If you know a thing or two about Omar Bongo, it's quite fitting that the stadium named after him is the way it is. Omar Bongo was president of Gabon for FORTY-TWO YEARS from 1967 to 2009! He was succeeded by his SON, Ali Bongo. Bongo was one of the wealthiest heads of state in the world thanks to oil revenue and corruption. Bongo was given hundreds of millions of euros of illicit payments by the French to allow them to exploit Gabon's oil. He used the money to acquire lavish properties in France (on top of his $800 million USD presidential palace and fancy cars). He cared more about himself than his own people.
Interesting tidbits about ARCO Arena are several sections was never finished. As a kid growing up in the 80s, we had tickets near the closed off sections that was draped with clear traps, you could see paint cans and ladder and other construction materials behind the curtains. The arena was very popular amongst wresting fans as WWF held like many writing matches at ARCO. The arena hosted concerts, circuses ( my only memory of interior ARCO), Disney on Ice and livestock shows. The arena is closer to the airport than to downtown Sacramento. Lastly, exiting to the Arena is stupidly bad especially for northbound traffic. Bad road planning back in the early 80s.
Ah yes, the Arco Hole. They even had a tunnel constructed that lead from the arena to the proposed ballpark, but alas, the dreams of the early 1990s were dashed. It was a shame, as they are significant fan bases for the 49ers, Raiders, Giants, and As in that number 20 television market.
David Tepper also pulled the plug on the Charlotte FC training facility on the old Eastland Mall site. Locals here are baffled as to what degree of spine he has as to keeping any commitment to the citizens and local governments of the region. The Eastland project was a major factor in the most recent rounds of renovations to Bank of America Stadium. The Eastland project was a broken promise to revitalize an affluent Hispanic area of Charlotte and Tepper put a ton of effort into courting that community with the promise of bringing the training facility to a community that embraces futbol/soccer. Before this, the CLT FC front office was struggling to get the Hispanic community behind the MLS side, and the moment they bought and he got his money from the City of Charlotte he pulled the plug on the Eastland project.
I can see the ruins of Arco park from my window and they started construction of a massive hospital over the entire area where the Arco arena used to be
The Carolina panthers facility abandonment is disgusting. They have a crappy training facility. Tepper from what I hear is extremely stubborn. I’d put most blame on him unless proven different.
a real shame that Sacramento stadium couldn't come through, I'm surprised they didn't offer the Athletics a spot there given their issues with Alameda.
The culture? I'd say the atmosphere is better in college. More teams have a chance to win??? In the past 20 seasons 12 college teams have won. 10 NBA teams have won. That about the same to me. If you think more than 12 teams realistically have a shot in college, I have a bridge to sell you. There may be only 5 nba teams with a shot, but 1/6 is a much bigger percentage then 12/350 or so. The NBA players are vastly more skilled, and that goes without saying. If you appreciate the game at the highest level, then there is no contest. The college games does get you hype, and a high level college game is a good product. But the NBA is king in more ways than one
Regarding the 2023 AFC Asian Cup: While China was originally announced to host back in 2019, China has since said in May 2022 that due to the pandemic's circumstances, they will not host in 2023. Months later in October, Qatar was announced as the host. People might think this is their first time hosting, but it's actually not as they will be the first country to host the cup THREE TIMES (the other two were 1988 and 2011)! Due to the extreme summer temperatures there, they're hosting in January 2024. That Guangzhou stadium looks similar to the design of our wonderful Rungrado May Day Stadium which hosts our famous Arirang Mass Games. Our stadium has a capacity of 114,000, while that one will have 100,000 so ours is still bigger by capacity. For the longest time our stadium WAS the world's largest stadium...until India stole our thunder
Sleep Train/Arco arena was torn down last year. I *might know a guy* who snuck in during the demolition after hours and *they said* it was eerie seeing the place opened up and gutted the way it was, with staircases leading to 50’ drops and inaccessible sections of seats.
On the topic of stadium porn, I still think you should do a video on the Clippers' failed move to Anaheim. They're directly responsible for the construction of Arrowhead Pond (Honda Center) in Anaheim.
