SportingSights Archive for September, 2008

Yankee Stadium, the house that Ruth built

29.Sept.08
We have another article on one of the great retiring giants of the baseball world, closing its doors forever this Winter. This time it’s the Yankee Stadium and an article by Chris Val. Again, the link to the full article in below the excerpt.

A place where legends played and rivals stirred, a place where hope never dies and its past should be written in history books. A place where pride carries itself lightly, and a place where spirits have gathered in the month of October to stand beside their faithful. This place is a home, a house that Ruth built, a cathedral…Yankee Stadium.

The New Yankee Stadium is an empty atmosphere waiting for us to fill it with hope, joy, belief, legends, and more World Series.

Let’s keep Yankees Stadium in a place where no one else can touch it, where no one can miss it, and where we can all remember it. Let’s keep it in our hearts, so it stays pure and unscathed. And at the same time, we will make the new Yankee Stadium our new home and a house that we will build, together.

Source & Full Article: Bleacher Report

See also:
Yankee Stadium on sportingsights.com
New Yankee Stadium on sportingsights.com
New York Yankees official website

The end of an era for the famous Shea Stadium

29.Sep.08
Today we link to an excellent article by Joshua Robertson in the New York Times, detailing the final pitch at the Shea Stadium. The link to the full article follows the excerpt.

shea stadium

Nearly 30 minutes after Ryan Church made the last out that will ever be made at Shea Stadium, dashing the Mets’ playoff hopes for 2008, most of the 56,059 fans remained in their seats on Sunday.

Surly and bruised, they booed when players from the Florida Marlins came out to collect dirt from the basepaths. They booed every time the Mets announced anything over the public-address system — “Our Shea goodbye ceremony will begin in five minutes,” was particularly unpopular. And, yes, they even booed Mr. Met.

But still, they would not leave. The Mets had scheduled their farewell to Shea for after the conclusion of the final regular-season game, perhaps not anticipating the possibility that the outcome of that game would be as rotten as it was a year ago. And yet, once the farewell ceremony began, the mood in the stands began to shift, as if the fans were seizing the opportunity to turn their back on two straight years of collapses and, instead, salute Shea’s past.

Source & Full Article: NYTimes.com

See also:
Shea Stadium on sportingsights.com
Citi Field on sportingsights.com
New York Mets

Real Salt Lake to play at ‘Rio Tinto Stadium’

29.Sep.08
Major League Soccer side Real Salt Lake confirmed that their new stadium will be named Rio Tinto Stadium, having sold naming rights to the world’s largest coal-mining company this week. Rio Tinto is expected to pay between $1.5 million and $2 million annually for 15 years.

However, the Salt Lake Tribune considers whether the deal is good value for money for the MLS club, compared with similar MLS deals.

… It also compares favorably to other naming-rights deals in Major League Soccer.
The three newest stadiums in the league, all opened within the last 28 months, have signed naming-rights agreements worth between $750,000 and about $2 million a year, according to news reports. The Colorado Rapids signed a 20-year deal for Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in suburban Denver, while Toronto FC and the Chicago Fire have 10-year deals for BMO Field and Toyota Park, respectively.
Naming-rights are one of the major sources of revenue for new stadiums, and RSL owner Dave Checketts has said he expects it to help his franchise make nearly $3.5 million in annual profit within two years, after losing between $3 million and $4 million a year until now.

Source & Full Article: The Salt Lake Tribune

See also:
Real Salt Lake official website
Rio Tinto Stadium on sportingsights.com
Rice-Eccles Stadium on sportingsights.com

Rio Tinto Stadium

Sandy, Utah // USA | Home to: Real Salt Lake // Major League Soccer // Football (soccer)

Mapping

Profile


A groundbreaking ceremony for the stadium took place on August 12, 2006. Included in the ceremony were members of Real Madrid. Funding plans for the stadium were rejected twice before a revised proposal was introduced the day before Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts’ self-imposed deadline on obtaining funding for a new stadium or selling the team. The stadium seats 20,000 people.

Capacity 20,000
Opened October 9, 2008

The stadium opened in October 2008 when Real Salt Lake hosted Red Bull New York. It will host the 2009 MLS All-Star Game.

The financing plan for the stadium collapsed between January 26 and 29, 2007 after the county’s Debt Review Committee voted to oppose the stadium plan as not viable. Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon was obliged to agree as was the Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis.

However, a new stadium proposal was made on February 2, which would divert 15%, roughly $2 million a year, of the county’s hotel taxes to the stadium project beginning in July until 2015. The bill was passed by the State Senate, and later the assembly. Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed the bill on February 9, 2007.

