The Right Location

[tamias6]

Just to illustrate, let's say that in the year 2015, the city of Grand Rapids was selected to be the home of a new NFL team. What a major development this is! The politicians are happy, local businesses are happy, and of course the GR forums on Urban Planet are a buzz with happy members speculating the implications this development would have on our fair city. Now comes the fun part. If you had your way about things, where in GR would you park an NFL stadium? This is a tough question to answer. Housing 50,000 to 90,000 screaming fans, NFL stadiums make the VAA look like an elementary school classroom in size comparison. Also the traffic generated would place a huge burden on existing infrastructure. Lastly placing an NFL stadium in DT, one would have a space issue to deal with while placing it in the suburbs would bring NIMBY's out in full force. So with that in mind, step up to the microphone on the fifty yard line and lets hear what you got to say.

[numstead]

I would buy a big chunk of farmland south of the South Beltline and west of 131 and surround it with a huge parking lot.

[Trixie]

Hmmmm . . . on the east side of town so that all those on the east side of the state can access easily w/o having to tromp through the downtown interchanges. Perhaps somewhere off M6, west of the airport.

Just off the top of my head:

Old Steelcase property near Beltline/60th.

The empty industrial stretch between Beltline and Patterson along 44th St.

M6 near the health complex.

In my "GR in the future" post, I said that I thought that the major sports franchises would end up over here.

[numstead]

oh wait, nevermind, I forgot it was 2006 and not the 1960s

[GRDadof3]

Ionia, so the prisoners have somewhere to go.

[Allison Slater]

I'd imagine that for any 'downtown' location, just west of 131 near GVSU would probably be the best spot, as far as construction and development goes. They certain;y wouldn't level half of the mid/high-rises to put one in, west side has little going on for it, and it could be near the highway reducing a lot of road and street traffic. Moreover, the west side is much flatter than the east, and NFL stadium on the side of a hill just won't work.

In terms of outside DT, I'd imagine just about any semi-undeveloped land near a highway would work.. preferably towards the southeast to attract people from KZoo, BC, and Lansing.

[snoogit]

oh wait, nevermind, I forgot it was 2006 and not the 1960s

if you're talking about NFL stadiums, you're not far off...

[houseofdon]

I know it's just the idealist urbanist in me, but it'd be awesome to have a park nestled right along the river in the city.

[gvsusean]

where the river grand project is supposed to be, not on the river but the other 20+ acres

[midude]

What is the smallest size parcel that an NFL stadium can be situated on, including parking (ramps)?