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

[C0|dB|00ded]

Like I said, the rendering looks like LDS with a small office building on the north side. We're getting a shiny new modernized LDS.

Nothing to see here people.

These dumbos will spend ten million on a lighted water fountain next to the river instead of putting the money into the stadium where it belongs. After the project is all said and done, the only metric that will be measured will be its capacity, its skyboxes, and its sightlines. Just like our arena... which was built too small.


T


...:cool:

[C0|dB|00ded]

I suppose. Having free access to copyrighted material seems like a good deal for some, but a library can only afford to have a limited sampling on every subject matter. And then there's the issue of sharing an author's hard work with a billion "freeloaders". Doesn't seem too American to me. I know, I'm a horrible person to say that but this isn't 1985 and a very large amount of data is widely available via your chosen smart device while sitting at McDonald's enjoying unlimited free refills of your favorite carbonated beverage. :) I actually just recently purchased a finance book for a princely sum then later found out it's audible book version is freely available on YouTube. FML.

Regarding microfilm: that seems like a very careless way to preserve history in 2018. One fire and it's all gonzo. All the microfilm on the planet could be transferred to a hard drive the size of your wallet. I guess it's a labor cost thing.


T


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[ShockerFever]

Thanks for the breakdown SV.

So now it’s making more sense. We aren’t actually building the greatest minor league stadium in the league. It just sounds that way. Instead, we are building the standard $40 mil cookie cutter ballpark of about 6500 seats. Unfortunately this raises the ante that a corner or two will be cut or something will likely get effed up.

[SHOCKvalue]

This is from last year, so obviously it is not completely accurate today, but it does give some idea of the breakdown on how the funds are being allocated. Basically, the reason the current $75M ($81M including the ped bridge across the river) sounds like such a large number for the stadium scope announced is because a substantial portion of the budget isn't being spent on the ballpark specifically, which is not unexpected considering we aren't building this out in a suburban greenfield.

(This is a WBJ article copy and pasted to the NBC site.)

https://nbcbaseball.com/news/wichita...rkansas-river/

So when they wrote the above article, the total figure they were looking at, at the time, was $60M. You kind of have to pick your way through the article to get the whole picture, but the $60M was broken down as follows:

$40M-$42M for the stadium itself
$10M for the waterfront improvements and the ped bridge
$8M-$10M for parking/street improvements, plus a ped path north of the area that I would guess is a feeder for the stadium/delano

Again, these figures are not accurate today, but they give some clue as to why we are seemingly spending $75M (or $81M if including bridge) on what seems to be a $40M stadium. It's because we are actually building a stadium that costs far less than $75M, but the city has just lumped a whole bunch of associated projects into the total.

Also, the future of Metro Baptist Church, right there on the hard corner of Douglas and McLean, seems a little unclear. City says they are welcome to stay; pastor not commenting; some people around town saying the church property has been sold. If the church is staying, it's hard to envision how they're going to make all of this work within the geographic confines. Moving forward, the church is a classic case of highest and best use - meaning the land that the church sits on is no longer H&BU as a place of worship.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

The problem with thinking libraries are out of date is the false belief that "every single iota of knowledge is available from their living rooms with a few keystrokes or vocal commands." That is simply not true. Case in point--I am coming back to Wichita in November to do research for a project I'm working on, because copies of the Wichita Eagle prior to 1984 are not available online. They're only available on microfilm, and only at--you guessed it--the library. So I'm putting my happy ass on one of those new Frontier flights, landing at the fancy new airport, going to the fancy new library for a few days of research, and while I'm there, checking out the progress on the fancy new ballpark. Suck it CAVERs!!

Libraries continue to perform a vital service--being the only place one can obtain copies of materials for free. While random information is readily available for free on the internet, books aren't. Unless the copyright has expired and the work is part of the public domain, you have to pay for it. Which is why libraries are still important in the 21st century.

