(photo credit: horshgallery.com)If you're a frequent traveler like I am, you have probably seen many ballparks, stadiums, and arenas of all different shapes and sizes all across the U.S and Canada.
As of right now, I have visited 25 of the 30 current MLB ballparks, 26 of the 29 NBA arenas (as well as Key Arena in Seattle), and 28 of the current 31 NFL stadiums. I have been to former venues such as the Old National Guard Armory in Minneapolis, MN where the Lakers were born, Texas Stadium, the land where Sportsman's Park use to be, the land where Veteran's Stadium use to be, and many others. I have also been to sites that are projected to be future sports venue sites such as the Cal Expo Center in Sacramento, the Atlantic Rail Yards in Brooklyn, NY, and the Boeing plant in Renton, WA.
I have never taken a vacation in my life without visiting at least one sports venue, and I'm not alone in doing this. Since the mid 1990s when Camden Yards was built, Major League Baseball has begun designing each of their ballparks to replicate the tastes, fashions, and culture of the city the ballpark is in. Now, the NFL and the NBA have joined in. Since each sports venue now pays tribute to the city it is in, many fans nationwide have taken road trips all across North America to take in these cultural icons.
Here are a few of the venues I have been too (in no particular order)...
Omaha's Rosenblatt Stadium (Omaha)
Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium ( The Swamp) (Gainesville)
Shea Stadium (NYC)
Yankee Stadium (NYC)
Safeco Field (Seattle)
Memorial Coliseum (Lexington)
Progressive Park (Cleveland)
PNC Park (Pittsburgh)
Freedom Hall (Louisville)
Qwest Field (Seattle)
Georgia Dome (Atlanta)
The Ballpark At Arlington (Arlington, Tx)
And The New Evansville Arena (before construction)
As you can see, each sports venue is unique and gives you a taste of the city it's in. Very few, if any, venues look alike. Even the new Yankee Stadium looks somewhat different than old Yankee Stadium. And that is what is important to remember here with Roberts Stadium.
Roberts Stadium will be 55 years old this October. This building gives us a taste of Evansville's history. When you step into those four walls, you should be surrounded by Evansville's past. What can we do to Roberts Stadium to commemorate the past?
1. We can set up statues of Hank Roberts and Ralph Legeman. These two men were larger than life. Hank Roberts sacrificed his political career so that he could accomplish what only Mayor Weinzapfel has now accomplished: Build a premier arena.
Ralph Legeman gave us and the whole world the Midwest field house design. Only the state of Indiana can lay claim to the biggest high school gymnasium due to Legeman's vision of redesigning arenas in a field house fashion. Roberts Stadium is Legeman's biggest gymnasium in all of the Midwest. Even his house here in Evansville is a replica of Roberts Stadium.
Two statues outside of Roberts Stadium would tell the story of both of these men. They also would be a fundraiser for the community ( I will be talking about this in a few posts coming up). They would tell visitors just how important these two men were to the construction of Roberts Stadium.
2. We can deck Roberts Stadium's halls with Evansville sports and concert history. A lot of history took place inside of Roberts Stadium. Although there are some artifacts currently inside of Roberts Stadium, some of it will be moving to the new arena, and I think we can do much better.
I'll never forget my one trip to Franklin Street on the campus of the University of North Carolina. I went inside a small restaurant on this street and sat down in their main dining room. On the wall inside that room is a HUGE painting of a scene from the 1993 Final Four where UNC defeated the University of Michigan as Chris Webber was calling a timeout he did not have. The mural is so big that you can't help but feel like you were at the 1993 Final Four.
That's what we need to do with the main level at Roberts Stadium. We need to reach out to the art departments at UE and USI to see if they have any "starving artists" who want to get their foot in the door. If so, we can have them paint murals to commemorate special Roberts Stadium time periods, whether it be Jerry Sloan and Larry Humes bringing home the championship over Walt Frazier and the Southern Illinois Salukis, the grieving of the 1977 Aces, and/or the day Scott Hafner dropped 65 points on the University of Dayton.
When visitors walk into Roberts Stadium, they shall see the impact this vintage arena has had on the community. Yes, the new arena's "Corridor of Champions," will do a good job telling some of the history while giving us a vision for the future with our new facility, but only Roberts Stadium can give visitors that authentic and special feel as they walk through the history of Evansville and Roberts Stadium.
Have you ever been to the Shirley James Greenway Trail Head? If so, why don't we leave the doors of Roberts Stadium open on non-game days, construct a walkway around the main level, and let Roberts Stadium be the indoor version of the Shirley James Greenway Trail Head?
3. We can construct buildings around Roberts Stadium to replicate Roberts Stadium's design and theme. While I am completely against the proposal to build an indoor tennis facility in Wesselman Park, I would fully support building a botanical garden next door to Roberts Stadium, replanting the back lot, and construction of a new Hartke Pool complex which would consist of an indoor water park resort, a senior citizens and EVSC indoor pool, and a new outdoor pool complex. While funding may not be available for all these projects at once, we can and would get the funding if we put together a panel of citizens who had the power and energy to get it done.
