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Do you Denver, take this stadium?
By Dave Krieger, News Sports Columnist
It has that new stadium smell, which is not available at the car wash, although you can come pretty close at a paint store. But I stepped across the fresh concrete for the first time with some ambivalence after negotiating something called Sports Legends Mall and something called Counties Gateway Plaza and something called Broncos Bridge. The local football team didn't get merely a stadium, it got a theme park with no discernible theme. The very newness of the place counts against it with those loyal to doomed Mile High Stadium next door. This is not my problem. I have trouble enough getting sentimental about people. I was ambivalent because I know why it's here. And so do you. It's absurd enough that it cost $400 million to buy a "field," which is what we are supposed to call it. In fact, the field is the least of the expense, although the vacuum underneath should give us that giant sucking sound of metaphor and Ross Perot presidential campaigns. The people at the stadium district like to show off the fancy stuff in the enormous structure around the field -- the maple and marble of the luxury boxes and club seating. I'm told John Elway refers to them as the wine and cheese features. Mile High didn't do wine and cheese, at least until its top was popped for luxury boxes as an afterthought. When Mile High was built and expanded, sports teams provided only the basic necessities. These days, sports teams compete to pay players like movie stars. To recoup these vast sums, the teams cater to wealthy people and corporations with maple and marble, not to mention wet bars, for which they charge ridiculous prices, which become tax writeoffs. It is the symbiosis of wealth in a country that claims to have no aristocratic class. So these new stadiums are not necessary in any conventional sense. They became necessary only after the first one. Still, if you want your team to be competitive, you must keep up. At Mile High, the afterthought put the luxury boxes farther from the action than the highest nosebleed seat, which seemed just. At its replacement, the wine and cheese features are the backbone of the design -- a ring of luxury boxes over a ring of club seats over another ring of luxury boxes, all pushing the upper deck higher. Rich people apparently didn't want anything to do with the South Stands, which is of some comfort. That's all regular seating, though not the bleacher boards of the original. Plush carpeting and panoramic vistas grace the sprawling cocktail party spaces of the glass-encased club sections. Marble countertops and leather seats accent the luxury boxes. These places could be in an opera house. The main concourse, by contrast, is plain and utilitarian. Everyman gets unadorned concrete. I thought the beer rooms below were the best innovation. Each one has taps for 42 kegs. I asked my guide how much it would cost to install one in my home, but he seemed to think I was joking. The broad concourse is an improvement over the congested corridors at Mile High. There are more concession stands, brighter video boards, a better sound system -- all the modern conveniences, even for those not ensconced in the privileged places. Through the gates I saw Mile High's bright and weathered orange peeking in. I wondered if we have changed so much. The new stands, like the Broncos uniforms, are predominantly blue, as if vaguely ashamed of a garish past. The sightlines put Mile High's to shame, each seat oriented toward the action, curving perfectly through the corners. Mile High's metal footpads are everywhere, to replicate the rumble, if not the rattle. It is better-looking than its aged predecessor, the upper deck meeting the sky in graceful waves instead of Mile High's rusting, industrial straight line. And yet, it is here not for any of these reasons but for its ability to cater to the wealthy, which is not even a spectator sport. This is a place not merely for football, but also for deals and receptions of a different sort. Mile High had only the game. But we the people voted. We wanted a new cathedral for our weekly worship. We wanted state of the art. For better or worse, we got it. Contact Dave Krieger at (303) 892-5297 or kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.com.
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