By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jim Matthews of Sharonville has to be in downtown Cincinnati this morning for the 8 a.m. implosion of Cinergy Field, but if you're reading this before the big boom, you don't. As a matter of fact, you can fergeddaboutit at this point. You'll be better off watching on TV.

Mr. Matthews is the 38-year-old winner of the United Way's charity raffle.

A last look at Cinergy Field, with Great American Ball Park next door. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

At 8 a.m., if all goes well, he will push a ceremonial button that is to be followed by the 37-second implosion of the stadium that has dominated Cincinnati's waterfront and its professional sports scene for 32 years.

He'll be standing on a platform on the eastern plaza of Paul Brown Stadium with hundreds of media and specially invited guests when 22,500 tons of steel, 70 miles of reinforced concrete and 600,000 square feet of masonry come tumbling down.

On the streets of downtown Cincinnati and the riverbanks of Covington and Newport, Tristate residents will gather in the early morning chill to watch the historic event.

Hundreds of thousands more will watch on live television from their homes.

County officials and the demolition professionals of Cincinnati-based O'Rourke Wrecking Co., who have been planning for the 37-second event for a solid year, are hoping against big crowds on downtown streets.

DON'T MISS IT

Go to Cincinnati.com for updated coverage before, during and after today's implosion of Cinergy Field. There will be live reports from 5:30 a.m. until 10 a.m. on the latest traffic and weather conditions, real-time video from inside and outside the stadium and more.

Those who watch from downtown Cincinnati office towers, Covington hotels and restaurants, and from the VIP area in the East Club Lounge of Paul Brown Stadium will have an excellent view.

Many of those in the public viewing area on the north sidewalk of Third Street may not, unless they get a spot up front.

"Watch from home," is the advice of Mike Sieving, Hamilton County's construction manager.

All four Cincinnati network stations plan to carry the event live.

WLWT (channel 5), which broadcast Reds games for nearly 50 years, will devote the most time to the implosion, staying on the air from 6 to 9 a.m.

WCPO (Channel 9) will be on the air from 7 to 9 a.m., while WKRC (Channel 12) will be live for only a half-hour, 7:45 to 8:15 a.m. WXIX (Channel 19) plans a one-hour special from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.

Demolition experts had worried that strong winds from the south-southwest might cause a problem for people on Third Street if the dust cloud from the implosion blew in that direction.

But as of Saturday evening, the National Weather Service was predicting light winds and mostly sunny skies.

The stadium will come down with the help of 1,400 pounds of explosives - a 60 percent nitroglycerine mix - implanted over the past week in more than 2,000 holes drilled into the stadium's supporting columns.

Cinergy will not fall in on itself, as is the case with most implosions. Because of its circular structure, the collapse will begin with the northeast corner of the stadium and run counter-clockwise to the southeast corner, until the entire structure has fallen into a 45-foot high floodwall that surrounds it.

The floodwall, O'Rourke officials, will later be demolished by conventional means.

Mr. Matthews, as winner of the United Way contest, will push a ceremonial button starting the implosion, but his will be a symbolic act. O'Rourke officials in a control center in one of the riverfront surface parking lots will actually put the implosion in motion.

Saturday afternoon, Mr. Matthews was flying to Cincinnati from Dallas, where he works as a warehouse manager.

His mother, Pat McQueen of Sharonville, who bought her son the raffle ticket, said she and a small group of friends will be on the plaza to watch Mr. Matthews' big moment.

"He's pretty excited," she said Saturday.

"This is huge."

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com