Unfortunately, when Roberts Stadium was renovated in the early 1990s (which was a duct tape solution over building a new $78 million downtown arena), we lost a special part of Roberts Stadium: The eaves and brackets that lined the outdoor walls of Roberts Stadium.
If we are ever going to consider adding more recreational activities and buildings to the Roberts Stadium parking lot, we must bring back the eaves and brackets of the original Roberts Stadium. If we use a good architect such as the Kunkel Group, we can blend the old with the new.
We can also take the Roberts Stadium theme of vintage basketball and implement it in our Hartke Pool complex. At Big Splash Water Adventure in French Lick, they use a tropical, Carribean, and pirate theme. Why don't we simply use a basketball theme which will draw tourists to the resort?
We Should Do The Same Thing With The Ball Fields
As you looked at the pictures of the stadiums, ballparks, and arenas above, did you notice any dull, boring, and lifeless designs? No, you saw vintage designs, modern designs, outdoor designs, indoor designs, retractable roof designs, water designs, ballpark village designs, and designs with a mixture of all of these characteristics. So why would we want to build 8 boring and dull softball fields on the Roberts Stadium ground?
If you think that building the fields proposed by Dunn and the ECVB would inspire tourists to want to play there, think again. We can and should do better with our ball fields as well. What should we do with them?...
1. Build them at Kleymeyer Park, and build them to replicate vintage MLB ballparks. Take a look at these...
http://www.bigleaguedreams.com/replica-fields
Wouldn't you say that those fields have a little bit more life to them? And wouldn't you say that those fields belong next to Bosse Field, the third oldest active ballpark in the U.S? The answer should be yes on both of those questions. Build the fields to look like Yankee Stadium, Tiger Stadium, The Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, Fenway Park, Crosley Field, and Sportsman's Park, and Wrigley Field.
Even better is the fact that 3 of those fields (Wrigley, Sportsman's, and Crosley) would be next to the actual parks which either were or are currently in the Midwest. They would all be within driving distance of tourists. The other 5 are all in the Northeast (Tiger Stadium is on the fence in Detroit) corridor which is still within a days driving distance. If you build it, they will come!
2. Decorate the Bosse Field district to replicate baseball's Golden Age. During the Golden Age of Baseball, many of MLB's greatest athletes and teams existed...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_baseball
Bosse Field has been around before, during, and after the Golden Age of Baseball. How many other ballparks can say that? Not too many! Instead of letting Garvin Park, Kleymeyer Park, and the rest of the Bosse Field district continue to rot, why don't we take advantage of this great history?
If you go to Fenway Park in Boston, you can't miss Yawkey Way outside of the ballpark. That is how you properly market a vintage ball field...
(photo credit: boston.com)You will also see this at Wrigleyville outside of Wrigley Field...
(photo credit: timeoutchicago.com)If we build these fields correctly, we can really rejuvenate the Bosse Field district. Once again, we could commission the art students and engineers from UE and USI to draw and create vintage banners, vintage paintings, vintage brick streets, rooftops overlooking Bosse Field (where the championship games would be played), and eventually historic street cars.
That is the kind of power these fields can unleash on their surrounding Bosse Field district.
Basically, the main point that I would like to get across with this post is that we have to realize that each stadium, ballpark, and arena is different and brings something unique to the table. Since the whole debate about what to do with Roberts Stadium has begun, it has ALWAYS been the new arena versus Roberts Stadium.
I just don't understand that form of logic. The new arena, while too small, is still going to be a great and magnificent thing for our community. It will tell visitors the vision Evansville has for being a great city on the Ohio River. It will also give them a glimpse of the future with its state-of-the-art scoreboards, seats, luxury boxes, and concourse. It will bring downtown Evansville into the 21st century. The main thing you should take from the new arena is the fact that it points to where we are going.
On the other hand, Roberts Stadium reminds us of where we came from and who we are. It reminds us of our great citizens such as Ralph Legeman and Hank Roberts, it reminds us of the great history we have here with the Aces, and it reminds us that we should be respectful towards our history.
With Bosse Field, we can have both a vision for the future and a reminder of our great past. We can show visitors the great history we have with our 96 year old ballpark, our working class North Main Street, and our street car system of the 20th century. We can also show them our vision for a revitalized North Main Street, a vibrant and rejuvenated Bosse Field District, and a 21st century Pigeon Creek Greenway.
To say that we can only have a great future if we sacrifice our historic past, or that we can only pay tribute to our historic past if we sacrifice our bold vision for the future is wrong on all accounts. In my opinion, we will never get anywhere on any project of any kind until we start buying into this basic belief.
Let's celebrate our future when the new arena opens up in November, but let's pay tribute to our past as well by building the ball fields at Kleymeyer Park and SAVING ROBERTS STADIUM!
(photo credit: geocities.com)
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