The Best Roberts Stadium Article Ever Written

Today, Rich Davis of the Evansville Courier & Press published what I feel to be the best ever article written on Roberts Stadium. Here is the link...

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/feb/20/an-embodiment-of-evansvilles-pride/?partner=popular

Rich did an excellent job compiling great, historic photos of Roberts Stadium, compiling a Roberts Stadium timeline, and letting his readers know just why Roberts Stadium is so special to a lot of us here in Evansville. I thank him for this article.

Rich hit the nail on the head when he said that " Probably no other place in Evansville embodies the heart or spirit of this city more than Roberts Stadium, an old friend to many."

Given that, why in the world would our city governmnent want to tear it down? Roberts Stadium is the crown jewel of Evansville history and to compromise it would be to compromise a large chunk of Evansville's heart and soul.

The amazing thing to me is that the city of Louisville, Kentucky has two great arenas open right now (Freedom Hall and the Yum Center), yet many people argue that that is because Louisville is a much bigger city than us. Consider this...

Freedom Hall: Seating Capacity- Roughly 20,000
KFC Yum Center: Seating Capacity- 22,000

New Evansville Arena: Seating Capacity- Roughly 10,000-11,000
Roberts Stadium: Seating Capacity- 12,116

In other words, on a typical night, a Roberts Stadium event + a new Evansville Arena event ='s one event at Freedom Hall OR one event at the KFC YUM Center.

If we scale Roberts Stadium down to 6,000 or so seats, which would make it more attractive for indoor soccer, indoor football, and small concerts and trade shows, that mathematical equation gets even worse. We wouldn't have a combined total number of seats equal to Freedom Hall or the KFC Yum Center. And if we demolish Roberts Stadium, Louisville would have 4 times the seating capacity that we would have available.

Also, Louisville has Broadbent Arena (6,600 seats) and Louisville Gardens (3,000-6,000 seats) which are double Evansville's Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Coliseum (2,400 seats).

We would also be close in total seating capacity to the Qwest Center in Omaha, NE and Intrust Bank Center in Wichita, KS. Both of those cities have a university in the Missouri Valley Conference (Ace's Conference).

While Louisville, KY does have more residents than Evansville, surely we can keep from getting lapped TWICE by them, and surely we can keep up with our Missouri Valley Conference foes who have more seats in one arena than we would two.

To top it off, I still don't know why there are people here in town who feel like a 6,000 seat Roberts Stadium would compete with the new arena. Simply put, there is no way on earth a premier concert is going to pick Roberts Stadium over the new arena when it would barely have half the seating capacity and a third of the roof support strength. Two venues can and will compliment, not compete, with each other.

Again, Rich Davis did an excellent job conveying to the city what Roberts Stadium has meant to this history rich city. Now we must work to make sure that Roberts Stadium sticks around another 55 years to compliment our new arena.