HNTB: "The existing Roberts Stadium building appears to have little or no observed or reported structural damage."

While we've been enjoying a bit of a reprieve from the ball fields project, I have been burning the midnight oil researching and analyzing documents pertaining to Roberts Stadium and its condition. Ever since city officials have began proclaiming that Roberts Stadium is unsavable and must be demolished, I have begun researching it just to prove what I've long suspected- that Roberts Stadium is perfectly fine.

First of all, I have already researched the consultant's study performed on Roberts Stadium once before. What I found was that Roberts Stadium has fallen victim to a lot of political spin which, in turn, has caused many local residents to give up on saving it.

Here is the post that talks about what I found the first time...

http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2010/11/rumors-of-roberts-stadiums-demise-has.html

Because I found so much information that pointed towards Roberts Stadium being inaccurately portrayed as unusable, I decided to start with this study once more in my next round of research.

To recap, the city of Evansville hired Gateway Consultants Group to study the idea of renovating Roberts Stadium or building a new arena downtown. As part of the report, they hired sports architects HNTB to research Roberts Stadium. Here it is again...

http://www.evansvillearenaproject.com/downloads/consultant_report.pdf

The study indicated that it would be a bad idea to renovate Roberts Stadium because you would have to raze the entire roof and the costs would be almost identical to the costs of building a new one downtown. I agree with this decision because, if Roberts Stadium would have been renovated, just about anything historical left on the structure would have been demolished. Thus, you would basically be demolishing Roberts Stadium and building a new arena there in a creative way. Plus downtown needs the stimulus from this project.

The problem with the report is that it has been twisted so that many people believe that Roberts Stadium isn't reusable when in reality it just isn't reusable as a state-of-the-art modern arena.

So let's go back to the study again and see what it said about the condition of Roberts Stadium. This can be found on pages 119-133 of the report.

Page 124

"Overall, the exterior condition of Roberts Stadium appears good."

In other words, Roberts Stadium is not an eyesore. Every time I've ever gone to an Aces game, I've always been amazed by how clean the main level is. It isn't rundown in the least bit. For this reason, some leaders have resulted to scare tactics that talk about what Roberts Stadium would look like in the FUTURE if it's mothballed and unattended. If this stadium is mothballed, it will be their own fault. We clearly have a clean and presentable building to reuse as well as many reuse options.

Pages 125 & 126

In regards to the Central Plant

Water Cooled Chiller

"There were no reports of any structural operational or maintenance issues with this equipment."

Cooling Tower Cells

"There were no reports of any structural operational or maintenance issues with this equipment."

Flexible Water Tube Boilers

"There were no reports of any structural operational or maintenance issues with this equipment."

Gas-fired Laars MightyMax Domestic Water Boiler With A Single Insulated Hot Water Storage Tank

"There were no reports of any structural operational or maintenance issues with this equipment."

Single Dedicated PVI Gas-fired Tank Type Water Heater

"There were no reports of any structural operational or maintenance issues with this equipment."

It was noted that...

"Facility personnel reported that the central plant equipment was installed in 1990. Therefore, the equipment is nearing the end of their anticipated service life."

Unfortunately, I also believe this part to be true as well. Although it is not known what we will need and what we won't need to reuse Roberts Stadium yet, we will probably need the central plant in some capacity. The good thing though is this...

"Based on ASHRAE-established equipment service life, the central plant equipment would have the following remaining years of service: pumps would have approximately 3 years of life remaining; boilers would have approximately 8 years of life remaining; and chiller would have approximately 6 years of life remaining."

(Note: This study was performed in 2008)

This means that, although we will probably have to replace this system, we still have a few years left in the system and the part(s) maintenance is spaced out all the way to 2016 so we won't have to come up with a huge chunk of cash all at once.

In regards to the Arena Bowl

"The arena bowl is served by (2) large, built-up style air-handling units (AHU's) that are located on the (2) quadrant corners on the south end of the arena. These units provide heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation to the arena bowl.

