Absolutely in the same boat. I had an account for years but was only really active when trying to get Dos A Cero tickets in Columbus. STC brought into posting on the site.
I had an "of course you idiot" realization this morning. I've been wondering all along how the north bowl of the stadium would be constructed knowing that, at some point, the NW corner ingress/egress dirt ramp would have to come out. But, of course, duh, access will be retained via the designed gap in the secant wall that'll allow vehicles to enter the lower level of the site (and eventually the stadium) via that NE corner. In fact, if you look at the HD panorama, you'll see they're working on the driving surface of that entry right now. We don't have a view of the northern edge of the stadium site on the webcam, but I assume work is well underway to excavate the descending access road that'll run from the NW to NE corner of the site. I still assume, too, they'll fully expose the rough secant pilings along the northern bowl and finish it the same way they did the south bowl, but time will tell.
According to this article, 2 garages and based on the pictures, near the tracks. https://www.columbusunderground.com/design-for-new-downtown-riverfront-park-approved-bw1
You can see steel columns likely holding back dirt around back side of Beer Garden area. so I do think they have a ramp now going down outside. I'm still leaning toward they will not be excavating the Nordecke and Northwest corner section under the stands. You could see plumbing sticking out of ground before view was obstructed. That would be for bathroom and concessions next to beer garden which will be under the stands....We shall see - likely soon. What I keep watching is the South East corner to see how how/when they are going to build the bar near plaza entrance.
Those are near Cosi. Would still need a bridge for those to be beneficial. The riverfront park is near the stadium it seems. In other news I’m eligible to buy seats anywhere in the stadium starting tomorrow. My spot is Thursday. I guess we’ll know pricing very soon.
Those parking garages look to be on the east side of the tracks. Notice the double train bridges. They better not tear down Betty's bar!!! But sure look likes that is exactly where they are planning garages. Don't know that I seen that before. Always assumed parking garages would be between apartment and stadium on the current construction site.
One thing I didn't realize until recently, too, is the reasoning behind the non-symmetrical nature of the outline of the secant wall. The 360 degree drone image in the new stadium website is old, but in it you can clearly see what I'm talking about. On the east side of the stadium, on the new HD panorama you'll see that they've begun construction of the upper stands of the north bowl. But the steel foundations of those stands rest outside of the secant wall. The west stands, however, look to have been designed so that all of the foundations - for the lower stands and the upper premium and media suites - are located inside of the secant wall. If I had to guess, it would be that the north end and corner foundations will follow the same pattern as we're seeing in that portion of the north upper stands now being built on the east side: lower stands inside of the secant wall, upper stands outside. It seems odd to me that they'd leave mountains of dirt piled below the lower stands along the NE sidelines and entire north end, or that they even could. They'll need to pour concrete supports for the lower stands all along that area, which I'd assume means the dirt we still see inside the site against the secant wall has to go. But what do I know? The construction of the upper stands on the NE side, directly behind the un-excavated secant wall does imply they won't ever apply a finished interior secant wall, as we've seen elsewhere on the site (the upper stands will block access to the wall to do that kind of work).
I Wasn't sure if this had been posted yet. The Crew released a short video on parking around the new stadium yesterday. It was a small link on the email from them this morning and was easily missed. https://www.crewstadium.com/news/watch-getting-to-the-downtown-stadium/
Over the last few weeks when panning around the site in the "panorama-Ultra-HD" mode I have noticed a lot of police activity around the stadium site. This view is always taken at 6:30pm. If you go into that view right now and zoom in you will see two police officers in an old mini van parked facing the stadium site, next to what looks like a fake cop car. Then pan over to the Savko site to the east and you will see 3 Columbus Police SUVs. I know there was some sort of theft of equipment a while back. Maybe The Crew has hired off duty police officers to guard the site, or is something more sinister happening?
The site is a hubbub of activity today. From what I can tell, it looks like they're erecting steel on both the east and west sides into the north corners. Plus currently, they're offloading steel beems outside the SW gate area. It's kind of cool to see three on site cranes active all at once.
There is the slightest bit of vertical erection going on at the Mapfre site: https://www.columbuscrewsc.com/ohpc/construction-cam Not the kind of massive steel stuff this group gets all hot and bothered about. Just some old school scaffolding around a concrete structure of some sort being built in the interior of what'll eventually be the training center.
Probably an elevator shaft. Those usually go up first (I'm basing that partly on watching the new library branch on Karl Rd. go up).
Oh come on; this bunch gets big 'ol stiffies if some hobo shows up waving a screwdriver. We're easy to please. Isn't that right about where the kids' mini field used to be?
I think slightly north of that... EDIT: I think the kids field was where the crane is. Looks like ground for one of the new fields is leveled off and perhaps ready to go (but they might bring in another layer of good soil), and there are what look like a couple of light posts in one corner back almost to the RR track
Possibly--looked a little small for that (again, going off what I've been seeing on Karl Rd a bit closer up--and we asked the guys on that site what it was).
Now I'm even more convinced they will not be excavating under Nordecke or NE stands. They have framed a wall that steps down in the form of seating bowl on left side of the gap in NE corner and their is rebar sticking up on right side that presumably will tie into mirror wall on right side. I think it will simply be a tunnel from outside right out onto pitch for mowers/equipment etc with no access into the underground portion of the stadium.
The upper portion of the NE stands, and the upper section of Nordecke seats and the beer garden, yes, as they're outside of the secant wall. But they'll need to excavate the dirt piles still resting up against the raw secant wall at some point in order to pour concrete wall supports for the lower stands. Those can't sit on dirt. And you're right about the access tunnel. You can see it on the "Nordecke (Field View)" rendering: https://www.crewstadium.com/#renderings. But, then again, there probably won't be anything lower in the structure than the playing surface (other than pipes, etc.). The players are supposed to come out through a mid-pitch opening below the premium sections on the west side, with locker rooms tucked below the steel structure we've seen go in there. I think the space below the east side lower level stands is where the east premium dedicated food/drink spaces are located. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be anything lower than the pitch level in the stadium structure.
They may excavate a few swaths to form up and pour supports for what I assume will be precast concrete sections of stands. But I really don't think they will be removing all that dirt. Although I'm curious if there will be a built in stage of some sort under Nordecke and the stands can be rolled back. Guess I'll just have to keep wasting hours watching the cam and find out. Has anyone confirmed a stage? OR will they just use Mapfre for concerts and not do them in the new stadium?
I could be misremembering but thought they said there would be a concert configuration. It would make sense so they could do festivals with LC, Huntington, and Nationwide.
Did a little scouting mission today with lunch & a couple beers at Hofbrauhaus. Totally a place one could pre/postgame it. A Mile at most from stadium depending on route. The pedestrian bridge will cut that down a bit but more likely if they can connect a path along river on East side behind White castle development, it will be a hop skip and jump to Nordecke entrance. I did drive around behind there and it looks possible, just don't know plans by city for certain in that regard. Obviously I stopped by stadium. Here's a little close up porn for y'all.