[video] Demolition of Veterans Stadium in South Philadelph

[rasermon]

I saw it live on Fox News this morning.Cool implosion, it was like domino's falling! http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/ne....html

[Caretaker]

great video; thanks. In college, I used to go over when the Mets were in town. I brought a sign one time, and Mets announcer Bob Murphy put me on TV. Thanks for the memories rasermon!

[scherry2]

pretty cool!! thanks

[VibeSalsa]

Thanks Rasermon for this link. Very impressive!

[ragingfish]

Kinda saddens me...used to go there as a kid...yes, I went to games even though I hated sports.

[Stang2Vibe]

Funny, I used to hate sports for the most part as a kid, too.That implosion reminded me of the implosion of Three Rivers Stadium here about 3 years ago. They were really worried about how the one side would fall, since they already built Heinz Field right next to it and they were only about 50 feet apart. The part of Heinz Field that was closest to Three Rivers was a big wall of glass windows that had just been recently installed, too. I wonder who was the brain surgeon that made the decision to put in the glass before the old building was demolished. I was in my downtown apartment not too far from the implosion site when they blew the place up. I opened the window to see if I could hear it as I watched it live on TV. It sounded like a bunch of cannons being fired at a stampeding herd of elephants. Then a huge cloud of dust filled the river valley and most of downtown for a few hours. Anyone see the footage of when Seattle's Kingdome was imploded? That was pretty cool too.

[Kari]

I watched the implosion of Riverfront in downtown Cinci and very nearly cried...so many memories wrapped up in it. It was like watching the whole legacy, die, too.

[Stang2Vibe]

Yeah, I kinda cried when they tore down 3 Rivers--but for a different reason. They didn't even have it payed off when they tore it down and added 1% on to the local sales tax in our county to help fund the 2 stadiums to replace it.Although it was sad to see the place where Roberto Clemente played his home games (along with so many other former Pirate greats) go up in a cloud of dust.

[Fformula88]

Although I am sure people in Pittsburgh miss Three Rivers for some of its memories, I am sure few will miss it for actually watching baseball games. Especially compared to PNC Park. The new stadium is georgous and a wonderful place to see a game. I have not been in Heinze Field but am certain it is also a much nicer place to see a football game. Those round cookie cutter stadiums were not the best places to watch sports, and Three Rivers always reminded me of sitting in a huge canyon. Its sad to lose the memories, but it is nice to have a much more enjoyable park to catch a game. Hopefully Philly's new baseball stadium is just as nice!At least you guys don't live in Buffalo. We have a habit of keeping old sports stadiums after we replace them. 7 years ago we built a new hockey arena, and the old building is still standing a block away. For 7 years people have been trying to figure out what to do with an old Hockey arena, with ideas ranging from a trans-modal transportation center (basically a bus and train station) to a Bass Pro Shop. If only they would implode it so something useful can be done with the prime waterfront property it sits on downtown!

[Reynoma]

I was watching it live at 7am on Sunday. Pretty cool. Can't say I'm going to miss the stadium, never really liked it when I went.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »Although I am sure people in Pittsburgh miss Three Rivers for some of its memories, I am sure few will miss it for actually watching baseball games.This is very true. PNC Park is just an awesome ball park, in my mind it would be very hard to beat. Such a great stadium, I can hardly describe it. I've been to a few games there since it opened, and every time I go, I always want to buy a partial season ticket even though the Pirates currently suck. The stadium is THAT good. The view of the city from inside the park is amazing.Heinz field is rather disappointing. Although it has features that make it unique and it is updated compared to 3 Rivers, somehow it could have been much better. Although I haven't been there for a game yet, I was there for a concert last summer. Others who have been there for games tell me the same thing, though. It leaves you wanting something more from it, like it doesn't fulfill your expectations of it. It's somewhat plain inside also, especially when compared to the detail of PNC Park right next door.I knew that Buffalo kept the Aud even after the new HBC Arena was built, but I didn't know that it was still vacant. That is pretty dumb. Either use it or level it for something new. Makes no sense keeping around a big empty building that does nothing.