Heating water and chilled water coils in each unit provide the heating and cooling for the arena.

The AHU's are in good condition overall. The insulation on the piping internal to the units is molded on the jacketing and should be replaced. The coils appear to be in good condition but should be cleaned."

The report also goes on to talk on page 126 about the water table pumps on the Arena Bowl but mentions nothing wrong with them.

In regards to the Loading Dock/ Marshalling Area

"There are limited mechanical systems serving this area. Two ducted suspended fan coil units provide space heating and cooling.

The HVAC equipment appeared to be in good working condition.

There were no operational or maintenance issues reported by facilities personnel."

So after evaluating all of the systems in the stadium what problems have we compiled? Piping insulation and a system that may need some parts replaced within the next 6 years? Not too daunting if you ask me. Let's move along...

Page 131

"The structural system for the roof is the original system built in 1956."

It's kind of ironic that preservation officer Dennis Au declared Roberts Stadium to no longer be historic ( http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/oct/01/preservation-officer-roberts-no-longer-historical/ ) yet the main reason why Roberts Stadium cannot be renovated into a modern arena is because the original main steel structure is still there and it was not designed to hold enough weight for modern concerts or an extra level that would sit above modern luxury boxes and suites.

So in other words, Roberts Stadium cannot be renovated as an arena because it is too historic, yet it is not historic according to city officials. Go figure on that one!

Page 133

" The existing Roberts Stadium building appears to have little or no observed or reported structural damage."

This is the most important sentence in this entire report. The report admits that both the steel structure is the original structure from 1956 AND it is in great condition. Why would you demolish a steel structure that is both historic and in great condition? Makes no sense to me.

So now that we have looked at this study let's summarize what we have. We have...

- A clean and healthy exterior
- A historic and healthy steel structure
- A central plant system with only minimal repairs needed immediately and the rest is spaced out all the way to 2016 (the report suggests the total amount will only reach a maximum of $3-$4 million which is less than 1/4th of the ball field's projected price)

With all of those systems functioning just fine, what could be the problem? The only problem that anyone has ever suggested has been the water pumps. So now let's take a look at all the money that has been spent on repairing Roberts Stadium in the past to see if this problem has been addressed before...

http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&subsectionID=276&articleID=39599

"In 2005, rising water beneath the stadium damaged the floor and electrical equipment. Engineers hired to investigate the cause determined that bacteria caused a sludge buildup that clogged the sump pipes. The city spent $282,563 to fix the flooding problem.

The stadium was reroofed in 2002 for $629,559. The repair came after a leak in the roof caused a rain delay at a University of Evansville basketball game.

In 2002, the stadium's parking lot, which has 3,590 spaces, was repaved for $363,648. That same year, the city paid $128,000 for a new sound system.

The city also spent $134,127 in 2003 for a stage upgrade. "We got new staging, and it's really good staging, one of the best brands out there," Moore said. "Our old stage was pretty beat up.""

So in case you're keeping tabs at home, the total amount of money spent on renovating Roberts Stadium and its parking lot since 2002 is $1,537,897. Why would you demolish something that you just stuck over $1.5 million into over the past 8 years?

Furthermore, $282,563 was spent to specifically fix the water pump problem (Peyronnin Construction did this I believe). If you go back to page 40 & 41 of the Gateway Consultant study, you will notice that only $300,000 is projected to fix the drainage problem at Roberts Stadium with nothing projected for new water pumps. After all, why would you turn around and fix something after you just fixed it 5 years ago? There is no need to fix the water pumps at this current time.

Overall, we have an arena that has been given a clean bill of health, for the most part, by HNTB largely because we just stuck over $1.5 million into the arena and its parking lot. There is no reason whatsoever to consider Roberts Stadium a rundown arena, a condemmned arena, or an arena of its last leg.

It's time to get serious and recognize that we can do something special with our historic arena. Let's Save Roberts Stadium!