Contempt

Ah, the Central Terminal. Something else that was built in the wrong place a long time ago that has evaded redevelopment because it's in the wrong place.

BTW, this is what the Alouettes stadium looked like when it was new. I think it's fair to say it's not all that old. The Aud opened in 1940, had a major reno 30 years later to accommodate the Sabres and closed in 1996 at 56 years old. When the Bills stadium is slated to close it will be 54-55 years old. Camp Nou is about to be fully renovated, at a cost of 1.3 billion Euro and Barca will have to play somewhere else for at least a season. It's also fair to say the climate in Barcelona is a little more structure friendly than Orchard Park. The argument isn't that you can't have a building that old. Fenway and Wrigley Field are both very old and in ugly climates. However, they are steel structures, not concrete, and that makes a difference. It makes a difference to the preventative maintenance that can be done and the ability you have to repair and replace elements as they cease to be structurally sound. Once reinforced concrete is compromised it really can't be fixed. You can band aid it to extend its life, and they have, but it's not fully repairable and it will continue to degrade until it either fails or you replace it. It's not like a girder that you can brace around, remove, and replace with a new girder (that's not exactly easy either, but it's possible most of the time). When concrete is broken it's broken. When the rebar starts to rust, it continues to rust, and expand, and crack the concrete from the inside. That process has started. It started a long time ago. To continually patch and reinforce is to chase something that wants to turn to dust and it ceases to be cost effective to do so and sometimes it ceases to be possible. I didn't hear the county arguing that the structure of the upper deck wasn't a serious problem. If it were posturing I'd expect to hear a lot more blow back. You didn't hear it because it IS a problem and they know it's a problem and it's a problem with a very expensive solution. The county has their own engineers and they've gotten their own reports during previous renovation and maintenance work.

And where would the team play in the year or two it would take to tear off the current upper deck and replace it? I also SERIOUSLY doubt that you could accomplish that work for 140 million dollars. I agree, but it is well within the time frame where a reno is in order.

They let people drive over structurally deficient bridges every day too. It doesn't mean they don't need to be fixed or rebuilt in the near future. The reinforcing steel they slapped onto the underside of the upper deck wasn't done for fun. It's a 50 year old concrete structure in a winter climate that has been repeatedly exposed to a lot of salt. The concrete hasn't stopped degrading in the time since they put the reinforcing steel on, it has only gotten worse. Is it still safe today? Yes, hence people still sit in it, but in another 5-7 years it would be time for more extensive reconstruction beyond what could be achieved with band-aids. I don't see what's hard to understand about that. To reference bridges again, if you had a 50+ year old concrete bridge in a northern climate nobody would be surprised if it needed to be replaced. Point to another elevated concrete structure of that age, in that area, that hasn't had to be significantly redone or fully replaced. To weigh in on KBC renovations. It has been a couple years since I have been there, but when I was there it was already getting tatty compared to other arenas I've been to and there are design elements that were poorly done to start with including access to the upper deck. Again, for reference, the KBC opened in 1996. It has been in use for 26 years. Memorial Auditorium served the Sabres for 26 years. Wells Fargo Center in Philly is about the same age. Go there and then go to KBC and tell me they are comparable.

That's fair, but there is another ship in the active fleet with that name so it's not like the Navy hasn't attempted to carry on the legacy.

I dont think the government owns the ship anymore do they?

Butcher would not be playoff eligible iirc though. Yes, that is exactly why. They are qualifying based on winning percentage.

I'm willing to concede the Power as Pronger dream but Jokiharu as Niedermayer seems a bit of a stretch even looking at him optimistically.