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| Photo Credit: CourierPress.com |
With just a few days to go before our task force opens up the forums to the public, I feel like it is time to pause and give thanks to those who are stepping forward to lead this process.
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Mayor Lloyd Winnecke,
Thank you for forming this task force to seek and discover ideas for Roberts Stadium. The previous mayor proved that you didn't have to do it, but you proved that you were going to do it anyway. I appreciate your willingness to listen to those who care about Roberts Stadium.
I hope, and I believe, that Roberts Stadium will be the first piece to the puzzle that you are assembling to make a better Evansville for tomorrow. Roberts Stadium has shown these past 56 years that Hank Roberts did the correct thing, not the political thing, in building Roberts Stadium. I'm confident you will do the same thing in saving Roberts Stadium.
Mr. Larry Steenberg,
Thank you for chairing this committee. In just the few minutes I have talked to you, I can already tell that you are the leader we need to get this job done. Your down to earth attitude, your long history of success, and your willingness to listen to and judge all people fairly prove this.
I look forward to working with you on this task force, and, like Mayor Winnecke, I believe Roberts Stadium will be your biggest gift to the city of Evansville that will stand for many years to come because of the work you put into this facility.... just like Mayor Hank Roberts did.
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While Dave Rector of the Evansville Building Authority digs and digs for ticky-tack things to use as reasons for demolishing Roberts Stadum, the people of Evansville are going to all ends of the earth to make sure that city hall understands that they want to keep Roberts Stadium. In the end, Rector's Odyssey will only give us reason to seek a new caretaker for Roberts Stadium.
These reasons are already pouring in such as graphic and disturbing graffiti being left on the windows for weeks and weeks when they could have been cleaned off in a handful of hours, the hole in the concrete entrance road STILL being allowed to sink even when the Building Authority has had construction horses scattered around the hole for almost a year now, and duct tape on the electrical box being blamed on SMG a whole year after they gave up control of the facility to the Building Authority.
If we are going to be successful in saving Roberts Stadium, we have to have leaders who are willing to make correct, smart, and bold decisions even if they defy political convenience. Those two leaders are Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and Roberts Stadium Task Force Chairman Larry Steenberg. Both of these leaders have committed themselves to listening to the people of Evansville, giving Roberts Stadium its due process, and making sure we do what's best for our city (which is saving Roberts Stadium of course!).
I am excited about this once in a lifetime opportunity and I hope you are too. THANK MAYOR LLOYD WINNECKE & MR. LARRY STEENBERG!
I wanted to share a couple of things with you about the old stadium. My schedule does not allow for me to attend that public meeting this evening to personally speak. These are things you certainly know but it may be useful to hear someone else say them.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of that heavy ballast and put a new light weight rubber roof on the building. Then you could hang an air craft from the trusses without a problem.
Take one of those large long arm track hoe’s for clearing creeks and dig a sub soil curtain drain around that building and day light it out into that catch basin at the bottom of the parking lot. It probably will not stop the water flow but it certainly should reduce the hydraulic pressure on the foundation.
Use the deal that existed with the Conrad Baker Foundation as a model, yes there were problems but it mostly worked for thirty years. Lease the stadium probably to a nonprofit, a museum or hall of fame, for a dollar a year with two conditions.
A) The new use must reflect favorably on Evansville and hopefully bring tourism dollars to Evansville in addition to maintaining the property.
B) The new use must not compete with or interfere with the stream of revenue required to pay for the new Ford Center.
We have already missed out on the NASCAR hall of fame as well as the rock and roll of fame. But advertise nationally the one dollar lease. See what happens? There are many other forms of national or regional sports that may not have a hall of fame. Live every Wednesday Night, from Evansville Indiana…Are you ready to Rumble? Collage sports hall of fame? Olympic training facility? Fill the bottom with a training pool? Big statues out front of all the heavy weight boxing champions as you enter the boxing hall of fame? Maybe they already have one.
Or you could just give up and tear it down.