Tonight was the final night for the Roberts Stadium Task Force, which I am 1 of 15 members of, to present our final findings. After tonight's presentations, Mayor Winnecke has no choice but to select Roberts Stadium to be a mid-sized arena if he genuinely cares about financial logic, the will of the Evansville people, and the future of this region.
This process has seen many twists of ironies of all kinds. Tonight was no different. As we turned in our final proposals, which are now down to 6, I feel confident more than ever that we have the right plan and it will be selected.
Let's recap why the mid-sized arena proposal from my subcommittee (sub committee #3) makes the most sense...
1. Raising Roberts Stadium's floor above the water table will eliminate the water pumps expense.
2. Scaling Roberts Stadium down to 6,000 seats will allow this venue to compliment the Ford Center. We can accomplish this by demolishing the precast sections above ground level as well as the tunnels around them.
3. Both Venuworks and SMG have said that they are interested in the facility if the city agrees to coordinate the two facilities. Neither company believes a mid-sized Roberts Stadium will compete with the Ford Center.
4. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium will bring in NBDL basketball, mid-sized concerts, USI events such as preseason tournaments and the GLVC Tournament, indoor football, indoor soccer, indoor lacrosse, youth sports tournaments, high school basketball tournaments, and any other event that Venuworks would want to flex from the Ford Center.
5. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium will satisfy the needs of an expo hall that Mr. Greg Stilwell and Alan Brille have expressed interest in. They tell me that with the upper level precast gone they will have enough room to host expo events around the main concourse as well as the lower level which will be wider with the floor raised.
6. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium is the perfect place for travelling BMX events such as the Dew Tour.
7. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium leaves room for a green space in the back lot and a natatorium on the Hartke Pool site.
8. A mid-sized arena puts heads in beds with the GLVC Tournament, a preseason USI Basketball Tournament, and the Hoosier Cup with the Evansville Crush.
9. Many cities around the U.S have a premier and mid-sized arena including Louisville, Indianapolis, Omaha, Portland, Cincinnati, Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Tulsa, Nashville, Grand Rapids, Grand Forks, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Wichita, and the Canton/Youngstown region. All of these areas have coordinated their arenas successfully.
10. There are many intangible benefits to a mid-sized Roberts Stadium including a disaster relief area, a Greenway indoor trail hub, and a shuttle stop for the Ford Center.
11. Renovating Roberts Stadium which includes raising the floor ($400,000 - $500,000), fixing the roof ($50,000 - $100,000), demolishing the precast sections ($85,000), and renovating the HVAC (?) is less than the estimate the ECVB received to demolish Roberts Stadium ($1.25 million).
12. There are many sources of funding to renovate Roberts Stadium including selling naming rights to the gates, selling the old Ace's court, selling the removed seats, selling bricks, and using the $200,000 that was originally earmarked to demolish Roberts Stadium.
13. Unlike a park, Roberts Stadium can remain financially self-sufficient. It will also bring tourists and guests to Evansville while giving us something unique. A green space does none of that.
14. We can take the removed seats from Roberts Stadium and give them to the ECVB to place in their ball fields project which belongs at Kleymeyer Park, an area that actually has baseball history next to it.
15. We can co-market the Ford Center and Roberts Stadium together.
16. Roberts Stadium will maintain the economic development of the east side. Restaurants such as Kipplee's, Western Rib-Eye, and Turoni's have relied on Roberts Stadium for many years. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium would stabilize these businesses.
17. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium will bring back most of the lost SMG jobs.
18. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium will maintain the taxpayer dollars invested in it over the years.
19. A mid-sized Roberts Stadium will allow us to market local native Ralph Legeman who is the architect of Roberts Stadium. Legeman holds the patent for the fieldhouse design. His work is honored by the state of Indiana in New Castle where the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame is located next to one of his high school gymnasiums and at Banker's Life Fieldhouse which is home to the Indiana Pacers and is designed to replicate one of Legeman's fieldhouses.
20. We can honor Evansville Mayor Hank Roberts who sacrificed his political career so that Roberts Stadium could be built. His family, Kris and Lisa Jean Beard, have been very supportive of my efforts to save Roberts Stadium and I am truly grateful to them for that.
On the flip side, the green space subcommittee's proposal was atrocious. Let's break down the reasons why this idea is a bad one.
1. The most disturbing thing from this proposal was that the group NEVER considered building their green space around Roberts Stadium. This is the direct opposite of my group and group #1 who planned a green space around our Roberts Stadium proposal. This makes the lot one dimensional and only tailors to the needs of the green space community which I find to be very selfish.
2. This plan should be thrown out anyways as it makes NO financial sense. The committee even admitted that they have no idea how much maintenance, construction, or funding this park would obtain (and they say those who want to save Roberts Stadium lack financial logic). We have already heard from the Parks Dept and they cannot take on any more projects from the green space community...
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-call-to-stand-evansville-parks.html
3. The green space subcommittee said they wanted connectivity to their other parks yet they failed miserably at doing it. They proposed no connection to the Wabash & Erie Canal (only the Pigeon Creek dock via a bike route), they proposed no connection to UE, and they proposed no other connection to any other park other than a simple bike route. We can do better and we can do it WITH Roberts Stadium...
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2012/02/lets-dive-into-park-green-space-lake.html
4. The green space subcommittee claimed that we needed this park to fight obesity, yet we already have Wesselman Woods AND the State Hospital Grounds. Even with those two parks, our town is still obese. Any park that would go on the Roberts Stadium lot would contain the same things we already have at these two parks.
