St. Louis Arena / Lotte World

I have an incredible amount of nostalgia for the St. Louis Ambush.  I was a loyal fan, and they left me.  So did the St. Louis Storm.

All of my childhood memories of sporting events took place in stadia now destroyed.  Busch Stadium is now just a circular imprint on the ground.  The St. Louis Arena, the Checkerdome, was destroyed.

It really is sad too.  The St. Louis Arena (1929-1999) held a lot of St. Louis history.  It housed quite a few events over the years.  It also held quite a few sports teams.  In hockey, there were the Flyers, the Eagles, Braves, and of course the Blues.  In soccer, we had the Steamers, Storm, and Ambush.  Other than the SLU Bilikins and the Spirits of St. Louis, we had an NBA team: the Hawks,

Most of the teams that left us, like the now Atlanta Hawks, did so because the St. Louis Arena was falling apart due to deferred maintenance.

When it was time to tear it down, the opposition from locals was strong.  Generations of St. Louisans formed strong attachments there.  The city thought of it as a liability though and due to a non-compete agreement with the new Kiel Center did not allow it to be occupied.  Bob Cassilly, the artist behind the St. Louis City Museum, offered $200,000 for the arena, which the city refused.  It was demolished soon after.

I must ask, "What if Bob Cassilly had done something with the St. Louis Arena in 1999, and it wasn't destroyed?"  Judging by his work, I'd assume it would now be a very interesting space.  Perhaps he'd gut it and just use the shell for a completely different purpose.  While thinking of this, I realized how similar the St. Louis Arena is to another place I am familiar with.

Now, I'm certain Mr. Cassilly would have come up with something unique, perhaps pursuing his aquarium there.  I can't help but wonder though if perhaps we might have something like Lotte World.  Lotte World is an amusement park in Seoul, South Korea.  It is an incredible park for its use of space.  On my first visit, I was consistently amazed to discover yet more vastness to the structure.

In the main area, there is an ice rink and a mall of sorts.  On the ceiling there are moving 'hot air balloons.'  There is a rollar coaster, an underground river rafting adventure, a swinging ship, a jeep safari, and all sorts of things that simply shouldn't fit into such a confined space, but do.  There's also a monorail leading to the larger rides on the adjoining adventure island.

Lotte World is a major adventure park inside a major city.  It doesn't sprawl out like Six Flags.  It somehow manages to stay contained mostly inside a single building, very much like the St. Louis City Museum.  This crazy island next to the main building is somewhat like Monstro City.  Where it couldn't all be contained indoors, some spilled out,

Lotte World is going to double in size again soon too.  For the past decade or so, there have been plans for an expansion along with a super-tall skyscraper to hold all of the Lotte Group's offices.  The park will be a part of this.

It may seem unreasonable to compare a demolished sports arena to a foreign theme park, but why not?  Anything could have happened.  Bob Cassilly could have done anything.  There was certainly enough space.