OOooooooo, pretty [Archive] - SpursTalk.com Forums

TDMVPDPOY

12-13-2006, 09:28 AM

melbourne sporting capital of the world > any city you wanna bring up

this is the current stadium the melbourne victory soccer club trains and use to play at, aka the 1956 melb olympic games and commonwealth games only holds 10000 ppl only :( but max is 18000 ppl, mainly a training facility atm.
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/photos/olympic2.jpg
its basically a stadium that hosts league soccer/rugby and atheletics events, im not talkin about the big national events, we got other stadiums for that.
Now with the proposal new stadium which only costs AUS$190 million
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/photos/melbourne1.jpg
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/photos/melbourne2.jpg
max ppl for this is 15k-25k ppl only, lame as currently the melb soccer club is attracting in access of 40000 ppl at its home games, and the league is only 1 year old. And they are thinkin of havin another melbourne team......
this is the current stadium it plays in now atm which is houses max of 70k-85k ppl
and here is a pic of one of the home games
http://www.melbournevictory.com.au/_content/image/00005077-image.jpg
propose new soccer stadium
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/photos/melbourne3.jpg
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/photos/melbourne4.jpg
As you can see theres the MCG on the bottom right which holds 130000 ppl, and the other stadiums next to it. Rod lava arena, is goin to have a indoor swimming pool for the upcomming swimmin championships, it has tennis and baskbetball courts inside...

only thing i hate about new grounds is that, other sports share the grounds, like the MCG you see on the bottom right is mainly cricket (boring sport) and houses aussie rules footy, and football players mainly ruckmans usually get career ending knee injuries due to the cricket pitch they keep on changing during the seasons of play....

1369

12-13-2006, 10:04 AM

Link still works for me. Here's the article.

Jerry Jones thinks the new Dallas Cowboys stadium is edgy and technologically hip.

Its tab has ballooned to $1 billion from the original $650 million estimate, the team's owner said Friday as he discussed details of the stadium's final design for the first time. Arlington's portion of the project is capped at $325 million, so the team will pay the additional costs.

"The winners here are our fans. We want to make that investment," Jones said. "This area is deserving of this venue."

The team is set to unveil detailed designs of the project at an invitation-only event tonight in Arlington. A model of the stadium will be on display at the Arlington Convention Center through Thursday.

The Jones family and the design team from the Dallas architectural firm HKS spent seven years sketching ideas before deciding on a stadium with etched glass and a translucent retractable roof. The stadium will have two 180-foot-long digital video screens suspended over the field, 120-foot-high movable glass walls to enclose each end zone and ticketed plaza areas where fans can watch the game while standing at bar tables.

Just 14 percent of the stadium construction is complete; some specifications, such as the number of suites and permanent seating capacity, are still being worked out. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are working to secure a contract for the stadium's naming rights. Jones did not want to name the companies the team was in discussions with or say when it hopes to announce a deal.

The new Cowboys stadium stands to be the second-most-expensive in the National Football League -- as long as the Cowboys' budget doesn't grow and the new shared stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets sticks to its $1.2 billion budget.

Design details

Ameriquest Field, the stadium's neighbor, has been hailed for its Texas-deco style that harks back to the golden age of baseball.

There is nothing traditional about the Cowboys stadium design.

"We intentionally created a very linear, racy, edgy-looking building," said Bryan Trubey, HKS' lead architect on the stadium. He said the stadium will look different during the day than at night, when light from within will shine through glass panels and make the stadium look "more alive."

The retractable, translucent roof will reveal a hole the same size as the one in Texas Stadium's roof. Jones said he wanted to keep the signature hole because it's a significant part of the Cowboys' identity.

With a retractable roof, spectators can get the benefit of air conditioning without sacrificing the open-air feel, Jones said. He added that the sleek, rounded design has no right angles and is intended to make the building look streamlined, with two quarter-mile-long arches supporting the roof.

"Fans will be impressed by [the arches] the most -- I am," Jones said.

The bowl is sunk 50 feet into the ground, so the stadium will not overwhelm Arlington's landscape, though it will still dwarf other buildings on the city's horizon.

Rectangular glass panels will form the slightly concave sides of the stadium. A frit treatment will be applied, similar to etched designs on glass. The glass will be more opaque on the lower levels of the sides and gradually become clearer at the top.

The Jones family traveled all over Europe and Asia, looking at everything from banks to airports to soccer stadiums to get ideas for the design. They also asked several NFL owners what they liked and didn't like about their own stadiums.

Gene Jones, Jerry Jones' wife, who is deeply involved in the stadium design, said the building is like a work of art or an "architectural contribution to the city."

The fan experience

In creating the new home for the Cowboys, the Jones family and designers had one question in mind: how to give fans an all-around entertaining experience so they won't stay home to watch the game on their 50-inch high-definition televisions.

"I have always thought of the building as a stage," Jones said. "It is really just a tool for us to put on great events."

The open-air end zones and scoreboards suspended over the field are among several elements that were added with fans in mind.

Jones said they wanted to create an area similar to Tampa Bay's Buccaneer Cove, which features a giant pirate ship. The Cowboys' plazas that lead to the end zones will be ticketed areas with tents that fans or companies can rent for tailgate parties. The tailgaters will be able to watch the game on the 27-by-48-foot end-zone scoreboards while standing at bar tables that overlook the field.

Tailgaters who don't want to leave their parties in the parking lot may be able to watch the game live on one of two digital video screens that will hang on the outside of the stadium. Jones said the team is still deciding whether to show the games live.

When the stadium hosts concerts, these outside screens could feature music videos of the artist as concertgoers walk into the dome.

"It's not a billboard, it's a part of our overall architecture," Jones said.

Fans inside will be able to relax at eight clubs and 23 bars and lounges. They will be able to choose from a variety of food and beverages at 286 concession areas, according to the plans. Fans can also visit the Hall of Fame, which will showcase the history of the Cowboys organization as well as other sports memorabilia.

Suites will be equipped with video screens. Field-level suites will let fans see the action from the viewpoint of coaches on the sidelines, Jones said.

The view comes at a cost: Ticket prices for the inaugural 2009 season are expected to average $98.88, including an 8 percent sales tax and a 10 percent admission tax, stadium financing documents show. Actual prices have not been set.

Charlotte Anderson, Jones' daughter and Cowboys vice president, said the new stadium is designed to draw fans into the action. Spectators in the upper concourse won't even need binoculars, she said, thanks to the two video scoreboards stretching from 20-yard line to 20-yard line.

"It's a better view just with this huge screen," Anderson said. "You'll see the players on the field, but you feel like you're in the game no matter where you are in the stadium."

COMPARING STADIUM COSTS

$1 billion: Cowboys stadium in Arlington, opening in 2009

$1.2 billion: New York Jets/New York Giants stadium in New Jersey, opening in 2010

$675 million: Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, opening in 2008

$450 million: University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., opened in August

SOURCES: Star-Telegram archives, National Football League, Indianapolis Stadium and Convention Building Authority

IF YOU GO

See a model of the new Cowboys stadium at the Arlington Convention Center, 1200 Ballpark Way, noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday.