That area is ripe for development. The tower looks pretty cool and will change the feel of that section of Nationwide Blvd. I think the dead end is going to need addressed at some point. A bridge over the Olentangy and connect to Spring? Astor Park is the end of the road currently. It needs to be the heart of it.
There’s been no follow-up news on the study the city commenced a couple of years ago regarding a bridge linking the Arena District to East Franklinton. Regarding this proposal, I see in the article this developer has an interesting track record of proposing major projects downtown, and then not moving ahead with them. Guess we’ll see what happens in this case, if anything. Columbus Business First hasn’t covered this yet, which in itself is interesting. I’ll be curious what their take is. One thing I’m wondering is whether this site falls within the Arena District, in terms of design oversight. Because that rendering isn’t close to something that would blend in with the rest of the AD, architecturally. The Crew had to engage in a lengthy back and forth over the stadium design, recall.
If I recall the land for LDC was purchased from Nationwide, maybe the sale involved some design oversight? Edit - Confirmed. https://www.wosu.org/news/2019-10-1...es-deal-to-purchase-land-for-downtown-stadium
The actual boundaries of the Arena District seem to be both geographic and financial. In other words, located in that contiguous area, but also land owned by Nationwide Reality. The location of this new project is geographically in that area, but not financially. Interesting, had the stadium been squeezed onto that triangular lot that's between LDC and Huntington Park, presumably it wouldn't have had to deal with Nationwide on design decisions, since that lot is owned by Savko. Who knows? Anyway, Columbus Business First did also pick up the story about that 22 story development. Their article doesn't contain any new details. Wait and see, I guess.
https://www.bizjournals.com/columbu...=40&cx_testVariant=cx_10&cx_artPos=3#cxrecs_s That's a horribly edited last sentence, but you get the gist. Div III NCAA soccer... it doesn't get much better than that.
On turf at the old stadium. I would have thought they would play that at the LDC. Aren't the OHSAA soccer championships at the LDC?
IIRC, that was at the OHSAA's request. they didn't want a sport (HS soccer) contested largely on astroturf have its title decided on grass. Maybe similar logic from the NCAA here.
Why can’t the US compete in international soccer? High school soccer preferring turf over grass is a great place to start. SMH.
My educated guess: It saves them money by running 3-4 sets of lines across one field. The same field/stadium can be used for football, soccer, lacrosse and probably even various field events for the schools that have them. I'm sure some of the richer schools have separate fields, but the vast majority probably have a Thursday soccer game on the same field that a Friday football game takes place on.
Gonna be that guy: The youth development flash point or the problems are in ages 8-12. Typically, if you're a high level prospect, you're playing club ball in high school. Although you may play in both.
Up here in the Cleveland area, Div. I Mentor has separate turf (artificial turf) fields for football, soccer, baseball, and I believe softball.
It wasn't that long ago when I was at a Lake vs Canton McKinley varsity soccer game played on one of their 4 football practice fields while the McKinley side wore 3 different uniforms.
They're what I implied by "richer" schools. What they don't have would surprise me. Fun fact: Bishop Ready in Columbus doesn't have a football stadium because the neighbors threw a fit when the school was constructed circa 1960s. Something about "too much noise at nights." As a result, they've always had to "borrow" other fields. Their current "home" stadium is Fortress Obetz, which I believe is owned by the same anti-Crew d-bag as owns the Bar of Modern Art or whatever that place is called. They do, however, have two baseball fields and one softball field (how many schools can claim two baseball fields, IDK), a dedicated soccer field without any other markings and a dedicated JV football field that the varsity uses for practice (not too many smaller schools can claim those.)
Fly into DFW sometime and see (from the air) the palaces their HS football teams have. Some are nicer than HCS.
Their soccer field is the absolute worst field I’ve ever coached on.. and without any other markings is being used loosely, as it barely had soccer markings the day we played there lol
No doubt. Movies/shows like Varsity Blues and Friday Night Lights are undoubtedly 100% entertainment, but true...in a sense. 10,000 seats and $35m spent. https://www.wfaa.com/article/sports...exas/287-400447bc-d631-4cae-992c-a637de6da579
Oof. What year was this, if you don't mind saying? The worst I ever saw was one that was recently aerated. It looked like snakes burrowed into it...all sorts of holes everywhere.
Fortress Obetz is owned by the village of Obetz. Ready does not have two baseball fields. They have one baseball field. The soccer field is in the outfield of the baseball field. They technically have two softball fields, although the one hasn't been maintained for a while and is not usable as the infield is covered in grass and weeds. The practice football field is the outfield of the softball field. Many schools around Columbus do have multiple baseball and softball fields, but those are mostly the larger suburban schools. Central Crossing, for example, has a natural grass football stadium, a practice football field, two natural grass fields (one with lights), two baseball fields, two softball fields, and 8 tennis courts. It's quite the athletic complex. As a matter of fact, all South-Western City high schools (Central Crossing, Grove City, Westland, and Franklin Heights) separate football and natural grass soccer fields equipped with lights. Most mid-to-large size schools at least have natural grass soccer fields that are used for practice, although a lot tend to use the football fields for games if the soccer fields don't have lights. Even many "country" schools have separate natural grass fields for soccer. West Jeff immediately comes to mind. Licking Heights, although not really "country" anymore is another. I think London also has a separate soccer field. Granville has a separate soccer field with lights. Northridge, surprisingly, has a separate soccer field.
We do have a nice little complex at CC! I wish they'd level the soccer field a bit but we manage. Grove City had turf installed about 5 years ago from a private donation - so they play soccer in the main stadium. Same with London and Licking Heights. Granville has turf as well, but I'm not sure where they play.
Yikes. I guess Ready's fields have fallen on hard times. Even about 10 years ago, they definitely had three that were playable, at least for rec league purposes. I'm guessing it's the southwest field that fell to crap. My guess appeared to be 100% wrong. Google's satellite view tells me yikes. Edit: And what in the abomination of all things is that excuse for a soccer field I see on Google satellite? I'd hope that got redone with straight lines. Soccer being in the baseball outfield works since the sports don't overlap... hence what I meant by dedicated. It never was used by other sports *at the same time* of the year. St. Charles does the same thing. Their football/soccer field is also in the outfield. I believe their football team practices on a field "across the way" at times. Funny story here...the football coach at East HS got a bus and expected a long ride. Oops. The Grove City school system obviously throws a lot of money at their athletic programs, as do a lot of the suburbs. A lot of those suburban/rural schools definitely have the land...or they did at one point. I remember going to some game in Hilliard and they had a huge parking lot with all sorts of retention ponds, etc. etc. Compare that to a school like Bishop Hartley where you might have to park 3-4 blocks away in the neighborhood and what appears to be a parking spot from a distance is actually a fire hydrant or driveway. And where the hell did I hear Fortress Obetz was owned by Anti-STC D-Bag? Oh well. Maybe he was a rumored investor at one point. (FWIW, that building is now known as the Bluestone.) The Ohio Machine (men's lacrosse) was owned by a guy named Jim Davis. The team folded when Jim was forced to give the team up.
The layout of St Charles’ baseball field, overlapping the soccer/football field, makes for a CRAZY big (and oddly shaped) outfield. The Boy was glad he played 3rd base instead of LF for the road game at St Chuck’s this year.