First, the news report ... Second, the "Letter from Warren Smith Regarding Cal Expo Home Pitch" ... That's a pretty sweet development. And I'm thinking this more or less focuses the permanent (MLS size) stadium prospects at Cal Expo.
"This is a temporary venue for Sacramento Republic FC’s home matches until a MLS stadium can be built in the downtown core." That's at least encouraging. "A facility use fee will be added to tickets if matches are played at Cal Expo. All ticket holders that place their deposit before December 13, 2013 will be grandfathered into the previous pricing and not are required to pay the fee for the 2014 season." WTF? So now tickets will be even more expensive?? (For anyone who doesn't put a deposit in the next few weeks) I'm assuming this "facility fee" will be tacked on to single game tickets? Geezus, do they want to get attendance numbers? Do they want to attract poor youth? And this doesn't even take into account what the parking fees will be. Run by Cal Expo, they'll almost certainly be more expensive than at SCC.
My thoughts exactly after reading about the "facility fee". The tickets are already too expensive as it is and you are going to tack on another fee. Plus parking will be in the neighborhood of $10.
Seriously, I think that's a funny touch. Is there any other soccer stadium in the world that has a monorail swing by overhead? Too bad it's not actually some connection to mass transit... What I notice from the renderings: beer + food trucks = great!
Holy crap, I hadn't noticed the monorail or the food trucks. That's awesome. When I was at the commercial shoot, the owner of Drewski's was talking to Warren Smith about food trucks servicing games. Glad to see the trucks will be there as an alternative to fair food. One of the trucks in the rendering looks like the Drewski's truck.
Haha, well it's not like they're building a monorail, it's just already a part of the State Fair/Cal Expo. They're basically going to have to nestle the stadium inside the track, should make it interesting. The genius thing about food trucks is you don't need to have a permanent concessions facility there. The Quakes do this, lots of venues are doing this now, the Kings new arena is planning to use food trucks, etc. You can eat something different each game, and the options will be much better quality and more interesting than the typical hot dogs, nachos, etc. that you see everywhere. This will basically create more buzz, and will be free advertising for the club/games when food trucks advertise where they will be on a particular day. Tons of customers for the food trucks, lots of happy fans, not permanent facility/infrastructure to put in place. Win-win-win.
I like the food truck idea for the Republic and Kings, also. Like you said, better food, more variety. I imagine a similar concept for beer, too. Changing microbrew vendors, hell yeah!!! Having the mono rail swing by will actually be good advertising/ awareness during the state fair. I imagine the Republic will have at least two maybe three games during the fair dates. A hundred people on each train, cruising past the stadium every five minutes during a game = good soccer exposure, IMO.
Regarding facility fee, I suppose that's the flip side of no taxpayer funding. There's no free lunch. I don't mind paying a buck or two for the improved experience, but don't want to get hit with a five dollar surcharge like will occur with the Kings. Love the monorail feature (and Simpson's graphic above), lol!
QuietType, you gave me an idea. The monorail song from the Simpsons can be modified to be a chant for the team.
Hahaha! That is actually a brilliant idea! I hope the Tower Bridge Battalion chimes in on this concept.
I guess I should have just looked harder: http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/14/3030499/new-8000-seat-soccer-stadium-at.html
It shows in the artists concept drawing, but this stadium would just barely fit in that space. Along the western edge of the monorail, there's only about 145-150 yards before you hit that bump in the track, and between the western edge of the monorail and Raging Waters there's about 120 yards. The field should be between 115 and 120 yards long, and (you'd hope) about 75 yards wide. That leaves (say) 30 or 35 yards combined for the ends, and about 45 yards combined for the sidelines. Plus you have to take a few yards away for the technical area and for space behind the goals. I guess there's room for 8000, but it's gonna be tight.
Getting this in place in four months still seems ambitious. I'm also curious about locker room facilities for the players. And one important thing missing from the rendering. Portapotties! Hope you can hold your beer.
Sounds like a real good idea. I think this shows the MLS we are serious about a soccer team in Sacramento. Building a stadium in such a short span of time like we're going to do is very tough. Also, I'm glad there won't be permanent football lines,. They might have drove away casual fans by confusing them what the actual boundaries are.
I am thinking the actual fans will be repelled by the football lines. IMHO those football lines take away from Seattle's Home Pitch. I rather goto a small stadium like Buck Shaw in San Clara.
I made the request to move the Sacramento folder to the main USL page. Follow the link and post a follow up request. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/sacramento-republic-fc-in-the-usl-group.1996997/
It does look like that northern end would be the supporters group section, but as they've said, this is just a rendering. Why anyone would pay for "VIP" seats to sit behind the goal line is beyond me, so we'll see what happens. I wouldn't expect those there, but maybe they should put the Family section behind the opposite end? I talked to a sales rep on the phone today, she said the seating sections should still be the same (i.e., end line community still on the sideline). So, sounds good, but I'm still waiting for something new.
Uh oh.. Looks like that December 13 meeting to decide the stadium situation is pushed back to January 31! Yikes.. It sounds like the club, Cal Expo, an Ovations(the company building the facility) haven't come to an agreement yet so that is the reason.. Kind of unsettling. They say they will still be ready for late April as the first home game, but the wording "may be" on the site seems like the possibility that won't happen is definitely there. http://sacrepublicfc.com/cal-expo-multi-use-facility/
Whoa, now this just posted by Ryan Lillis at the Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/11/5993067/cal-expo-soccer-stadium-delayed.html Some more information and candid comments than what is on the club website.... *Team has "secured"(I assume means nothing more than deposits collected) 2,700 season tickets packages Warren Smith: "Even if we had to play the first couple of games at Hughes stadium, or even the first season, we're still going to move forward with the (Cal Expo) facility" ::gulp:: Straight from Warren, he thinks there's the possibility we won't even be at Cal Expo at all next season?? The last thing this club needs is a floating timeline and the venue up in the air. The temporary stadium and Hughes are (going to be) two very different venues and experiences, not only for fans but for the game on the field. I really, really hope things go smoothly and the Cal Expo stadium is on the fast track.. this just sucks...
Oh man, that would really suck if have to play at Hughes for the first season. At this point, I'm hoping it's just for the first couple of games. They need to nail this down. I think this is a really big deal... Even if they nail it down by Jan 31st, not sure I can see how they get it up and running in 3 months.