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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

5 Major Cities That Need a Decent New Stadium

It has now become important for a city that claims to be world class to have a decent new stadium with all the modern amenities and comforts that modern sports spectators demand.

Yet there are a few cities which seem to lack that decent new stadium even with the wealth in the region and the amount of sport played there.

Here are my 5 major cities that need a decent new stadium - in order of desperation:



Washington, D.C.
Yes there is FedEx Field in nearby Landover, but it's not in the District of Columbia. In fact, there's Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium in the DC area which is currently being left to rot and waste under the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was a great stadium in its prime but has definitely seen better days. With the Nationals now boasting a decent ballpark, time for a brand new football stadium in DC which the Redskins might even return to.


Las Vegas
The fastest growing city in the USA still doesn't have a proper world class stadium to boast. Perhaps, the lack of interest from the major leagues to bring a franchise to the city is a reason no new stadium has been built. But surely Vegas' time will eventually come.






San Francisco
Candlestick Park is clearly past it - two major and very public power failures during the 49ers' Monday Night Football home game against the Steelers must surely be the last straw for the aging arena. A city as world class as San Francisco definitely deserves a stadium - certainly the entire Bay Area needs at least one world class stadium in the region considering the stadium in Oakland is also pretty outdated now.





Los Angeles
The one reason why the NFL hasn't returned to Los Angeles is the lack of a modern stadium. Yes, the LA area has the Memorial Coliseum and the Rose Bowl but they are quite old stadia and far too expensive to revamp. It's a travesty that the USA's 2nd largest city does not have a world class stadium to host football amongst other things. The trouble is, they've been talking about building a new stadium for 20 years now and still nothing has been built.





Perth
Perth is Australia's richest city at the moment courtesy of the booming mining industry. But incredibly there are no plans at the moment to build a proper new stadium to match those in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and even Adelaide, to replace the aging Subiacco Oval and the inadequate NIB Stadium. With Perth boasting a Super rugby franchise, two AFL teams and even hosting the odd NRL game, surely there needs to be a proper football stadium soon in this most remote of cities? There's possibly the option of bringing back AFL to the WACA Oval but a new stadium to replace Subiacco should be a priority for this fast growing city.

Other cities that new stadia?
Singapore - the brand new spanking Singapore Sports Hub is under construction where the grotty old National Stadium stood and will be ready in 2014.

Atlanta - the ugly and aging Atlanta Dome should be replaced soon.

Minneapolis -  Minneapolis needs a brand new stadium soon if it wants to keep the Vikings - the Metrodome is aging and the roof has had some high profile issues.

Christchurch - pending engineering reports on the future of quake damaged AMI Stadium

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