At the Fan Appreciation Night celebration after last night's game, they had a placard with new artist's renderings of the Frisco stadium. Fortunately I happened to have my cheesy little digital camera in the car, so I got some pictures. The camera only has a 640x480 resolution, but hey, it plugs into my cellphone and only cost $10. But still, it should give you an idea of what the stadium is going to look like: First, the artist's rendering of the stadium from the southeast:
And from the northwest: I'm going to try and get some higher quality pictures in the next few days. Also, they were showing a promotional video there that's going to be tweaked a bit and sent out to season ticket holders and sponsors and prospective sponsors about the stadium in the coming weeks. I guess it's all part of their "buy 2004 season tickets and be first in line for 2005" push.
Great "spy" photos, Dustin. Do you know off-hand if the Burn have plans of possibly expanding the stadium down the road? Besides adding seats to the north end, it looks like they might be able to add an upper deck to the East Stand. Any idea what those buildings are in the corners? Are they all offices and the like, or might the Burn have a restaurant or pub on site?
Gorgeous. I'll let out a sigh of relif when the shovels hit the ground. They should have a cool bar there too that we can all go watch the away games there.
Thanks for the pictures... I doubt anyone in their right mind would design a MLS stadium without planning for expansion, so I can assume it's possible to put in the North end seats and additional level w/ roof on the East side. I think it's great. And after what you Burn fans had to put up with lately, you're gonna think you died and went to heaven.
The Burn staffer I spoke with last night gave the impression that they may already be doing some preliminary work on site, and that official groundbreaking may occur within the month.
neeeds a big ole roof for it. otherwise that's great for you guys. it looks like on one side of the feild there there's a way that you can view the action from before you enter the stadium, very cool. it does look a little bit like a college football stadium though.
I echo the sentiment about needing a roof, but the stadium will still look nice. A roof is too costly, I guess?
keep the grassy knoll though. i always thought that feature in the original design of the HDC was awesome.
I will attempt to answer some of the questions from tidbits I got last night. The green area at the end zone will at first be used for international games somehow. There is supposed to be a club inside the stadium but it sounds like it will be for high rollers (like the Stars Club at the AAC). There are all sorts of opportunities nearby especially across Main Street at the new development going on there. If we were smart we would pool resources and start one ourselves. It looks like that is all they could afford. Much better than the original proposal where there was none. This is supposed to be a done deal. It will probably be DALLAS BURN. I don't know in how many sections. There will be offices on the back end and the team offices will be moved there. Someone will have some very nice views of team practices from their office window. Find the two tent like structures near the front entrance, they will be used for the Italian resteraunt that holds private parties. Also, if you notice one of the closest practice fields to the stadium has a little stadium on one side -this is the artificial turf stadium for JV football and all the soccer games. Any coach would be thrilled to have all those practice fields at their disposal and the Dallas Cup would be crazy not to move their whole operation out there.
Thanks for all the info, Pegasus. I'm sorry to hear there won't be a restaurant/bar for regular folks on site, but I guess that's to be expected nowadays. One thing I hope the Burn considers doing is to make part of the East side general admission (say from the 20 yd-line to the corners). Here's my suggested walk-up ticket prices: West Side: center reserved.......................$40 upper deck and side reserved...$25 East Side: center reserved.......................$30 side GA..................................$20 Endzone GA............................$15
A few more words about the renderings: In talking with some of the Burn big-wigs last night, those renderings are for the "best case" stadium. Once the beancounters get rolling and starting cutting here and there, it might change. But some of those changes will be apparent externally, some won't (for example, the locker rooms might not be as nice). That said, I was told that these renderings are "75% finalized," and to be honest, they wouldn't be showing them publicly if they weren't publicly confident that the end product was going to end up being darn close. There will be different-colored seats that spell out "DALLAS" and "BURN." They didn't make it into the artist's renderings, but they were in the pictures that were shown in the promotional video. And they'll almost certainly be in there, mostly because the cost is marginal. They're already buying thousands of plastic seats, they'd just need to buy some of them in a different color. As far as the roof is concerned, there'll only be one on the west side. However, because of the height and because it'll be on the west side, it should block the sun at the time when most Burn games are played -- 7:30 or 8:00 at night. I imagine it'll be like at the Cotton Bowl, where 30 minutes into the first half, the sun was gone. Mind you, it's not 100% writ in stone that the roof will make it, but if they're showing it to the public at this point... Like all of you, I'm jazzed about opening day 2005. I was also told that some prep work has begun on the site, with the official groundbreaking to come in the next month or so.
Good work Jefe. The seats seem to be close to the action. It still would be nice if it had a roof over the stands,for those hot,muggy,day games.
Jefe,do you know if there will be a club shop at the stadium? How often will it be used for American Football? Hopefully not a lot.
I expect the stadium will be used for 1 or 2 high school football games each weekend during football season (late Aug. - Nov.). Right now, Frisco has 2 high schools and so that would mean the stadium would average 1 Friday night high school game each week. However, Frisco is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States and should have 4 high schools within the 10 or 15 years. At that time, we could expect to see high school football games played each week on Thursday and Friday nights, followed by a Burn game on Saturday night.
did anyone ask about the possibility of artificial turf? i would hate for that to happen, and i don't think they've said anything about it, but you never know after rochester decided to go with turf. it would be great to hear a confirmation that it would be real grass
Playing at Dragon Stadium has pretty much removed any possibility that existed that the Frisco stadium will have artificial turf.