Venue News & Notes: Alabama Stadium Expansion Is ‘Sound Financial Move’

The
economy may be stalling, but, for fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, football is
soothing all financial worries. The demand for tickets is such that the university’s Board of Trustees president is calling the proposed $80.6 million
expansion to Bryant-Denny Stadium a sound financial move. If approved, the new
stadium’s capacity would eclipse 101,000.
…Given
the staggering demand for tickets to attend an
Alabama football game, University of Alabama
System Board of Trustee President Pro Tem Finis St. John believes the proposed
expansion to Bryant-Denny Stadium will be a sound financial move. If the board
approves the proposed $80.6
million budget for the South End Zone Expansion, which includes paying
Birmingham-based Davis Architects a fee of $2.58 million for its work, it still
has one more step until construction can begin…
…The
cost of the replacement for
Pittsburgh’s Mellon
Arena has soared to $321 million, forcing the Penguins, the state, and the
city-Allegheny
County Sports & Exhibition Authority
to pony up more money to complete the project. At $321 million, the new project
cost is $31
million more than the $290 million budget originally set for the arena,
which is scheduled to open before the 2010-11 hockey season…
…Barclays,
the naming-rights partner for the future
Barclays
Center in Brooklyn, has affirmed its commitment to
the arena and the updated
timeline for a 2009 groundbreaking. The
Barclays
Center,
which is designed by Frank Gehry, will be the world-class home of the Nets…
…With
final site preparation complete for MLS Philadelphia’s new soccer-specific
stadium, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber will join team, local, and
state officials to officially
break ground on Dec. 1 in Chester, it was announced this week…
…In July, it seemed a guarantee that the Royal Bank of Canada, or
RBC, would buy the $20 million naming rights to the proposed Florida Atlantic
University football stadium — one piece in fulfilling a promise to have a Boca
Raton home for the Owls built by fall 2010. Now,
in mid November, the deal is kaput — a victim, in part, of the global economic
turmoil that has shadowed FAU’s funding drive for the 30,000-seat stadium
tentatively approved by trustees in September 2007…
…Saint
Louis
University’s basketball roster is almost all-new.
Coach Rick Majerus is hoping that playing in a brand-new on-campus
arena will help his freshman-dominated team adjust to the competition.
Majerus has an enthusiastic thumbs-up for the $81 million Chaifetz Arena
heading into the season opener Friday against Missouri-St. Louis…
…Indiana
University of Pennsylvania is breaking ground on a $60
million sports arena and hotel complex funded, in part, by a local family
and one of the founders of YouTube. The complex includes a 4,000-seat arena,
athletic department offices, and conference facilities and is expected to open
in 2011.