Stadium at Balloon Fiesta Park would put profits before people
You might have heard news stories recently about people living near Balloon Fiesta Park who appealed a decision to permit construction of a multi-use stadium by the New Mexico United soccer team.
The team’s owners stress the benefits their soccer team brings to Albuquerque. We don’t dispute that New Mexico United is great for the community. We just don’t think their stadium belongs at Balloon Fiesta Park.
The neighbors residing along North Edith Boulevard and in the Maria Diers subdivision off Second Street have lived with adverse impacts from the park for decades, and we have had enough.
Amplified sound and fireworks from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the city of Albuquerque’s Freedom 4th celebration and assorted music festivals cause our walls and windows to rattle.
But Balloon Fiesta is only 11 days per year, and Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta now collaborates closely with neighbors to turn the sound down when things get too loud.
However, some events can get very loud, and the city Parks & Recreation staff do not do a decent job of ensuring events comply with the city’s existing sound ordinance. Our calls to 311 and the park manager don’t always receive a response.
If the stadium is built, New Mexico United would play 17 home games per year. The team’s owners also hope to host women’s soccer, so add another 17 or so games.
Then, because this is a “multi-use” stadium, the team would have every incentive to rent it out as often as possible to help recoup its investment. It could host concerts and festivals, all with amplified music, and there could easily be one or two events every weekend of the year. New Mexico United also won’t commit to limit non-soccer uses.
Neighbors are also concerned about lighting, traffic, disruption to wildlife in the nearby bosque and adverse impacts to the river due to the arroyos that run through the park, adjacent to an old landfill. At the same time, existing park users, including youth soccer teams who practice there, model airplane enthusiasts and even the Balloon Fiesta, could be affected.
The team, and the city, wants to put an amusement park in our backyards, creating profit for a few businesspeople at the expense of hundreds of residents in the surrounding neighborhoods whose property values would be irreparably damaged. The rural nature of our neighborhoods would be forever changed.
New Mexico United states they are designing their stadium to minimize sound impacts on the neighborhoods. Yet, when confronted about specifics, they are permitting an ear-splitting 90 decibels of sound on the soccer pitch even as their poorly designed sound study badly understates the noise that would be audible outside the park. They merely promise to “work” with neighborhoods to mitigate the impacts.
Assurances that the team will “work with” the neighborhoods after the stadium is built simply won’t cut it. Once it exists, nothing will prevent them from doing whatever they like and if the team and its stadium were sold, any assurances would go out the window.
We have borne the nuisances from Balloon Fiesta Park long enough. The neighbors successfully appealed a Nov. 16, 2023, Environmental Planning Commission decision allowing the stadium’s construction.
When the EPC takes up the case again next month, we hope it will take our concerns seriously.