are intrigued by the 25,000-square-foot Packers Hall of Fame in Green Bay, Wis. That homage to the past features the Packers' three Super Bowl trophies, more than 75 exhibits on star players and coaches and a children's area where young fans can kick field goals or throw touchdown passes.

The site is open to the public year-round on non-game days.

An atrium at the Packers' facility features Curly's Pub - named after legendary player and coach Curly Lambeau - and the Frozen in Time ice cream parlor.

Don't be surprised to see an "L.T. BLT," a "Bill Parcells Tuna Salad" or a "Frankfurter Gifford" on the menu at the Giants' restaurants and upgraded concession stands.

Privately funded

The focus of Thursday's news conference, however, was on stadium finances.

Codey three times called the agreement "the best deal for taxpayers" of any NFL stadium, a statement echoed by New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority Chairman Carl Goldberg.

"While other states are building these stadiums on the backs of taxpayers, New Jersey said no," Codey said, referring to the Giants' willingness to pay the entire cost of construction.

Noticeably absent Thursday was sports authority President George Zoffinger, who until 48 hours earlier was still trying to convince Codey not to make the deal with the Giants.

Zoffinger wanted to wait until the fate of the New York Jets' effort to move to Manhattan was decided, which may not be until later this summer.

He also believes taxpayers will be hurt by the loss of revenue from the current stadium, since the Giants will collect the money from the new building.

But Codey produced a report by UBS Financial Services that he said demonstrated the new deal was "as good or better" for taxpayers than the current scenario, in large part due to the additional tax revenues raised by the more lucrative facility. The report concluded that the $700 million or more to be spent by the Giants, compared with up to $30 million from the state for infrastructure improvements, "represents the largest disparity of private-to-public initial capital investment for any existing stadium within the entire NFL."

Goldberg said Zoffinger was invited Thursday, but chose not to attend.

Will the fans follow?

The patriarchs of the two families that jointly own the Giants, 88-year-old Wellington Mara and 78-year-old Robert Tisch, beamed as sons John Mara and Steve Tisch spoke to the media.

Wellington Mara recalled how nervous he was waiting for Giants Stadium to open in 1976.

"We were really concerned with how our fans would react," said Mara, whose team wandered from Yankee Stadium to the Yale Bowl to Shea Stadium before landing in the Meadowlands.

"But it turned out that 93 percent of them renewed their season-ticket applications, so it turned out to be a great thing."

Codey and Giants officials stressed that the Jets are welcome to change their minds and remain in the Meadowlands. But the Jets are focused on obtaining final approvals for their $2 billion West Side plan, and fending off numerous lawsuits designed to stop them.

Many NFL teams have had their fans shoulder some of the construction cost by issuing "personal seat licenses," or PSLs, which require fans to pay $500 to $3,000 for the right to continue to buy their season tickets.

"Our present financing plans do not call for PSLs," John Mara said. "We would like to be able to finance this thing without them, but now we're up to $750 million in costs, and every time I hear it, it makes me shudder."

Concern over Xanadu

The memorandum of understanding signed Thursday by the Giants and the state is expected to be approved by the sports authority board Tuesday, but the Giants still will have additional details to work out.

Chief among them is figuring out how to coexist with the $1.3 billion Xanadu entertainment and retail project that has been under construction for several weeks at the Continental Arena site.

John Mara described himself as "cautiously optimistic" entering those negotiations.

However, he acknowledged that he has serious concerns about potential gridlock in the Meadowlands if Xanadu is open on football Sundays.

Bob Sommer, a spokesman for Xanadu developers Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali, said he expects the two sides would meet shortly.

"It's exciting that there will be two brand-new outstanding venues at the sports authority," Sommer said.

"The projects are mutually beneficial, and I believe both sides recognize that fact."

The Giants have not determined exactly where the new stadium will be located, but it is expected to be north and east of the current location, closer to Route 120 and Continental Arena.

"We need to do some digging, to see what's under there - or who's under there," John Mara quipped, referring to the legend that former Teamster Jimmy Hoffa is buried somewhere on the stadium grounds.

E-mail: brennan@northjersey.com

[spyguy]

People shouldn't get upset over the use of football for American football since many of these stadiums are alternatively used for football/soccer with regional or international touring teams.

[Sounder]

Originally Posted by staff

One thing that is noticable is that NO stadiums in the US have a roof.

Check again. I reguarly attend Washington Husky games & Seattle Seahawk games both stadiums have a roof over the crowd.

At first i thought "then the crowd can't make any noise/chants", but then i realized - there are no supporters in the US!

Check again. Many American stadiums are loud & have a great atmosphere. Most of the college venues posted on the first post of this thread are loud & have great atmospheres.

The crowd is there to eat junkfood and be a part of the "show"/circus.

Are you talking about European soccer where they throw flares at players and have to play games in empty stadiums?

Come see a real football game in America at a good venue & you get to witness first hand the passion, noise, & atmosphere.

[Sounder]

Originally Posted by zaqattaq

2nd Biggest Beaver Stadium just 5 minutes away!

May favorite american football stadiums have to be Qwest (Seattle)
The Swamp (U FLORIDA) and Autzen (U Oregon)

Ever been to Autzen? It isn't among the top half of stadiums in the Pac-10. It is an overrated dump.

[dande]

Most of those big stadiums can pack in 100,000 + because they simply lack comfort of new modern stadiums. When you are in college you don´t really care about comfort while watching a game, in reality those stadiums would lose 40% of capacity if they raised the standards of the facilities. Red Star stadium in Belgrade used to be 100,000 stadium, now that it´s all-seater it seats "only" 68,000.

[npinguy]

both the americans and the europeans are embarassing themselves greatly.

Jesus.............soccer is a great sport. It's not boring. Football is a great sport. It's not a pussified version of rugby.

Both are great. And supporters of teams on BOTH sides of the pond are always roudy and excited and loud.

And all of them do stupid things occasionally - on both sides.





A somewhat unrelated question but - does anyone know what the biggest HIGH SCHOOL stadium is in the US? I say in the US because I assume Canada or Europe wouldn't have the #1. I also know high school football is really huge in the south and they spend millions of dollars on it, so i'm sure there's some stadiums that are pretty large...

[rantanamo]

Mesquite Memorial and Ratliff are both 20,000. Can't think of others that big.

[Maroon Grown]

has america heard of roof's? howcome so many dont have a roof over the grandstands?