COLUMN: Stadium should be downtown

Ian Rosenblum says a new baseball stadium downtown would be a home run. Ian Rosenblum says a new baseball stadium downtown would be a home run.If you build it, they will come. So goes the conventional wisdom regarding baseball stadiums -- the current magnet used to draw suburbanites into cities. They come, they see a game, they stay to eat and drink. But it's not enough to just build a stadium and open the gates. Constructing a successful urban sports complex requires that planners carefully examine potential sites and choose the one that will most benefit the city, the team and the fans. As Philadelphia looks to building a much-needed stadium for the Phillies in the next few years, officials have the arduous task ahead of them of choosing an appropriate site. Of the three potential locations -- West Philadelphia near 30th Street Station, downtown at Broad and Spring Garden streets or near the existing stadium in South Philadelphia -- one thing is clear: West Philly is not the answer. Ever try to get onto the highway near 30th and Market streets during rush hour? Multiply that nightmare times a thousand and maybe, just maybe, you'll get an idea of what it would be like to have a stadium in an already over-congested area. Throw in a major medical center just blocks away and the result is a traffic jam that could cost lives. This isn't to say that West Philadelphia doesn't need major economic revitalization, but a baseball stadium isn't the way to go. Instead, planners should take advantage of University City's vast resources and focus on making the west bank of the Schuylkill River a place to bike, walk and picnic. West of that are academic institutions like Penn and Drexel that could better use the land to expand. And a few blocks west is 40th Street -- where Penn and community leaders need to plant the seeds of economic success. University City has the potential to be a major retail, development and academic hub without the problems a baseball stadium would bring with it. The new baseball stadium will be a better fit if it's built downtown. Imagine the Phillies' new home as a gateway to the rest of the city. Visitors from all over the region would come in, see a game and then disperse throughout Center City and nearby neighborhoods -- including University City -- to find a good restaurant or bar, some shops or a museum. Most critics of a downtown stadium point to the traffic issue and a lack of adequate public transportation. But a determined effort by stadium planners could overcome these odds and result in a stadium that is convenient and easy to get to. In addition to obvious measures such as increasing the number of running subway cars before and after games, success requires encouraging fans to take mass transit. The trick would be getting so many people from 30th Street and Suburban stations to the stadium. One solution is free shuttle buses which would travel often from major SEPTA stops to the stadium. Additional shuttles could run from further-away parking lots to the baseball field, similar to the way it works at an airport. The challenges to building a downtown stadium are daunting. But the potential for bringing so many people into the city and boosting business is far too great to ignore. And once that's settled, maybe we can talk about bringing the World Series home to Philly.