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]

Chester’s Roadmap To Peace Thwarted

CHESTER - Tonight’s scheduled “Peace on the Streets Jam” had to be canceled after the headlining performer was arrested on drug and weapons charges last week, according to Chester officials.

Yeah, but did he attack anybody?

Chester cancels peace concert [Delco Times]

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]

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.

MLS Team Coming To Exciting Chester

The Inquirer reports today the deal for a state-funded soccer team in Chester within reach, according to sources.

Fair enough. I trust that the Inquirer is correct and Philly will be getting a team in Chester. But, you know, you could also just read this Houston Chronicle interview with the head of MLS from yesterday, where he confirms it as well:

These things are so complicated. We just went through a three-year process in Philadelphia, which we finalized. It’s probably the best deal that we have in the league, north of $80 million in public funding for a stadium, but it took a great deal of effort and lots of work with the governor’s office, the state (Pennsylvania), county (Delaware) and city (Chester).

Woohoo! We get a soccer team here in Philadelphia, and we get to pay for it with $80 million dollars going to rich people as well. (Now, if only stadiums actually did anything to improve an area.) You may begin fantasizing about an aging Zinedine Zidane coming to play for the Philadelphia MLS club; we’re already trying to come up with headbutt-themed fan club names.

Soccer deal is within reach, say sources [Inquirer]
The commissioner has answers [Houston Chronicle]

Beloved Soccer Fans Evicted From Wikipedia

Philadelphia — well, Chester — might be getting a state-funded soccer team in MLS, but not all is rosy for the team’s fan club, the Sons of Ben.

Yes, someone has nominated their Wikipedia article for deletion, and it appears to be destined to be removed from Wikipedia. While the Sons of Ben have gotten a couple mentions in the news, it appears that these Wikipedia editors have been on the receiving end of the group’s emails, which usually are sent five times in a row or so.

Or perhaps it’s just this: “Not only not notable, but also totally lame. Linking to user pages from the article just shows what a joke it is.” Oh, you showed them!

Shot Through The Heart, And SEPTA’s To Blame

It’s official: The idea of getting on a SEPTA bus is worse than being shot. Someone ought to pass some reasonable legislation about that.

Woman Boards SEPTA Bus Not Realizing She’d Been Shot [KYW 1060]

Leftovers: Store To Open At Mall

• The lead story on Philly.com right now is this one about Nordstrom’s, which is opening in Cherry Hill Mall in 2009. We don’t know why, either, but we’re as pumped as the Inky is about it! Capitalism wow! [Inquirer]

• Metro: So, any plans to attempt to help revitalize Chester aside from the casino? Harrah’s: Uh, no, but our casino will be nice! [Metro]

• According to CP, in the new Monopoly Philadelphia is Virginia Avenue. A red space? (And right next to Denver.) We don’t even get a yellow? Shit, I was hoping for a green one. Ouch. [The Clog]

• Shooting a guy six times after running him down with his your car because you think he stole your chain? Still possibly murder. [KYW 1060]