DePaul passes on chance to play at the United Center

[redmen9194]

The scheduling really would not be as bad as it sounds. St. John's also gets third after the Knicks and the Rangers but it really has not been a problem. ESPN's hand in scheduling has probably been more of a problem.

[ChicagoX]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-depaul-in-early-talks-with-a-finkl-for-arena-site-20130416,0,2748263.story

DePaul is now looking at a site very close to campus. I don't know a lot about it, but the location would be fantastic for DePaul so I hope they can go this route.

I had wondered why this hadn't been pursued more aggressively since it's been known for a while that A. Finkl & Sons is relocating to the south side. This would absolutely be the best case scenario for DePaul. There is a ton of land at that site and plenty of room for both an arena and the parking necessary for it. The land essentially makes up the border of the southwest corner of Lincoln Park and northeast corner of Bucktown, which are both great neighborhoods with plenty to do in the area.

There is nowhere else near campus with anywhere close to as much property available, so it will be interesting to see if DePaul has the financial means to pull this off. There had been talk about building at the spot of the former Children's Hospital which is pretty much across the street from campus, but the cost of the property (60 million) combined with the fact that the site is ripe for both residential and commercial development eliminates it from contention.

An arena at the A. Finkl site would be walking distance from campus and a much, much better option than having it by McCormick. McCormick Place is about 6-7 miles from campus and I'm not really sure having it at that location would do much to improve attendance.

[sandw04]

The Finkl site is less than a mile from campus, but will have some environmental costs. It also would require considerable costs for parking structures as it is not convenient to the El. While there would not be the outcry from residential neighbors, the Finkl site is in a PMD (Planned Manufacturing District) and it could be tricky with zoning. Additionally, there are retail interests drooling over the location. For DePaul it could be a Godsend as there are 22 acres available near its Lincoln Park campus that represent the largest tract of land near its campus.

Also, many wonder why DePaul has not jumped on this location earlier. To my understanding, there was some early interest. The site was put on the market a year or two ago, but may have been pulled back by Finkl which was not completely up to production at its new location on the southside. Apparently Finkl is now prepared to vacate the property. Again, some of this is speculation on my part.

[yorost]

How many acres does an arena require? Would DePaul want to add campus there with or without an arena?

[demonsball]

Yorost, my hope would be that if the moved forward with that site (which is head and shoulders the preferable option IMO) the school would use the extra space to construct players' dorms/parking/training facilities. These are all things that DPU is currently in desperate need of. Also, as a DePaul fan I appreciate everyone's support of our program's attempt to better itself in this way!

[sandw04]

I am certainly not in the know, but I don't see DePaul adding anything other than athletic facilities on the Finkl site. NIMBYs are against pretty much any expansion of the campus with regard to increasing enrollment. There has, on the other hand, been some agreement about increased student housing. DePaul's campus is in a rather congested residential area, but the Finkl site is pretty good for traffic and doable regarding the El and Metra trains.

As far as 22 acres, I don't know the exact dimensions of the Finkl site and I believe it is mostly contiguous, but there are other steel-related businesses in that area which may also have to relocate due to Finkl's move to the south side. Again, parking structures would also require considerable land.

[Demon22]

I am certainly not in the know, but I don't see DePaul adding anything other than athletic facilities on the Finkl site. NIMBYs are against pretty much any expansion of the campus with regard to increasing enrollment.

The NIMBYs have been horribly ineffective, then. Since I graduated 15 years ago, I count 17 buildings that the school has either built, renovated, or purchased in Lincoln Park alone, not counting the new Theatre School, currently under construction.

The problem with the Finkl site is environmental. I had one school official tell me a couple of years ago that it could be $30 million just to clean up the site, not counting land acquisition costs or construction costs.