Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Why are you against NFL stadiums in urban environments? Soldier Field is pretty well-integrated into its neighborhood, and so are Ford Field and Lucas Oil. The Superdome isn't ideal, since the entrances are up on an elevated podium, but the parking is pretty compact.
If you provide high-quality transit access, then you can greatly reduce the needed parking. Tailgaters will complain, but only until they discover that they can drink freely during the game and hop on a train to get home.
Proper design can allow the stadium to be used for other events (soccer, for example, as well as concerts and rallys) and at that point the stadium becomes a real asset to the city.
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Opportunity cost. The three fields that you mention are in relatively low-cost, low-demand areas compared to what we're talking about here. Even the most used NFL stadiums are empty and dead spots more than half of the days of the year (probably more). That's a vast, vast dead zone for the pedestrian environment. As far as concerts and other events, anything large enough to be in an NFL stadium is a regional event, IMO, so I don't have a problem with it being in another city close by - and besides, AT&T Park already handles dozens of concerts a year, so it would likely just be taking most things away from that park. I'd love to have an arena in SF, because that's a much smaller size, which allows for many more events per year.
It's also been made abundantly clear during these negotiations that the NFL and the Yorks are completely unwilling to negotiate on parking. The only allowance they would even consider was that the parking could be on multi-purpose fields, but the number of parking spaces and access for tailgaters is a make-it-or-break-it deal for a new NFL stadium (anywhere, according to the NFL).
Transit access isn't really an urban thing in the Bay Area as far as stadiums go. An NFL stadium at Hunter's Point would have worse transit access than the Santa Clara site (which is at an existing light rail stop in Santa Clara and a short walk from a Capitol Corridor stop as well). The Oakland Coliseum is right at a BART station, and the oft-mentioned idea for an NFL stadium for the Raiders in Dublin would also be right at a BART station. I'd be pretty pissed if we used some scare SF transit dollars to build rail transit to Hunter's Point for a few dozen days a year when it's already needed far more (on a daily basis) in several other corridors.