It is ideal, but probably not as ideal as the first site they wanted near the Minneapolis farmers market. That area is already a designated entertainment district where Twins and Timberwolves play. Also live music venues, theater, bars, restaurants, night clubs, hotels etc ... But I think this United stadium development will change that part of St. Paul as well. It'll be a gentrifying anchor and I'm sure the bars and restaurants won't be too far behind. It's already a very busy and urban area so it's not like it's out of the way. One benefit of the MN United stadium will be that's it's situated between the two downtowns. Kind of a unifying location so the team will live up to its name
https://twitter.com/IMSoccerNews I assume this is the link you're referencing... One of the nice things if this all comes off with the other development is The Don will get his "sexy downtown look" with those tall buildings near the stadium...
Re: DCU Stadium At a meeting w/ season ticket members, I was told the team dugouts will be integrated in the stadium structure. No more aluminum benches.
My god! I know you also said that the light rail runs down University Ave., but don't tell someone the U is a 3 mile ride away on the 16!!
Idea? You could just borrow the schematics from the World Cup-winning Qatar bid committee. I'm sure they're sound.
On Friday I watched DCU play at Kansas City on TV, and yesterday Galaxy at Montreal. Those two stadiums are at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of quality. Kansas City (which I've never visited), is by all accounts a beautiful facility. Saputo Stadium (which I have visited) in Montreal is a functional facility but not much in the way of aesthetics. For example some of the bathrooms are in separate trailer-like facilities. It will be interesting to see how the three current small SSS projects compare to these two. I don't anticipate DC being as good at KC but hope that it's a step or two above Montreal. Saputo, however, is a more than adequate venue.
The difference is all those stadiums (and Vancouver's) are at least centrally located within their metropolitan areas, whereas the Revolution play way out in freaking Foxboro. I don't think people from outside the area realize how problematic that is. At a time when cities are being revitalized and are the place to be for young professionals that are the MLS target demographic, the league has almost zero presence in the Boston area... which probably has more colleges than any other on top of everything else. I have a buddy who is not a soccer fan at all, he moved to Seattle, and within a month there were photos of him and his work buddies at a Sounders game. I lived in MA so I know dozens of people there, not only do they never go see the Revs, most probably have no idea there's even a soccer team in their state! There are about ten cities that set the tone in American culture, with NYC and LA being top two obviously, but not having MLS presence in cities like Boston or SF is certainly not ideal. Also the city is filling up fast, if the Krafts keep dragging their heels pretty soon there will be no land to build a stadium on, and instead of Boston or even Somerville it will be way out in freaking Revere.
DC's situation is pretty similar to Boston's, with high land prices and lots of NIMBY sentiment. The Maryland and Virginia suburban jurisdictions have no interest in a stadium, so DC was the only (but also much preferred) option. Our site turned out to be small but in a pretty good location. The only location downside is that it's a little far (.6 mile) from a Metro stop. But there's no way we were going to get a site closer to mass transit. It's probably accurate to anticipate that the Boston and NYCFC sites will also be very small and not as close to mass transit as would be ideal. Although it's hard to imagine any site in NYC that isn't close to a subway station.
This is a blast from the past. For those who haven't followed the DCU stadium search for the past decade, this is the Poplar Point site, just across the Anacostia River from Nationals Stadium (visible on top edge to the left). It is arguably a better site than Buzzard Point, which is the point on the opposite side of the river on the bottom left. Everything in greenish color was the proposed development, with the stadium just to the center right. Our actual stadium site is below and left of Nationals Stadium. There's a street running diagonally right to left from Nats Stadium to our site, which I believe is just off of the map on the left. If I remember correctly this site was hot around 2007-2008 but that there were two obstacles. The first was that was had a cash poor owner who was heavily leveraged in real estate and thus had little money for the project before the great recession and none afterward. The second was that developing the site would require a major infrastructure investment, in that there basically nothing their n the way of roads and utilities. I'm pretty sure theere has been no development there since. I think the Poplar Point site was closer to a Metro station. You could make the case that the current site is at least as good due to it's proximity to Nationals Stadium and all the development that's happening there. FYI for out-of-towners, the Anacostia flows into the Potomac just to the left of this map.
Meh is my sense on the stadium. It has taken so very long, I've stopped really caring that much. In addition, the downgrading of the stadium facility in terms of numbers, design and facilities is really underwhelming and is far, far off the pace of the new stadium's being built today.
What really disappoints is the elimination of a full scale roof to protect against weather and keep the noise in. Also, the lack of space will virtually eliminate tailgating.
Yeah, a wrap around roof would be much better. While I'm sorry that tailgating will go away, in reality with a urban stadium it's just not possible. As to whether the DC stadium design is on par with others, lets wait and see. One purpose of this thread is to compare and contrast the design features of three small SSS's that will be built concurrently. While I don't doubt that the LA and Minnesota stadiums will have prettier exteriors, I'm not ready to concede that our stadium will be inferior in other respects.
From drawings, we already know access points, concession areas and restrooms likely will also be inferior.
This brings to mind the great Portland restroom debate. For their expansion project some asserted that the # of restrooms and concession stands would be greatly inadequate. Not sure how it worked out.
I remember the days when we used to estimate attendances at Notts County based on the depth of the urine in the men's toilets.
I was at a game at Providence park in April. I didn't have any issues with the bathrooms or number of concession stands. Then again, I'm not really a whiny bitch when it comes to having to stand in a short line to take a piss, so maybe I'm the exception.
To Paul Berry - you would love RFK. Tonight there was urine in the toilets and blood on the tracks. Such is life when you follow a mediocre side. I got an explanation from Portland on the restroom and concession debate. Apparently there was consideration of opening the expanded stadium in 2010 (or 11?) with a 27K capacity, and much concern about restroom and concession capacity at that number. But that would have meant selling a lot of obstructed view seats far up in the rafters of the old section, and it was decided to open at a capacity just les than 19K, which has since been expanded by a couple thousand. No problems with the facilities now. I would dismiss sitruc's concern's about restrooms and concessions at the new DC stadium, if I hadn't been to Montreal where the restrooms are in trailers and almost nothing but Bud is served. I am hoping for better.
Not much exciting happening with any of these three projects right now (unless you count the Minnesota budget controversy), but here's an interesting project proposed for right next to the LAFC stadium. http://urbanize.la/post/mixed-use-complex-rise-near-lafc-stadium Proposed student housing/hotel across from the stadium