[CagedMonky]

Kyle has posted a new blog @ http://www.crocketteers.com/2009/05/...n-san-antonio/

One of the best innovation strategies in business is to do nothing. Sit and wait and allow those around you to innovate. Sometimes the smart companies pay for the R&D to make incremental changes to someone else’s good idea rather than paying the tremendous R&D to create the idea in the first place.
It is in that spirit, San Antonio, that I invite you to tour Vancouver’s BC Place with me.
As you know, Vancouver is going to begin play in the MLS in 2011. They will be playing home games at BC Place for the foreseeable future.
BC Place is a 60,000 seat stadium, whose current primary tenant is the BC Lions Canadian Football League Team. That is to say, BC Place is a 60,000 seat football stadium. Built in 1983 in part to attract a Major League Baseball team that never materialized, BC Place hosts trade and consumer shows (Boat Shows, Home and Garden Shows) and motorsports events (Monster Jam, anyone?) in addition to the CFL’s Lions. BC Place, though relatively busy, operates at an annual loss.
Sound familiar?

[CagedMonky]

I'm gonna try and find inside pics of the alamdome high quality to superimpose the BC Place canopy over..

For fun!

[Eaashley79]

Sorry guys - I have to disagree that the Alamodome is a viable option for anything soccer related. Bottom line, the game was never meant to be played in a dome. Inside a dome you lose all the unpredictability that the elements provide - no grass, no wind, no South Texas heat, no rain (when it rains). You would lose the second most important factor (besides a strong fan base) in home field advantage - familiarity with the local weather. Imagine the Canadian teams playing in our dome. They would be sitting pretty on a turf field in a comfortable, A.C. environment. Now imagine them trying to go 90 minutes in the middle of a South Texas summer. There's no way you would have that kind of home field advantage playing in a dome.

Regardless, the roof structure of the dome is not the same as BC Place. You would have to deconstruct the permanent roof in favor of a "bubble." Our dome will always be a dome, and it should never again be considered as the home of a professional soccer team.

Alamo Stadium, on the other hand, has SSS written all over it. If the yet to be determined ownership group can make a viable offer to purchase (or lease) it from SAISD, then we would have the infrastructure for a top-notch, centrally-located, and open-air stadium.

[Eaashley79]

In the mean time, the Cibolo facility is looking more like an option to get the team off and running. 4,000 to 5,000 capacity looks to be about right for a USL team.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/communit..._facility.html

By the way, I'm sure this belongs in another forum, but I thought it applied here as well.

[jhope]

The lower bowl of the Alamodome holds 28000. With the Texas heat the alamodome makes a great place to hold games. Not ideal but many San Antonians might feel more apt to buy a ticket for a game indoors when the temperature outdoors is 100+. Besides, of the other soccer games played in the dome the soccer atmosphere was fantastic.

[CagedMonky]

I hear where you are coming from Eaashley79. A SSS will bring home field advantage in the South Texas Heat. But if an SSS is not an option and Alamo Stadium not an option, the dome with its downtown location can work if the upper bowl was hidden someway or covered like Seattle does it.

[CagedMonky]

Originally Posted by jhope

The lower bowl of the Alamodome holds 28000. With the Texas heat the alamodome makes a great place to hold games. Not ideal but many San Antonians might feel more apt to buy a ticket for a game indoors when the temperature outdoors is 100+. Besides, of the other soccer games played in the dome the soccer atmosphere was fantastic.

Do you have any decent pictures of the soccer atmosphere in the Alamodome?

[VioletCrown]

Originally Posted by Eaashley79

In the mean time, the Cibolo facility is looking more like an option to get the team off and running. 4,000 to 5,000 capacity looks to be about right for a USL team.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/communit..._facility.html

By the way, I'm sure this belongs in another forum, but I thought it applied here as well.

The soccer club’s women’s outdoor team will start its inaugural season at the multi-event facility in late May with two exhibition games against a semi-pro team from Austin

...Austin semi-pro women's team? There aren't any. There's the UT team. And rec league teams. The Aztex haven't started their women's team yet, and that's the only one that I know of.

Cibolo's trying hard, but until they actually have a press box, the Spurs aren't going to even consider it. Actually, even with a press box, I expect the Spurs aren't interested.

I can't help but wonder if Cibolo is wasting their money.

[VioletCrown]

Originally Posted by jhope

The lower bowl of the Alamodome holds 28000. With the Texas heat the alamodome makes a great place to hold games. Not ideal but many San Antonians might feel more apt to buy a ticket for a game indoors when the temperature outdoors is 100+. Besides, of the other soccer games played in the dome the soccer atmosphere was fantastic.

Interesting idea. With good FieldTurf (as opposed to crappy fieldturf) the game can be pretty good. I don't like the idea of playing in a dome. But I don't like it for football either. Football should be muddy, snowy, rainy, IMHO. But I guess I'm oldschool.

[sakyle04]

Alamodome has latest state of the art field-turf through a sweetheart agreement that gives them discounted almost-prototypical turf and the company gets to use the alamodome in promotional materials to other potential buyers.