If a ballpark ever happened, I think we’d need to get creative with designing it…bear with me here.
Ingress/egress: my preference would be an urban, hub/spokes model. Like I said before, if it were to come, it would likely be secondary to transit. Have people park offsite (from Durham, Cary, wherever), and shuttle in via BRT or light rail. I’d even love to see some kind of bike-share or massive bike rack corral to encourage people biking in! Can you imagine being able to take the greenway over to a ballgame? And if you make it urban, you increase walk-up traffic from those who live in DTR, and you encourage retail/restaurant/bar growth around it.
Functionality: Make it multi-purpose and functional year-round: Incorporate offices into it, incorporate housing into it, maybe blend it into Dix Park (I’m thinking Central Prison site now!), maybe replace Red Hat Amphitheater as the new outdoor venue for concerts (assuming RHA is ever developed into something else, which is kinda the plan).
I just think we need to reimagine what a ballpark is and how it’s designed. It doesn’t have to be this massive boondoggle that fits the description of every other park and gnarls traffic and only gets used for a few months of the year…
MLB is more likely to expand internationally, Mexico City, Montreal, etc. than coming to Raleigh.
Let’s use land in Raleigh better than that anyway. Stadiums sit empty almost the entire year. Even if you add in events like concerts, it still is empty. Also, you’re adding another venue to compete with places like Walnut Creek, Red Hat, etc. So you’ll create more underutilized spaces. Finally, they don’t generate local spending like sports owners would like you to believe. So let’s use this land in a way that’s better for the region.
The notion that we don’t have enough population density to support commuter rail but do have the population to support a Major League Baseball team is amusing.
It seems like this area is going to be redeveloped much too quickly to be a stadium. If we get the MLS team, we already know where they want to put the stadium. As far as I know, MLB isn’t seriously looking at expansion, since they have some more immediate attendance problems to address.
We’re likely to see something similar to Charlotte’s South End, with lots of new apartments going up adjacent to the BRT and the area getting trendy. My only hope is that someday there’s a nice pedestrian route from this area into DT proper.
I already built a mixed use building right beside the Ship of Zion. Just the NCOD standing in the way of everything. We need more retail restaurant entertainment in the South Park Neighborhood. For the good of the high density housing that will be built sites like Cargill. Where is everyone going to shop? I drive to Wal-Mart Garner to avoid traffic. Need to be able to ditch the car. They say build and they will come. No reason to be in the area unless you looking for a good time! Know what I’m saying!!!?
There’s something going on at the big empty lot that sits between Blount & Person, Bragg & Branch. There were some backhoes tearing up some of the slab and two dudes sitting under a canopy with some equipment.
Soil testing maybe? I would have gotten pictures but I was driving.
This is a huge lot and would be great if something got developed here.
That’s great, I hope so. I actually live close to there and drive by every day… it fell out of contract at least once before due to soil contamination concerns… two weeks ago I noticed some new surveying flags
Whatever happens we have to consider that the county wants to remove all at-grade railroad crossings so that section of the railway will have to be massively redeveloped in whatever fashion. Likely the cheapest option will be to sink the roadway and convert part of the railway into a bridge/station combo to save money.
If we do something like that downtown, great, again, tired of suburbs, want stadium downtown for substantial variety of places to go, not a limited suburban atmosphere, even North Hills is getting boring to me and friends.
Agree, with towers, more retail, apartments, condos and stadium (NHL, MLS or Muscat’s - do not care about mileage limit to Durham Bulls, tired is supporting Bulls games, want something closer to downtown Raleigh, this is Capital City, start approving signature projects.
I have such big vision of mixed use neighborhood in this area. Pedestrian traffic will be huge. Parking requirements need to be thrown out. Land is too valuable for parking. I need this so bad. Restrictions are holding up my lifelong dream.
