If she had grown up in Chicago, or some place where the parks are actually part of the community…
I’m not a sports fan of any kind, but I install and maintain AV equipment for a number of sports bars, so I get a pretty good idea what games are important with no fan interest coloring my perception. March Madness is the biggest thing here, followed by any interstate rivalry like the KU/MU game. After that, any other college basketball, followed by football, then late season baseball. After that, it depends. Pro basketball, at least in the places I service, ranks slightly ahead of curling.
Thanks for all the comments. I hope our local experience is like one of the positive outcomes in Indy, Columbus, or SF.
My worries remain: The facility will be single purpose and the surrounding area will be a ghost town except on event nights; the Kings will eventually skip town anyway for greener pastures and leave the city high and dry with a long-term, costly obligation; the arena will be a mere bauble in the mayor and city council’s crown for someone else to worry about when they are no longer in office.
The Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids is still going strong. Its’ more of a concert venue rather than a sports venue these days. We used to have a bb team, the hoops, no longer. I think the Griffins (hockey) play there. Monster trucks, motorcross also play along.
It has sparked positive growth in the surrounding area,mostly restaurants and clubs. And there are those families with deep pockets in town and lots of committed people to see that things happen. It has been expanded once so far.
I think it was built with mostly private dollars (the van andels)
In Sacramento does the BH housewife family still own the Kings?
Brief update on the situation in Sacramento. The City and the Kings had a deal all worked out on paper a few weeks ago and there was much joy and celebrating. However, once it came time for the Kings’ owners to pony up some pre-development fees, the whole thing fell apart like a house of cards.
Now, the City is all atwitter talking about moving ahead with a sports and entertainment center with, or without, the Kings. The mayor floated a trial balloon about an NHL team (the leage promptly rejected the request). The Kings dusted off an old proposal to upgrade the current arena, but no one is taking them seriously. I am sensing some desparation now on the City leaders’ part to try and cobble together something that will be their legacy.
The news reported a clause in the current Kings contract stating that if the City built an arena without the Kings, the Kings would not have to pay back a $65M loan the city gave them years ago. Nice.
The whole thing is a mess. Maybe the City should take a break from this pursuit and focus on something else.
Luckily, it’s now baseball season, and the signal from KNBR is quite strong here in the Central Valley, so I can now listen to 6 months of Giants talk. I’m hoping that by the time October rolls around, this arena issue will be settled.
Of course it won’t be, but at least by then it’ll be football season…
I know this is a zombie, but wanted to post an update and ask a question.
The new Kings arena is pressing forward - the old buildings and part of the Downtown Plaza have been demolished, and groundbreaking will begin soon.
Also, Sacramento is jonesing for a new soccer stadium, and is actively wooing major league soccer into expanding in the downtown railyards project. “Sacramento is the No. 1 underserved sports market in nation”. What the heck does that even mean?
The mayor is stating no public funds will be used for the soccer stadium. We’ll see. If both of these projects are executed as envisioned, it will be interesting to see if any public benefit actually comes of them.
Question - anyone here live in a city that has an MLS team? Was a spanking-new stadium built for them? Has it been worth it for your community? I am still skeptical that building a new basketball and soccer venue will be the big economic boost the city is expecting.
Not to mention the plans to build a new soccer stadium for a hoped-for Major League Soccer team. Plus Sac State wants to build a new basketball arena and will be charging students $250 a term for the privilege to watch the students who come after them get to go to a new arena.
It’s unlikely that a basketball arena is single purpose. Most arenas hold concerts and conventions, as well as other events such as Disney ice events, circuses, etc. The city hopes to attract NCAA Basketball playoffs, and who knows, maybe an ice hockey team or indoor football or soccer could come.
Plus that part of the Downtown Mall that hasn’t been torn down is still there.
Rumors are starting that if they build it, the Arizona Coyotes will move there.
What you also have to remember is, the Vegas casinos won’t be allowed to take bets on the home team’s games. (Well, they can if the NHL commissioner allows it, but I am under the impression that he was one of the people involved in keeping sports betting out of New Jersey.)
I only go to Columbus for a few days each year (for the Origins gaming convention), but that area was dead at night (it was in the middle of a financial district, where most of the restaurants closed in the middle of the afternoon) before the “Arena District” was developed.
Does anybody still play indoor soccer? (Anybody remember when indoor inline hockey was a “thing”?)
There’s one event in Vegas where a new arena could be an improvement; the National Finals Rodeo. With a larger arena, maybe they can get steer roping added to it. (I am under the impression that the reason it isn’t included is, the ground at Thomas & Mack isn’t long enough to hold it safely.)
In Detroit, they just started building a new hockey arena for the Red Wings. It’s located just north of Comerica Park (Tigers) and Ford Field (Lions), so basically they’re going to create an “arena district.” I don’t think any public money is being used. The old stadium, located on the waterfront, is eventually going to be torn down and turned into a hotel.
Compared to the desolate and soon to be gone Candlestick, AT&T was placed smack in the middle of where the people are, with a handful of good transit options to get to the park, as long as you’re not allergic to a 15-minute or so walk to Market Street.
Getting to the Stick pretty much required driving or taking the ballpark express bus.
AT&T isn’t exactly a delight to drive to either, but it and Jack London have a sufficiently diverse collection of transit options such as buses, ferries and trains to make driving a silly option. Especially during the playoffs or early games of the World Series when parking lots in the area were charging (and getting!) $150 per spot.
I live in Santa Clara. Our new stadium has been somewhere middling in the success range, IMHO. Traffic seems pretty bad sometimes, I know some residents are pretty mad about the behaviour of people leaving after games, and they close the bike path leading to the stadium during events, which seems mindbogglingly stupid. I don’t know about economic impacts, etc.
Also, what’s the rub on public transportation in the area around the stadium? I know the words “public” and “transportation” do not compute together in Silicon Valley, but with the traffic jams making the news, did they think that would drive people into transit?
I was at the train station at Jack London Square one recent Sunday and there were large numbers of people getting on the train to take them to Santa Clara for the game.
It’s been a boon for the sod growers. They’re on what, their fourth installation of grass already?
As for the traffic, there’s an agreement not to have weekday games there until the city gets a handle on the traffic. From what I’ve seen, said handle is hard to hold.
After the first game the trains were overloaded because they hadn’t finished a holding area yet. It seems that light rail works pretty well now.
Except for one glitch - the way out of the closer lot is across the tracks and across the pedestrian path, so with the trains running every five minutes the cars take forever to get out of the lot.
It is not that business lots are taken over - it is that the traffic is so bad that no one going to a game will go near the place. They are not doing Monday night games this year because they are worried about the conflict of the stadium traffic. They had a college game last Friday, but luckily I was coming back from a trip that day and never went to work.
I work within walking distance of the stadium, so I pay attention. Getting out of here on normal days is bad enough. On the plus side if I ever want to go to a game I can park for free.
They’re on what, their fourth installation of grass already?