Here are the renderings for the new water park that will be built on the site of Fort Lauderdale Baseball Stadium. They want to turn this: Into this: They plan to turn the baseball grandstands into a tropical castle, and apparently run a lazy river under the stands at Lockhart. Considering Traffic is now looking into potentially moving Miami FC(Strikers) to MLS around 2013, I'd imagine the Lockhart plans are tentative. If they were to fix it up for MLS I doubt they'd want a water attraction actually going through the stadium. Whatever the outcome it's definitely gonna be a unique venue.
Unique venue, indeed. Traffic taking Strikers to MLS @ 2013???? It sounds good, but, I'll believe THAT when I see it.
Bravo! Back to the stadium, how are the people supposed to get to the stadium for a match? The drawing is a little confusing. Instead of thinking about a stadium that happens to have a part of a water park running around it, it looks more like a water park that has a stadium inside it. I cannot see a separate entrance to Lockhart other than through the water park.
Give them time... IMO, the playing field itself is too valuable to Broward County as a site for various HS sports events & FAU, until that school gets it's own stadium, to have Lockhart destroyed.
Not to mention having water in that proximity to the stadium itself is pretty much ludicrous. They're not accounting for shallow piping, or the fact that things will fall into the water from the stands. This is an ambitious project, to say the least.
Hey, took me awhile to find this old thread, but I wanted to impart some info I just found out. According to what I have heard, the Schlitterbahn proposal has now officially been accepted by the Ft. Lauderdale City Commission. The next step in the process is now the deal with the FAA. Considering the company's past history of negotiating successfully with the FAA, as well as it already being known that their proposal for the land was the only one that got preliminary approval from the FAA, it seems like it's just a matter of working out the details on the deal. My source for the info seemed pretty confident that this deal will get done. So what do you all think if this goes down as it looks like it will? I for one think it is the best possible scenario for the Strikers long term stadium situation. Someone else is going to come in and renovate Lockhart on their dime. They've said all along that they want the Strikers to remain at Lockhart. They want to add more fields and facilities to the south side of the stadium grounds. To me the only question mark is what kind of deal will they give the Strikers in terms of rent and concessions. With the city of Ft. Lauderdale a champion for both Schlitterbahn as well as for the Strikers return this year, I have to believe they want to make it equitable for all parties, and will play a role in helping negotiate it. Ok, discuss!
I'm all for it. Stadium upgrades will keep the club at Lockhart long-term, even if they have to play a season or two elsewhere while the renovations take place. I'm still not too keen on the lazy river under the stands, but if it must be done then so be it. My biggest question would be the renovations themselves and to to what extent they are planning. In my view, a few things are a MUST: 1. Replace the press box/football coordinators booth on the south stands. 2. Enclose and make proper suites out of the covered area on the north stands. They don't have to be the lavish luxury boxes you see at Sun Life or the Arenas, but simple, enclosed areas with A/C would be a huge coup for trying to sell sponsorships and other high-end ticket plans. 3. Strip the north/south stands down to the concrete, rerpair as necessary, paint red and yellow and replace all the seats. It's 10 years on now and some still read "Fusion" on the back. We don't need any sad reminders of that debacle. 4. Improve concessions with more permanent stalls for food/drinks etc. 5. Install a modern video replay board. Rochester's stadium has one. It would probably be the most expensive part but it does wonders to improve the professionalism of the venue. Looking at FAU's new stadium at 30,000 seats, it only cost $70 million, which is nothing when you're talking stadiums. You could lose 10,000 seats and reconfigure that stadium design into a hell of a SSS for the same amount of money. And Lockhart would only need to partially be built. Ideally the upgrades of Lockhart are done so that in the future, a "stage 2" of renovations could easily be done to bring it up to current MLS standards. Back when it was re-done for the Fusion, it was the best stadium in MLS. Now, it would easily be the worst.
would help if the teams didn't have to dress in adjacent trailers separated from the stadium..........
It's not a trailer, they have an actual building across from the stands...but I agree something should be built as a permanent bridge to the field with a walkway across/over it for the fans.
