Stadium/Arena Saga Omnibus

[Bmac]

1 hour ago, Digby said:

I am so, so tired of gigantic screens bigger than the playing surface. Everyone has tiny screens and then there's also huge screens. It's all too much.

Yep. I've been refraining from commenting on the new stadium renderings because I'm just so damn defeated about the whole thing, but I'm glad to see someone else express the sentiment.

 

The big screen is just something folks look at occasionally when they look up from their little screens.

 

The game is taking place in front of us. Do we really need a big screen the size of the entire outfield to watch the game on? Just look in front of you!

 

I'm also quite certain a good chunk of this screen space will soon enough be used for sports betting graphics. Not just in Vegas, not just in MLB, but in all sports. Live betting at the game.

 

Anyway, I'm only in my early 30's and feel like an old man yelling at a cloud.

[LMU]

I’m just amazed that the ballpark with the best view of the New York skyline will be 2,500 miles from New York.

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

They should just let Caesar's have the team and make the stadium a replica of the Roman Coliseum

[Walk-Off]

21 hours ago, FrutigerAero said:

Ballys initially claimed that they were building a big casino next to this so strange to hear silence from them on this, as I had assumed we were waiting on them for more stadium details.  Brodie Brazil will be asking where the casino is and if this can really fit on 9 acres lol.

 

However, I'm not a pure hater.  As an architectural concept for a baseball stadium on the strip it's really good.  Trying to look like the Sydney Opera House fits into Vegas' fakery and the view is really good, I didn't think they would manage a view.

 

These renderings underwhelm me mainly because of the absence of what Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (the ultimate owner of that 35-acre plot of land) and Bally's might build next to the ballpark.  To me, that detail — or lack thereof — prevents the renderings from having a discernible sense of scale and thus keeps alive the big question of whether the ballpark can and does genuinely fit in a mere nine-acre corner of the plot, with a new Bally's-operated resort presumably filling the other 26 acres.

 

On another note, while some contributors to this thread have discussed the proposed ballpark's resemblance to the Sydney Opera House, it should be noted also that the head of one of the architecture firms for the project claims that (a) the shape of traditional baseball pennants inspired the roof and (b) the ballpark's overall design resembles a "spherical" armadillo.

[Brian in Boston]

16 minutes ago, Walk-Off said:

it should be noted also that...  the ballpark's overall design resembles a "spherical" armadillo.

From the Oakland Athletics to the Las Vegas Armadillos, while still being dubbed the A's.  At the very least, perhaps we'll see the A's  adopting an alternate mark that replaces an elephant standing atop a baseball with an armadillo mounting a baseball.    

[Digby]

2 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

From the Oakland Athletics to the Las Vegas Armadillos, while still being dubbed the A's.  At the very least, perhaps we'll see the A's  adopting an alternate mark that replaces an elephant standing atop a baseball with an armadillo mounting a baseball.    

 

An armadillo-baseball concept is kind of cool but the prospect of that as the basis for a creepy, uncanny, bastardized A's rebrand is nauseating.

[Brian in Boston]

1 minute ago, Digby said:

 

An armadillo-baseball concept is kind of cool but the prospect of that as the basis for a creepy, uncanny, bastardized A's rebrand is nauseating.

I was only joking... though I wouldn't put anything past the clown car of a pro sports franchise that is the John Fisher-owned Athletics.

[throwuascenario]

22 hours ago, pmoehrin said:

 

There is a clear difference between what the two regions do. Raleigh is a traditional, modern American city. Office-centric and with numerous research hubs in the surrounding area, just like Charlotte.

Durham is a clear manufacturing hub that also specializes in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Duke has a medical school, NC State does not. But even these tend to bring in a lot of blue-collar jobs. You still need people to mop the floors of the hospitals and labs and provide cafeteria food.

 

There is a clear difference there, but the same dynamic exists in many other places where the metro areas aren't split. That's why I'm curious as to why here but not there. They're in the same state, share the same airport, and I don't see a natural geographic border. 540 appears to be the effective border between the two cities.

 

People just didn't seem to live in Durham and work in Raleigh or vice versa in the numbers that I would consider necessary to be considered part of the same metro. Cary, Apex, Morrisville all have so much intermingling between residents, employers, and things to do and that just doesn't seem to be the case in Durham. I haven't done any research on this though, this is just how it seemed to me when I lived there as a child and a teenager. People seemed to always be travelling between Raleigh and all of those western suburbs but I'd rarely hear of anyone going to or coming from Durham for any reason besides a baseball game or a musical.

[FrutigerAero]

Brodie Brazil reaction, brings up the points I expected.