[C0|dB|00ded]

RMS, your comment both infuriates and flabbergasts me. The thought of a city "investing" in a $100 million centralized PHYSICAL holding area of paper and digital media to great fanfare and success literally boggles my mind. My mind would be no less boggled if you had told me that there is a resurgence of full-service gas stations in Denver. I mean... W T F are people doing at the library when every single iota of knowledge is available to them from their living rooms with a few keystrokes or vocal commands. Is this a glorified Blockbuster video where millions of people "go to the library" to "rent" a free movie? That's what the Wichita Public Library had been relegated to. That, and a place for a bum to take a ****.

CB can get angry when he doesn't understand something. It's a good thing that doesn't happen often... ;)

The success of Walgreen's also befuddled and angered me. I grossly underestimated the laziness of the average American.


T


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[Dark Lord]

All this talk of rerouting McLean, isn't it more likely it will just not exist between Douglas and Maple? I mean, if you move it West of the new stadium and parking, isn't that just Sycamore? Just put in a pedestrian walkway with shops and restaurants on either side.

Initial reports seemed to indicate that this was in fact the plan. A pedestrian "street" to be used as part of the build up in the area. I believe there were ideas of having an area for food trucks to set up shop as well. Would help provide a fantastic game day experience for those attending.

All of which would be good for the soul.

[SHOCKvalue]

Yes... clearly I said close all libraries. Burn all the books too.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

So I live in Denver (well, the suburbs). One of the prized features of the community here is the Denver public library system. In the 1990s, the city "dumped" about $90 million (well over $100 million in today's dollars) into a massive expansion of the downtown facility. In 2017, voters approved $70 million for renovations to the central facility and ten of the branch locations. The library system had 4 million visits and checked out 9 million items. This in the so-called digital age.

There are many anachronistic things about Wichita. Having a modern library is not one of them. It was a great step in moving Wichita INTO to the 21st century.

[Shockm]

I actually wasn’t talking about the new library. I was talking about the City’s recent annual budget decision to keep open an old satellite library branch that basically falls within the user footprint of the shiny brand new one, and CityArts, both at the expense of the street budget, but to keep happy a very vocal yet tiny sliver of residents.

I want to see Wichita grow and evolve - I’m not a CAVE-r - but damn man basic infrastructure, like streets, is sort of a core competency of city government and all of those property taxes we all pay.

You obviously haven't visited. It is well used by lots of young kids, mothers, etc. Of course, not everyone believes in reading or broadening one's horizons. Book stores are almost non-existent. The library is the one place still available for families who are interested in having a part in educating their youth. By the way, this isn't a partisan issue. All families including home school families, etc. use the public library and it's programs.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

All this talk of rerouting McLean, isn't it more likely it will just not exist between Douglas and Maple? I mean, if you move it West of the new stadium and parking, isn't that just Sycamore? Just put in a pedestrian walkway with shops and restaurants on either side.

That's my understanding. McLean will just not exist between Douglas and Maple.

[ArtVandalay]

All this talk of rerouting McLean, isn't it more likely it will just not exist between Douglas and Maple? I mean, if you move it West of the new stadium and parking, isn't that just Sycamore? Just put in a pedestrian walkway with shops and restaurants on either side.

[C0|dB|00ded]

That new library was the stupidest decision I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. A couple free Wi-Fi spots scattered around downtown would have served the exact same purpose. There was some inside-dealing on that white elephant. Find out who owned the land and you'll gain a clue.


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[Shock Top]

I actually wasn’t talking about the new library. I was talking about the City’s recent annual budget decision to keep open an old satellite library branch that basically falls within the user footprint of the shiny brand new one, and CityArts, both at the expense of the street budget, but to keep happy a very vocal yet tiny sliver of residents.

I want to see Wichita grow and evolve - I’m not a CAVE-r - but damn man basic infrastructure, like streets, is sort of a core competency of city government and all of those property taxes we all pay.

So your just a CAVESr. Citizens Against Virtually Everything Stupid.

I'm all for not spending just to spend, but for stuff like an arena, casino, stadium, Bass Pro (beginning of the end for the WaterWalk. RIP.), that are going to attract people from INSIDE AND OUSIDE the city to come and SPEND MONEY are always something I would be willing to look into.

[SHOCKvalue]

Not sure that little tiff has much anything to do with the pro soccer topic we were discussing there.