Indy Eleven stadium renderings

I'm like every other Indy Eleven fan who has been wondering what the proposed stadium would look like and couldn't wait for today's release of the renderings of the proposed stadiums.  To be honest, I'm surprised by the look, but I really like it.

They are all on the Indy Star article, but I thought I would post the renderings again here for completeness, as well as one from the Stadium For Indiana website that was created to educate the public on the stadium:

It looks spectacular.  Urban, hip, and it looks cool.  Definitely different than any of the other stadiums in Indianapolis.  I like the big brick buildings of Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, and Victory Field, but I like that the team has tried to give the city a different look.  I'll be interested to see how the urban blogs I read think of it if they weigh in on its look.

I think it is a good idea to show the multi-uses of the facility beyond just the use by the Indy Eleven.  It works for a concerts, football, lacrosse, and others and it's smart to spend nearly as many renderings covering those other uses as it is for the Indy Eleven's use since they want to be able to host 50 events a year and the Eleven will only use 15 - 20 of those.  To think that they can get another 30 events scheduled in a year seems fairly realistic to me as I can foresee it being used for the Big Ten's men's and women's soccer championships, maybe Big Ten field hockey and lacrosse championships, the Indiana High School soccer championships, periodic other high school games (county tourney), NCAA College Cups, and even the periodic National Team games (though that is dependent on the selected turf).  That doesn't include any concerts they are able to pull away from the other venues in town.

The next question on everybody's mind is the funding.  I'm not going to get into that.  The team has said that the renderings were done by the architectural design firm Populous, who do a lot of stadiums including the $53M renovation of the Indiana Farmers Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  So I think they know the market and designed accordingly for the price.  The rest is up to the legislature and whether the general public can be convinced this isn't a general tax and only a user-fee.  I have my doubts they will be convinced, but that's just me being negative and not wanting to get my hopes up too high after seeing the renderings.

After that, the question becomes where will the stadium be located.  Only the team knows for sure, but I think the skyline has a striking resemblance to the skyline that would be present if it was located at the Fall Creek Parkway and 16th Street location that I discussed in my post about potential locations (go to the bottom of the post).  Look at that first rendering above and then look at this one:

If we back out a bit to get a better picture of the land:

What if we superimpose the rendering and imagine it in 3D:

These were my thoughts at that time:

PROS:

• Nice open area, currently being used as a city park, so it's already owned by the City.
• Could incorporate park-like features in design so that park isn't completely lost.
• Across the street from UPS, so could be a future business partner.  UPS Park?  UPS Stadium?
• Large open field across Fall Creek on Milburn (owned by Indiana University) that might be able to be used for parking.  Provide a pedestrian bridge over the creek for access and incorporate into the surroundings.
• The City would like this area to be better utilized.
• Not far from  Kuntz Stadium, which I already mentioned as having some historical significance.

CONS:

• Floodplain.  While they can be overcome, as an engineer, I hate the idea of building in a floodplain.  It wouldn't be the first time that the City has taken a natural receiving stream and put it underground in tunnels (Pogue's Run), but that would definitely require additional engineering and governmental approvals beyond just the City and State.

FINAL ASSESSMENT - Potential.

I would now add that an additional pro of the site is that it is located near I-65 and public transportation routes.  It's still not as close to "downtown" as I had envisioned, but it's not far.  I originally rejected it because of the floodplain concerns, but madman1101 might have looked beyond that and been onto something when he told me to reconsider.