Dome Stadium...... (Birmingham, Alabaster, Mountain Brook: 2013, how much, hotels)

[mcalumni01]

with so much hype about the westin/entertainment district...talks about the dome stadium might come back up shortly....just imagine if they would have already started/built/in the process of constructing the dome.....you would have in that area of dowtown the new westin, the new enterainment district, and the dome just to start with with no telling what else come be on the drawing table for more. the dome right next to the enterainment district...you have to have entertainment venues around something like a staduim for people to enjoy before and after events that makes them wants to come back. that area of downtown could have been thriving with a dome stadium....

Region Field - Parkside District
Westin - Uptown District

Link............

BJCC may still build multi-use facility if Uptown entertainment district is a success - Birmingham Business Journal

[cpg35223]

You know, the idiots who opposed it in 1998 had no plan to replace what was an aging stadium. I don't care how much history is at Legion Field. It is an embarrassment to the metropolitan area. It is time to build a new facility.

[aturner339]

Legion field is certainly well past it's prime but I'm going to be the heretic who says it should be rebuilt right were it is. Crowds at events like the BBVA Compass bowl show that the location is not as much of a liability as skeptics would have us believe and I think the uptown district is a great place to couple the cultural value of the BJCC with some high density housing development similar to the SoHo model.

I know that some will faint at the shock but we can have a dome stadium in Smithfield just as easily as we can have one downtown.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by aturner339

Legion field is certainly well past it's prime but I'm going to be the heretic who says it should be rebuilt right were it is. Crowds at events like the BBVA Compass bowl show that the location is not as much of a liability as skeptics would have us believe and I think the uptown district is a great place to couple the cultural value of the BJCC with some high density housing development similar to the SoHo model.

I know that some will faint at the shock but we can have a dome stadium in Smithfield just as easily as we can have one downtown.

Although I live there, I am not one of those paranoid Mountain Brook types who locks his doors the minute he hurdles Red Mountain. That being said, I think the downtown area should indeed be the place where the dome is built for a number of good reasons. First, I think the amount of parking downtown would prove an asset. Second, immediate proximity to major hotels, etc., would raise the city's profile as a convention center and really elevate us on the food chain of events we could conceivably host. Third, a dome downtown would continue the ongoing renaissance of the city center, turning it into a vibrant and indispensable part of civic life. Putting it 2-3 miles from downtown just doesn't confer the same benefits.

[aturner339]

I definitely amenable to economic arguments for downtown I just suspect that cost for building in place would likely be cheaper. Economic returns on stadium projects have always been pretty iffy and the more costs we can cut without degrading the quality of the facility the better IMHO.

That and we avoid the (justifiable) backlash against ripping an asset out of a struggling neighborhood.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by aturner339

I definitely amenable to economic arguments for downtown I just suspect that cost for building in place would likely be cheaper. Economic returns on stadium projects have always been pretty iffy and the more costs we can cut without degrading the quality of the facility the better IMHO.

That and we avoid the (justifiable) backlash against ripping an asset out of a struggling neighborhood.

Your points are well taken. However, I think there are a lot of intangibles that don't make it onto a balance sheet. However, I can think of any number of events that would suddenly consider Birmingham if there were a domed stadium, from concerts to sporting events, to large trade shows. The list goes on and on.

[bhamguy]

I am excited about the idea of Uptown district. I am not 100% for a domed stadium, but a different type of large multi-use facility. Whether we get a domed stadium or not, Uptown and beyond should be a focal point(along I-65 north to Fultondale) for expansion and revitalization.

[raj kapoor]

I am so amazed that since 1999 it seems that most people still don't understand that this building that enlightened people wanted to build was designed in such away that because of its large sq. footage for conventions all it needed was a flexible floor and seating and a high enough roof to ALSO serve as a stadium.

It's first purpose has always been to expand the BJCC. Therefore , Graymont, and Rogers Drive and Midfield and Pell City and whatever else you want to suggest does not serve the initial, first and foremost reason for it to exist. Sooner or later we should have a stadium to replace Legion Field or someone (such as when it was suggested in Alabaster) will come along and do it in the suburbs. Then we will be right where we were with Rickwood, except it had charm , empty or not. Legion has no charm, but no one said it has to be torn down.

The city can save hundreds of millions building one bldg to do the job of two but that is so hard to grasp here, with whatever is in the water. Has anyone read that in the past five years the tax the city passed for the BJCC EXPANSION has brought in just short of three hundred million dollars. Now that is HALF the cost of building this project. This money has been squandered and none spent where it was written into law to go. Someone should be accountable for that . That is a large amount of money spent on something like the FIVE POINTS WEST project. Nice facillity, good to have it , but it should not have been built with that money. It will never generate the income that BJCC could if people would just realize that the center is approaching a half century old. It is time to move it and us into this century. Bham can stop being the laughing stock if we stop laughing ourselves and get to work.
What is in the water here? I'm glad I can't drink chloronated water, so I do see the writing on the wall. Birmingham is a nice town to be waisted on half the people who live here.

Sorry, I know this will offend quite a few, but this has been a very frustrating subject for me for a long time. And here tonight I am still reading the same misguided ideas that have killed this. We can't decide to build this because people can't even understand the whole point all along was to build it by the BJCC where we already have infrastructure. I give up on this.

my rant, raj

[sleepless in Bham]

I too have personally given up on this project, even though I do wish to see it eventually get built. The thing is that with the failure of MAPS in 1998, it became clear that there are alot of us here in the area that seem to cant see past their nose on any major project in Birmingham.

They doubted the success of Railroad Park, Regions Field, etc. Its like Birmingham is a haven for naysayers. I wonder why the media even gives airtime to those who oppose everything this area tries to do?. How can Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte ignore these types and push ahead, while Birmingham gives them megaphone to spew their negative views?

[aturner339]

No offense taken. It's good to see civic passion in this city.

My only concern is that the stimulative effects of stadium projects are the subject of numerous doleful papers by economists saying that cities almost never recover the initial expenditures.

Just how successful have done stadia been as convertible convention centers elsewhere?