KCRag Forum

Today, I sent my drone up for a second to last fly around update of Centene Stadium and the area South of Market. The last update will be in mid to late July as the stadium should be completed by then (what a great birthday present for me, haha). Anyways, here are the pictures and some highlights.
- Seats are going in.
- Glass installation complete.
- Roof nearly complete.
- Landscaping beginning.
- Coils placed under dirt on field (assumed to keep it warm during cold weather).
- Jumbotrons installed.
- Team pavilion nearly complete.
- Team practice building nearly complete.
- Practice fields having dirt placed. Grass to soon follow.
- Practice field lights are up.
- Team HQ building has a large hole in the side to make way for a large window overlooking the South of Market area.
FLY AROUND VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha-w-nslYuE

LOVE this! Thanks, Chris.

St Louis did this light years better than KC. Good for them. If that city was not governed by left wing morons it would be dangerous.

What a failure that Sporting went to the wastelands in BFE rather than downtown. As I looked at the photos, the proximity to STL union station and the ferris wheel made me sick thinking the KC stadium should have been somewhere near Crown center/union station. Really anywhere other than where it is now. What a f____ waste.

Curious, would the STL footprint have worked in Washington Sq. park?

19th & Grand?

Karambit25 wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 6:56 pm St Louis did this light years better than KC. Good for them. If that city was not governed by left wing morons it would be dangerous.

What a failure that Sporting went to the wastelands in BFE rather than downtown. As I looked at the photos, the proximity to STL union station and the ferris wheel made me sick thinking the KC stadium should have been somewhere near Crown center/union station. Really anywhere other than where it is now. What a f____ waste.

Curious, would the STL footprint have worked in Washington Sq. park?

19th & Grand?

That ship has sailed. They won't build a new stadium for Sporting for at least another decade. I agree though. Worst location ever. I can't stand that area where the stadium is.

The StL stadium looks amazing.

GRID wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 9:39 am

Karambit25 wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 6:56 pm St Louis did this light years better than KC. Good for them. If that city was not governed by left wing morons it would be dangerous.

What a failure that Sporting went to the wastelands in BFE rather than downtown. As I looked at the photos, the proximity to STL union station and the ferris wheel made me sick thinking the KC stadium should have been somewhere near Crown center/union station. Really anywhere other than where it is now. What a f____ waste.

Curious, would the STL footprint have worked in Washington Sq. park?

19th & Grand?

That ship has sailed. They won't build a new stadium for Sporting for at least another decade. I agree though. Worst location ever. I can't stand that area where the stadium is.

The StL stadium looks amazing.

https://www.betsperts.com/usa-stadium-report/

Children's Mercy Park ranked #4 on best US Stadiums. Busch was #5. Would've been nice to have it downtown but oh well.

Good for STL doing it downtown, looks like it is coming together nicely.

STL already running revisionist history I see.

KC had two choices for a stadium in the end, Bannister & Legends. No one else wanted soccer stadiums at that point, no one. Premier League was still stuck on an upgrade Fox channel that got awful viewership as soon as 10 years ago. KC was not going to give them prime real estate at all. Please get facts correct on that.

I don't mind the St. Louis stadium design at all. I find it nice. The one problem I have with this development is the practice fields area. I get that they wanted to have everything close by but putting practice fields at the western end of downtown doesn't make that much sense to me. But I guess that's what you get when you purchase an unbuilt highway right of way.

As for Children's Mercy Park, I haven't gone to a game there yet, but I'm familiar with the area. That's not a bad design, just a shame it's out in the suburbs. But at least it's not like Nashville's, which is shoved away from hubs of activity. Childrens Mercy at least has the outlet mall and some hotels nearby. For now, the focus should be the Royals moving downtown (as has been discussed elsewhere on here) and then keeping Sporting KC popular enough to warrant a new stadium in the downtown area in the 2030s.

TheSmokinPun wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:12 am KC had two choices for a stadium in the end, Bannister & Legends. No one else wanted soccer stadiums at that point, no one.

That confirms that no one in KC leadership had any vision. Bannister was a no-brainer for anything. The land was empty and the city wanted that FAILURE out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
Bannister was not a viable business option and the city knew it. It was a dead zone with rampant crime and very little development. Offering Bannister basically was saying "go anywhere else but KCMO." Legends was easily a better business decision compared to Bannister and everyone knew it.

TheSmokinPun wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:12 am Premier League was still stuck on an upgrade Fox channel that got awful viewership as soon as 10 years ago. KC was not going to give them prime real estate at all. Please get facts correct on that.

I never said anything was a fact. I only stated the location was worse case and implied that KCMO lacked leadership and vision.

Do you consider the "east village" "prime real estate?"
It was empty then and empty now.
Maybe there could be a whole "Soccer Village" of sorts there now had someone had any vision.

Karambit25 wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 1:38 pm

TheSmokinPun wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:12 am KC had two choices for a stadium in the end, Bannister & Legends. No one else wanted soccer stadiums at that point, no one.

