Four major middle Midwest metros: Kansas City, Saint Louis, Omaha, Indianapolis (metropolitan, difference)
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And Downtown football stadiums are terrible for any sort of decent urban fabric and vibrancy. They require mass parking and create mass dead zones and are rarely used. They belong out of the city near a freeway. Chicago is one of the only places that sorts of makes a downtown NFL stadium work because they don’t provide parking and it’s in a location that probably wouldn’t be much better utilized as some other use. But it still doesn’t really do much for the city other than look cool where it’s at.
In addition to msamhunter's comments, I'll add that the downside to having the stadium downtown is that it doesn't encourage a tailgating culture like you have at Arrowhead. Parking is plentiful, but it's spread out and disjointed. Instead, Colts fans flock to local restaurants and bars, which leads to sales tax payments that help pay for the stadium.
As for Chicago, the park district does provide parking adjacent to and within proximity to Soldier Field. It'll cost you, though.
I've never had that issue. Lack of parking? There's 78k parking spaces downtown, surely the great urban adventurer wouldn't mind a 5-10 minute walk. If anything the city has too many spaces and LOS is one of the easiest stadiums to get in and situated and get out.
Let me guess... you did not follow the the bidding process. They had to come down to at least 10 venues for the final proposal and Lucas Oil was one of the most controversial and a lot of people, including the FIFA committee, was not pleased with the parking and access situation. Have you seen the mains soccer venues, which FIFA consider standard to hold a world cup, in Europe? They are usually surrounded by well organized parking spaces away from downtown, for 2 obvious reasons:
1) Avoid a chaos on downtown traffic on game days (have been there),
2) Avoid spread out parking (like Indy), minimizing time and stress of finding parking spaces and facilitate access to the stadium.
That is the reason why the new stadiums that are being built in Brazil for the next WC are being placed in areas with large lots to allow space for parking around it.
I've never had that issue. Lack of parking? There's 78k parking spaces downtown, surely the great urban adventurer wouldn't mind a 5-10 minute walk. If anything the city has too many spaces and LOS is one of the easiest stadiums to get in and situated and get out.
Public transportation could definitely be an issue, but the hotels not downtown would more than likely run shuttles to and from like SB Week as well as private entities. IndyGo would probably add more buses just like SB week which in all likelihood flow smoother since there wouldn't be the same amount of people heading into downtown like SB week.
Didn't know STL had a chance of losing the RAMS. Secondly, comparing some track in KC to the Speedway is like comparing a Porterhouse to a skirt steak. Come on man! The only NASCAR track that gives the speedway some type of run for its money is Daytona. I put more credence to the Milwaukee Mile (it is actually older than IMS and the oldest race track in the US), the problem, Milwaukee never capitalized on it. Even with the mile's historical reference, it still lacks everything the 500 has. Still waiting to see all of these "culture and amenities" KC has. While it being so isolated like Denver, it should, but it DOESN'T which kind of speaks for itself.
There is some one on here with tons of pictures I am sure we will see him soon, but I love driving down to KC.
Kauffman Center is one of the most beautiful performing arts venues I have ever seen.
KC has tons of museums. My three favorite are the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, National WWI Museum and Negro League Museum. The first two are housed in immaculate facilities and have great collections. The third is attached with the Jazz museum and is just quintessential Kansas City.
Let me guess... you did not follow the the bidding process. They had to come down to at least 10 venues for the final proposal and Lucas Oil was one of the most controversial and a lot of people, including the FIFA committee, was not pleased with the parking and access situation. Have you seen the mains soccer venues, which FIFA consider standard to hold a world cup, in Europe? They are usually surrounded by well organized parking spaces away from downtown, for 2 obvious reasons:
1) Avoid a chaos on downtown traffic on game days (have been there),
2) Avoid spread out parking (like Indy), minimizing time and stress of finding parking spaces and facilitate access to the stadium.
That is the reason why the new stadiums that are being built in Brazil for the next WC are being placed in areas with large lots to allow space for parking around it.
I never heard that criticism of Lucas Oil Stadium as a World Cup venue, but I'll admit I didn't follow every nuance of the bid process. I do question how many foreign tourists would've actually driven into Indy (as opposed to flying in and staying downtown), and I think our experience with the Super Bowl and other events at LOS shows that the parking situation works pretty well.