@@peterroberts4415 Yes, but it was originally built to lure the Clippers away from LA. I would go into more detail about why, but the story is so batshit insane that it's worth waiting for FivePoints to do a full video on it.
This isn't a "stadium" per se but the Hanoi Street Circuit in Vietnam was intended to host an F1 race in 2020. Then 2020 happened (and the race promoter got arrested for fraud iirc) and the construction was paused for the quarantine and never restarted.
What's wrong with "Sactown A's"? Also the Angels might hold some ownership rights to that geographic designator (along with about a half dozen others) /facepalm.
@@andrewclarke8630 well Sacramento is the capital of California, and the heart of Northern California not to mention Oakland can still technically call the A’s their own if the A’s take the Cal title. So it’s not really a bad idea when you ponder the idea
@@nb2008nc And play where? I'm pretty sure the Phillies aren't interested in sharing a stadium, plus there's so many cities that need an MLB team it would be ridiculous to place them somewhere there already is a team. And I can't imagine the Phillies would ever leave.
That, and have you been shopping for anything in rock hill? Place is a practical ghost town for that and it makes sense. Just drive 10 minutes up the road to the southern portions of Charlotte or 15 minutes to Mathews and you have insane shopping centers that have the fuck everything anyways.
Thanks for mentioning the Panthers’ practice facility. As a sports management student in Rock Hill, my classmates and I were definitely expecting to have a bunch of new jobs available because of that facility, but of course that didn’t pass…
All I know is, it should be illegal to leave these structures abandoned and the surrounding areas top soil scrapped off. They have to do rehabilitation before being legally allowed to step away from property like that.
Idea: Rays/MLB expansion team announce move to Charlotte, owner not named Tepper backs team, uses failed panthers practice facility in Rock Hill to make an Atlanta battery like mlb stadium.
2:34 it's mEstAlla. Also, their current owner is a Dan Snyder-type of P.O.S. They throw the stadium promise just to stop the supporters from protesting.
What if the real reason Valencia's Work In Progress Stadium has sat untouched for nearly 15 years is because the ghosts of the 4 workers who died at the construction site roam the stadium?
You already do an excellent job highlighting which cities could host expansion franchises for the major sports leagues. But I would love to see a video highlighting the various elements and specifics of introducing a new sports franchise to a city: logistics, TV rights, transportation, sales, markets, etc.
I lived in Charlotte and worked in rock hill a quarter mile from the practice facility when the whole thing fucking imploded. It was pretty hilarious for us all in the area. Not only was the facility to be built, but huge upgrades to the i77 corridor have been left half built too
A baseball next to Arco Arena would have been a bad idea. It is a bit of a distance away from Sacramento. The baseball team that they have is the River Cats that A's for some weird reason abandon for Nashville. It sits right across the river from downtown Sacramento. The Kings new arena is also in downtown Sacramento. They tore down part of a shopping to build it.
The A's didn't abandon Sacramento they were very successful and happy with the Rivercats. The A's wanted to resign, the owner of the Rivercats choose to switch to the Giants because they promised improvements to the stadium and take advantage of the Giant's World Series success. That Rivercats owner has passed on and the team was bought by the owner of he Kings.