5. The green space subcommittee claimed that this would be a "Central Park." This couldn't be any further from the truth. There is nothing central about it. In 2001, we were given the plans for a central park. It was to be constructed from the Civic Center to North Main Street which would connect to Garvin Park. Garvin Park, originally known as the crown jewel of Evansville, has much more potential than any park on the Roberts Stadium lot yet has been forgotten by the green space subcommittee who only wants a new toy.
6. The subcommittee didn't give any examples of their plan and even admitted they didn't know. I'll give them a hint: Oklahoma City is doing this plan with their MAPS 3 program but their park compliments not competes with both Chesapeake Energy Arena (originally the Ford Center ironically) and the Cox Convention Center Arena. Their park includes an iconic skywalk over Interstate 40 but does not infringe upon OKC's sports facilities.
7. The green space subcommittee lacked all emotion for this plan. It's bad enough it made no sense financially but the marketing job for this plan was even worse. Given that one of their members decided to switch sides for no specific reason, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Do we really want to spend our cities money on a plan that lacks all emotion and financial logic?
8. This plan fails to put heads in beds. Unlike Roberts Stadium, this green space will not bring in guests and tourists to Evansville by the thousands who will stay in our hotels.
9. This plan creates no economic development. Roberts Stadium has helped Kipplee's, Turoni's, and Western Rib-Eye become what they are today. A green space simply will not bring in the economic development that Roberts Stadium will with events like the GLVC Tournament, the Hoosier Cup, and many, many expo events to name a few.
10. This plan fails to help existing parks. With Roberts Stadium, we will be helping and complimenting the Bosse Field district. We also have the potential to establish a small canal that will take visitors to the old Wabash & Erie Canal. The plan given to us by the green space subcommittee only talks about connecting to existing parks via a bike route. We MUST take care of our existing assets such as Roberts Stadium, Bosse Field, and the old Wabash & Erie Canal before we expand our parks system.
11. This plan isn't supported by the public. At our final public session with the task force, over 89% of the entire room that attended the Roberts Stadium tour looked upon the venue favorably. Of course, the green space subcommittee tried to down play this but that's the truth. No matter what the event has been, Roberts Stadium supporters are always close to 90% of the crowd. It's about time the green space subcommittee and supporters recognized this.
12. This plan WOULD COMPETE with our existing parks. No matter if it's labor, resources, or just attention from our residents, this green space would compete with our other parks who, unlike the Ford Center, are struggling. Why do we want to take away more resources from these parks?
13. This plan will NEVER make money. Not only will the maintenance be a heavy burden on the taxpayers and parks department, there will never be a source of income for this green space to make money. Again, this plan makes NO financial sense and really shouldn't even be considered given that Roberts Stadium is healthy and financially viable.
14. This plan is dangerous. Building a green space all the way up to Division Street will encourage wild life to run onto the Lloyd Expressway. We need a buffer zone between our nature preserve and the Lloyd Expressway. Those buffer zones are Roberts Stadium and a lake that should be constructed behind it.
15. This plan NEVER addressed the problem with a new growth park next to an old growth forest. We keep hearing the statement "let's expand Wesselman Woods." The problem is, Wesselman Woods is a nature preserve with 300 year old virgin trees. You cannot expand 300 year old virgin trees. If you plant new trees next to them, their seeds will jump into the nature preserve and over time destroy the ecology of the nature preserve. This was never discussed.
16. This plan hurts the most, helps the least. One of the green space subcommittee members described it as "something for everyone." This couldn't be further from the truth. All mid-sized events will be displaced under their plan while those who already have the State Hospital Grounds and Wesselman Woods will benefit. Less than 10% of those who attended the meetings will be satisfied.
17. This plan would not end the ball fields discussion. Many people want the ball fields plan at Wesselman Woods to be dead yet it continues to come back time after time. Building a green space and/or park would leave room for the ECVB to keep trying this lot. Is that really what we want?
18. This plan will be expensive. Not only will this plan fail to make any revenue year after year, it will also be expensive to construct much less maintain. Demolishing Roberts Stadium was estimated to be $1.25 million by the ECVB. This estimate doesn't include demolishing all of the parking lot and constructing an entirely new park.
19. This plan fails to create jobs. Outside of a park ranger here or there (which isn't a given), this park will not create any jobs outside of the basic Parks Dept maintenance crew. The lost SMG jobs will be gone forever.
20. This plan destroys a monument to Hank Roberts. Hank Roberts sacrificed his entire political career for Roberts Stadium. Do we really want to destroy our monument to him, which his family cherishes, for a park that is just like the rest?
Overall, I just don't see Mayor Winnecke's decision being a hard one although I believe it will be a big one. Mayor Winnecke now has a countless amount of reasons presented to him that explain why we SHOULD renovate Roberts Stadium into a mid-sized arena and why we SHOULDN'T demolish it in favor of a green space or park. The above 20 reasons for a mid-sized Roberts Stadium and against a green space/ park are just the tip of the iceberg for why Roberts Stadium makes so much more financial and emotional sense than a green space/park.
I now put all of my hard work, all of my faith, and all of the effort I have given for Roberts Stadium in the hands of Mayor Winnecke. I trust him, I respect him, and I eagerly await his decision. We all win with a mid-sized Roberts Stadium. We all lose with a green space or park.
MAYOR WINNECKE, MAKE ROBERTS STADIUM A MID-SIZED ARENA!
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