http://www.carynews.com/2011/10/18/45396/town-approves-6m-for-soccer-park.html A quarter million of it is for improved access to parking lots, which is important; they're also expanding to 10,000 seats.
This is intriguing. The town also has rough plans for a second phase of soccer stadium upgrades, which could include another 5,000 seats. That would get you to 15K and then you're pretty much at the low end of MLS-sized SSS. All you need after that is someone to write the league a $50 million check and - voila - welcome to MLS!
Well, that and crowds big enough to fill a decent fraction of that stadium. Right now, our record since the opening season (when the numbers were, uh, slightly less credible - they reported tickets distributed, and there were a lot of freebies floating around that didn't all get used) is 6,234.
BQ at IMS said in a thread on his site recently that he's heard whispers of some investor interest in one of Traffic's teams. Have any of you Railhawks supporters heard anything around town about it possibly being your team? This news here about the stadium certainly sounds like a positive with regards to the team, and upgrades to an alredy nice SSS has to be a good selling point to potential buyers. How good of a deal does the team get on revenue from Railhawks games?
I've been thinking as much for awhile now. A set of circumstances seems to be developing that would make it a good time for Traffic to sell, and shift their focus to either Cary or Atlanta. No one seems to give me much credence on the idea though....
Sorry to revive this thread, but it looks like the construction may get in the way of people sitting in the middle on the east side. Cary's page says they plan to end in "Fall 2012", which I assume is so they can get it ready for a potential college cup. I wonder if it will cause any disruptions in seating, although the final result looks to be pretty awesome. Here's the expansion page: http://www.townofcary.org/Departmen...ources/Projects/soccerstadiumimprovements.htm
Yes, it's already no secret that some sections will have to be closed for some games during the 2012 season.
any idea of this seasons attendance compared to past seasons attendance at wake med? i know that some of the games had larger attendance this past season but just curious if the team will vamp up sales to match the new seats or if those seats will sit empty? anyone know what the team has planned?
I hear that the new east side seats will be outfitted with sun visors too! Not. Fortunately I sit on the west side.
would you consider this to be a risky investment? seems to me that with all the fluctuation in NASL that Cary would sit on the sidelines a little unless they had a plan. "Ruskies don't take a dump son without a plan". and as we all know, carpet bagging yankees sitting in traffic all day in front of a strip mall are very similar to Ruskies in many respects. Honestly, I love the yanks, I'm just pickin.
Their primary goal is to woo the NCAA tournament back to Cary, and possibly get some USMNT friendlies; the fact that it opens up more seats for a pro team that doesn't fill the current capacity is very probably not relevant to the decision.
That's not to say I'm not optimistic about this being good news for the RailHawks too - just that I think that they can make the decision based entirely on other factors, which is why they went ahead.
So how are things in Cary so far this offseason Teucer? Heard anything about season ticket sales? Think the Railhawks strong regular season and exciting playoff match will be catalysts for bigger and better things this year?
Just to elaborate on my post, I think it's a terrible decision to expand the East side and move the locker rooms over there. In all seriousness, the late afternoon sun in the summer absolutely fries that side. As a player or coach I would hate to sit over there having to look into the sun etc.
What's going on with the lower training fields behind the west stands? They're completely covered with a thick layer of sand or something. Artificial turf perhaps? I can't imagine that the natural turf needed renovation, if it's still going to be grass.
I think it actually is being renovated. This was in an article about polo on those fields: "The polo club, Cary Chamber of Commerce and the town of Cary have been trying for over a year to get a match in Cary. The field became available thanks to renovations scheduled at the soccer complex. The town of Cary is spending about $250,000 to remove about six to eight inches off the top layer of Field 3, said Athletic Director William Davis. Renovations are done every 10 years, and the work is expected to begin today and to be completed in July, he said."
It was put in 10 years ago, and for a few years in the middle it wasn't well maintained. The drainage system for fields of that calibre eventually fill with silt and sand and need replacement. That's what it looks like to me. It looks like they're finally redoing the fields from scratch.
Yup. These fields have the best drainage they know how to give them, and that requires maintenance of a sometimes dramatic sort. As I understand it, this has been planned as of years ago.
If that's what's going on I'm still surprised... that turf looked immaculate. But I guess it's better to be proactive and do it on schedule rather than after it starts dying off. Regarding the polo post above... oh please NO. Keep horses far away from Wake Med SOCCER Park please! Let them roam around Umstead Park where they poop all over everything.
The polo already happened. On the fields that have been torn up, the day before said tearing up. Horses aren't good for grass that immaculate, and I doubt they'd be allowed on any other time than right before at least a re-sod.
The problems of the couple of years before the RailHawks showed up led them to completely redoing the main field five or six years ago, but they left the two practice fields as they were and just nursed them back to health.
Yeah, but my understanding is that when they made that decision they did so with the knowledge that those two fields would eventually need the full treatment too, and that they were delaying rather than removing the need for such attention.