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Originally Posted by pdxf
If anyone is interested, I also posted a more accurate site plan for the OMSI site ( http://www.liquidosity.com/baseballatomsi/) which illustrates the issues with the MLB portion. Again, the site would work for AAA, but to me, the best option for a site is one that could be expanded in the future.
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I love the idea of a MLB stadium near downtown Portland, and your OMSI plan is fun to look at. Very well done! (I wish Mayor Adams wasn't so quick to throw the Beavers a bone with a hastily built AAA stadium that can't be expanded and dooms Portland to another 30 years of no additional major league sports. But that's another topic.)
That said, where is all the parking for an OMSI or Eastside plan? A MLB Stadium with dozens of home games per year is going to need parking spaces for 20,000+ cars within walking distance. I don't see inclusion of parking in any of the Eastside stadium plans thus far.
Using San Diego's Petco Park as an example, as it is similar to Portland's plans sitting on the perimeter of the downtown core and directly adjacent to a major light rail station, there was still a need for Petco Park to develop 11,000 new parking spaces close to the field, in addition to the 15,000+ other spaces gobbled up on game days in nearby downtown garages.
Since Petco Park opened in '04, the percentage of fans using light rail to get to the stadium has grown to 12% of fans. The majority of those are using Park & Ride stations in Mission Valley or the South Bay to take one of the light rail lines serving Petco Park. But that still requires tens of thousands of parking spaces to be used by fans arriving directly at Petco Park via car.
Safeco Field in Seattle has about 8,000 spaces dedicated to the ballfield, with additional surface lots and garages in south downtown soaking up the 15,000+ additonal spaces needed. I imagine they'll get some folks arriving via light rail when Link opens later this year.
Angel Stadium in Anaheim has 15,000+ parking spaces in surface lots around the field, plus 5,000+ more in offsite lots within walking distance. There is also the Anaheim Depot train station directly adjacent to the stadium, and many fans arrive via Amtrak Surfliner or Metrolink commuter trains on game days. That station is slated to be transformed into the massive ARTIC complex as the southern terminus of the California High Speed Rail system, although Surfliner and Metrolink trains will still serve the station on separate platforms.
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/gallery.aspx Scroll down to Anaheim ARTIC Station video to see a quick flyover of ARTIC and how it relates to the adjacent Angel Stadium
My long-winded point...
Even with rail transit serving stadiums directly, you still need to accomodate at least 10,000 cars in lots directly adjacent to the facility. You can accomodate thousands more cars further out for a lower price, and you can encourage rail travel with adjacent and efficient stations, but you can't have a MLB stadium without a lot of parking.