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"You Just Want to Slap The #### Outta Some People" -
When does demo start? Could we get an old-timey exhibition baseball game in the spirit of Hap Dumont to send off the old stadium? Use it as a fundraiser for the NBC, or something...Comment
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Major development to bring restaurants, other businesses to riverfront near stadium
BY CARRIE RENGERS
https://www.kansas.com/news/business...220805660.html
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I haven't lived in Wichita since 2000, but wasn't there / isn't there a church located at that location where the new business are shown?Comment
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Baby Cakes owner wants Wichita ballpark area to be 'magical destination
Q: Wichita has a long history with minor-league ball, but it hasn't always been successful history. Did that worry you?
A: Not at all. This is my 40th year in baseball and two of my oldest friends in the sport are Eric Wedge, who was an All-American who led Wichita State to a national championship in baseball in 1989, and Arnie Beyeler, who played for Wichita State and has seven World Series rings, four with the New York Yankees and three with the Boston Red Sox (as part of the organizations). Arnie was our manager in New Orleans for two years and both of them raved about what great fans the city of Wichita and the state of Kansas have. We're enthused about looking forward, we're not necessarily concerned about the past. With the mayor's leadership and the approval of a new state-of-the-art ballpark, this is really going to be a renaissance for the community. The riverfront in downtown Wichita is going to be transformed to a magical destination.
https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/...317&j=85356251
[img]https://media.giphy.com/media/l0HlN7h5UAFwKOnS0/giphy.gif[/img]"You Just Want to Slap The #### Outta Some People"Comment
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Comments on the actual renderings and plans?Deuces Valley.
... No really, deuces.
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"Enjoy the ride."
- a smart manComment
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Looks pretty blah to meComment
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Well... looks like Wichita is going to Wichita. Was hoping we had turned that page, but I don’t think we have.
Pretty underwhelmed, scale and aesthetics. Visually and ironically, it looks a lot like LDS v2.0. Some of the renderings of the various entrances aren’t bad. The actual park interior is a nothingburger yawn.
Moving it farther west, away from the river and what limited skyline we do have. Because... why? Possibly the worst move out of all of this. The entire idea was to integrate ballpark, development and river, not just move the ballpark away. The skyline has ALWAYS been considered a key feature of LDS. We’re going to take steps away from that key feature. So stupid.
The non-permanent seating that was to wow us and realistically add value and capacity is actually just grass berms and concrete. No... really... let’s be honest, this is just a tiny 6K seat park that somehow is costing $75M.
The ped bridge?
Somebody is pocketing some money on this deal if THAT is a $75M project. Kinda like how we somehow paid $200M for a 15K seat arena, when other cities were building 18K-20K seat arenas for similar or less money. In this case, I’m sure the City is allowing Laham to steer them with major project decisions so that he can personally maximize ROI with his adjacent project.
Just seems to be a leak somewhere in Wichita when it comes to PPP deals. This is a broken town.Comment
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I think one of the major problems with this process has been that the city didn’t separate out all of the stages of development and construction, they just said, “we have X to build a ballpark, shoot us an app if you’re interested”. That’s a good way to just make money evaporate in construction. You never tell a contractor your budget; you ask for a bid for materials and labor for your specified project. You seek out several bids, and then weight the pros and cons of each.
The timeline would have been rough, but it should have looked something like:
-City solicits proposal for design of ballpark from architectural firms
-Group of identified public and private stakeholders weigh proposals
-Identify architect of choice
-Solicit bids for engineering of ballpark
-Identify lowest engineering bid from a list of qualified bidders
-Low bid engineering firm comes up with plans in concert with architect
-Plans delivered, and disbursed to qualified contractors
-Solicit bids for construction of ballpark
-Identify low bid contractor, and move forward with constructionComment
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Unfortunately, contractors always know budgets for government projects--I'm assuming that's because it's public information anyway. And what's called a "design-build" process (which is what I think the city is doing, could be wrong), where design and construction are done congruently and sometimes by the same contractor or team, generally results in a more efficient use of overall project funds. However, I do wonder about the competitive aspect of the bidding process with this project--I never saw any word on that in the media but perhaps I missed it. -
That’s my point, there was not a competitive bid process. City said, “here we have $X for a ballpark, and our minimum requirements are Y, shoot us your proposals and the partners you’re bringing along and we’ll choose the best one”. I know that sounds reductionist, but that’s more or less what went down.
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Why didn't they just renovate LDS, if this is what they are going to turn out?Kung Wu say, man who read woman like book, prefer braille!Comment
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This is such a let down. I really hope they come to their senses and realize this design sucks so bad. It's worse than the first conceptual drawing they put out a few months back.Comment
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That drawing at least shows something with a bit of character and I love it being against the river like that. I think it'll be a mistake to not put the stadium as close to the river as possible. I understand it's important for them to be within budget, but if they went into this without the intentions of having the best minor league park in America, they're wrong. This'll be a missed opportunity for the city if they go with forgettable design. -
But then you get the negative feedback from closing off McLean. I personally like this idea better being right next to the river and just have people take a 1/4 mile adjustment in their drive time.
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I could be wrong but what happened to the overlooking restaurant idea and office space like the first rendering showed? That looked somewhat closer to a $75 million project than the travesty this one shows. SHOCKvalue is all over this. How in the world is this a $75 million stadium? It looks pretty bare-boned and plain to me. $75 mil gets you 6,000 seats?
Yep, IBA Part 2. I'm about give up with the incompetence.Last edited by ShockerFever; January 23, 2019, 06:01 PM.Deuces Valley.
... No really, deuces.
________________
"Enjoy the ride."
- a smart manComment
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"You Just Want to Slap The #### Outta Some People"Comment
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That's looking SE. Like if you walked 200 yards SE of the Delano roundabout. The Hyatt is the gray box sticking up on the left.
EDIT: This is an alternative entrance for Delano. Behind the left foul pole.Last edited by SHOCKvalue; January 23, 2019, 06:34 PM.
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Seems like some council members and other people involved are expressing the same things we are and they’re looking for more feedback from the community. So there’s still some hope and time for improvement.Comment
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Wasn't Eck Stadium built in 1999 or something? How much did it cost? What do those dollars inflate to? Doesn't Eck seat more than 6k? Am I missing the box offices in the city's rendering? Can't we directly compare costs for the two projects, Eck and this building? Maybe not, I dunno.Kung Wu say, man who read woman like book, prefer braille!Comment
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