It’s worth noting that the “Palladium Autopark” next door is relatively recent. For about a decade the Corel Centre/Scotiabank Place was surrounded by nothing but open fields.
Well, the owners couldn’t afford the arena they built(hence the team eventually going bankrupt), let alone building an arena down town. Really that was all there was to it.
Their former stadium, RFK, which is still used by DC United, is not only bereft of nearby business, but also in a less-than desireable neighborhood, though not completely terrible.
I think Yankee Stadium has improved a lot compared to the 70s and 80s. I usually try to get up there a bit early and eat at a diner before the game. All the eateries and bars are doing great and have been for a long time. There are also now a lot more stores around. The area is a far cry from Camden Yards but it is almost up to Fenway.
I don’t recall anything walkable distance to Cincinnati except other arenas. They seem to combine the worst aspects of places like the Meadowlands in NJ and urban stadiums.
Speaking of the Meadowlands, eventually a huge mall is opening in the complex. Xanadu I believe they’re calling it.
The Sports Arena in San Diego (one of the worst names ever) had plenty in walking distance. That was always nice. We would walk back over to Hollywood Pizza usually after the concerts.
For all the Oakland answers, Candlestick Park isn’t much better. Sure, the old dump-heap is in a nicer location, but it’s not some commercial hub. On three sides is water, a big green hill on another, and the rest is middle-low income residential. And no public transportation.
The proposed Santa Clara location for a new stadium is much better, comparatively. (and closer to ME. )
Well, that and the Bob Rae NDPs making them build their own highway off-ramp. (Later refunded by the Harris PCs.)
I firmly believe that the city of Ottawa did not think the team would survive, and didn’t want to be stuck with a “white elephant” in the downtown area. There was, and still is, plenty of land downtown, particularly in the Lebreton Flats area, that would have made an ideal location for an arena.
But hey, I’m not complaining. My house is 10 minutes from the Scotiabank Pasture.
I’m in that neighborhood every June for Origins (a big gaming convention at the Columbus Convention Center). I agree, it’s a nice area, with a lot of good attractions.
I don’t get this. In Cincinnati, the arena and 2 stadiums are all downtown, and easily walkable to anywhere in the downtown district. Lots of people park in the parking garage I use for work to go to Reds games, and I work on the opposite side of downtown.
I don’t recall anything but highways and the river and arenas near the stadium. But then I did not know the area and maybe I was only a block or two away from stuff?
Yeah, there are definitely quite a few restaurants/bars in walking distance from the Great American Ballpark. I have not been to Paul Brown stadium in about 10 years, but it’s not far from Great American. I seem to remember some decent pubs within walking distance, too.
I’d also note that both of those examples were built “next door” to the older stadiums which they replaced (Chicago Stadium and County Stadium, respectively). So, the practicality stems, in at least those two cases, from those areas already having the open space for a stadium.
One could argue that this is also a good description of the locale around the United Center. 
Nah, there’s virtually no housing around the UC. There isn’t anything resembling a “neighborhood”. There’s some recently built section 8 housing but that’s less than 5 years old and the West Loop neighborhood is a bit too far away to be called part of the UCs neighborhood, but it’s also converted warehoused and new construction.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in Sac, probably 15 years. I remember that it used to be nothing but fields in the middle of nowhere, with this large building surrounded by acres of asphalt. At least you can drive on asphalt when it rains, unlike the miserable goo that surrounds Candlestick.
Reading the rest of the descriptions about sports arenas in other towns, I’ll reconsider my feelings about the neighborhood around Reliant Stadium. I guess it could be a lot worse…
I don’t think so. Xanadu is a New Jersey joke. Recently part of the roof collapsed (the indoor ski slope was damaged by outdoor snow - not that it will ever see indoor snow).
I just noticed your username. You should know about New Jersey jokes.
The Mall started out as the **Xanadu Project **and will probably be known as that for a while. It is still scheduled to open … eventually. I’ve heard they hope to open it in time for 2011 Xmas season but I doubt this will happen.
It will probably open and be a far cry from what was envisioned. It will probably be called the **Meadowlands **instead. But I expect it to open still.
There were also a number of other sports franchises (hockey, soccer, arena football) that tried to get a toehold there and they all failed, in part due to the awkward location. It was only a 20-minute drive from where I lived at the time but if you didn’t go early, once you were dumped off the freeway onto the two-lane rural road that had access to the building it was faster to pull your car off into a field and walk the rest of the way.
Yes, and the residential neighborhood (Hunter’s Point) is one of the most dangerous in the Bay Area.
IMHO, the other sports franchises failed mainly due to reasons other than the location, but it is pointless to argue about that now. As I recall, one of the original officers in the quasi-public agency that developed the Cleveland Cavaliers downtown arena in the 1990s, not so-coincidentally owned some acreage by the old facility, that he wanted develop for residential subdivisions and which he thought would be worth more without the traffic jams caused by playing Cavaliers’ games nearby.