Rapids Stadium Construction Updates

Boonies? It's 6 miles from downtown Denver. That's hardly boonies by Yank standards.

One of the cornerstone's of a succesful project is working within your budget. I have a hard time faulting them for that. Especially without having hundreds of millions of public dollars to throw at a stadium or arena like other sports here are getting.

 

There is a lot of open space around the stadium now. Take a look at the pictures of the development going in around it and you'll see within a year or two after opening, it will no longer appear that way.

 

Something to note why this stadium is vastly important. Over the last two season there have been 64 Wednesday night games. Rapids have had 12 of those games (6 in 2005 and 6 this year) for a staggering 18.75% of all MLS Wednesday night affairs.

No more Wednesday nights=Good for Rapids.

 

Can you guarantee no more Thursday games? (chirp, chirp) ... didn't think so.

But speaking of Thursday games - am I the only one that think attendance will be decent (compared to a Wed game) for a Thursday? Thursday's are big "doing something" nights in this town.

I know that we do pretty alright on Friday night games.

 

I don't know if FIFA did that - but the English FA kind of did ... they got rid of Terraces. But Terraces were just open areas with NOTHING - no bleachers or seats - just an open sloped piece of concrete where the fans all stood.

Beachers are still seats - they're just back breaker seats. Everyone has a spot on the bench.

In the Terraces - the problem was they could only safely hold say 500 people - and then 700 people would pack into them. Then the "crushings" would happen. No 1 person one seat restriction.

But I'm pretty sure Terraces still exist in Eastern Europe and I think Turkey too - so I'm not sure FIFA ever required that.

Someone know that knows more than me? (which is probably most people )

Read "Among the thugs" by Bill Buford - that'll give you a good feel of the terraces in England back in the day. Of course it's REALLY violent - so be warned

 

One thing about next years TV contract is ESPN is responsible for everything .....production and promotion included. They won't let their games to go unpromoted even if the Rapids FO don't do it (promote that is) they still need a good product on the field

 

There are still terraces in Germany in certain parts of the stadiums. But they have divisor structures of some kind.

The terraces let in a phenominal number of people. The same current stadiums around England that hold 20kish people used to max out at 40-50k in the terrace days.

 

UEFA has lead the charge to convert stadiums in Europe to "all seaters". They did this in the wake of the Heysel Stadium disaster in Belguim in 1985.

Many stadiums across Europe still have terraces. But those stadiums can't be used for UEFA competitions. I follow Greek football a bit. And it is very common for Greek clubs participating in EUFA Cup to move their Cup matches from their home stadium to another stadium that has been approved by UEFA. Now many clubs in Greece are updating their stadiums to comply with the UEFA standards.

 

Ummmm... absolutely not true (on many levels)... Heysel had nothing to do with terraces... there was a fence and wall of a crumbling stadium that collapsed between fans when one group (Brits) attacked those in an adjacent section... Most big sadiums in Germany have terraces... please tell Dortmund that they can't use their stadium for cup games... almost all of those stadiums that were converted to all-seaters in Germany for the World Cup (FIFA does mandate all-seaters for WC games, but not qualifieres) were converted back after the tournament...

Rand

 

scoreboard and field 9-18-06


ped lights outside stadium 9-18-06


Pedestrian Bridge 9-18-06

 

Ummmmm, Sorry Rand. Read my post. And get YOUR facts straight before you call bullshit on others. I never said that Heysel had anything to do with terraces. All I said was that the push for "All Seater" stadiums by UEFA came in the wake of the Heysel disaster. Which is right off the UEFA web site. The web site also says that UEFA rules now require all spectators to be seated. Venues like the Westfalenstadion can be used in UEFA competition. But the terraces must be closed, or have temporary seats installed.

Link

 

Folks, lets keep this on topic please.

 

The arguement used by UEFA is that the terrances contributed to the disaster. Yes, when you dig into it and others there were a lot of other factors such as security that wasn't well trained. But the one of the things stressed in England and other places was that UEFA felt the terraces were a key factor in the disasters.

I'm not entirely suprised to see them being converted back. But I wouldn't assume they'll stay forever despite how opinionated the German fans are on them. IIRC FIFA issued a directive this summer calling for all-seaters for the top divisions. It might not change now but give it time.

Which is why I'd be interested to see how the new stadiums bench seating fits in with the FIFA directive. Not that, we're in danger of having soccer riots in the US (no matter what the real sore loser fans claim).

 

Sorry Bonji. It was never my intention to thread jack here. I'm out.

 

I stand (sit) corrected... thank you...

In my defense (at least partial), to say that "the push for "All Seater" stadiums by UEFA came in the wake of the Heysel disaster" certainly can be read to imply that terraces had something to do with the disaster (as opposed to Hillsborough, where terraces clearly had to do with it)... That EUFA would use Heysel as a rationale for doing away with terraces is completely faulty logic whether or not you agree with terracing as appropriate for stadiums... I had imputed this faulty logic to you, since you said it without quoting them (now I know that I will have to blame Lennart)...

rand

(very nice stadium, btw)

 

how do they get their grass to grow so nice and quick? I need some tips for my yard...

 

$$$$=sod

 

See that spot in the grass?



Sorry about that - I got so excited by the whole place - it just happened!

 

The heck with the spot, I want to know why they put the date on the fied

 

Born on Date. Worked for Budweiser - for a week or two

 

Ok, time to close for the 500 post limit. Here is the new one.