BRAWNDO Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 If Pegula is successful in purchasing the Bills and a new stadium gets built downtown, I am sure he could arrange a few Sabres Home Games against the Maple Leafs on a Friday/Saturday Night, when the Bills have a home game on Sunday. Downtown would be fun place on those weekends. Another great site would be on an area near FNC. Move HSBC out, place a Hotel with Convention Center there with a new stadium bordered by Mississippi Street/SouthPark/Michigan/Scott Streets. A parking garage could be built to accommodate the lost of the surface parking. This would be an incentive for the Senecas to build a similar hotel/casino structure to the one in NF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solomon Grundy Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 The mean wage for a highway construction worker is $19 and hour, or 39,500 a year. What will this bill in Congress pay them? I'll take 40,000/yr! Besides, how many roads/bridges do you see being worked on? ( insert crickets) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I like this plan mainly for all the changes it makes regarding transportation. Being able to take a train from Syracuse or Rochester straight to the stadium would be absolutely awesome for us Bills fans living several hours away from Buffalo. We had 4 season tickets for years and years but eventually we had to give them up as the trip was just too much, especially for older members of the family. I have made this point in every conversation I have participated in regarding a new stadium for years. At present, you can take a train to buffalo but then you have to get a bus from the station to the stadium. Getting on a train on Sunday morning and relaxing while someone else does the driving and then arriving at the stadium would be incredible. They would instantly regionalize their season ticket sales. It even makes it viable for Bills fans in Albany and Utica to go to a game. Absolutely - everyone under estimates the importance of train travel to regionalization of the Buffalo /Niagara Falls /Rochester area. We will never be united as 1 economic zone with out it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) What is "Artvoice"? Anyway, this plan rests on the same delusion that many others have been built on---that new stadiums turn around the financial fortunes of down on their luck cities. This guy Wales from UB sums up the mythical thinking well with this whopper: [/font][/font] How can he be an academic teaching in this field and not be aware of the mountains of data and papers published refuting what he is claiming? The fact that he throws in the "new convention center" (while stating one of Buffalo's major commercial towers sits empty) shows that he is also ignorant of the well published glut of convention space in this country--that building convention space is routinely a huge waste of public money. A downtonw stadium may be nice, but this plan is dead in the water. The stadium is not the main driver in his "idealistic" urban plan. It is a part of a comprehensive plan that focuses on the waterfront and large segments of undeveloped downtown space. The type a plan he is promoting is the type of project that can take 20 years to complete. It will be a generic plan that directs development in a cohesive way and in manageable stages. The canalside area is already being developed in stages as is one of the most potent economic drivers of the region is being built i.e. the medical corridor. (As noted by many others.) One building block added to another until the critical mass of development carries the momentun for ancillary projects. Don't reflexively be dismissive of what is already going on and what is planned to go on. Just because the aforementioned plan has some improbable aspects to it it doesn't mean that the overall plan isn't viable. The forward momentum is already present and with smart planning and actiion the building blocks will continue to stack up. The convention center that you derisively refer to is part of a comprehensive plan to refurbish a large almost vacant building that includes within the plan office space, condos, hotel, stores etc. There have been a couple of studies dealing with this enormous building that call for similar usage. In other words it isn't as crazy as you make it out to be! Edited August 9, 2014 by JohnC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KollegeStudnet Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I do dig the Gundlach plan of converting the terminal into the stadium. It has an already potential rail transit system which could pick fans up from Syracuse and Rochester/Toronto and Niagara Falls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRAWNDO Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Sounds like the NFL is going to insist on a new stadium http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/nfl-renews-push-for-a-new-bills-stadium-20140809 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Syracuse/NYSDOT is looking at what to do about a stretch of I-81 running through downtown, as the bridges are nearing the end of their life. One option mentioned was a tunnel, about the same length as mentioned in this plan. And it's already been rejected as costing to much, over $1B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincec Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 (edited) Tunnels are really the best option for highways running through downtowns, which is why they keep coming up. A surface road cuts a huge swath through the city fabric and essentially destroys the area. In the 70s, the solution was skyway type overpasses but it turns out that people don't really like being under those either. Either keep the highways away from downtown or tunnels are the only two options that allow development, IMO. Edited August 10, 2014 by vincec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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