Mayor Herenton holds annual prayer breakfast

[watnow1425]

Herenton seems to be looking for other methods for paying for this stadium rather then tax dollars. Again, not my money!

[teCh0010]

Let's use the blueprint from louisville Pappa John's stadium, naming rights,boosters, ticket sales, concessions, parking etc. to finance this project.

[idlewild]

I completely agree, and I believe the U of M should finance the entire project with the City possibly helping with infrastructure improvements near wherever the new stadium should go. South Campus is the best place, imo.

[cdarr]

This is paragraph 13, section J from the settlement agreement between the Federal Gov't and the City of Memphis concerning compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act:

"It is noted that there are numerous violations of the ADA throughout the Liberty Bowl, located at 335 South Hollywood, Memphis, TN, including routes of travel, ramps, toilet rooms, counters, inadequate number of wheelchair seating areas, elevators, and drinking fountains. The Department has shared its report of violations for this facility with the City. Within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, the City shall submit for the Department

[Rardy]

I think the $50 mill figure is for upgrading the LB and the Coliseum both. ADA compliance can be very expensive.

[memphis born]

I think the $50 mill figure is for upgrading the LB and the Coliseum both. ADA compliance can be very expensive.

[watnow1425]

Expensive is right! There is no way I can support spending my tax dollars on 2 ancient, decayed, and antiquated stadiums. The real problem on this board with the nay sayer's is not the fact of building a state of the art show place stadium, it's the fact that Willie Herenton proposed it. How can anybody in the right mind want 30-50 million dollars spent on 2 facilities that are far outdated and would probably be torn down in 5-8 years anyway. please tell me what type of financial sense this makes. You nay sayer's should stop hating on this proposal and get behind it. What are you really suggesting we do:

1) Spend millions of dollars on LB and Coliseum?

2) Do nothing at all leave things like they are?

3) Build a new stadium but only with private financing?

4) Just cry and post on the message board what a terrible city government we have?

5) Join behind our city leaders and build a new state of the art facility that could not only bring regional but also national attention to METROPLITAN MEMPHIS.

CHOOSE A POSITION AND QUIT CRYING........

[cdarr]

Expensive is right! There is no way I can support spending my tax dollars on 2 ancient, decayed, and antiquated stadiums. The real problem on this board with the nay sayer's is not the fact of building a state of the art show place stadium, it's the fact that Willie Herenton proposed it. How can anybody in the right mind want 30-50 million dollars spent on 2 facilities that are far outdated and would probably be torn down in 5-8 years anyway. please tell me what type of financial sense this makes. You nay sayer's should stop hating on this proposal and get behind it. What are you really suggesting we do:

1) Spend millions of dollars on LB and Coliseum?

2) Do nothing at all leave things like they are?

3) Build a new stadium but only with private financing?

4) Just cry and post on the message board what a terrible city government we have?

5) Join behind our city leaders and build a new state of the art facility that could not only bring regional but also national attention to METROPLITAN MEMPHIS.

CHOOSE A POSITION AND QUIT CRYING........

[memphis born]

First of all, the two facilities are separate issues. The Coliseum should be demolished or sold. It has no tenants and has already been replaced by two newer facilities. No taxpayer money should be spent upgrading it.

The Liberty Bowl is a different story. It still has a tenant. As someone who actually helps run an event in the LB each year, I can tell you that it is certainly not "decayed". It is structurally sound and is in significantly better condition now than 3-4 years ago thanks to some maintenance projects. It is also not "antiquated" for a college stadium. It has good sightlines, ample skyboxes, relatively efficient ingress/egress, and a brand new field.

This "repair or replace" decision is hardly unique to Memphis and the LB. If it doesn't make financial sense for the LB to be maintained, why are the Miami Hurricanes still playing in the 1930s-era Orange Bowl? What about USC in the 85-year old Los Angeles Coliseum? UCLA in the equally-aged Rose Bowl? And these are just examples of colleges playing in municipal stadiums. We could go on and on with very old on-campus stadiums that have not been torn down and replaced with shiny new ones. Certainly, all these communities and colleges have had to deal with modernization and ADA-compliance issues and yet have opted to maintain their old stadiums rather than build something new. Why don't those economics apply to Memphis? (Hint: perhaps the dollar figures being tossed about are false.)

