This sounds like a great plan, and very necessary as well. Ladd-Peebles Stadium is a sporting hotspot with the Senior Bowl and numerous high school football games. Its contribution to our economy is very large. Too bad it is in a terrible location. All of the rusty gates and such need to go. It’s good to see that they are trying. Hopefully the Senior Bowl will be in Mobile for years to come.

I can picture little electric shuttles taking people from centralized parking areas to the various hot spots.  Special events on weekends…..  Yeah, probably just a dream, but it would definitely provide the area with something interesting and fun, if it was supported by the public.

Ladd-Peebles would still be there, so it could continue with high school ball as needed, etc. as long as its budget was cut way back in order to support the new facilities.

@BamaBob

Yeah, I think that would be pretty cool to have.  Maybe have some sports-themed restaurants (like Wings, or maybe an ESPN Zone!) and stuff like batting cages and mini-golf.  Like I said before, the only problem with something like that may be game scheduling, since 2 types of games on one night in close proximity could cause major traffic issues.

PS: No, I don’t think Mobile could really provide the volume needed to support an ESPN Zone.

What about the USA football complex?

I don’t even know if the area around the Hank would be feasible (kind of swampy), but I was kind of thinking in terms of a sports area in the city that could grow into a multi-purpose complex at some point in time.  Kind of an all-in-one sports area that would draw a lot of attention.

@BamaBob

I completely agree with you.  I would love to see a brand new, state-of-the-art stadium that we could grow into.  Near the Hank would be a good location, as long as it is not used like Ladd-Peebles.  Currently, Ladd-Peebles hosts a number of high-school football games during the season, and those fall on the same nights a some Bay Bears games.  Proper scheduling could always fix this, as well, but maybe a different location would be a better idea.

Unlike the MoonPie, the Senior Bowl and the GMAC Bowl do actually put a lot of money into the local economy.  Of course, all the expenditures have not been all that wise in the past.  They spent a fortune putting an irrigation system under the field and a very short time later it was decided to put down the artificial turf.  A little foresight would have gone a long way in that instance.

I’ve always hoped some thought would be given to a new stadium located near the Hank.  Instead of pumping millions of dollars into that old stadium every couple of years.  A modern facility might even bring in more prominent games.  Just a thought….

@SouthernMama82

They spend it on the football stadium because the GMAC bowl brings a lot of money into the local economy.  Also, they aren’t spending $2.5mil on the stadium.  The fund for the stadium improvements are going to come from the budget of the $2.5mil capital improvement project which has already been decided on.  This means that instead of using other city fund that could be used for something else, they are using funds that have already been set aside for things exactly like this.

this ticks me off! our economy is bad & yet the city can buy $9,000 moon pies & spend 2.5 million dollars on a foot ball stadium. why can’t they give that money to the bay area food bank, make more homeless shelters, or give it to our schools? no instead we want to look good.