Huntsville updates

[jonnie256]

So I went up to Nashville today for some business. And me and my co-worker stopped off in Franklin(right b4 nashville) to get some lunch. It is so very nice and awsomely developed and still developing up there! Very plesant place to visit,nice looking buildings(there Embassy Suite),restraunts,stores,condos,business's, roads,and everything! Think I am gonna move me and my gurl up there nxt year!....sorry just thinking of alll the possiblities.....

[-=skywalker=-]

Originally Posted by mp7123

First off, I am a recent grad from UAH. I'm not originally from here (south al) but moved here 5 years ago for school and because I had always heard that it was a good place to start a career. Compare Huntsville with any other city of <200k people that is not a major college town or part of a larger metro area and you will find that Huntsville has as much, if not more, to offer than any comparable city its size (especially in the south).

I take it you don't get out of Alabama often?! You mentioned Chattanooga, but I can tell you Chattanooga has more to offer than Huntsville, it would seem that the Execs at VW would agree with that. Another city that comes to mind, which is in fact smaller in city and metro size would be Asheville, NC...just to name a few that i've been to within the past 6 months.

Originally Posted by jonnie256

So I went up to Nashville today for some business. And me and my co-worker stopped off in Franklin(right b4 nashville) to get some lunch. It is so very nice and awsomely developed and still developing up there! Very plesant place to visit,nice looking buildings(there Embassy Suite),restraunts,stores,condos,business's, roads,and everything! Think I am gonna move me and my gurl up there nxt year!....sorry just thinking of alll the possiblities.....

I have been considering a move to Nashville myself, the city just has so much to offer the younger crowd...I was up there on a Sunday night for the Staind, Hinder & Theory of a Deadman concert at Riverfront Park downtown, the place was packed. After the show my girlfriend and I decided to spend the rest of the night walking around downtown/broadway, everything closed at 3am on a Sunday night...it was a pleasant change, something you wouldn't find around here.

[Huntsvillenative]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Well Huntsville's Tennessee Valley Vipers are the champs in arena 2 football,
beating Spokane in an overtime thriller 56-55 in Spokane.
Mayoral elections today, all the candidates spoke on the need for a new VBC
arena. Maybe this championship will push an arena to the forefront.
I would say in three years Huntsville should strive to have a totally revamped Von Braun Center complex. Take it to the next level mayor ???
In conjuction with Constellation would be ideal.

I would love to see a new VBC arena. We need one badly! The size of it cannot be expanded without closing it down for a year or two for expansion construction. Where would the Vipers go? What we need is to build a new arena and an expanded convention center. An arena of 10,000 would be the ideal size for a city like Hunstville. Not to big and not too small to attract major concert events, sporting events such as college and pro, plus other needs. The current VBC only sits roughly 6,500 for concerts and that's really small for today's concert venues. A new arena would draw in more money making events and that would help the city grow.

Here's a link to Rockford, Illinois' 10,000 seat arena. I like both the interior and exterior to this one. I could see somethign like this in downtown Huntsville someday, hopefuly within the decade.http://www.arenanetwork.net/arena_rockford.htm

[HSV79]

Well I will have to disagree with you on a new arena seating 10,000. The VBC has held as many as 13,000 or so for some concerts in the past depending on the setup. If you are going to spend the money for a new arena build one that will meet future needs not one that is barely bigger than the existing one. I think anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 will do. But it must be a design that can be added onto in case of future growth. Oh yeah did anyone else hear mayor Spencer on the news during her interview after learning she would be in a runoff? She mentioned she was in talks with a 6 billion dollar company for some kind of development.

[daveyp]

Originally Posted by HSV79

Oh yeah did anyone else hear mayor Spencer on the news during her interview after learning she would be in a runoff? She mentioned she was in talks with a 6 billion dollar company for some kind of development.

hahahahhaa! did she really? that is hilarious. that woman is lame. really hope battle can pull off the upset.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur is featured on AOL.com. They're doing a little look at some of the best BBQ sauces around the U.S.

http://food.aol.com/grilling/bbq-sauce-reviews?icid=100214839x1208050672x1200479059

[Huntsvillenative]

Originally Posted by HSV79

Well I will have to disagree with you on a new arena seating 10,000. The VBC has held as many as 13,000 or so for some concerts in the past depending on the setup. If you are going to spend the money for a new arena build one that will meet future needs not one that is barely bigger than the existing one. I think anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 will do. But it must be a design that can be added onto in case of future growth. Oh yeah did anyone else hear mayor Spencer on the news during her interview after learning she would be in a runoff? She mentioned she was in talks with a 6 billion dollar company for some kind of development.

