What might have been
Game 6 of the East final between LeBron and the Pistons in Cleveland is tonight. But a couple of things I've noticed the last couple of days made me think of another city that could be the center of the sports universe tonight.
First: the original Charlotte Coliseum is going to get blown up (kind of like Sgt. Hulka) tomorrow morning. The building opened in 1988, the Hornets and their knuckleheaded owner moved to New Orleans in 2002, and the city built a new arena for the expansion Bobcats that opened in 2005 - because the other one was considered obsolete.
To repeat: two arenas in less than 20 years for Charlotte, N.C. Which, we recall, was once considered a better NFL market than this one, too. History has made it clear who was right on that score. It's also told us that "obsolete'' has different definitions to different cities.
On to current, active arenas. Cleveland now not only is home to one of the biggest names in sports right now, by late tonight it might be home to an NBA Finals team. That arena is downtown, as are the baseball stadium and football stadium, and it's been proven that when any of those teams are winning, downtown Cleveland comes completely alive. Someone there decided that it was OK to have three new buildings to host three pro teams right downtown, and apparently it's working.
Now, on to last night. I was walking around the Inner Harbor, literally all around. It was very hot and humid and everybody was out - there was a concert at Pier 6, another in front of the Power Plant, and a steel-drum band was playing for tips in front of the Pavilion. All those areas were packed. The weekend before, same thing - but because the Orioles and the lacrosse final four were in town.
So business is good, no matter what. The Orioles, of course, are out of town.
But imagine how much downtown would be hopping this weekend if there were an arena there, hosting a game in which the home team was one win away from the NBA Finals.
Cleveland fans don't have to imagine, because someone decided that it was feasible to put an arena there. At the time, of course, they had no idea that one day, some teenage phenom from Akron, Ohio might play there and take them to the brink of a championship. But that's called having vision. Or having commitment, as they seem to have in Charlotte, which, for the next 15 hours or so, has two NBA-sized arenas. Even though it was believed that the pro game couldn't succeed there because it was considered college basketball country, and even though a rich owner from out of town had to come in to take the expansion franchise.
That owner (BET founder Robert Johnson), by the way, was once very interested in investing in hotels and convention space right by the Harbor.
Seriously now. Are either of those cities better basketball cities than this one is?
Doesn't matter now.
Comments
let's start at the beginning. when the civic center opened it was already absolete. a permanent stage at one end. seats that did not angle in towards the center. too few seats. when the nhl was expanded in 1967, st.l. among other cities (s) were included. baltimore was considered but because of the the norris bros. who owned chi. blackhawks and wanted st. louis in and the pathetic civic center, we lost out. of course several yrs. later abe polin after getting rid of earl monroe for mike "bags" riordan and dave the rave stallworth moved the bullets to college park and then to the horrible cap center. i would guess the person who designed the jones falls exprwy. designed the civiic center. that's where the problem began and existed and still exists. that said. why not put a retractable dome over the ravens stadium. yes the costs would be high..but if you put a dome on the stadium you would get the acc tournament 3 times every 10 years. the acc football championship at least 3x every 10 yrs.you would get a super bowl every 7 to 10 years you would get the final four every 7 to 10 years etc. there are no "domes" in the northeast. each of the above events would bring in 100,000's of millions of dollars of revenue to the city/state. and you could book very large conventions and since conventions book 5 to 10 yrs in advance you would be able to build to additional hotels that would provide many many construction jobs, jobs after the construction is finished and bring in million and millions of "tourists"s. dollars. it's time to start thinking about the big, long term future. or else it's indoor soccer.
Posted by: fkallens | June 2, 2007 7:06 PM
let's start at the beginning. when the civic center opened it was already absolete. a permanent stage at one end. seats that did not angle in towards the center. too few seats. when the nhl was expanded in 1967, st.l. among other cities (s) were included. baltimore was considered but because of the the norris bros. who owned chi. blackhawks and wanted st. louis in and the pathetic civic center, we lost out. of course several yrs. later abe polin after getting rid of earl monroe for mike "bags" riordan and dave the rave stallworth moved the bullets to college park and then to the horrible cap center. i would guess the person who designed the jones falls exprwy. designed the civiic center. that's where the problem began and existed and still exists. that said. why not put a retractable dome over the ravens stadium. yes the costs would be high..but if you put a dome on the stadium you would get the acc tournament 3 times every 10 years. the acc football championship at least 3x every 10 yrs.you would get a super bowl every 7 to 10 years you would get the final four every 7 to 10 years etc. there are no "domes" in the northeast. each of the above events would bring in 100,000's of millions of dollars of revenue to the city/state. and you could book very large conventions and since conventions book 5 to 10 yrs in advance you would be able to build to additional hotels that would provide many many construction jobs, jobs after the construction is finished and bring in million and millions of "tourists"s. dollars. it's time to start thinking about the big, long term future. or else it's indoor soccer.
Posted by: fkallens | June 2, 2007 7:07 PM