Can you elaborate here. My vague recollection is that recent Sports Authority construction jobs have been on time and under budget. I am concerned, though, that they are taking advantage of Houstonians' reluctance to lose the Dome to put forward a project that will enrich cronies.
There is no demand for a new convention center, the restrictions placed on it by the Texans and Reliant/Rodeo will be burdensome... this is going to be a disaster. A boondoggle for the city that will get contractors a bunch of money but bring no real benefit to the city beyond people being able to say the place they watched a baseball game in their youth still exists. Not that they'll ever use it themselves, but hey...
Take it down! The Astrodome will be nothing but a money pit for the next 50 years if this goes through. $194 million will not be the final cost of such a huge task... That figure is certainly deflated.
The Texans and the Rodeo use this space about 32 days a year. I think they can find a way to fit in conventions in the other 330 some-odd days that are available.
There is no demand for more convention space. As for the way you calculated days, you are seriously misjudging how much a pain the Texans will be. This is going to be money the city will never get back.
And their reasoning for not coming to Houston has nothing to do with our lack of convention space by Reliant.
There are conventions here. There's plenty to do here for business folks hanging around at night. That's an old tired view of Houston that thinks otherwise. I think the Dome can be made into something interesting that makes it distinguishable for convention space. If knocking it down were cheap or free, I might think otherwise. But you spend damn near half of what they're projecting it will take to remake it by simply demolishing it. The window to demolish it was before Reliant was built...not after.
Since I haven't lived in Houston for more than 20 years, I really don't have a dog in this hunt. But I have to say the proposal that makes the most sense to me is keeping the dome on pillars, taking out everything underneath and replacing it with green space, park, small outdoor concert venue, etc. This would transform a unique historic architectural structure into an new unique architectural structure and I think it would likely get a lot of use, especially in the summer, where the dome will keep things shady and cooler.
I never said there weren't conventions here or that there was nothing to do for business folks at night. I said there isn't demand for a new giant convention center and that the reason a convention would choose not to come to Houston has nothing to do with the lack of a giant center over at Reliant. Of course it CAN. At a ridiculous price tag that will continue to suck money for years.
Hmm, something that can generate revenue, or tear it down into something that never will... What to do, what to do? I thought this city had lots of Mexi-CANS, not Mexi-CAN'TS. Seriously, I'm really thinking of investigating whether some of you have the phrase "it can't be done" on trademark, because I can't imagine so many people being so negative about an idea to improve something unless they have a financial stake in it failing. I know, let's tear Reliant STADIUM down, reinstate the dome, put up the old scoreboards from 1965, rebuild Astroworld, return the old POS hotel on the corner to the Astro-Hotel or whatever the hell it was called, along with tacky tiger-print Roy Hofheinz suite, or better yet, let's tear down everything withing a two-mile radius and make it the world's largest parking lot. No more bonds! I know they said 194 million, but this clearly will cost 700 billion trillion!! BECAUSE I KNOW BETTER. Jesus, people. Go for much larger conventions than what we can currently handle. Become a regular stop for the Final Four. Become a regular stop for the Super Bowl. Hold music festivals. High school basketball tournaments. High school football games and playoffs. Bid for college conference championship tournaments. Use it as motivation to cultivate redevelopment of the area between the stadium up through the medical center and on to downtown. Olympics. Aquatic events. Did anybody actually look at the detailed dual presentations on the overall master plan and the more in-depth specifics presentation on what the structure could be used for? Do you think this hasn't been thought through? No, you don't. Naturally, they want to waste money and be known for putting the county into debt. Right, that was on slide 10. Cities that want to be world class take risks on things like this. Cities that want to be nothing take no risks, create nothing, and destroy everything of significance the city ever had. Your choice is easy -- spend money to make money (this proposal), or spend money to tear it down and never make another cent on it. I can't see why anyone would think this was a bad thing.
It's wool over taxpayer eyes. So what's next? When the MLB and NBA want to hold events they'll have to have them at the Astrodome? Lol. Where's the hotels to support the convention? Oh wait, they are building a new one....next to GRB. Vote no on this money pit.
Here's the real issue: That part of town is one giant anal fissure. It's bad enough they felt the need to build the new football stadium right next to the old one, to guarantee that people will have to continue traversing to that horrible dump of an area. The baseball and basketball arenas border right against areas that I would NOT want to get lost in after a game, let me tell you. There are plenty of growing, nice, attractive areas of the Houston Metroplex, but downtown and 610@Kirby ain't it. ESPECIALLY the 'astro-domain'. Nobody in their right mind would want to go there for a convention or any other kind of big event where they would be trapped in that specific area for any length of time. And these geniuses want to spend other peoples' money to build something nobody needs or wants, which will cost more to maintain than it will ever earn, all because a few screeching morons can't bear to let go of the '8th Wonder of the World'. We have PICTURES of it folks. It's ok, let it go. Heck, I didn't even know how nasty it all was, until a couple weekends ago. I decided to take my son on a little mini-vacation, so I took him up to Dallas to spend a couple days at Six Flags (since we don't have Astroworld any more, but than God for that, it had become too dangerous and scary a place to go by the end) and the waterpark there. So we got to spend a long weekend wandering around that area in Arlington. If you don't know, Six Flags is right next to the BallPark in Arlington, which happens to be right next to Cowboys Stadium. None of those major major attractions was built by being crammed into a run-down armpit of urban blight. They were built where there was space, land, and an intentional effort to create something positively beautiful. And I am not even talking about the stadiums themselves, as much as I am talking about the area surrounding them: lakes, parks, trees, rolling clean streets.. Now as much as I love Houston, and this is my home, and I find Dallas fans to be as insufferable as anyone, I'll tell you, I loved that place. It was freaking beautiful. The whole time I kept thinking, 'Man, I wish we had something like this in Houston!' But it took an effort, and it took the understanding that you can't keep hanging on to the old crappy venues or areas forever, just because you remember a nice afternoon 30 years ago. They put it into a space of its own, and the area has sprung up around it there in Arlington at an amazing rate. A thriving, beautiful, new, growing area. Heck the MALL there was amazing. People all around there just seemed.. happy. So ok, we are stuck with having to watch pirated broadcasts if we want to watch the Rockets or the (lol) Astros, or drive downtown, or drive all the way down to that miserable area of Kirby on 610, or just sit at home and watch on tv. Fine, we made our bed, that's our lot. We are not going to have something really nice or cool like they have up there. And then this morning I hear that these idiots wants to take our money and throw it into the pit of the Astrodome, to make another (YAYY!!) *CONVENTION CENTER*, so a bunch of people from out of town can maybe enjoy it once in a while, so a bunch of OTHER people can maybe make some extra money. F that. I can just hear the cheers of the citizenry now - 'Hooray! Another giant convention center in the city, which I will also never ever set foot in! So glad I paid for it!' It's sickening. Just tear that giant piece of crap down and get rid of it.
The reason they build them in bad areas is because the land is cheap. But you are right, it's not really prime real estate for well to do business conventions.
No, but bringing my children there to try to make our way through the crowds of teenagers who were doing absolutely nothing but hanging out and fighting, well, it was not pleasant.
