After a long weekend thanks to the celebrations for the father of the transatlantic slave trade, I’m facing a busy work day and a pile of small stadium news items that I don’t want you guys to miss. So: bullet points it is!
- The “sky bridges” in the renovated Madison Square Garden turn out just to be a new deck of seats suspended from the ceiling. Also, pretty obtrusive to fans sitting in the back rows of what used to be the blue seats. And there’s still the low railings that will allow fans to drop beers on the heads of those in the pricey seats below them. A win-win-win!
- Some Minnesota Vikings fans say that personal seat licenses at the new stadium will make them give up their season tickets; others say they’ll just put off buying a new boat.
- San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee compared a new San Francisco Warriors arena to the Statue of Liberty, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler has brought out the sarcasm stick.
- Qatar’s plan for hosting the 2022 World Cup will cost an estimated $200 billion, including building a stadium for the final in a city that doesn’t exist yet. Also, an estimated 4,000 migrant workers will likely die building all this stuff. Maybe that Columbus guy isn’t sounding so bad by comparison.
Good info passed on from Howard Zinn’s writing. My grandpappy used to tell stories of driving from Bartolome, GA to Bartolome, OH and back down to Bartolomeia, SC in the summers before the imperialist white hegemonists changed the names of those cities in 1930.
Off-topic, but the Indonesian billionaire that owns DC United and the 76ers just spent $476M to buy 75% of an Italian soccer team. He’s also trying to get DC to subsidize a stadium. Because, obviously, he just doesn’t have the cash: http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/10/controlling-united-thohir.html; http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/dc-united-soccer-stadium-opponents-launch-winning-goal-campaign/2013/10/10/028c64ea-31b1-11e3-89ae-16e186e117d8_story.html
Add Sacramento to the list of newsworthy items:
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/15/5823903/new-group-forms-to-combat-kings.html
They have got to take away the World Cup from Qatar. Wow.
1. Dolan answer to the obtrusive bridge? Like any other owner, pay more and it won’t be a problem. Can’t be any worse than the railings/glass direct obstructions at Citi.
2. Typical ‘Frisco, having to use a comparison to a timeless NYC landmark, first it’s the Grand Central Terminal comparison to the CalTrain boondoggle – and now this.