A downtown basketball/hockey arena makes a lot of sense. SD would be a good NBA city as there are half the games of baseball and the stars in the league are very well distributed. Plus, with games at night, downtown is set up very well for that kind of crowd. NBA has turned into an "event" league, a place to be seen. SD has good hockey following too, so hockey could flourish. Ducks could be a relocation candidate, as well as the Carolina franchise. I see NBA more likely however. NBA arenas don't need a big footprint, and no new parking needed.
Vegas and Miami are very different. Miami itself is not a nightlife city, you go to South Beach for that. Downtown Miami has nothing like the Gaslamp. Vegas is buzzing, but the attractions it has would never fly in SD. Most of the attractions are part of the hotels themselves; outside of that you have the LINQ ferris wheel, the new ferris wheel they're building by Mandalay Bay, and that's really about it. Nothing in Vegas, outside of the hotels themselves, is something you'd travel to Vegas specifically for. Sort of the reverse of SD: with SD you come for the attractions and the hotels are secondary. I think downtown SD is pretty good as is, you've got the Gaslamp for eating and nightlife, the bayfront is getting better with parks, terminals, etc (do something with SEaport VIllage), and you have Sea World and the Zoo close by. SD doesn't need a ferris wheel or tall observation tower just for the sake of having it, if they build something in SD it should be iconic and unique, not to keep up with the latest fad.
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Originally Posted by mello
Spoke with an upper echelon person at Manchester Financial Group Yesterday. They say still no set date for groundbreaking and that it should all be built at once very low chance of being phased out. The source said a major economic collapse would cause it to be built out in phases.
I asked about an Arena at tailgate park working with JMI, AEG, etc and she said Papa Doug is very open to it and will refuse to let SD be just an MLB/MLS town that we should definitely have NFL or NBA!!
Also spoke about how Miami/Las Vegas can build build build and things keep getting absorbed and if SD can be that kind of market. The source thinks downtown and nearby SD can support massive amounts of new hotel rooms. What do you guys think. I think we need more attractions in downtown like when people go to the Strip in Vegas there is so much more to do than just eat and drink.
What do you guys think
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