There's an update on stadionwelt.de regarding this particular stadium. The lighting effect is much cooler than I initially thought. A red glow would be pretty awesome.
If the games are played after a heavy rain "flushes" out DC's sewer system, everyone also will get a "whiff" of something else as well.
You guys certainly are proving to be a bad influence on my office time management. I have now taken to saving my favorite stadium photos from this thread on my hard drive and putting them up as desktop background.
I realize that this post is all about fantasy, and what we would all LIKE to have in our new stadium *whenever it is that it gets built). However, I think the reason that alot of our new stadia (Crew Stadium, Frisco) have been built the way they have is this: they aren't complete yet. I know that sounds weird, but ostensibly, the goal is to have a 35,000 seat arena somewhere down the line without having to uproot again, and hence you get stadiums without roofs and with converitble stages (although those are obviously for alternate modes of cash-inflow). Basically, I'll take what I can get, and just hope that down the line, all the amenities are added on.
This one caught my eye with a couple of modifications. 1. Black seats all around. 2. The green glass changed to clear to provide the required views of the skyline.
Requirements - (besides playing area and enough room for warmups, corner kicks, etc - i.e. NOT like Spartan Stadium) LINES OF SIGHT - No deep corners - As much as I have love RFK and think there's very few bad seats, the deep corners are not good Close to the field - Many of the oval stadium have endline seats 40 yds from the goal - Anything less than El Norte is unacceptable Banked Seating - RFK 100 sections (particulary on the bench side) were designed and banked for baseball where you want to be on level of the first base line - But for Soccer (and Football) its the 2nd worse set of seats - And the seats need to START higher than the benches (or have the benches lower than the playing field) Tiered Seating - Not sure how necessary this is now - A small tier could be attractive and have good seats - But if you sit up too high, you miss the seeing the emotion - Maybe we could get away with a 25K design WITHOUT tiers - But building the stadium infrastructure that could support adding tiers in the future is also a necessity EXPANSION - (see Tiered Seating above) - If one end of stadium is left open for a stage, then you MUST be able to put up temporary stands at this end for special games (WCQ, MLS Cup, etc) MULTI-USE - Not sure about this requirement and its utility - Just as long this a SOCCER-STADIUM first and a concert venue second - How much extra revenue does HDC and Columbus Stadium (and any others) get? - Anybody got real figures to compare Soocer-Use vs Concert-Use? - (AND SERIOUSLY, how many folks would want to go to Anacostia for a concert?)
I would much rather take the Metro to a new venue in Anacostia (which will be right by the metro and hopefully surrounded by retail and restaurants) than try to get out of the parking lot at Nissan Pavillion and fight traffic to Merriweather Post (and Nissan). I think the concert venue would do well. That being said, I'm sure it will be built as a soccer stadium first - just as Bridgeview and Frisco have been.
Also, there has been recent talk that Merriweather may significantly downsize (possibly by completely enclosing the seated area), or may close altogether. So, DC United's facility could pick up some of that slack. For the sake of the field, though, I just hope that the plans aren't to pick up too much of that slack. As has been said, it should be a soccer stadium first. I do wonder, though, about a new stadium's true viability as a concert venue. The music industry has changed a lot over the past few years, and I don't know if there are as many acts than can fill large venues as there once were (which may be a big part of why venues like Merriweather are struggling). While the new stadium might have a pretty good locational advantage, it won't be a concert-specific venue, and there may be fewer concerts to go around, anyway. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as I don't want to see a full time concert venue there. I hope that DC United will get top priority in terms of scheduling dates, and that the field will be well-maintained above all else. Also, aside from concerts, I hope that the new stadium books a variety of other events, like the NCAA soccer final four (yes, please!), the occasional college football game (Howard U. could play a there occasionally... maybe once a year?), the city high school football championship, marching band competitions, and the like. Some of these events would not only draw new customers, but could go a long way with the local community.
By the way, this area is absolutely crying out for a good venue for mid-size outdoor concerts with good atmosphere within reasonable reach of the city center and, especially, the burgeoning PG county. You could make a hell of a lot of money with big acts that draw well with the african-american communities in this area, and affluent PG county accessible could be a ticket to major cash. Cheers, Tim
That's true. I think the additional revenue from (even just a few) concerts is a good thing, as is the ability to meet the demand certain niches in the concert market. With the potential downsizing or closing of Merriweather it could be even better. I'm just wondering how much the stadium will actually be used for concerts I still don't think we're really talking about that many shows, though... I just don't think there are as many larger touring acts as there used to be. The stadium's location could work well for a certain niche of concerts, and those shows shouldn't be overlooked, but I don't think there would be as many shows (those with large-enough acts) as people think. Even though the stadium would be smaller than RFK, I would still think that it would hold a lot of people for concerts and it would still be a fairly large (rather than mid-sized) concert venue. If we're talking about, say, 24,000 seats in the stands, plus an additional few thousand on the field, that's a pretty big concert venue. -How much of the stands would be open for a show (I would guess almost all), -How many people would the field hold (a few thousand)? -Would they try and do reduced capacity shows, selling fewer tickets? -What's the strategy here? Does anyone know what the concert capacity the stadium would actually be (or maybe what the HDC or Frisco hold for concerts)?
Rumor has it that there are some folks who want to demolish Merriweather to make way for further mixed-use development in Columbia. It's interesting because, Frank Gehry designed the pavilion way back at the beginning of his career when he worked for the Rouse Company.
I've heard that rumor, too, and DC United's stadium could fill some of the void left by a Merriweather closure. But Merriweather hasn't been altogether successful for the past few years, as they're struggling to compete with Nissan Pavillion for shows (which makes me think that there are fewer such shows to go around). For the sake of the field, I'd rather not see a DC United stadium have such a full concert season, anyway, so that's okay. Wow, I didn't know that Gehry designed Merriweather...
THEY LOOK AWSOME!!! i thin the Australian clubs are also looking to follow suit with these sized stadiums. DC United should too! after all they are 4 times MLS champs!