New Soccer Stadium Design Already Has Chester Residents Dancing In Streets, Screaming For More

Hey, look, there’s an initial stadium design for the soccer stadium for everyone’s favorite tax-supported local sports team, the Camden Riversharks of Chester.

The stadium, set to open in 2010, will also hold “festivals” in its entranceway, apparently, bringing the total number of days it is used a year somewhere around 25. Or so.

MLS Philly 2010 Receives Initial Stadium Design from Rosetti [MLS Philly 2010]

Soccer The Solution To Grocery Woes

The Inquirer’s Jeff Gammage wrote a piece today recently-ish about what Chester residents want the new soccer team to bring — besides $47 million dollars of state money to build a soccer stadium for under a dozen games a year.

And what is it that they want from their soccer stadium? Oh, that’s right: A new grocery store.

In downtrodden Chester, the absence of so elemental an enterprise as a supermarket rankles. People want a well-stocked store not only because of the convenience but also because supermarkets can help transform the health and welfare of entire communities - offering nutritious vegetables, fruits and meats; increasing the tax base; and, not least, providing jobs for young people.

When many Chester residents need groceries, they shop at mini-marts or bodegas. Some travel to Eddystone, which has a ShopRite and a Wal-Mart. Some drive to Delaware. Others can’t, because they don’t have a car

Chester hasn’t had a grocery store since 2001. You know what they could have built in Chester for under $47 million? Not a supermarket, that’s what. Now that we’ve solved one poorer community’s problem of not having a market, it’s time to just build soccer stadiums across the country until everyone has a brand new ACME.

One goal of soccer deal: Close grocery gap in Chester [Inquirer]

Soccer Team’s Colors Better Not Be Teal

The Inquirer’s Jeff Gammage writes today on the possible name of the area’s new MLS team, the Camden Riversharks of Chester.

And this could be the scariest sentence I’ve ever read:

The gold standard is the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, whose name, teal-and-black colors, and razor-jaw logo became a sales sensation in 1991.

Okay, I get it, he’s talking about the sales, not the colors. But if our new soccer team’s colors have any teal in it, I’m never going to a game.

Philly soccer team’s name needs to score [Inquirer]

MLS Fans Already Mugged In Chester

“My mental impression is it’s like Camden but without the glitter,” said Gray Safford, 54, a Process Engineering manager who lives in Abington. He’s taking “a wait-and-see attitude: What do I hear from other people who have gone [to games]? Because I don’t want to be the first one to go down there with my kids.”

That’s a quote in today’s Inquirer piece on the Chester redevelopment along the waterfront, the centerpiece of which is a new stadium for the Camden Riversharks of Chester. Jeff Gammage asks if people will go to the games, especially since the stadium is in, um, Chester. (”People who know nothing else about Chester know it’s somewhere they shouldn’t go at night.”)

All the soccer team needs to succeed, allegedly, is about 13,000 people a game and a couple sellouts when David Beckham comes to town. The mayor says people already go to the casino, but nothing can bring the allure like a slots parlor. Plus, is the Harrah’s demographic also likely to go to a soccer game?

But, uh, really: I think you might be okay safety-wise if you go to a soccer game in Chester. Are there routinely muggings at Kixx or Wings games? Or, for that matter, the Camden Riversharks? I think the team might also have security, too; plus the $50 million of state money is going to turn that waterfront into a new Garden of Eden, only with golden sidewalks and no forbidden trees. Your children will be safe!

Me, I care more about the train stop, which is eight blocks from the stadium, thus continuing the recent tradition of having the transit stops ridiculous distances from our sports arenas. I can barely do the four-block walk to Citizens Bank Park. There will be shuttle buses, but I don’t know if I’ll settle for anything else than shuttle Segways.

How will Chester play to MLS fans? [Inquirer]

State-Funded Soccer Team Official!

Hooray! Chester, long shut out of the non-horse racing, non-Chester High School sporting world, has finally made it to the big time. Today the Sons of Ben have more to celebrate than the Wikipedia entry for the club surviving its deletion attempt.

We finally have a soccer team in Chester. The heroic agreement between a bunch of politicians and a bunch of investors will give $47 million of free money to rich people. There’s also going to be development! The stadium will be anchoring this even though everything everywhere ever has said stadiums aren’t a great anchor for community development. It will also be near a casino, of course, so that the transfer of money from the poor to the rich will continue. Chester and Delaware counties will also be contributing $30 million.

Why all this public money for a soccer stadium? Well, team investor Nick Sakiewicz summed it up nicely: “So - otherwise it would not happen.” On that note, this is $77 million politicians can’t waste on things other than a soccer stadium, and they’d just screw it up anyway.

The team doesn’t have a name yet, and the possibilities are endless: Bandits (as in one-armed), Vandals (it’s near the prison!), Chester Gentrification FC and, of course, the Subsidies. But, really, there’s no name better than the one a friend came up with, the Camden Riversharks of Chester. I can’t wait!

Update: In other soccer news, some 23-year-old youth soccer coach in Montco pled guilty today to unlawful conduct with a minor for sending dirty texts to a 13-year-old. And the prosecutor tries to make a funny, I think: “The thing that really struck me is he’s talking about skills in terms of sexual skills when he’s supposed to be teaching her soccer skills and that’s what’s really troubling to me…the context in which they met.” Yeah, that’s what struck me too.

Update 2: Just so you know, I am way totally psyched for a soccer team in town! Not as psyched as I would have been when MLS formed, but you take what you can get.