That confirms that no one in KC leadership had any vision. Bannister was a no-brainer for anything. The land was empty and the city wanted that FAILURE out-of-sight-out-of-mind.
Bannister was not a viable business option and the city knew it. It was a dead zone with rampant crime and very little development. Offering Bannister basically was saying "go anywhere else but KCMO." Legends was easily a better business decision compared to Bannister and everyone knew it.

TheSmokinPun wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:12 am Premier League was still stuck on an upgrade Fox channel that got awful viewership as soon as 10 years ago. KC was not going to give them prime real estate at all. Please get facts correct on that.

I never said anything was a fact. I only stated the location was worse case and implied that KCMO lacked leadership and vision.

Do you consider the "east village" "prime real estate?"
It was empty then and empty now.
Maybe there could be a whole "Soccer Village" of sorts there now had someone had any vision.

East Village is about as "prime" as it gets in KC real estate. Investors have correctly held land and sat back waiting for the right moment. It looks like it will end up being a multi-million dollar decision.

DColeKC wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 4:48 pm East Village is about as "prime" as it gets in KC real estate. Investors have correctly held land and sat back waiting for the right moment. It looks like it will end up being a multi-million dollar decision.

Isn't that now the front-runner for a future MLB stadium location?

DColeKC wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 4:48 pm East Village is about as "prime" as it gets in KC real estate. Investors have correctly held land and sat back waiting for the right moment. It looks like it will end up being a multi-million dollar decision.

See link.

viewtopic.php?p=639696#p639696

Roughly two months after my last fly around update, I sent the drone up today to get another update. I haven't decided if this will be my last one or if I do one more before I head to Kansas City this August. Anyways, it's in the homestretch now...
- Lights are being tested.
- Most of the seating has gone in.
- Landscaping has started on the outside.
- Heavy equipment has started to disappear.
- The facade mockup has been disassembled.
- Practice fields dirt and heating coils are mostly in.
- HQ building still waiting it's new all glass facade.
- Video link: https://youtu.be/ByIZCnQLNsc

















These last two pictures are a comparison from roughly the same angle taken 20 months apart. Progress was made pretty rapidly.

Before heading to KC, I got to tour this stadium the other day. I did a blog post about it if you're interested in reading that here: https://www.cityscene-stl.com/post/down ... ne-stadium. Link to a fly around video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TieSYS3HTsc. Below are some photos.

I'm back in St. Louis for a few days (fall break) and stopped by the stadium at night. It's really bright and colorful. A road diet on Market Street is still being built. When complete, Market will have been reduced from 8 lanes wide to 5.











This is the Mill Creek Valley Memorial. It's made up of 8 pillars with quotes of former residents on the inside and within outlines of former row homes that sat here up until land was cleared in the 1950s for urban renewal. The length of the stadium on Market Street features dark slabs denoting where homes began, and their addresses are set into the sidewalk in the middle between two slabs. The memorial also features a map of the area prior to land clearance, and it shows just how much was lost (I don't have a picture of that).






South of Market Street is the Team Pavillion. I believe there will be a bar and team store in here, but I don't remember exactly. It's a nice little building though that sits at the front of the practice fields.

Came together very well. Looks great. Thanks for the pics Chris and congrats to STL on a neat downtown stadium

Looks like a great stadium. Very jealous of the downtown location. It really makes it look that much better

Since my last update, the Centene Stadium name was dropped, and it is now simply called "CityPark".

Anyways, tonight was the first event in CityPark. It was a sellout game (City2 vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen). Weather was freezing (30 degrees with a wind chill of 20), but that didn't stop people from turning out. The food options are all local, so it's different compared to what you would normally get at a sports arena. There were some problems with food stall lines backing up into walking corridors leading to standstills. Some stalls were also selling out of food, and some were having a hard time keeping up with demand. It's good all of these negatives happened so that the operations team can work those issues out before the first major league game in March.

A few finishing touches have yet to occur outside the stadium, including finishing some streets, sidewalks and the parking garage at 1900 Olive. Tonight proved that people could get around just fine and I expect once those things are done, navigating will become a bit easier.

Lastly, the area around the stadium recently saw Maggie O'Briens reopen after an intense renovation. At Union Station, a new soccer themed bar is going in at the corner of 20th and Market. At 2200 Locust, Amsterdam Tavern is set to open a second location (first is in Tower Grove South), and the London Tea Room is moving from Tower Grove South to the neighborhood. Additional businesses, like Syberg's and Schlafly, neighbor the stadium and give guests the option to stop in before or after a game.

Great project. Well done STL.

Was on a walk in St. Louis yesterday. Didn't realize there was a soccer game, so I walked into this. Neat to see people hanging around.

Not sure I understand how they can hold an event without closing the street. How many pedestrians died?

(Stadium looks great and thank you for the pics).