@@cyclingoptions9007 Sacramento sports has been a long-standing battle with the local politicians, especially those OWNED by downtown real estate interests. Part of the reason that the Kings ended up with their arena in the downtown. Back in the 80s, the dingbat mayor of Sac town, Anne Rudin, actually didn't WANT the Kings around, so they set up Arco I, a comically-small, by even then-NBA standards, "temporary" arena which they FILLED for its first three seasons. Rudin was persuaded to at least not interfere when the then-owner of the Kings, Greg Lukinbill, had then then-named ARCO arena built. It WAS state-of-the-art when it opened (1988), at least as much as the team's finances allowed. I recall at the home opener in '88 that Rudin attended and was lustily BOOED by the crowd. At the same time, Lukinbill had big dreams of bringing an MLB team to Sacramento, and in '87 he organized an impressive "March on Baseball" event which saw some 20K baseball fans bussed to an A's game. But the problem was...TIMING. Yes, Lukinbill started construction, knowing full well that to compete for an expansion franchise, he had to show that he was serious; this was just before the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies were announced to join the NL in 1993. Meanwhile, if he was hoping to get either the Giants or the A's, as both teams were experiencing attendance problems in the early and mid-80s, and the consensus was that the Bay Area simply couldn't support two MLB teams. But..both the Giants and A's improved on the field in the late 80s, and their respective attendance figures went up quite a bit, so it was apparent that both would remain in the Bay Area. There was no way that MLB would put THREE teams in NorCal with the two existing ones doing well, drawing also from Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. The competing metros (not just Denver and Miami, but also SE Virginia, Tampa Bay, which had a new domed stadium in St. Pete, Nashville, Phoenix, and Portland, OR) for the two expected expansion franchises had bigger TV markets and population than did Sacramento. Finally, a real-estate downturn soured some of Lukinbill's other real estate ventures, and he had to sell the Kings; the new owners had no interest in Sacramento pro baseball at any level. There was actually a brief independent (Western Baseball League) minor league team in Sacramento from 1997 to 1999, the Steelheads, which draw...OK, at Sac City College's field, but they really needed their own park. Meanwhile, an investment group led by local real estate developer Art Savage bought the PCL's Vancouver Canadians, originally the Mounties, which, although they drew decently in Vancouver and had just won the PCL championship, had higher operating costs (mandated Canada health care taxes) and were frustrated at the city's reluctance to replace or renovate and expand Nat Bailey Field. Savage pulled off a major "coup" in getting some prime land near the Sacramento river with a commanding view of the Sacramento downtown and excellent access to the I-5 and US 50 freeways, and right under the noses of the Sacramento politicians, whom had also opposed the formation of the relatively new city the new park was to be built in, WEST Sacramento, which is also in a different county (Yolo versus Sacramento). West Sac had also seen the construction of a new landmark along the river, the "Ziggurat", which was the corporate HQ of the now-defunct Money Store. When lit up at night, the structure gave an impressive view, and its parking garage, empty for most evening games, provided some sorely-needed parking. Savage got the new park up in record time, the 'Cats played about the first 35 games of their 2000 schedule on the road while the ballpark was made "sorta" ready for baseball, construction would finish during that inaugural season. The RiverCats were a big hit in Sac town, drawing 861K fans their first season, and they bested that the following year. Art Savage passed away in 2008, and his widow continued to head the club, but she finally sold the team to...the Sacramento Kings! So, in a way, professional baseball has come "full circle", although with the Kings having departed "ARCO, Power Balance, Sleep Train" Arena eight years ago and the facility slated for demolition and redevelopment, it's quite unlikely that Lukinbill's "pit" will ever see a ballgame. Besides, de facto, it's become a "wetland", and will pose a regulatory headache for whatever development does happen. The A's are more or less "done" in Oakland, but it appears that Las Vegas has the "inside track" to get them. That's part of the reason the A's moved their AAA-affiliate, in Sacramento until 2014 (the Giants offered a better affiliation deal which included enough cash to retire the extant debt on Raley Field, as they were flush with cash after three World Series crowns in the 2010s), the A's had to set up with Nashville for three years until Las Vegas, with its awful Cashman Field being replaced by the new and very nice Las Vegas Ballpark, in the better part of the Vegas Valley's Summerlin area. The current proposal for the "Las Vegas A's" would be on the Strip (naturally), not far from Allegiant Stadium.
I haven't watched the entire video and I just know, know, know Nou Mestalla is in the list. One of the most infamous abandoned stadiums. Crazy that it's been a decade and there is no graffiti or property damage due to criminal elements. Still looks ready to be finished. Shows how much those fans respect and value the club. Even though Valencia totally sucks this year.
up in Danbury CT things went almost opposite to the theme of this video, A lot that sat with a failed condo complex foundation for years eventually became the ice arena where they have had their minor league hockey teams.
