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Downtown ballpark proposed by Rockford Construction


GRobserver

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well, heres a major blow to the grand rapids sports scene:

http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/afl/news/story?id=3759813

afl season cancelled.

oh, and to the person who said the red wings struggled to sell out the playoffs, that is an understatement. the red wings first sell out last season was game 1 of the stanley cup finals.

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Were are you getting that from? Last time I went to a Griffins game, the VAN was packed to the rafters with screaming fans. The last time I went to a whitecaps game the ball park was jammed with screaming fans. Even the Rampage game I went to which was not quite packed like the grifs and caps still made allot of noise. If GR's sport scene is dead then why are these teams have enthused fans willing to go see them play and why would Rockford construction company propose the idea of a DT ballpark?
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you must of been at the dollar beer night, or a day game for the caps when they let all the school kids in for free. lets be realistic if the caps were going to get stadium why would they putting a bunch of money into 5/3rd? Let me clarify and say that the downtown sports scene is dead and the caps are not even close to dt. high school sports are thriving. AFL is folding, we should take a page from memphis and lure a pro team here. nhl would peek the interest of people. if you look at the demographics of west michigan 3mill. people 75 to 80 miles from GR. could support a sports team. its time the newly found sports authority earns its worth.
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but if you look at the CSA GR is 32nd, ahead of OKC, and Buffalo, not the best way to measure pop. but it looks more promising. plus i think people would come from outside of just GR and Wyoming to see a game, K-zoo/Portage has 323,264 , Holland/Grand Haven has 259,206, those are the MSA numbers. I would go DT more to see a pro team and i'm already down there 3-5 times a week, I think the GR metro area could support a pro team.

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you must of been at the dollar beer night, or a day game for the caps when they let all the school kids in for free. lets be realistic if the caps were going to get stadium why would they putting a bunch of money into 5/3rd? Let me clarify and say that the downtown sports scene is dead and the caps are not even close to dt. high school sports are thriving. AFL is folding, we should take a page from memphis and lure a pro team here. nhl would peek the interest of people. if you look at the demographics of west michigan 3mill. people 75 to 80 miles from GR. could support a sports team. its time the newly found sports authority earns its worth.
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Sorry to disappoint you but GR is nowhere near big enough to support professional sports. it's MSA is the 66th largest in the country. the smallest MSA with a sports team is New Orleans which is ranked 51st. the only reason that New orleans is that low is because of katrina. pre-katrina it would have been top 40. Last I saw the AFL isn't folding, at least not yet. I suggest you pay closer attention to the news.

It may be that the planned expenditures were decided before a realistic downtown option was found. there still may not be realistic downtown option but there isn't any question that downtown stadiums are successful.

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i'm not sure about sellouts, but according to espn.com, the red wings' attendance for the past five seasons:

2005-06 season - 20,064 per game, 100% of capacity, 3rd in nhl

2006-07 season - 20,066 per game, 100% of capacity, 2nd in nhl

2007-08 season - 18,870 per game, 94% of capacity, 7th in nhl

2008-09 season - 19,675 per game, 98% of capacity, 2nd in nhl

attendance may have been down for the early rounds of the playoffs last season, but that says much more about the collective overconfidence of red wings fans than it does about the health of hockey in detroit. for what it's worth - so far this season, the griffins are getting 6,576 per game (source: theahl.com), about 61% of capacity. again...for what it's worth.

as to the general point of the thread - whether a downtown stadium could work - i have some doubts. an arena can be used year round, but a baseball stadium is empty 80% of the time. when it's full, the surrounding neighborhood just comes alive - anyone who has been near wrigley or the new tiger stadium the night of a big game can attest to that. but those other nights...not so much. and they take up SO much real estate.

i say keep it out in comstock park.

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