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Reader Comments on Sports Arena Possibilities
Posted on Wednesday, February 22 @ 10:35:34 EST by jfbailey
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WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. February 22, 2006: A reader and keen observer of the White Plains athletic scene writes on the possibilities of bringing a state-of-the-art arena to White Plains telling how the City of New Haven did it:
John,
You are correct that there is a need in this area for an indoor fieldhouse. On just the high school level, it is sad that our school athletes, particularly in the track and field sport, must travel to Rockland County for regular season meets or to the Armory in NYC (or West Point) to run end of season meets. Since there is no other comparable venue for all of Section I, (including schools from Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess), the meets are just jammed with kids, are terribly long and the kids do not return from Friday afternoon meets to the school until after )midnight.
(More
The need in just this one high school sport is great, but other sports (basketball/volleyball/soccer/lacrosse, etc) could use a fieldhouse for games, practices and large events as well. The City of White Plains and its recreational programs could obtain great use from this facility.
What is involved is a fieldhouse arena surface that holds a track on the outer periphery, and a multiple sport interior section that can house other sport needs as well. As big and expensive as a project like this is, it is still not as large or as costly to construct as an indoor arena that could house a baseball field and accompanying fan stands. That is yet another level far beyond what anyone could reasonably expect to hope for. Even professional sport teams all over the country have a hard time getting these projects done.
However, at the level of high school/college/community athletics, it is clear that the need is there. However, if this fieldhouse could be constructed, who would pay for it and who would come? For an answer to this question, look no further than the City of New Haven, which partnered with secondary school districts and City/State resources to build the Citywide Fieldhouse (see http://www.giordano-construction.com/nhac.htm), which opened around 2002. Our HS kids run there once in the winter season.
Although it is not easy to find information on this facility (at least for a computer challenged individual like me), I seem to recall that this was a Herculean endeavor that brought many entities to the table to build and then keep running. Go to one of the High School indoor track meets there to watch your kid run and you pay an admission fee to get in, but it is a beautiful facility, and it is downright embarrassing that we don't have a facility like it near us, particularly with all the wealth in this County.
In terms of school districts, not only White Plains, but all of Section I schools (especially those on this side of the Hudson River) could be hit up for contributions. The City/County and State entities would have to be courted. Area colleges are a potential source for construction and ongoing maintenance funding (once built, the facility has to stay busy to justify the costs of keeping it open and heated in the wintertime).
Now assuming that some form of the New Haven model could be copied or adapted for use in Westchester County, where would it be built? Most City locales would not want such a facility, which has to be big enough to get built and sustain all patrons that contributed to it's construction. Even the smaller version that some folks would want for just White Plains citizens would be big enough to spur considerable concern if not downright opposition.
The logical choice of a facility that has a piece of property that would be large enough to both build the footprint and permit a sufficient buffer area to protect adjacent neighborhoods is the SUNY Purchase campus. Indeed, this plot of land might be all that the State could contribute, given its shaky financial status.
It is possible that a smaller, less grandiose version of this facility could be built for just our City and our schools. But although it would be much smaller and obviously less useful, it would still be very costly to construct and it is doubtful that either the City or the school district has the funds necessary to get even this smaller project off the ground. The school district is already gearing up for a tremendous bond act just to build sufficient classroom space and the City is reckoning with a cycle of readjustment to the commercial property tax base that has siphoned off a considerable portion of the sales tax boom from retail development.
Ultimately, it seems that the force necessary to break the tremendous field of inertia that has imprisoned the fieldhouse dream is just plain daunting. Even a Donald Trump type would not have an easy time in getting this off the ground. For Mr. or Ms. White Plains, with all they have going on in their lives, or even for your average School Board or City Council member, this is a project that might well be beyond their capacity as well. But the existence of the New Haven facility is proof positive that it can be done.
Tim Sheehan
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