@@OCs_And_Stories I mean so was the first minor league team, mob funded that is. I know a lot of the story due to growing up there but I always tell people to watch Crime and Penalties on Netflix because if one just says things to people about it, it sounds impossible to be true.
Everton's Bramley Moore Dock may well end up joining this list. Word has it the project is going to run out of funding in mid 2023 and have to be mothballed with the project only just over half completed.
The Arco Park plan looks almost exactly like the second proposal for a stadium at Baltimore's Camden Yards (look it up). The failed project was karma for Gregg Lukenbill who had moved the Kings from Kansas City, MO.
David Tepper is an egomaniac and decided to throw a tantrum, when Rock Hill wouldn't give him money for his teams personal project, and cancelled it. Much like most owners, who are already exorbitantly wealthy, he likes to live on other people's money and gets upset when he doesn't get his way. I don't live in South Carolina, but I'm sure the people there are happy to not pay millions for his personal playground where the taxpayer that would be funding a good portion of it would have no access, or would have to pay to access. Tepper is going to be one of those owners that you keep hearing about for all the wrong reasons.
Both Sleep Train Arena and the unfinished Arco Park are no more. Demolition of Sleep Train (aka Arco Arena) began in August of 2022, and the entire area is now a dirt lot (pending construction of a new university hospital)
It's a good thing Sacramento didn't have two holes in the ground sports spot & and the Sacramento Kings are going to put the final nail in the coffin for the 16-year not appearing in the NBA Post Season droughts
I'm surprised that the final one is so close to me. I mean Sacramento is only about an hour 40 to 2 hours to the east of me. Surprised again to find out that they were trying to lure the San Francisco Giants there. I'm sorry but when there's such a big fan base in San Francisco there isn't really any reason for the Giants to move out from there. Until recently the Oakland A's had been the far more successful franchise in the Bay Area as they had won four World series including sweeping the Giants in that fourth win. I'd say technically Sacramento could try to lure the Oakland A's away since the A's seem likely to eventually at some point to completely leave Oakland and then cause that disaster of a city to be even worse than it already is.
The A's may have, until recent years, been more successful on the field than the Giants, especially at their expense in the 1989 World Series, but they usually did worse at the gate and in the media than did the Giants. They've even lacked a local TV deal for some time now, which is all but a death knell to their remaining in the Bay Area. In a way, it's a shame; the A's several times (re)built a winner from the ashes, most notably during the "Moneyball" era of 1999 to 2006 and again from 2012-2013 and 2018-2021. The latest collapse in both performance and attendance has been PRECIPITOUS. The Giants initially were happy with Candlestick when it was simply a ballpark, but it's weather problems soon proved downright comical. It was the enclosure of the park to accomodate 49ers football that turned the place into a concrete monstrosity.
The reason why is ARCO Arena/Park is pretty far out of Downtown Sacramento. That's the main reason why the Kings wanted to get out of the place (outside its old age). The Rivercats and the new Kings stadiums are in downtown Sacramento and Republic FC's stadium isn't too far either. Their new proposal would move them even closer to downtown, rather than 10-15 minutes up north of Sacramento near the airport
@@gbalph4 from what I've read, the MLS is essentially waiting on Sacramento to put all the funding together since COVID essentially killed the planned stadium
@@btone310 Thanks for the correction, even though I live in the area I'm not super familiar with Sacramento. Either way its a helluva lot closer to downtown than ARCO haha
I have a feeling that most of these stadiums that were abandoned during construction was planned during 2007 and died due to the financial crash of 2008
Never thought I would see my country with a half built stadium, but not even surprised that is Nou Mestalla the one we are talking about. Valencia is the only city that builds several meters tall sculptures to burn them, so it's in their genes. Also remarkable the urban F1 circuit in Valencia, did it last maybe 4 years?
Santiago Calatrave is great at designing, but terrible at figuring out how to actually build within a budget! I don’t think anything he’s built was under budget.
You misspelled Mestalla. It's not Mastella like you wrote but Mestalla and the name come from the irrigation canal that was near the stadium when it was originally built.
