Oh hey, did I forget to post a link to the story where Dallas Mavericks owner/all-around crazy guy Mark Cuban said he wants to build an arena suspended 20 stories in the air? Here’s a link to that. And here’s what Cuban said about his crazy idea:
“My dream — and this is like the long, long, long, long shot — is to build an arena 20 stories up in the air, where every seat has a view of downtown, whether it’s north, south, east or west,” Cuban said.
Asked how he came up with this vision, Cuban laughed and said, “That’s what I do.”..
“Imagine being 20 stories up, taking a page from ballparks like Pittsburgh and other places that have amazing views,” Cuban said. “That’s ‘a vision.’ It’s not necessarily a slam dunk. But that’s part of the thinking process.”
Also part of the thinking process is usually thinking, and what Cuban’s idea makes me think of is the way that concert and event promoters hate arenas where the floor isn’t at ground level (Madison Square Garden being the classic example), because then you have to move amplifiers and stage props and circus elephants by elevator. Also, that the view one generally wants in a basketball arena is of basketball, not what’s outside the arena. Also that what gives Pittsburgh’s baseball stadium such great views isn’t its height (it’s one of the shortest MLB stadiums) but the fact that it’s across the river from downtown Pittsburgh. Maybe Cuban should move the Mavericks to a more scenic city like Pittsburgh? Or better, move downtown Pittsburgh to Dallas?
Cuban added that he’d need to start building a new arena in about the year 2023, because his lease at American Airlines Arena expires in 2030, and obviously no one has ever heard of such a thing as renewing a lease.
Can’t they just project a live camera shot of the skyline on the big screen?
It will get done if taxpayers subsidize 19 of those 20 floors.
Ok, what would that look like? Half an arena lopped of for a wall of windows overlooking downtown? The seating would be more like a theatre than an arena. Multiply the costs exponentially & divide the seats?
Even if Dallas kept the AAC around for the NHL, larger concerts and the circus…..How would every seat have a view unless 45% of a typical bowl seating was replaced with a flat glass skyscraper? Even if they widen & reconfigure what’s left of traditional bowl seating, it’s such bizarre concept. I wonder how serious he’s looking into it?
And would it really be surprising if 50 years from now, 35 years after Cuban’s stadium would theoretically exist & arena leases expire, if half the teams in the NBA with “picturesque” downtowns demand the same high-rise arena? The passion for sports exceeds the interest for politics. Right when everyone pays for their new arena: the new “iPhone.” is revealed. This could be the next wave that keeps the spigot of public money running. Or it could never happen.
Makes obvious how scatterbrained and gullible big-time sports customers are,
“…like gotta have a distraction ‘cuz I don’t have enough concentration to actually watch what’s going on in front of me. And like, it’s the new/hip thing to want until I latch onto the next hip trend , ‘ya know?…”
Lookout Brooklyn, Sacramento and Milwaukee. Mark Cuban is already making your new NBA arenas obsolete.