Albuquerque Downtown Arena (Des Moines, Hope: lofts, hotel, college)

[Chaparral]

Originally Posted by ABQLifer

Where would everyone park if the arena were downtown? It's horrible enough trying to find a space during Summerfest or a typical Saturday night as it is! I do agree that it would be a logical location for collecting taxes and further revenue, but it seems like it would take a very long time to pay for itself. That's just my .02...

For the most part, there is already plenty of existing parking downtown, including the existing underground parking facility connected to the Convention Center. A new arena might require some additional parking be constructed, but not anything of a major scale.

Now if you're talking about free parking, then that is another story altogether. To which I have to say: Welcome to 2006. ABQ has long been spoiled by the largely free parking surrounding sites like The Pit and Isotopes Park. It is not uncommon at all in other cities to pay to park a few blocks away from your destination and then walk the remainder of the distance to the event site. And it is exactly this foot traffic that helps spur the development of small businesses surrounding other downtown facilities.

Also, it is not a stretch of the imagination that some people (including myself) would take advantage of the Rail Runner service, or future street cars, to get to downtown for an event.

Chap

[ABQLifer]

Originally Posted by Chaparral

For the most part, there is already plenty of existing parking downtown, including the existing underground parking facility connected to the Convention Center. A new arena might require some additional parking be constructed, but not anything of a major scale.

Now if you're talking about free parking, then that is another story altogether. To which I have to say: Welcome to 2006. ABQ has long been spoiled by the largely free parking surrounding around sites like The Pit and Isotopes Park. It is not uncommon at all in other cities to pay to park a few blocks away from your destination and then walk the remainder of the distance to the event site. And it is exactly this foot traffic that helps spur the development of small businesses surrounding other downtown facilities.

Also, it is not a stretch of the imagination that some people (including myself) would take advantage of the Rail Runner service, or future street cars, to get to downtown for an event.

Chap

I agree with many of your points.... My only hope is that a good plan can be executed to avoid passing multiple bonds or burdening us with increasing taxes to pay for the whole thing. I believe if done with the right number of steps and, in the proper order, the early developments can pay for the later ones.

[mikus]

10,000 seats just way to small. Abq should look at 2 similar sized cities, omaha, nebraska, home of the fairly new qwest center seats 18,300 and des moines iowa, also fairly new has the wells fargo arena, seats 17,000. c'mon abq, think bigger!!

[Zoidberg]

Are these cities really all that well-served by these large arenas?

When people cite statistics of how big this and that city's arenas are, they often leave out how much money they make or lose each year. One certainty: you build it too large, you lose money on the deal.

Albuquerque is blessed with natural and cultural entertainment options that they could never hope for in Fargo or Omaha. Let those areas build the stadiums. We have better things to offer here.

[Sixx Foot Three]

They should build it out at Mesa Del Sol along with a new State Fairgrounds and Rodeo megaplex. Heck throw in Six Flags or Busch Gardens out there....

[observe]

Zoidberg:
You need to keep in mind that Albuquerque has a very diverse population, while some people like yourself find natural & cultural activities entertaining. Others find Sports and Concerts entertaining. So yes Albuquerque needs a new multi purpose Arena that seats at least 16,000 to fill the needs for years to come. because if you spend 150 million to build a small 10,000 seat arena, 10 years later you need to build a larger one for major sports and by that time the cost is 500 million.
As for a site to build the Arena, I don't think Mesa Del Sol is a good location. The Journal Pavilion is already located there and it wouldn't make much sense to have 2 competing venues right next to each other.
Besides I think Mayor Chavez wants it to be part of the Downtown re-development project.

[observe]

I think we'll know whats going to happen with this project by March.

[Sixx Foot Three]

Originally Posted by observe

Besides I think Mayor Chavez wants it to be part of the Downtown re-development project.

Yeah but he did want the fairgrounds to go to Mesa Del Sol so he could open up the current fairgrounds to developement...however Gov.Richardsons fairground committee shot that down....

[councilor j]

that is pretty sad that a little city like Des Moines with a population under 200,000 can have a downtown arena with 17,000 seats,they land top notch acts and we are way behind,even Rio Rancho is landing events that Albuquerque cant even get.

[Zoidberg]

I say, let Rio Rancho have those events. They have cheap land and a major metro area audience to pull in. How many hockey fans in major NHL markets have to drive twice that far to catch their team in action? A city our size can't have everything for everybody. Look at what Albuquerque does have. Horse racing track, first-rate BMX track, several good-sized stadiums, several auto tracks within a short drive, a good number of mid-sized venues, and a good number of small-sized venues.

You guys want acts that you have to fly to Denver or Phoenix to go see to come here. Each of those areas has 6X the population to draw upon. Building an arena to match those cities' hits us 6X as hard and the seats are 6X as hard to fill. How many still skip Des Moines' new arena? A top-of-the-line music act is going to be less interested in a 1/6 filled arena than one that fits the number of attendees. If you build it, they still won't come. You have to fill it.

If you're that desperate for an arena, get with your friends, start a corporation with $5 million of investor money, and build it yourself. It's a free country, and it's been done before. Don't raise my property taxes to do it, because it will lose money downtown (sorry, your $50 concert ticket doesn't come close to paying the cost of that arena). Plus, you never hear: "Wow, that was a great concert! Man, if they could have only crammed 10,000 more seats on the upper decks."

I have lived in and visited many cities with the full tier of concerts and pro sports teams. I'll go out to one when there's something unique that I can't get here. The trip makes it that much more exciting. But Albuquerque's daily life beats every single one of those places' hands down.