One thing I really respect about Baltimore is how truly great their fans are -- especially at Ravens games. (Baseball for me = zzzzzz.) A nice memory of old Memorial Stadium was that it was set on the edge of a townhouse neighborhood and you could see the townhouses out the end of the end zone/centerfield. The worst memory I have about Memorial was watching a game against Seattle on a wretchedly cold Sunday afternoon in early December -- the wind seemed to be whistling along the horseshoe shape of the stadium and my friend & I were sitting near the top row on an aluminum bench. Brrrrrr!
You know, I've never seen any statistics for team attendance for the Crew and the Galaxy before and after each team's SSS was open. Wonder if there really was much difference. Guess I could figure that out easily enough, but I better skip out on you guys, quit goofing off and get back to work.
In addition to previously mentioned MCI, the new agreement with MLB gives MLB both the rights to the revenue from the new ballpark's naming rights and the rights to choose who to sell the naming rights to. If a SSS is ever built in DC, you can rest assured it will have a corporate name.
Is there anything the city DOES get (besides saying a bb team plays in the city limits) from this whole deal?? I'm actually surprised that is getting past the Feds since it's all/mostly city money that is building the damn thing. I wouldn't hold my breath. They aren't bending over backwards to bring a MLS team to DC ... I know it's a revenue thing, but i'd be happy if they went with something simple like "DC United Stadium" or "United Park" or some such. As long as DCU gets some of the money and it doesn't have any politicians name in it, i'll be happy. -dave
That's okay, someone else will go in your place. Besides, I'd go to games at Kim Il Sung stadium as long as it was a new SSS and not that sh!tbox RFK. Lots of good memories there, but let's face it - it's a dump.
http://www.kenn.com/soccer/mls/columbus.html "the jump from 1998 to 1999 is the second-biggest in MLS history in a single year" basically recovered to the point of first year attendance. 5 crowds in 96 were larger than the SSS capacity now (was at Ohio State large football stadium) http://www.kenn.com/soccer/mls/losangeles.html probably a small bump in attendance for la, a huge bump in revenue (I'd guess) HOME GAMES ROAD GAMES DATES TOTAL AVERAGE DATES TOTAL AVERAGE Columbus Crew 15 253,079 16,872 15 188,664 12,578 Los Angeles Galaxy 15 357,137 23,809 15 217,411 14,494 Los Angeles 2002 14 266,664 19,047 9.5% 14,738 don't have 2003 info, but good jump, especially from median I'd guess (2004 median not on mlsnet, it's posted on bigsoccer somewhere though)
DC has been under home rule for decades now. The city is financing the stadium by taxing DC businesses, and backing the bonds with DC taxpayer's money, not Fed money. The Fed still has the power to nose in and do whatever they want, but they tend to save that for grandstanding issues that they can't get passed for their own districts, but can easily pass for DC since DC has no representation.
Wow, I'm lovin the design. Brick facade, no initial seating behind the goals (allows for expandability without the less desirable seats initially), a roof ... it just ooozes class. I hope the finished product is something like that, because if so, I think we have a new standard in stadiums. BTW, what do you people thing about another Anschutz team gets a great stadium while the Hunt team (its arch-rival) gets what initially appears to be something less? I for one am darn glad that we're owned by Anschutz. Hopefully we get all the permissions we need very soon to build our stadium, because I don't want the NIMBYs to delay our stadium until Anschutz eventually sells United. -Digital
If you look closely, I think there is seating behind one goal and the other has the stage set-up. It's essentially the same as the Dallas design in that sense, but with all the things you mentioned that Dallas skipped (the roof, brick facade, etc.) This is clearly the best SSS design in the USA to date.
Time for me to play HSG apologist. First, I'm not sure where you get the impression that Dallas isn't going to have a nice facade on ULHOWA. Look at some of the artist's renderings at the FC Dallas website. We're not exactly talking Crew Stadium Mark II here. As far as the roof (or lack thereof) is concerned, Dallas and Chicago are spending basically the same amount of money on their respective stadium complexes. However, the Frisco complex will be surrounded by 17 rec soccer fields. Not only was this a requirement that helped HSG get civic funding in the first place, they will help forge a deeper grassroots bond between the team and the local soccer community. Plus, usage fees generate revenue streams. But building those fields costs money. The Bridgeview stadium will only have a couple of practice fields for the Fire next to it (and really that's all that they have room for), so they've got a token roof. In the end, Dallas spent their money on rec fields, Chicago spent theirs on a roof. Aside from that, the two stadiums are very similar.
That's Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but most everyone on the street has dropped the OP part of the name.
Well, even if truncated to that, I think "Poplar Point" sounds pretty good. In fact, I like it better than anything I've heard yet. Certainly I like it more than "Lockheed-Martin Field" or "Discovery Channel Stadium" or "The Fannie Mae Center."
Dear Baby Jesus, Please, please, please do whatever it takes to have some suit over at Fannie Mae have the brilliant idea to buy the naming rights to DC United's mythical future stadium. We would love to see DC United play their home games at "The Fannie." Sincerely, Almost everyone
I've already told you guys: The name of the new stadium will be "Scrubbing Bubbles Flushable Toilet Wipes Field at Poplar Point." You heard it here first.
Let's go win The Cup ... togetherrrrrrr I'm telling you, United Bank shouldn't let this opportunity slip by ...
I have always thought the should name it Marion Barry Memorial Stadium This way, it can be popularly known as: The Crack House