March 17, 2005
Wonders of the ancient world
Sports team owners have gotten pretty good at getting new stadiums built, but aren't so hot at coming up with exit strategies for the old ones. The Astrodome, abandoned by the Houston Astros in 1999, is now under consideration for being turned into a luxury convention hotel. That is, unless it becomes a concert facility. Or gets torn down.
In Detroit, meanwhile, Tiger Stadium is likewise beginning its 6th year of vacancy, and still no one seems to know what to do with baseball's oldest ballpark (tied with Fenway). Or rather, as the Metro Times reports, one person has an idea, but can't get anywhere with it: Peter Comstock Riley, who wants to bring a minor-league baseball team to the historic park, offered to pay the city's maintenance costs on Tiger Stadium but was turned down. Riley charges that the city is kowtowing to politically powerful Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, who has been getting paid $420,000 a year in public money to maintain the derelict facility. Adds another local businessman who would like to bid on the maintenance contract, dealing with the city has "been like talking to a refrigerator. As soon as you mention Tiger Stadium, all you hear is that itís a waste of your time."
Tiger Stadium would be the perfect location for a Detroit MLS expansion team.
if it was demolished and replaced?
otherwise isn't it too big and shaped for baseball? not to mention old and without the amenities that make money on newer stadiums?
I don't really see this as a MLS market anyways. Haven't seen Eminem in too many soccer jerseys ...
The outfield would be PERFECT for a MLS team. The outfield stands are perfect, all they would need to do is erect semi-permanent stands on the other side. Seriously, take a look at the outfield stands at Tiger Stadium..... they are perfect for soccer.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/american/tigers.htm
I'm not convinced it's #1) too big, #2) too old (no modern features)
plus it'd need an owner and for a big city it's not a great soccer market. I keep hearing how Houston & Seattle have the highest TV ratings of nonMLS markets. Perfect? Maybe if the upperdeck was demolished and maybe the rest needs refurbishing.
Passing thought was given to the AstroDome too, minor rennovations almost never seem to pay off/be worth it. Ask the Sonics & Raiders. Only the Bills seem to be happy. Plus isn't this little different from RFK which was never viewed as the long-term solution in DC?
I am convinced. Look at this plan. http://www.ticketvision.com/seatingcharts/mi-tiger%20stadium.gif - you can run the soccer field along the outfield wall, 3 sides would be covered by the existing stand, and a semi-permanent stand could be placed on the field side. Perfect.
What's the capacity then? When was this stadium last rennovated?
Pardon me for butting in. I would love to see Tiger Stadium re-used in a sensible way that doesn't cost the public any money. The problem is not that there's a dearth of ideas out there. The problem is that the City of Detroit will not explore any options for Tiger Stadium as long as the Ilitches maintain their present influence over the stadium and its use. They are profiting from it while it's vacant and preventing anyone else from doing anything--baseball, football, soccer, badminton, or marathon kite-flying--with it.
Alas, Frank is right. Tiger Stadium is not a bad place for soccer; I am one of the few people who can claim to have seen the late Detroit Cougars. There are other perfectly good uses for the stadium and all of them sink when they hit the iceberg of the Illitches.
The Illitches funded a campaign to defeat a proposed stadium for an independent league team in a northern suburb. If the prospect of a couple of thousand people a game, twenty miles away, upsets them, it isn't likely that they're going to want any use made of Tiger Stadium, just down the street from Comerica Facility.
They don't even want to use it themselves. Illitch controls a number of other venues and he simply doesn't want any competition, no matter how slight. I think the city at some point will dmake a decision based on what's best for the taxpayers--but I also think the Tooth Fairy exists.
"The Astrodome, abandoned by the Houston Astros in 1999, is now under consideration for being turned into a luxury convention hotel. That is, unless it becomes a concert facility."
As someone who has actually been to concerts at the Astrodome, let me just say that the idea of turning it into a "concert facility" provokes hysterical laughter.