This new stadium can't possibly be "state of the art" for under $100 million. According to some newspaper reports, it would more closely resemble Central Florida's new facility or, closer to home, the 1998 addition to MTSU's stadium. Both are constructed mostly of flimsy metal stands that sound like they're going to cave in when you walk across them. That's right...the same kind of stands you find at most local high school stadiums. Hardly "state of the art". Hardly something that's going to attract national attention. The new stadium being built by the Dallas Cowboys, for example, is going to cost $650 million. Who outside of Memphis will care about a no-frills $100M stadium?

[memphis born]

No the idea to repair or replace is not unique, I remember about a year and a 1/2 ago this subject came up.

It was not a good decision then and it's not a good one now to piece and patch a 40+ year old stadium with very limited and outdated parking, restrooms that are disgraceful and no activity readily available after the games ie; Retail, Clubs, Dining, etc. I respect the fact that you help run events their but you comparing LB to the Orange Bowl, The LA Coliseum and the Rose Bowl was not a good comparison. First of all these stadiums have a rich tradition that only LB can dream about. Second the facilities offer many amenities

LB has never had nor ever will. Yes you can go on with very old campus stadiums that are still in use and I bet the only reason many of them are still around is because:

1) The city is not very progressive and is as much behind the times as their stadium.

2)They never draw 40-60 thousand fans.

3) They have ample open parking lots

4) They have plans to build a new one that have not been announced.

Just Face it you make these comments because of your dislike for King Willie and the fact that you work for LB and if they build a new one you may not. The numbers for complying with ADA may be off but, even if they have to spend 15 million for LB and 10 Million for the coliseum thats still too much for stadiums that will continue to need patch work every 2-4 years. So what do you propose continue to patch it at a cost of 2-3 million dollars every other year. I have seen the pictures of UCF and I like the outdoor of it But our stadium should have Chair Back Seats like Pappa John's Stadium.

[Clobber]

Here's an example of what we should build

http://www.fordfield.com/

And this without the convention center

http://www.edwardjonesdome.org/

This would be a perfect for our great weather.

http://www.seahawks.com/QwestField/QwestField.aspx

[cdarr]

I respect the fact that you help run events their but you comparing LB to the Orange Bowl, The LA Coliseum and the Rose Bowl was not a good comparison. First of all these stadiums have a rich tradition that only LB can dream about. Second the facilities offer many amenities

LB has never had nor ever will.

[gatesofmemphis]

We have 2 empty arenas and there wasn't unanimity about building one of the two that is used. Memphians from all walks of life are, pardon the expression, gun-shy about building publicly-funded arenas right now. Kind of like President Bush talking about a new war. Even supporters of the first war are likely to go "Whoa!"

[ricky_the_great]

$30 mil, 50,000 seat football stadium

you cant expect a stadium with that price tag to be any good. the new yankee stadium (which is a baseball stadium of 55,000) is expected to cost 800 million dollars last i heard. including the bulldozing of the old yankee stadium across the street.

keep the liberty bowl, for a college stadium its an excellent stadium.

[DoctorGonzo]

The real problem on this board with the nay sayer's is not the fact of building a state of the art show place stadium, it's the fact that Willie Herenton proposed it.

CHOOSE A POSITION AND QUIT CRYING........

[memphis born]

You might want to learn how to have a civil debate, rather than resorting to childish antics by blindly attacking the people who hold opposing views.

Memphis doesn't need to keep throwing up stadiums and arenas. To even think of doing so at a time like this in the city is just monumentally out of sync with reality. The city is rotting away from ever-increasing amounts of crime, and instead of spending money to fight it people keep suggesting diverting the money to buy yet another sports complex. I don't see how that will help things.

The city has made national news for being one of the most unsafe cities in the nation, and one that is seeing its already staggering crime rate increase by leaps and bounds. You can trot out the old line that "People just need to have a positive attitude towards the city and things will get better!" but that is merely an excuse. Keeping a positive attitude won't keep crime down, keeping a positive attitude won't make businesses take relocating to the area seriously when they can see the numbers in front of them. The problems are getting much worse, and in a city that is begging for investment, you need to think about what you want to invest in and what the benefits will be.

[ricky_the_great]

It is very in sync with reality sir, that is why the city leaders have been discussing the future of the LB.

