Adriacus Peratuun said:
DanaDane said:
I'll be the naysayer. I don't think it's gonna be ready by Jan 2nd.
Have to agree. Drywall missing. Flooring not started. Playing surface incomplete. Seating incomplete. Scoreboards incomplete. Painting/prep not started. Equipment not arrived.
And the things unseen……if the flooring hasn't started, neither is tiling in bathrooms which will be done by same sub. If painting hasn't started, fixtures installed over painting not started.
Think you are being very realistic.
I'll go on a limb and say....maybe yes, maybe no.
Today is 45 days out. Back in 2000, I had the opportunity to take a construction tour of Enron Field/Minute Maid Park about 45-50 days prior to opening. Our law firm had done some work for the Astros, mainly in getting legislative approval for funding for the ballpark, and we had some connections with Drayton's construction manager on site. The backdrop of J Mo's interview looked very similar to what I saw in Houston that evening. The things I distinctly remember from that night were:
Seats were mostly in the arena. Most were installed and bolted down, but a lot were still stacked on the concourse. Most if not all of them were still covered in clear plastic. Looks like the seating at Foster is a little ahead of that schedule.
Astros clubhouse was very much a work in progress, but they had the plumbing fixtures in (I distiinctly recall that the restroom in the clubhouse had both a child's height urinal and an ADA-compliant stall. I guess the urinal finally came in handy when they signed Altuve.
No idea how far along Foster is.
Infield was installed, but they were laying giant rolls of turf in the outfield (each roll stretched from the left field wall to foul territory past 1st base). I would think getting turf to take root might be a little simpler than getting a wood floor to cure, so we may be a little behind.
I seem to recall the escalators were already installed at MMP. Might be a pinch if Foster doesn't have theirs yet.
Concessions and restrooms were fully installed in time at MMP, but I remember that the lines were horrendous for both at the first game. Will no doubt take a learning curve, even if all are fully operational by opening.
One thing the Astros had going for them is that their grand opening was for 2 final spring training exhibition games against the Yankees, then they opened the season on the road and didn't come home until 7-10 days later. Which gave them enough time to get more stuff finished. BU hits the ground running with 3 games scheduled in the first 5 days.
A bigger potential problem will be whether the city gets the garage built and the streets finished. There was mention in an article in the WTH last week that the elevators for the garage were still on back order. And if no elevators were available, then they could only use the first 4 levels of the garage instead of all 6. And naturally, any streets that are still closed or restricted will be an ongoing #$&*show.