On September 28, 2008, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the naming rights to the stadium were sold to Rio Tinto in a fifteen-year deal worth between $1.5 million and $2 million per year.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Images

Why not add your photos?
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Useful Links


Real Salt Lake official website
mls.net
wikipedia entry

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Your Reviews


Meadow Court Stadium

Stainforth, Doncaster // United Kingdom | Hosts: Greyhound Racing

Profile


The Meadow Court Stadium includes four bars, a restaurant, bookmakers hall and private executive suites and a snack bar serving fast food and basket meals. There are TVs and Totalisator facilities throughout the stadium.

Meadow Court Stadium
Station Road
Stainforth
Nr Doncaster
DN7 5HS
Enquiries 01302 351639
Email: info@meadowcourtstadium.co.uk

Directions

From the M1 exit at Junction 32 and take the M18 towards Doncaster. At the first roundabout go over then turn right at the second and third roundabouts. Turn left at the traffic lights outside the Flare path Pub. At the next T-junction turn left. The stadium is the first left over a railway bridge.

Racing

Race days are Tuesday, Friday & Saturday evening. The first race starts at 7:30 PM. Admission is £4.50, which includes entry to the stadium and your programme.

Crowd capacity is 1,500 and there is parking for 500 cars.

The track is 438 metres in circumference. The distances raced are 278, 480, 709, 410 metres. The run to the first bend is 105 metres for the 278, 480 & 709 metres and 68 metres for the 458m.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Images

Why not add your photos?
Some of the above images are reproduced from external sources under the license of the Creative Commons Project

Useful Links


Meadow Court Stadium website

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Your Reviews


Shawfield Stadium

Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire // United Kingdom | Hosts: Greyhound Racing

Profile


Shawfield Stadium is a greyhound racing venue in the town of Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located close to the boundary with Glasgow. It has also previously been a regular venue for football and speedway, as home to Clyde F.C. and the Glasgow Tigers respectively. Other sports including boxing and athletics have also been staged there.

The stadium began to take shape when Clyde took over the site, previously a trotting track, in 1898. Dog racing was introduced as an additional source of revenue for the club in 1932, but Clyde’s financial difficulties led to them selling Shawfield to the Greyhound Racing Association in 1935, continuing to play there as tenants. This arrangement continued until 1986 when the GRA’s redevelopment plans led to them evicting Clyde from their traditional home. When these plans failed to come to fruition, there was talk of Clyde, then enduring an unsatisfactory groundshare at Partick Thistle, returning to the ground. Ultimately this proposal came to nothing, with Clyde eventually establishing a new home base in the new town of Cumbernauld.

Instead of football returning to Shawfield, new tenants arrived at Shawfield in the shape of the Glasgow Tigers, returning to their home city in 1988 after a year’s exile in Workington. The Tigers would race there for a decade, apart from the 1996 season when they were temporarily in abeyance and replaced by the ill-fated Scottish Monarchs team.

Shawfield today

Since the departure of speedway to Ashfield Stadium ahead of the 1999 season, Shawfield has only staged greyhounds. Currently, racing takes place three nights per week(Tuesday, Friday & Saturday) . While the basic shape of the stadium, with its crumbling disused terracing and crush barriers, remains intact from the Clyde era, today only the grandstand is in use. As well as betting facilities there is a bar and a restaurant for spectators. The large tote board which dominated the south end of the track was demolished in 2004. The exterior of the stand, which had become quite run down, has been reclad in recent years.

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Images

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wikipedia entry

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Your Reviews


AS Roma planning to move from Stadio Olimpico

13.Sep.08
Il Corriere Dello Sport reported this week that AS Roma have ambitions to move to a new stadium dedicated to the late Franco Sensi, thereby leaving the Stadio Olimpico.

stadio olimpico as roma rome

Goal.com reported:
Link to full article below excerpt

Early reports suggest that it will be a state-of-the-art 50,000 all-seater stadium. The Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, has promised that the plans for the Giallorossi’s new stadium will go ahead.

The club are now looking to purchase suitable land on which to build the new facility in the Caltagirone area of the Eternal city. Roma have shared the Stadio Olimpico with bitter rivals Lazio over the years and fans will be delighted to hear about the new proposals for their very own stadium.

The Olimpico has hardly been renovated since its last major overhaul for World Cup Italia ‘90. The stadium is infamous for its lack of security, poor facilities and poor views from the stands and Curvas.

Source & Full Article: Goal.com

See also:
Stadio Olimpico on sportingsights.com
AS Roma official website

Live webcam of Red Bull Arena construction

8.Sep.08
A link today, this one is to a webcam of the construction of the new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, USA. When complete in late 2009, the 25,000+ seater stadium will be the home to Major League Soccer side Red Bull New York.