Please read this article

http://commercialappeal.com/mca/business/a...5261988,00.html

Why is it that some city leaders support the proposal of a new stadium if it is monumentally out of sync with reality? Tom Marshall does not strike me as someone who is out of touch with reality. I am merely pointing out that there is a great deal of support from community leaders, politicians, and citizens who would like to see the city move forward with building a new stadium and adding 500 police which is what has been proposed. Crime will never be fixed overnite new stadium or not. IMO if there were more homeowners and citizens standing up and protecting their properties and communities instead of blaming others and stadiums maybe we could curtail some of this crime and take back our communities. I never have nor will I buy into the FEEL SAFE THEORY. THE RESPONSIBILITY IS YOURS SIR.

[Rardy]

I'm not seeing the connection between crime and the stadium... If the stadium is not built with tax-payer money, how will that affect the crime rate?

Are you guys really saying that because the city has a high crime rate, we should not invest any money in public works, quality of life projects??? That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Fellowmann20]

I'm not seeing the connection between crime and the stadium... If the stadium is not built with tax-payer money, how will that affect the crime rate?

[DoctorGonzo]

Why is it that some city leaders support the proposal of a new stadium if it is monumentally out of sync with reality? Tom Marshall does not strike me as someone who is out of touch with reality. I am merely pointing out that there is a great deal of support from community leaders, politicians, and citizens who would like to see the city move forward with building a new stadium and adding 500 police which is what has been proposed. Crime will never be fixed overnite new stadium or not. IMO if there were more homeowners and citizens standing up and protecting their properties and communities instead of blaming others and stadiums maybe we could curtail some of this crime and take back our communities. I never have nor will I buy into the FEEL SAFE THEORY. THE RESPONSIBILITY IS YOURS SIR.

[memphis born]

I'm not seeing the connection between crime and the stadium... If the stadium is not built with tax-payer money, how will that affect the crime rate?

Are you guys really saying that because the city has a high crime rate, we should not invest any money in public works, quality of life projects??? That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Rardy]

Okay...I don't want to be the idiot on the forum who says Memphis doesn't have a crime problem. I'm not saying that at all. But I think we need to be careful we don't buy in to the Memphis media's mass hysteria concerning last year's violent crime rate. For the year, violent crime was up 5% over 2005, but down from the early 2000's. If anything, we only mirror national trends in terms of the ups and downs of violent crime.

We also have several other factors working against us, not the least of which is the fact that half of all metropolitan Memphians live in the city of Memphis. That's rare for any MSA to have half its residents within the city limits of one city. In most cases they're dispersed among dozens of municipalities, which report crime rates individually.

That said, I definitely agree Memphis' crime is bad, just not as bad as the hysterical, self-deprecating local media portray.

I still do not buy the argument that all public spending should stop until crime is what? Gone? Halved? National Average? Where's the cutoff?

The residency restriction for public employees has already been suspended. Herenton has a plan to hire 600 new police officers, but I don't buy that. IMO throwing money at the problem (which seems to be the assumption of this thread) will NOT make it go away. Crime is a cultural pandemic - not a problem limited to Memphis - and the solution for it begins at the home. Just my opinions, of course.

Saying that Memphis should not build a stadium because the city has a crime problem is ludicrous IMO. How is that different than spending $5 billion on downtown renewal? There will never be an ideal time to build anything noteworthy.

[G-townTN]

I have been watching this thread for a little while along with the rest of the Memphis threads. I will start off saying that I was born in Memphis and lived there for most of my life until when recently I moved to the center of the state. I see so much potential for this city and I am excited to see what will the future entails.

Getting to the point, I see so many problems that HAVE to be fixed for us to get to the full potential that I envision for the city with the main one being crime. I keep reading these posts that say that crime has nothing to do with the progression of the city and that our city can compete with any other city even with all this crime. I have a question for all of you, name one top 10 progressing city that has an outrageous crime rate. It doesn

[hgupta]

Saying that Memphis should not build a stadium because the city has a crime problem is ludicrous IMO. How is that different than spending $5 billion on downtown renewal? There will never be an ideal time to build anything noteworthy.

[qwertycc]

I have a question for all of you, name one top 10 progressing city that has an outrageous crime rate. It doesn