Cities that need new stadiums

1. Oakland
2. Oakland
3. Oakland

 

The Civic Center, a.k.a. "The Igloo," in Pittsburgh is the oldest arena in the NHL. Never been there, but heard it's long past its prime. Obviously, the Penguins will move into a new home across town soon enough.

Heard similar complaints from people talking about Key Arena in Seattle, which I guess in part explains why the Sonics are looking to move.

 

Metrodome has to go ... and it will soon for baseball. It's better for football, but it's so dank in there.

I don't like Great American Ballpark either, but considering Cincinnati -- which has the most fucked city government in all creation -- fought to build it for 10 years, it will be there a while.

The RCA Dome in Indy is gone after this season. I was there tonight and I'll kind of miss it. For a dome, it's intimate, and there's not really a bad seat in it.

 

The Key is fine, unless you have a zillion dollars or are looking to make a zillion dollars selling luxury seats. From a regular fan's perspective, it's middle-of-the-road in the NBA. It's arguably untenable within the NBA's financial model, but man is that a fucked up model.

 

While I HATE the (lack of) atmosphere of Browns Stadium compared to the asylum that was inhabited by 80,000 lunatics 8 times a year previously, it's not going anywhere. Another 10,000 seats at the new place -- priced so the average Joe could get in without sacrificing his first born -- would go a long way toward improving the atmosphere at the new place.

Hard to believe, I know, but I do miss the old place. Eight times a year, it was livable... passable... survivable.

 

portland

 

PGE works fine for the Beavers/Sockeyes/Green Sox/ whatever he decides to call the PCL team. Portland State doesn't need anything bigger, nor do the Timbers of if they put an expansion MSL team in Stumptown.

And it will work fine as a temporary stadium for the transplanted Florida Marlins in 2010 and 2011, while a new stadium is built, when the Marlins finally wise up and leave the baseball disaster that is South Florida for one of the fastest growing areas on the West Coast - which also might have the best summer weather of any metro area outside of SoCal.

The NL west will then be a virtual 1950s-era PCL reconstituted, with teams in LA, SD, SF and PDX.

 

I see no one calling you a moron but yourself...

 

Back at you, Buckingham.

 

The multi-billionaire owners "need" new stadiums mainly for increased revenues from suites and luxury boxes, and -- believe it or not -- usually to reduce the capacity of the stadiums. And mainly, they "need" somebody else -- usually taxpayers, but if they can get some other dupes to do it, they're OK with that too -- to pay for it. That's all they want -- a brand-new, multi-hundred-million dollar stadium, and somebody else to pay for it.

Check almost every single new stadium built for NFL and MLB teams over the last 15 years, almost every single one has had a smaller (in some cases, dramatically smaller) seating capacity than the stadiums they replaced. The exceptions being the cookie-cutter ashtray stadiums from the 1960s, which were almost all around 50,000 capacity -- the football stadiums replacing them are all around 60,000, while the baseball parks are all around 40,000.

The reason they want smaller capacities is your old Uncle Fred, who sits around and says, "I remember when you could walk up to the box office and buy bleacher seats at Yankee Stadium, or sit in the end zone at the L.A. Coliseum."

Yankee Stadium had a capacity of 67,000; the Coliseum sat 92,000. The owners don't want 60,000 people walking up and buying bleacher seats for $15; they want to sell out every single seat of a 44,000-seat stadium at $50 a shot (and 5,000 more luxury/suite seats at $500 a shot).

Ironically, while public taste has now swung against the above-mentioned "cookie-cutter" "generic" stadiums from the 1960s (Shea, Vet, RFK, the Met, 3 Rivers, Riverfront, Old Busch, Fulton County, Jack Murphy, etc etc.), the funny thing is the new stadiums are basically about as monotonous and identical as the old ones were. Pretty much all the HOK stadiums look the same, except for seat color, some minor trim items around the park, and the view out of center field. Same goes for the football stadiums.

 

On the MLS side, Columbus Crew stadium is already a relic. Most newer soccer specific stadiums include at least some covering for the fans. At Crew Stadium the mixture of aluminum and concrete sizzles your brain on a hot day. It just has the feel of a cheap high school football stadium. The parking situation is also an epic mess and probably drives fans away in droves.