No way at all can the VBC arena hold 13,000 spectators at once. Back in the 70's Elvis came to town and did 5 shows there, all were complete sellouts and it was 8,000 per show (counting all seats and floor seats). Back then they didn't have large back covers to where the seats behind the stage are not used. The seats behind the stage were all occupied with paid attendees. Also the stage was mid sized compared top the much larger modern stages which cut into the capacity for concerts. The average show today probably holds about 7,000 at best.

Anyhow, the reason for all that info was to show the full capacity for a concert back then which was more than is today. I would imagine that the capacity for an Arena football game or hockey is about 6,500 at best.

A new arena of 15,000 would be a bad idea as this is a small market compared to Birmingham or Chattanooga. What we need is something bigger than the BVC arena and smaller than the Birmingham JCC arena which sits 16,000. 10,000 would be enough and ideal for Huntsville. The city won't be growing to a million or so anytime in the near future or even in our lifetime so it would be a financial disaster to build something much larger than we need.

Huntsville officials need to come up with a plan to fund a $50-80 million dollar first-class arena for the downtown. The VBC is outdated and too old to try and expand to a larger capacity. What they should do is develop a new arena on the site of the Coke plant across from the North Hall with a pedestrian bridge to connect with the VBC area.

Let me add that your idea of an arena of 12,000 wouldn't be too big for this market and might actually be a considerable size to lure in major concert acts that usually would not come here. 10-12,000 should be their goal. Also note that the bigger the capacity the larger the price of the project.

[super_adam]

A new arena that big would be nice, but I don't think there is really a demand for it.
The Vipers only averaged 4100 per game.

http://www.arenafan.com/statistics/?page=attendance&league=2

[jmanhsv]

Originally Posted by Huntsvillenative

A new arena of 15,000 would be a bad idea as this is a small market compared to Birmingham or Chattanooga. What we need is something bigger than the BVC arena and smaller than the Birmingham JCC arena which sits 16,000. 10,000 would be enough and ideal for Huntsville. The city won't be growing to a million or so anytime in the near future or even in our lifetime so it would be a financial disaster to build something much larger than we need.

Huntsville officials need to come up with a plan to fund a $50-80 million dollar first-class arena for the downtown. The VBC is outdated and too old to try and expand to a larger capacity. What they should do is develop a new arena on the site of the Coke plant across from the North Hall with a pedestrian bridge to connect with the VBC area.

I think a 13-14,000-seat arena is what the city's aiming for. Supposedly events such as monster truck rallies, WWE Raw, and the circus sell out with about 10,000 in the arena. But I don't go to those types of events, so I wouldn't know for sure. But a new, larger arena would get us larger conventions-- 3-4,000 more seats could go a long way. And don't underestimate Huntsville's size. Believe it or not, we aren't smaller than Chattanooga (in some ways, we're bigger) and at the current growth rate we'll hit a million about 30 years from now, which will more than likely be in my lifetime. And since the VBC arena's been around for 30-something years, I think this arena should be built to last the same time, maybe longer. And if $50-80 million is going to be spent on it, it better last that long...

Which brings us to another question. How do we pay for it? Raising taxes is very much out of the question, so I think a public-private partnership would be the best way. Then what do we do with the old arena, if it's built somewhere else (the Coke plant's a good idea)? Should we tear it down and build, say, a high-rise business-oriented hotel? Or keep it for smaller events, such as graduations, or maybe even a hockey/basketball arena for UAH? I guess we'll get to that when the time comes around.

[g-man435]

New arena should be 16,000-18,000 seats and no less. Our arena got built with public-private partnership. Some money came from taxes and other money came from corporations/naming rights. We're still paying it off though after 10 years.

[DruidCity]

Which brings us to another question. How do we pay for it?