RedBull Arena webcam

London unveils 2012 Velopark final design

13.Sep.08
Plans have been released by the Olympic Delivery Authority for the new Velopark that will be built in Stratford, London for the 2012 Olympic Summer Games.

The centrepiece of the Velopark will be a 6,000 seater state-of-the-art velodrome.

View the photo thread on our forum.

london olympic velodrome 2012

london olympic velodrome 2012

A planning application will be submitted later this month with construction work due to start in 2009.

The VeloPark designs have been developed following consultation with British Cycling and local cycling groups.

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Chairman Seb Coe, left, British triple gold medal winning cyclist Chris Hoy and Mayor of London Boris Johnson visit the site of the new London 2012 VeloPark

After the games, the park will be linked into cycle routes across London, connecting the whole of the city with the new facilities.

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell: “The designs meet the challenging brief to provide not only a first-class games venue, but also a springboard in legacy for future British Olympians and will make a valuable contribution to increasing sport participation from grassroots to elite level.”

Source & Full Article: BBC News

The VeloPark, to be based in the north of the Olympic Park, will include a 6,000 seat Velodrome to host the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Indoor Track Cycling events, as well as a BMX circuit for Olympic events.

After the Games, a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course will be added to create a VeloPark combining the disciplines, with facilities for cyclists of all levels. The VeloPark will be linked into cycle routes across London, connecting the whole of the capital with the new world-class facilities.

Source & Full Article: london2012.com

See also:
London Olympic Stadium
London 2012 Olympic Games

2012 Olympic chiefs play-down demolition reports

8.Sep.08
Both the London Mayor and the London Development Authority (LDA) have moved quickly to play-down recent reports that the £525m 2012 Olympic Stadium could be demolished to make way for a Premier League football ground.

The LDA have said that there are a number of legacy options under discussion, with the demolition plan being only one of them.

london olympic stadium 2012

…a spokesman for London Mayor Boris Johnson said Johnson was “not aware of any plans to demolish the stadium”.

He added that the mayor remained committed to finding a viable, long-term use for all the permanent Olympic venues and wanted “athletics to be part of that legacy”.

A spokesman for the LDA said “no stone had been left unturned” in exploring all the options for the Olympic venues and the drawing up of a range of possible scenarios was part and parcel of the legacy planning process.

A source close to the process told BBC Sport the leaked demolition plan was simply one of “more than 10″ options currently on the table. He also strongly hinted it was the most radical – and least likely – of those choices.

The favourite option remains converting the 80,000-capacity venue into a 25,000-seat stadium with an athletics track and at least one “anchor tenant”, a football or rugby team capable of filling the venue on a regular basis.

A guaranteed revenue stream is crucial to the venue’s future as no local or national authority wants to be responsible for the upkeep of a rarely used athletics centre – all interested parties are desperate to avoid the mistakes of previous Olympic hosts and their expensive “white elephants”.

The LDA has been actively looking for an anchor tenant for over two years and is currently talking to League One club Leyton Orient, the Rugby Football League and UK Athletics, and is widely believed to have also put out feelers to rugby union sides Saracens and Wasps.

Initial talks with West Ham United about a move to Stratford collapsed early on over the issue of the athletics track and its use for international events, and Tottenham Hotspur, the other Premier League side close enough to be a realistic candidate, appear to favour redeveloping their current home.

Source & Full Article: BBC Sport

See also:
London Olympic Stadium
London 2012 Olympic Games

Ghana’s President visits site of 15,000 stadium

8.Sep.08
Ghana’s President Kufor visited the site of ongoing work at the new $25 million stadium at Akopyir near the Cape Coast, reports myjoyonline.com.

Despite the limited capacity of 15,000, the complex is set to to be the finest in the country.

The preparatory works which include levelling of the site and filling of a nearby swampy area to prevent flooding, and the construction of drains are expected to be completed by the end of this month.

The construction of the 15,000 seatter capacity stadium, which will among others have facilities like an electronic score board and an athletics track is expected to be completed within 18 months and would be undertaken by Polish construction firm, Pol-Mot Holdings and their Ghanaian counterparts, Motherwell International limited.

President Kufuor who was briefed on the progress of work by the sub-contractor, Nana Yaw kissi of High Brains Construction Limited said he was satisfied with the amount of work done so far.

President Kufuor cut the sod to commence work on the oval-shaped stadium in May this year amid jubilation by residents of the Municipality.

Source & Full Article: Joy Online

Windsor Park facelift may finish Maze stadium

1.Sep.08
The troubled Maze sports stadium project in Northern Ireland is in crisis as it emerged that Sinn Fein and the DUP had been working behind closed doors about the proposed plans.