I don't disagree with anything you have there DR. But here's the thing, and it's kind of a chicken and the egg problem. All of those upgrades you're talking about are MLS-level. To be honest, as much as I love my Strikers and really would be happy spending my summers watching them play in a stable NASL, I think that's a lot of expenditure on stadium upgrades for a team that would not be aspiring any higher than D2. Now I'm squarely in your camp of if the right set of circumstances were to fall into place, Traffic would either A. go for an MLS bid with the Strikers, or B. possibly be willing to part with the team for a new owner to try if the price was right and they could re-establish themselves in Cary or Atlanta if they are fully committed to D2. So, when it comes time for stadium renovations, what is Schlitterbahn going to do? Will they allow the Strikers to be part of it? If they do, will it invovle the Strikers contributing something monetarily or agreeing to higher rent? Would Schlitterbahn want to say, ok, we're not opposed to making those kinds of top-level upgrades, but if you guys are only looking to stay in an unstable D2 league, it doesn't offer the best chance for return on our investment to do so. Now, if you're willing to try and jump to MLS, we're more than happy to make this stadium ready and able to support an MLS franchise, plus provide the right kind of facilities south of the stadium for you to train. Who knows, maybe even eventually host an academy which is what Traffic wanted to do on this property in the first place. Lots of ifs. Lots of uncertainty. You can see my thougths on why I started that other thread about the team's future. This Schlitterbahn deal which some fans once saw as doom for the team, might actually wind up being the point where a decision about the team's future plans might have to be made. It might just be what opens the door wide on the possibility of trying for an MLS bid.
An upgraded press box, suites and concessions will be good for the venue regardless of the Strikers. You've still got HS Football and the occasional international friendly played there. I'm sure the city could get behind those kind of upgrades for the general well being of the stadium.
I said the same thing when I was talking about a possible SSS for Orlando City. Bright House Networks Stadium, at 48,000 seats, only cost $55 million to build. At the time of writing, I was likening it to a glorified version of Empire Field, only without actual seats (except the few club seats below the press boxes). Of course, the reason Empire Field only cost $15 million to build is because they didn't build permanent facilities around it.
So I wanted to revive this thread and post some talk I've heard about the situation. Let me put in the disclaimer that this all comes to me second hand, so take it for what you will. Some of it you could probably verify by going through the proper channels I think though. The first account of what may be occurring came via some individuals involved in the minor league baseball association that was trying to get the city to allow them to use Ft. Lauderdale Stadium. They claim to have bid significantly more money than Traffic for use of the stadium and facilities, but were rebuffed anyway, so I don't know if that has anything to do with anything, but that's what I hear. I think it does have an affect in that they feel like the city, or at least those in the position to make the decision, cared about the Strikers and preferred them to be there, despite the economics. Anyway, the same people are now claiming that they hear the Schlitterbahn deal is falling apart, but that the city is going to step in and negotiate with the FAA on behalf of the Strikers to get a deal done to keep them there long term. These minor league baseball guys are ticked off and seem to be portraying it as the mayor and others just playing favorites with Tim Robbie and the Strikers, because even with Schlitterbahn out of the way, their next option is the Strikers no matter what. Don't know how much truth there is in any of that, but this seems both good and bad for the team. Good to be able to stay at Lockhart long term, no interruptions, but bad in that there wouldn't be the upgrades Schlitterbahn would have been paying to do to the stadium and the surrounding facilities. One thing is certain, if the Strikers were to go to MLS someday, Lockhart would definitely need upgrades, so that path seems very foggy if this scenario is true. That is, unless Traffic, or whoever else may one day become majority owner of the Strikers....were to decide to renovate Lockhart themselves. I doubt anyone is ever getting any money out of tax payer coffers for it. Now, completely in contradiction to what the above would indicate, I've also heard some things that point to the Schlitterbahn deal being pretty much a lock. For those familiar with the area around the stadium to the east, on the east side of 95, north of Commercial Blvd. there is a neighborhood, called North Andrews Gardens (or at least it used to be). On Commercial, from Andrews to the next light east 6th Avenue, there are businesses facing Commercial itself, but behind them is the neighborhood. My understanding is that there is a very big push going on to get that entire area rezoned to include commercial use. The reason for this is there are apparently a number of interested parties who feel that property value is about to rise significantly and they want to be able to sell the land to investors that would come in and change some portion of it to things that would compliment the presence of a huge tourist attraction 5 minutes down the road, ie. restaurants, shops, other businesses, etc. This second part I can tell you all for certain is going on. I have a family member on the planning and zoning board for Oakland Park, and this is currently a very hot topic. Whether or not the speculation behind this big rezoning push is wishful hoping or based on some kind of inside knowledge is anyone's guess. I just thought I'd put both scenarios out there because I heard them both within a day of one another, and quite obviously, seem to fly in the face of each other. Sometimes people see and hear what they want to rather than what may actually be going on. At any rate, I'm guessing it can't be too much longer before we hear what will be going on at Lockhart/Ft. Lauderdale Stadium, and then whatever effect those decisions have on the Strikers future, or future possibilities.