Thursday, October 31, 2013

What is this I hear about building a Miami Hurricane's Stadium in Tropical Park? By Geniusofdespair

Stop this rumor immediately!!! There is a petition with 5,000 signatures on it suggesting putting a Hurricane Stadium in Tropical Park.  Also SB Nation said:

"Former Miami Hurricane great, Alonzo Highsmith, has seen enough empty seats at Sun Life Stadium during Canes football games that he has taken the charge to begin a ground swell of support to bring a stadium home for UM. Highsmith while attending pre-game festivities in Chicago prior to the Canes match-up against Notre Dame this past weekend was quite vocal in his opinion when socializing with the crowd at the Miami party at Roots. Word is he told several attendees that he would love to see the University of Miami build a stadium either on campus or at nearby Tropical Park. He later took to Twitter to spread his message."

Let's put the rumor to rest. There is no Stadium going in Tropical Park. As far as I know Tropical Park is governed by Article 7 of the County Charter.  Article 7 would forbid the use of Tropical Park for a stadium.  Besides what are you people nuts suggesting this? Haven't we given up enough park space already? I get it, sitting in the sun at the current park is torture but if you want a new stadium, build it on campus, don't gum up our parks.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another bad idea. People have got to stop and think before they sign their names to something. We have so little park land, so much new development, and many more people that we have to continually fight to hold on to the little that we have in our quest for some decent level of quality of life. On campus is best for students, or they will have to assemble land in the urbanized area. I pretty much lost faith in UM management when they fired over 1,000 long term employees because of poor management decisions at the medical school. For them to even look in this direction to take our little park land would be an insult to our community.

Anonymous said...

On campus? Whatch ya smokn'? Where. And how will this be received in all the pricy homes across San Armo from campus. It will never happen.

Or perhaps across the street in South Miami in their CRA area? They could knock down some low income housing and build it there. Get the bribe money ready

Anonymous said...

Of course they want/will take over Tropical Park. And now with P3 it's so easy! Just a little referendum to get around Article 7- just like the Tennis Stadium corporation did with Crandon Park. Line up the lobbyists, publicists, Spanish-language radio buys. Voila!

Anonymous said...

City of NOT IN MY BACKYARD!
Put the UM Stadium in the empty lot just to the east of UM Mahoney and Pearson Hall not near UM Red Road Commons.

Anonymous said...

The Young Mens Christian Association already has dibbs on MDC Tropical park.

Anonymous said...

Why not a stadium in downtown miami near the Arsht center or the new train station? Combine it with the MLS stadium Beckham wants(am sure a design can work to fit both games). Perfect location near mass transit...UM kids can take metrorail right from campus.

Anonymous said...

i have some bad news for the city of coral gables. your town is overrated and overpriced. it's also surrounded by some less sightly neighborhoods. on top of that there's no waterfront. get over your town! there will be a small stadium on campus because UM has the property to build it. from what I hear it's in the works already...

Anonymous said...

Let UM put a stadium on its own Coral Gables property. Parks need to stay green. Look at all the mistakes made in the past.

Anonymous said...

Miami hasn't played Notre Dame since early last year?

Anonymous said...

Damn you, Luria. You made stadium a dirty word.
Uh, there's already a stadium at Tropical Park. Using the same land won't take away park space.
Have you all seen how much 'park' space at Tropical Park is wasted by park-"ing" spaces?
You want green? Tear up all that wasted parking lot space along Bird Road and put some grass down.
I think something could be worked out that would benefit both UM and the County.
I'm sure all the high school teams that use the stadium now would love to play Friday night in a real stadium and not that crappy one they've got now.

Anonymous said...

The vacant lot at the corner of Granada and Ponce is an OK idea but a better location would be area across from the Metrorail station where the dated 2-story student residential buildings are located. Build a multi-purpose stadium (football/soccer/track & field, etc) within a parking structure and wrap it with student/faculty townhouses and offices. Connecting it to the Metrorail station via a pedestrian bridge that also crosses US 1 would be key. You could close off the southbound section of Ponce from Stanford Dr to S. Alhambra Cir. and do a street fair/tailgate party on game days that could be quite unique. The student housing could be relocated to the Granada/Ponce vacant lot. Certainly, if they are going to build a stadium, it has to be on the main campus. Tropical Park or Downtown would be a bust. You lose all of the synergies.

Anonymous said...

I think you are right. Those buildings were built I think in the 40s or 50s and are very low density in scale. A stadium would be a better use of the land, and some of the streets could be vacated and that land used as well. It would take stadium traffic away from single family residential neighborhoods abutting the campus on the north and west, and put it on US1. It is a much better solution than taking public park land far away from campus.

Anonymous said...

If you go to the petition, you will see this is last year's news.

Anonymous said...

It was in the news today. Bad ideas never die.

Anonymous said...

Parks need to stay green. Too many small minded and/or corrupt politicians give away our land.

Cato II said...

Article 7 protects parks, but interestingly, not the Youth Fair grounds. Instead of letting FIU take over that section, why not use it to build a stadium for UM? And make it a better stadium than the Golden Panthers currently have on campus, and FIU and UM can use it alternative weekends during football season. Win. Win. Win.

Anonymous said...

In the long run, the site across from US 1 and the metro rail would be a better site. UM would have 100% ownership and control. Given the dynamics of this community there is no telling who will be on the Dade County Commission. We must never forget the demise of the Orange Bowl. When it was destroyed, a lot of UM history and storied years of glory went with it because the people on the City of Miami Commission couldn't feel it. They were looking for money in their pockets with the Marlins deal and could care less about UM history. UM should never be a beggar or face uncertainty again depending on others looking for a venue for football and other sports activities. In life, there are some things you need to own.

Anonymous said...

The best part about all the comments - is no one is suggesting to stay in No Life Stadium. At least we all agree The Canes need their own (smaller) stadium.

Anonymous said...

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2014/06/13/beckham-faces-competition-in-bid-for-new-mls-stadium/