I know I harp on it a lot, but the way the other three largest cities in the state fund their big projects is with the RSA (Mobile's tower, Montgomery's office buildings, and most recently Jefferson County's possible sewer bailout). How about a Huntsville "BronnerDome" arena ?

[marvingardns]

Wow... I knew the Jefferson Sewer Bond default was bad, but I did not know it could have widespread implications on bond ratings for counties and cities around Alabama. I've done bond covenant work before and I'm not so sure Huntsville and Madison County's ratings will be hurt, but Alabama economic development as a whole could suffer. The Birmingham MSA is big time screwed if they default on those bonds.

Interesting discussion with a source at the Chamber of Commerce: if Obama is elected and the Dems ever take 60 seats on the Senate floor, the missile defense program will get burned... provided that Obama is also 'unimpressed' by the strategic threat posed by nuclear proliferation when he begins to get his daily briefings.

Same source says the city is still pushing for a barge port, but that it was still a 'long way down the road.' He also says education will make or break our sustainable high-tech growth (we all know that!).

Congrats to Tommy Battle on giving Loretta a run for her money. Loretta could have done better. Rainy election days have tendency to hurt incumbents. The runoff election, according to the Times, will be on Fall break, which could give Loretta an advantage.

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by DruidCity

I know I harp on it a lot, but the way the other three largest cities in the state fund their big projects is with the RSA (Mobile's tower, Montgomery's office buildings, and most recently Jefferson County's possible sewer bailout). How about a Huntsville "BronnerDome" arena ?

I shudder at the thought of a puke green covered dome in downtown Huntsville. That being said, there is no denying the investments and development that Dr. Bronner and the RSA have brought to our great state!

[DruidCity]

I shudder at the thought of a puke green covered dome in downtown Huntsville. That being said, there is no denying the investments and development that Dr. Bronner and the RSA have brought to our great state!

Not only would it be the RSA's signature puke green, but to reflect Huntsville's architecture, there would be a rocket-shaped spire coming out of the top

[neilson]

Yesterday I saw about 5-6 ALDOT trucks and all kinds of surveying at the I-565 and Zeirdt Road area.

Colin, what are your ears on the ground telling you?

[Bogue]

I like the green that they've used in Mobile & Montgomery. It's hardly "puke green".

[10101000]

I like it too.

[JuanHunt]

Huntsville got an $80mil jail instead of a civic center improvement. Maybe they can put in some grandstands after its finished,if ever. I heard Lee has discovered some major water leakage problems, along with some new cracks.

[Huntsvillenative]

I stand corrected. According to Wikepekia the total attendance per event is as follows.

6,602 (hockey)
7,198 (basketball)
13,760 (concert events)

So I guess then 12-16,000 would be more suitable after all. But how much would an arena that size cost us taxpayers? Memphis' FedEx Forum cost that city $260 million and was paid for by raised taxes and a $90 million for naming rights paid for by FedEx. The capacity is over 19,000. I guess if a city in such a bad shape as that city is that Huntsville could make it work as well. An arena of say 16,000 max would probably cost anywhere from $100-150 million. You gotta factor in the cost of steel and concrete has gone through the roof since Katrina and now 3 more hurricanes are headed for the US boarders and the cost could jump much higher in the forseeable future.

As for what to do with the current arena-keep it as is for smaller and less attractive events. Therefor you could have a Faith Hill concert in the new arena at the same time as the local school's graduation in the current arena, instead of having a schedule conflict to deal with. I do think if this does happen that the city needs to raze the Holiday Inn and replace it with a high rise hotel of 10-12 floors to compliment the new Embassy Suits across from it. This would also compliment the new Constellation project when completed.

I would love to see them raze the Regions bank as well and develope a new museum facility (maybe Sci-Quest for example) in its place to compliment the Children's Museum next to it and to expand the tourism in downtown. Huntsville needs to develop more restaurants in downtown to lure more down there. There's a lot of vacant buildings in downtown that need to be razed to make room for a new downtown experience.

[Huntsvillenative]

Originally Posted by g-man435

New arena should be 16,000-18,000 seats and no less. Our arena got built with public-private partnership. Some money came from taxes and other money came from corporations/naming rights. We're still paying it off though after 10 years.

Is this the arena that you're referring to in Greenville? It seats 15,000.