It is believed that the Government may announce that Windsor Park may be given a facelift to raise it to FIFA international standard, at the expense of the stadium project near Lisburn.

windsor park belfast

The Belfast Telegraph reported:
Link to full article follows the excerpt

Plans for a new multi-sports stadium for Northern Ireland were in turmoil last night as speculation mounted that the Government is due to scrap plans for a multi-million pound arena at the Maze.

Sports Minister Gregory Campbell was due to announce plans for the stadium later this month, however, a front-page story in a Sunday newspaper suggested the DUP has been working behind closed doors with Sinn Fein about the proposed plans for the Maze.

According to a report in a Sunday newspaper, the Maze site on the outskirts of Lisburn is to be developed without a sports stadium but with a conflict resolution centre.

Asked about the speculation, IFA chief executive Howard Wells said: “We are currently in discussions with the Government and Linfield regarding a short-term improvement to Windsor Park for the foreseeable future. By this I mean the next five years.

“That has always been our agenda and as far as I am concerned I know nothing more about an upgrade to Windsor Park than that.

“Conversations with both Department of Arts, Culture and Leisure (DCAL) and Linfield have been on keeping Windsor Park alive for international football.”

Source & Full Article: Belfast Telegraph

See also:
Irish FA

New Yankee Stadium: prices under scrutiny

1.Sep.08
Two pieces today on the New Yankee Stadium, the construction of which is now well advanced in preparation for an April 2009 opening.

The first concerns the new pricing policy at the Yankee stadium from The Canadian Press.

The second excerpt is an interesting article/review on the New Yankee Stadium from City News.

The links to the full articles are below each excerpt.

Even seats behind the outfield fence will be costly at the new Yankee Stadium.

The front part of the area behind the outfield in right and left will cost US$100 and $75 per game next year as part of season-ticket plans at the $1.3-billion ballpark.

But behind those four sections of seats, and to the rear of the bullpens closer to centre field, are nine sections of bleachers priced at $12, the same as the cost this season in the final year of the 85-year-old ballpark.

The Yankees put season ticket prices on their website Friday along with a seat locator that shows views from each location. They also mailed relocation brochures to season-ticket holders.

Source & Full Article: The Canadian Press

… the old charm of Yankee Stadium will soon fade into the realm of memory, to be replaced by a modern ballpark that promises to improve on the old one’s crumbling infrastructure and outdated amenities, but can’t promise to carry with it the undeniable mystique of the historic address.

The new Yankee Stadium is currently under construction and is situated right across the street from the long-standing ballpark, which opened in 1923. The new incarnation will be ready for action on April 16, 2009, when the Yanks take on the Cleveland Indians.

The fact that Yankee Stadium will soon be replaced is just starting to sink in for baseball fans around the world, but plans to build a new stadium have actually been brewing for almost 30 years…

…what was initially projected to be an $800 million job, soon balloned to a mammoth $1.3 billion, making it almost 500 times the cost of the original stadium.

It has since become the most expensive stadium ever built in the United States.

Source & Full Article: City News

See also:
Yankee Stadium on sportingsights.com
New Yankee Stadium on sportingsights.com
New York Yankees official website

Stanley Park project now in serious doubt

1.Sep.08
Fresh doubts have emerged surrounding Liverpool FC’s new stadium, with work on the stadium that begun in June now being called-off. Some Liverpool Supporters groups are now doubting whether the joint American owners Hicks and Gillett have any intentions of ever seeing the project through.

Whilst the American pair insist that the delay is due to poor economic conditions and will allow them to consider a larger capacity of 73,000, they admit that they do not expect the stadium to be completed by the 2012/13 season at the absolute earliest.

new liverpool stadium

Telegraph.co.uk reported:
link to full article below excerpt.

“We feel the Americans have no intention of building the stadium,” said Jay McKenna, a spokesman for the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ group.

“There is a lot of anger. It does not just affect the Liverpool fans, but also the wider community – regeneration is linked to the new stadium. The best thing they could do is step aside for new owners to come in.”

Liverpool City Council described the announcement as “disappointing” and warned that they would have to consider revised plans to increase the capacity of the stadium to 73,000.

It also adds to the air of soap opera surrounding the club, although the relationship between Hicks and Gillett is said to have improved significantly in recent months.

Liverpool expect officially to sign the lease from the council for the Stanley Park site next month and are adamant that they well see the project through.

“Our commitment to building a new world-class LFC stadium is undiminished,” a spokesman said.

“We will use this period productively and revisit the plans for the stadium to increase its capacity to 73,000 seats.”

Source & Full Article: telegraph.co.uk

See also:
Anfield on sportingsights.com
Liverpool FC
New stadium page at Liverpool FC