 

[kolob]

5 hours ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

They should just let Caesar's have the team and make the stadium a replica of the Roman Coliseum

 

I don't know why I love this idea so much? It'd be the most Las Vegas thing ever.

[The_Admiral]

On 3/3/2024 at 4:36 PM, FiddySicks said:

I have to wonder though if local corporate money would be an issue with SLC. I don’t have any real idea what their corporate base is out there, but for a place like Sacramento, that’s probably the very biggest hurdle. 

 

They have this one really really big corporation with a diversified portfolio of retail, agriculture, broadcasting, and investment funds. The problem is that the corporation thinks it's a church.

[SFGiants58]

24 minutes ago, The_Admiral said:

The problem is that the corporation thinks it's a church.

That reminds me, I really gotta listen to The Killers again.

[infrared41]

On 3/3/2024 at 8:14 PM, BBTV said:

There is 0.0% chance of a permanent MLB team in SLC.  I'll change my user name to "I__am_a_flaming_Dbag" for a year (like we made that one guy do) if it happens.

 

Let's take it to the next level: "I_am_a_flaming_communist_dbag_whore".  We can pressure the 30ish members of the XII to get that cleared.

 

The new name is pre-approved, but the M-XII rejected the underscores by a vote of 21-6. As a result, should SLC happen, your new name will be "I am a flaming communist d-bag whore." The Majestic X-II Committee on Names of Users, Agriculture, and Transportation believes this is a just and reasonable compromise.

 

The Majestic XII have spoken.

[Red Comet]

9 hours ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

They should just let Caesar's have the team and make the stadium a replica of the Roman Coliseum

Call it the Las Vegas Legion and we’ll be golden. 
 

“Degenerates like you belong….in our stadium!!!”

 

Spoiler

House is the best faction, don’t @ me

 

[VampyrRabbit]

7 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

From the Oakland Athletics to the Las Vegas Armadillos, while still being dubbed the A's.  At the very least, perhaps we'll see the A's  adopting an alternate mark that replaces an elephant standing atop a baseball with an armadillo mounting a baseball.    

But the white elephant is going to be perfect for the team in Vegas.

[BBTV]

3 hours ago, infrared41 said:

 

The new name is pre-approved, but the M-XII rejected the underscores by a vote of 21-6. As a result, should SLC happen, your new name will be "I am a flaming communist d-bag whore." The Majestic X-II Committee on Names of Users, Agriculture, and Transportation believes this is a just and reasonable compromise.

 

The Majestic XII have spoken.

 

I think the committee may need to reach out to the group that handles extraterrestrials, infectious disease, and sea-mammal affairs (I assume that's who handles IT) to work on a system upgrade that will allow for spaces.  Right now I'm not sure it'll work.

[infrared41]

31 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

I think the committee may need to reach out to the group that handles extraterrestrials, infectious disease, and sea-mammal affairs (I assume that's who handles IT) to work on a system upgrade that will allow for spaces.  Right now I'm not sure it'll work.

 

We already have a similar committee.

 

With regard to spaces, See Red Comet above.

[FrutigerAero]

SLC has no problem with corporate sponsors... some that come to mind are Delta and Vivint.  Lots of tech money there. Adobe, Discover out there to.  Small market yes but what are we asking for here?  A 'big market' like the Bay Area?  Or any of the cities in FL?  Look how that's working out...

 

Amazing how people will defend Oakland as if they deserve to keep their baseball team while a team with similar success would be selling out all season long in Salt Lake City.  Utah grew 20% in the last decade.  Youngest state in the US (demographic MLB supposedly cares about).  Sport-obsessed state... literally women's soccer and gymnastics sell out there folks.  And a sports-obsessed state with a hole in the summer.  Football hasn't started yet, basketball is over.  It's a good option.

 

[GhostOfNormMacdonald]

    Mormonism is like if American exceptionalism was a religion. You gotta think they'd have guys in short sleeve dress shirts packing that stadium.  turn it into a temple. They'll watch America's game in droves    EDIT: not a shot at Mormons btw

[The_Admiral]

6 minutes ago, GhostOfNormMacdonald said:

    Mormonism is like if American exceptionalism was a religion. 

 

WASP exceptionalism predates America. There was an old boutique belief that the English are the lost tribes of Israel, best encapsulated by the old hymn "Jerusalem." Utah, ethnically the most English state in America, has kind of kept that going through Mormonism, which I think has more in common with Judaism and Islam than with trinitarian Christianity. 

 

Indigenous American Christianity is fascinating stuff, though, for real. Mormons and Christian Scientists both did some neat stuff architecturally for a while there.