New Downtown Baseball Stadium, AAA Club, and Associated RE Development

[Shox The Revenant]

I think the aesthetics are largely driven by what the objectives are. In this case, while most of the stadium will be concrete, the facade will be red brick, limestone and black-painted steel.

“This is reflective of the community, the Delano area around the ballpark and I think Wichita in general,” Bohm said.

More important to me are the creature comforts. Being a short, fat ass myself I like that:

The highest priorities for project leaders are making sure the stadium has wider seats with more knee room, has a wider concourse and is family friendly, said Mark Bell of IFG, a group chosen to provide background advising for the project.

The seating in the stadium is being designed to offer better views to fans than other stadiums, according to Bell. The seats will be two inches wider than Major League Baseball stadium seats, at 21 inches. They will also have more of a rise than Major League stadiums, meaning it’ll be easier for fans to see over people in the row below. The latter also makes it much more kid friendly.

Even as people get up to hit the concession stands, the field will be in view. Architects are designing the stadium to have 360-degree circulation with views to the field from anywhere inside the stadium, Bell said.

This sounds nice and all, but we've been let down before. As they say, I'll believe when I see it. I'm crossing my fingers that they build this thing as planned and don't end up taking shortcuts due to budget issues and time constraints.

[vbird53]

So, two big developments for downtown occurring simultaneously this week...

1. King of Freight to occupy the Gander Mountain building, bringing to a close the Waterwalk destination development and scrapping the initial intent. City Council probably had their backs against the wall, needing a deal for the empty property, and basically giving it away to recoup $1 million of the $40 million initial investment. I think some public pressure needs to be applied to Jack DeBoer and his legacy to at least get a couple more commitments to build out the rest of the acreage in the next 24 months. The deal is so kind to the developer that there's no real recourse, other than publicly dragging the developers through the mud, and making them realize their mismanagement.

2. The Kansas Health Science Center is pressing forward with its $50 million investment in 4 empty downtown buildings, bringing a medical school, hotel, student housing, and other amenities. KU School of Med is trying to throw it's weight around suggesting that the new school will threaten the status quo, but in my opinion, KU has had more than 30 years now to make a more sizable investment in Wichita, but has chosen not to. Yes, the private, non-profit school-to-be will reap some incentives, but that unfortunately has become the norm for these major developments.

[pogo]

Nothing wrong with shaking up the status quo in my book. People, institutions or even governing bodies become complacent when they become too comfortable with the status quo

[Kung Wu]

Pretty much anything that gets under KU's skin gets my vote.

[Walker]

They're saying that it's not final yet and that River Riders is just one of the finalists but then the official Wichita Baseball page has the name and logos up as the wallpaper, so who knows.

https://twitter.com/WichitaBaseball

[ShockerFever]

God no.

[ShockTalk]

God no.

What were your ideas for names again? :tongue-new:

PS: I don't have any.

[Cdizzle]

Who came up with this rollout idea?

Cause they should keep the rest of their ideas to themselves.

Also, River Riders, meh. That logo, wtf no.

[Walker]

Yeah, I hope this isn't final. It's a bit uninspired.

[Walker]

UPDATE

[NCAABound]

I'll take a hard pass on this first one. Name and logo terrible IMO. Surely this one was just tossed out first to get the conversation started and it's a throwaway name in reality.

[ShockCrazy]

Put zero stock in ANY of the logos that come out. They aren't going to pay for fully fleshed out brand identities and logos for 6 different potential names. These are going to be quick and dirty logos that will never be used again regardless of selection.

[Kung Wu]

Coming up with the name for a sports team/club/franchise is a major PITA. It's impossible to satisfy everyone, and it seems like people always have really strong opinions. Glad I am not involved -- that would be irritating as heck.

[Kung Wu]

Actually that's true for business names too.

[NCAABound]

That's actually a great name KW - the Wichita PITA's. We could have a mascot named chip shaped like a pita chip. Stacy's would buy naming rights for the stadium. See how easy that was?

[SB Shock]

UPDATE

This is big miss - she should have at least been in a swimsuit for people to pay attention.

[Walker]

Most def. She is way overdressed.

[WstateU]

Oops, sorry, wrong link...

https://media.giphy.com/media/nqO46lkGROwiA/giphy.gif

http://giphygifs.s3.amazonaws.com/me...v35C/giphy.gif

[Shox The Revenant]

So far, the they're batting 0 for 1 in names.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I'll take a hard pass on the River Riders. Next please!