Watching a Univ of Miami game last night, a friend was telling me about how bad the area the Orange Bowl is in is. My first question is, since the friend probably doesn’t know what bad really is- how bad is the Orange Bowl area? Does anyone know of a site with pictures of the neighborhood- my Google search came up empty. And if it is really bad, is it the worst?
I think a definite front runner will be Chicago’s Comiskey Park (US Cellular Field), home of the lowly White Sox. The stadium is situated in the dilapidated Armour Square neighborhood right next to the Dan Ryan. There’s very little in the way of business there and abandoned buildings are just as common as used ones.
I’ve never been to the Orange Bowl, but when I lived in South Florida we went to a game at the now-named (I think, it might have changed) Pro Players Stadium in Miami. It’s in a terrible neighborhood! It is basically in the middle of row upon row of tenement-style housing and streets with broken streetlights, etc. We for sure kept our doors locked when we drove out of the place!
Don’t know if it’s the worst, but its pretty bad.
I wouldn’t walk more than a block east of the Oakland Colliseum complex. Scary area down there.
Yankee Stadium is located in the Hunt’s Point neighborhood of the Bronx, which, when I last was there in the early 90’s, was quite bad, particularly when there wasn’t a game on. It’s is also home to the spectacularly unfortunately named New York Terminal Market. I just gave myself the willies thinking about the one time I foolishly decided to transfer from the 4 to the D train at Yankee Stadium, alone, circa 1994. Of course, that was a long time ago, for all I know the whole neighborhood is full of luxury condos now.
Yankee Stadium is not in Hunts Point, but the South Bronx. That being said, it’s the first place that came to mind when I read the OP.
Well, I don’t really know how “in-use” (3 games a year - UT/OU, Grambling/Southern & Cotton Bowl) it is, but the Cotton Bowl in Dallas is pretty much in one of the more run down parts of the black part of Dallas.
The Southeast Waterfront in DC where the new stadium is going up used to be rather scary, but I haven’t been over there since they closed up all the weenie bars.
I think the plan is to build a stadium in a depressed area and hope for revitalization to ensue, kind of like how planting a Whole Foods Market causes condos to spring up in the surrounding neighborhoods.
How about the area surrounding the Louisiana Superdome?
I wouldn’t walk anywhere near it. Catching the BART to SF there when I fly into Oakland airport scares the crap out of me.
Oh, and the Fabulous Forum (where the LA Lakers used to play) is in a pretty bad neighborhood (and a very scary wrong turn coming out of there was the setting for one of the opening scenes of Grand Canyon).
That’s the one I thought of. I was in DC for the 1993 Gay Rights March and had spent the evening at Traxx (waaaaay back when). By the time I left the club it was 5AM, the Metro wasn’t running yet, I had no money for a taxi and I’d just witnessed a mugging. I walked from Navy Yard to the Mall.
It was a little tense.
It’s no picnic near Busch Stadium in near-downtown St. Louis. I recall many a swift hustle back to the car after games. (No idea if it’s changed since then - this was late '80s).
I’m disqualifying this suggestion right now. Busch (and the new stadium) are right downtown in the heart of the business district and adjacent to the touristy area around the Arch and the Landing. I’ve been to lots of Cards-Cubs games down there and it’s about the least sketchy place outside of Wrigley, unless I suppose you consider proximity to expressways sketchy.
Old Tiger Stadium in Detroit was in one of the worst areas I had ever been in.
I went to New York for the first time about a month ago and we took the subway up to Yankee Stadium. There wasn’t a game going on and there were just a bunch of tourists walking around. But to this baseball fan, who has always dreamed of seeing Yankee Stadium I was really surprised by the area around it. It wasn’t horrible, I mean it wasn’t downtown Detroit, but for this baseball Mecca I just expected more.
Maybe it was just this one particular Saturday but we saw more police cars on the road than other cars.
Why’d this one take so long?
The next one would be Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland.
Monster Park (formerly Candlestick Park) in San Francisco is close to the Hunter’s Point neighborhood. The area has a high murder rate due to gang wars.
I’d like to hear more about international ones, actually. Are they in the same kinds of neighborhoods?
I have to cast my vote for the new stadium in SE DC.
Alot of the ghetto has been bought out and it’s in the process of rejuvenation.
However, 4-5 blocks away near Ft McNair… Lemme put it like this…
People get into deadly shoot outs across the street from a military post with guards and defensive installations in place.
It takes a special type of “Don’t Give a F***” to achieve that flavor.