Skatepark hyperbole?

Mayor White held a press conference about the city's new skatepark, scheduled to open next summer, yesterday. Apparently, some people at KHOU were very excited about it. In their coverage, they said that the new skatepark will cover 30,00 acres. As one blogger pointed out, this is larger than the entire Reliant Stadium complex. The world's largest skatepark is the size of three football fields - roughly 3 acres, not 30,000.

We did a little investigation and learned that the skatepark, which is named after Lee and Joe Jamail, will actually cover 30,000 square feet - a much more reasonable figure. The park will be located at the end of Sabine Street, along Memorial Parkway. The city called it a "new place for the young and young-at-heart to ride the bowl, grind the rail or skate the half-pipe" and the facilities will be state-of-the-art. There will be areas for skaters of all experience levels and will allow beginners to get comfortable skating before moving into the big-league "intermediate" area. A local organization, Public Use Skateparks for Houston or PUSH, worked with the city to plan the park. Their director, Jason Esespeth, told KUHF:

It encompasses all the opinions that we have collected over the last couple of years from skaters throughout the community, so we're trying to incorporate as many elements of skating into this park as possible to accommodate the different types of skateboarding.

The park is in a prime location with a gorgeous skyline view. Construction will begin next month and is slated to be finished early next summer.