Quote:
Originally Posted by MolsonExport
Somewhere in Kansas City:
A dead zone when the stadiums are not in use. Could be craters on the moon.
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Sorry guys, I know I'm waaaaay late to the party, but you know I was gonna eventually crash it!!
While Centropolis stole a little bit of my thunder, let me reiterate. Obviously to an outsider, The Truman Sports Complex is unsightly, and poorly planned. However, the latter isn't necessarily the case.
At the time that the Chiefs and the Royals were looking for a new place to play, this location wasn't the only one. There was the idea to build a multipurpose stadium, possibly a dome, close to downtown. However, there wasn't a viable spot to put it without decimating several neighborhoods which were already ravaged by the highways built to accommodating traffic to the suburbs. And figure this...the multipurpose stadium concept died in the 80s, which means that that dome would have long been vacated and probably demolished, and voters would have had to approve new stadiums, which could have meant one of the teams leaving town. Someone was smart enough to think of the twin stadium concept. The land that was finally designated had few, if any structures on it, which made building both stadiums relatively easy, since nothing had to be condemned and people evicted. Highways 435 and I-70 was already built, which made fairly easy access to and from the stadiums. The parking lots might be unsightly, but what's the point in building a bunch of parking garages for people to be stuck in? And as far as pushing people further out of the city, The area east of the complex was already established long before ground broke.
If there was any criticism to be made, I would say that the lack of a good comprehensive plan surrounding the complex. Just a few meh hotels, a Denny's, Taco Bell, Subway, a couple of gas stations and no nice bars or restaurants are all there is.
Hopefully, when the time does come to actually replace the stadiums, that there will be a much better plan in place. I do hope that they stay there, and not move downtown.