In the end, it didn't really matter because FIFA is a corrupt piece of s$%@ organization and they gave the WC to freaking Qatar. Too bad. It would've been a nice coup for Indy to have hosted some WC games.
There is some one on here with tons of pictures I am sure we will see him soon, but I love driving down to KC.
Kauffman Center is one of the most beautiful performing arts venues I have ever seen.
KC has tons of museums. My three favorite are the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, National WWI Museum and Negro League Museum. The first two are housed in immaculate facilities and have great collections. The third is attached with the Jazz museum and is just quintessential Kansas City.
Indianapolis has just as many museums. The design of Kauffman is nice. I like it. It lacks the history and character that comes from time. Hilbert Circle Theatre or the Murat tends to be more my taste. Children's museum, well what can't be said about it. One of the top 20 most visited museums in the US. IMA sits on 157 acres and also immaculate with a great collection and 7th oldest museum in the US and 5th largest General Public Art museum. The original 57 acres houses the Museum and Lilly House along with the original LOVE sculpture (one of the top places for marriage proposals). 100 acres is an urban art park (the only one with rotating pieces unlike other places where all of their pieces stay). I actually like Connor Prairie living history museum third due to the actors acting out the era but that's just me; very interactive. If you want to get a little out there, you can head to the Indiana medical history museum at the old Central State Hospital (hospital for the insane) where you can see an actual human brain in a jar. Great area for Halloween. Indiana War Memorial, I have family members whose names are there in the museum as a lot of hoosiers do.
In the end, it didn't really matter because FIFA is a corrupt piece of s$%@ organization and they gave the WC to freaking Qatar. Too bad. It would've been a nice coup for Indy to have hosted some WC games.
Tell me the one square mile in NYC or LA that has the equivalents of:
Restaurants
Shopping
Hotels
Monuments & Memorials
Parks
Eiteljorg Museum
Start of the IUPUI campus
Convention Center
State Capitol building
Churches
Victory Field (baseball)
Conseco Fieldhouse (basketball)
Lucas Oil Stadium (football)
Union Station (Amtrack/Greyhound)
The Murat (great concert venue)
Mass Ave. (part of it)
The Canal Walk (part of it)
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Tell me the one square mile in NYC or LA that has the equivalents of:
Restaurants
Shopping
Hotels
Monuments & Memorials
Parks
Eiteljorg Museum
Start of the IUPUI campus
Convention Center
State Capitol building
Churches
Victory Field (baseball)
Conseco Fieldhouse (basketball)
Lucas Oil Stadium (football)
Union Station (Amtrack/Greyhound)
The Murat (great concert venue)
Mass Ave. (part of it)
The Canal Walk (part of it)
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
I'll be waiting for a response.
To be fair, if you are judging downtown Indianapolis as a mile square, you have to exclude a lot of your list, depending on where you are plotting that square. The original mile square does not include Victory Field or Lucas Oil Stadium, nor the Eitlejorg or any part of IUPUI.
I'll go ahead and say it, Midtown Manhattan has most of this stuff and then some in under a mile square.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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One thing I will say is that Indy has the most pleasant summers of the four cities, and Omaha has the worst winters.
That said, all four of these places don't usually have fantastic winters or summers. Omaha in particular I would say is probably the least desirable for weather, as it hits both extremes the most consistently, although Indy, KC, and STL often do as well..just not as reliably and consistently as Omaha.
One thing I will say is that Indy has the most pleasant summers of the four cities, and Omaha has the worst winters.
That said, all four of these places don't usually have fantastic winters or summers. Omaha in particular I would say is probably the least desirable for weather, as it hits both extremes the most consistently, although Indy, KC, and STL often do as well..just not as reliably and consistently as Omaha.
For winter recreation lovers, like me, all of these cities have a painful lousy winter (I'm not so sure about Omaha).
Forget about last mild winter, but even in a typical winter, they don't get a consistent snow pack due to, first, it just doesn't snow that much and second, temps often stay above freezing melting away quickly whatever snow is on the ground. Plus... it's mostly flat land. I hate winters in Indy and I suspect they are similar in STL and KC, again not sure about Omaha but maybe they get more snow there and it's colder? If so, I bet I would like it better!
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