[Fformula88]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »I knew that Buffalo kept the Aud even after the new HBC Arena was built, but I didn't know that it was still vacant. That is pretty dumb. Either use it or level it for something new. Makes no sense keeping around a big empty building that does nothing.Every few months they come up with another "great scheme" for this building, and it always fallss through. There was the indor fun park, the transportation center, an indor air museum where they would hang plains from the roof rafters, the Bass Pro Shop. The real problem with any of them is the building. Its just not all that good for much other than being an arena. Private industry won't spend the money to make it efficient (its heating bill is 1 million a year) or convert it into something useable. So whatever goes in there will need huge subsidies to convert the building for their use and pay utilities. The Bass Pro Shop is actually a legitimate possibility. They are in serious talks. But even the Bass Pro people have told the city they would be more interested if the building were knocked down, and a new purpose build store was put on the location. Since the city has gone bankrupt and is now under the control of a State Control Board, I doubt anything will happen with it real soon!

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »Every few months they come up with another "great scheme" for this building, and it always fallss through. LOL! The city planners up there must be on the phone regularly with our ever-so-beloved Mayor Murphy here. If it were a privately owned building and they were tossing around the phrase "eminent domain", then we would know without a doubt that Murphy was the project advisor.Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »Since the city has gone bankrupt and is now under the control of a State Control Board...See, now there is a smart thing that the State of New York does. Here, the city declared bankruptcy and is still free to keep spending itself into a bigger and bigger hole.

[Fformula88]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »See, now there is a smart thing that the State of New York does. Here, the city declared bankruptcy and is still free to keep spending itself into a bigger and bigger hole. They could have been smarter than they are too. The control board was a good choice, but they didn't really give it enough power to impose any sweeping changes in the way the city does business. They have locked down new hiring, and must give the city an OK to the budget, but they really don't have the teeth to force the unions to the table to hammer out some better deals. So it has been a fight to significantly cut back spending.Our local brain trust (note sarcasm) has also come up with a plan to consolidate the city and county government into one. They claim it would be cheaper, but its really to force the suburbs to put money into the city through the county property and sales taxes. The real irony is that the county refuses to give the 1% of its 4% tax to the city now, without consolidation, even though every other county in the state gives that 1% over to its major city (Rochester, Albany and Syracuse). That would be easy to do, but they want to consolidate. Unfortunately, that plan doesn't have wings either since it is against the state consititution, and there is not much support for ammending it.It amazes me how bad our governments here are at getting anything done. Much worse than Pittsburgh IMO which has actually gotten a few things built, and has actual business in its downtown. But by the sound if it, Pittsburgh isn't much better.

[Stang2Vibe]

Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »but they really don't have the teeth to force the unions to the table to hammer out some better deals.Yeah, we had this problem too. Until reality hit the union organizers. The city basically told them either you come to the table and renegotiate or we will just start to privatize the contracts. You can't really argue when the city has the power of the bankruptcy courts behind it. So they came to the table kicking and screaming and reworked some of the deals, then they whined about it in the local papers (also run by the union) ever since. On the rare occasion that I do look at a major local paper, I often still see that they are cry-babying about it. They don't seem to understand that getting a little bit less is still better than getting nothing at all. We're all feeling the pinch, somehow they thought that they should be immune to it at our expense I guess.Quote, originally posted by Fformula88 »Our local brain trust (note sarcasm) has also come up with a plan to consolidate the city and county government into one. They claim it would be cheaper, but its really to force the suburbs to put money into the city through the county property and sales taxes.They're still floating this same idea here. The county keeps telling them to go screw off. They also tried to force it in the courts, but I guess our laws prevent it as well. Around here, there are many who work in the city, but live in an independent suburb. Our suburbs don't share any tax revenue with the city. So basically what they were essentially trying to do was effectively make all of Allegheny county the City of Pittsburgh. When they tried that, the people went beserk. Boroughs and Townships were forming committees and hiring lawyers to attempt to suceed from the county and join the next closest neighboring county. The neighboring counties loved this, as it would have brought them much more revenue, and their tax rates are already much lower as it is now so most people would have supported it. The city would have shot itself in the foot if they succeeded in doing what they had planned because instead of gaining the rest of Allegheny county's tax revenue, they would have made the city a little island with next to no residents to tax. Now they are threatening to raise the annual occupational tax by 10 times what it is now. Our state income tax is supposed to be going up now as well. And they brought back 2 old wage taxes in the state that were abolished about 15 years ago. They just keep digging a bigger and bigger hole.