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In Atlanta the Georgia Dome (NFL-Falcons) and Phillips Arena (NBA-Hawks, and until recently NHL-Thrashers) are right next to each other. Turner Field, however is further south.
I think there are advantages and disadvantages to clustering the sports venues together. Having all of the parking in one place is nice b/c it avoids duplication, but IMO basketball and baseball venues do well in the middle of a city where they can be integrated with restaurants, bars, etc. Football to me makes more sense to be a little further out. First the venues are bigger with much larger capacities, and second tailgating is a big part of football culture, whereas with baseball and basketball people are more likely to go to out before or after games.
Also, generally different entities own the different teams and it is just logistically difficult to get that much land together.
I found it very interesting that Philadelphia put all of its major sports facilities for the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB together. This seems to make sense since you can build them around large parking lots instead of building facilities in different places in a metropolitan area and then having seperate parking lots for each facility.
So why haven't other cities replicated this?
I know it's necessary in many places, but I hate that aspect most about sports facilities.
Boston doest have parking lots next to it's arenas.
Maybe not the arena or Fenway though there is much parking nearby and much is mostly revenue generating from this (More Red Sox) but less needed in the core. I wish the Stadiums in Philly were in the core though there are some advantages.
Gillette Stadium | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rob-bellinger/3499901978/ - broken link)
Also a little known thing is the BSL subway station at the stadium was built as the single largest volume subway station in the nation. It was designed to move 30K riders in 18 minutes, pretty effecieint actually and actually has two levels and could load 6 trains of 8 car length simulteneously.
PT is very large component to getting to the stadium complex at the stadiums. Recently theyare actually removing parking from the Complex and building the Philly Live (Well actually Xfinity Live and the NBC Sportszone complex)
I know it's necessary in many places, but I hate that aspect most about sports facilities.
In general, I would agree with you. In the case of the South Philly stadiums though, the huge parking lots are essential to the tailgating culture we have before/after games. Yeah, its barren land when it's not game day, but I've had some of my most favorite times on those parking lots, tailgating with thousands of other Philadelphia fans.
As Kidphilly said, they are trying to bring some more day-to-day activity to the sports complex as well by building the (horribly horribly horribly named) Xfinity Live.
I've been to the Complex in Philly. I thought it was lame.
There's nothing like Target Field in DT Mpls, squished in the tight confines of DT. The "Complex" area in Philly was like a ghost town.
Plenty of people wanted a baseball stadium in or very near to Center City. However, Philadelphia's DT is not a ghost town and DT's health is not tied to stadiums. There aren't too many multiple-block sections of Center City that can just have a stadium dropped into them. So while you may see the sports complex as lame, there really is no other way except to build stadiums in neighborhoods further away from DT.
Plenty of people wanted a baseball stadium in or very near to Center City. However, Philadelphia's DT is not a ghost town and DT's health is not tied to stadiums. There aren't too many multiple-block sections of Center City that can just have a stadium dropped into them. So while you may see the sports complex as lame, there really is no other way except to build stadiums in neighborhoods further away from DT.
I guess I really didn't think it was lame... It's actually a great idea considering how dense Philadelphia. I couldn't really find an atmosphere that rivaled one like a downtown stadium. It makes sense to have all of them in one area.
Minneapolis had used to have the same thing - 9 miles south of downtown in Bloomington. The North Stars played at the Met Center across the street from where the Twins and Vikings played at Met Stadium.
So, I guess from a planning standpoint it makes great sense. Did I miss the pre/post game atmosphere? Or is it really lacking?
Most cities don't have the geography available to build all of their sports venues in one spot, it's not as if there's a choice to bulldoze existing structures in order to make it happen.
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