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

[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.

[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.

[SHOCKvalue]

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

[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]

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.

[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.

[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:

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

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.

Unless the extra $20 million is being used for the stadium. $60 million will build a very nice facility.

[C0|dB|00ded]

Remember what OKC did with the Ford Center. They built it BARE BONES for under a hundred million THEN they upgraded it later as the public got on board with various ideas. That's exactly what needs to happen here. **** the improvements near the muddy creek, **** the improvements to the street, **** the improvements to the sidewalk. Build the biggest, nicest damn minor league baseball stadium that you can possibly afford and then in a couple years announce a new pathway, then later announce a fancy wagon canopy? (whatever the **** that thing is) down by the poisonous creek. You can have new and exciting little things happening every other year around the stadium for decades. Or you can under-build it now and be left trying to make a purse out of a sow's ear for the foreseeable future.

Why are politicians so dumb and blind to the logic that is staring them right in the face?


T


...:cool:

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I would be on board with that logic, Cold.

In a city full of CAVErs, I think you have to put the money directly into the facility to change the public perception of the project. Not build something halfass that looks pretty in order to generate "excitement," which I hope is not what they're trying to do here.

[Veritas]

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.

I believe the new AAA stadium in Las Vegas is pushing $150m which includes a swimming pool near CF.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Why are they building a swimming pool near Conner Frankamp?

Sorry, I had to...

[Shox The Revenant]

This has all the markings of IBA part two. Prepare yoself...

[SHOCKvalue]

This has all the markings of IBA part two. Prepare yoself...

I’m trying not to be a negative boner, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not a just little concerned too.

Put the money into the stadium, let the other stuff happen from a demand perspective in its wake. As the new guy you wanna look like you belong and can hang in AAA, and you don’t do that by building a AA facility, from a capacity perspective.

Here... I’ll make it easy... look at what OKC did when they built Bricktown Ballpark, scale it down just a tad, and go.

[SHOCKvalue]

This is what a 6434 seat grandstand, with 15 suites (what Longwell is talking about) looks like. More or less, it looks like a new equivalent of what we already have.



And then OKC’s Bricktown Ballpark.

[Shockm]

I thought they are talking about 11,000 seats in the new stadium. I think that includes boxes, suites, etc.

L-D seating capacity is 6400. That is almost 1/2 the seats. Seems to be a lot larger to me.

[SHOCKvalue]

I thought they are talking about 11,000 seats in the new stadium. I think that includes boxes, suites, etc.

L-D seating capacity is 6400. That is almost 1/2 the seats. Seems to be a lot larger to me.

Fixed seating plans for the new stadium have been reported as 6500-7000. The additional you’re talking about are standing room and grass berm type type stuff.

The plans are actually to build a stadium basically the same size as existing LDS. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?

[C0|dB|00ded]

Sounds normal... for Wichita.


T


...:cool:

[ShockerFever]

Some great comparisons and points are being made.

Why does our govt have to be completely inept and half backwards when they pull stuff off like this?

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

Bricktown does seem to be a facility that Wichita should draw inspiration from.

I haven't confirmed the calculation, but Wikipedia (I know...) says its inflation adjusted construction cost was $51 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicka...ktown_Ballpark

[Kung Wu]

They should make the new stadium look like a big glass hotdog. Then the new look of Century II will make more sense.