STADIAWORLD | SPORTS VENUES 2019/20

80    |   SPORTS VENUES 2019/20 www.stadiaworld.com CONSTRUCTION REPORT S ustainability... It is a word that is be- coming more and more common in the world of sports venue design. En- vironmental sustainability has been a prac- tice that came to these venues relatively late in comparison to other building types, largely because it is inherently challenging to make a building that is used sometimes as few as 15-20 days a year truly sustainable. Fortu- nately, teams and owners are recognising that besides the long term financial and environ- mental benefits of designing effective sustain- ability strategies into the venue and its oper- ations, sponsors, fans, and communities all want to be associated with buildings that are contributing to the health of the environment. As an architect whose 30-year career has focused specifically on the design of these venues, I find this trend encouraging. It is, however, a different kind of sustainability, and an equally worrying trend, that is the focus of this article. Financial sustainability is far less often discussed and yet is becom- ing one of the most challenging aspects of venue development we are currently facing. While it is true that the modern stadium or arena tends to include a dizzying array of added revenue generating spaces, from team shops, restaurants, cheese shops, clubs of every size, to offerings that rival the best hospitality experiences on the planet, these program additions are significantly driving up the capital cost of the buildings. It has become a nuclear arms race which only the largest and richest clubs can afford to compete in. Much like Formula 1, a few clubs have spent lavishly to set the bar on stadium design for a particular league and every other club is left struggling to meas- ure up. This has resulted in the reality that the average cost of a 20,000-seat NBA are- na is now approaching 1 billion dollars and the average cost of the most recent NFL stadiums is well over 1.5 billion dollars! The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has reportedly cost somewhere in the range of 1 billion pounds, setting a new record for a Premier League venue. That is an increase of over 100% in slightly more than 10 years. The cost curve has become so steep that teams who are planning new venues are often left scratching their heads trying to understand how to monetize a 1 billion dol- lars+ investment while still needing funds to recruit and train the world’s best players. An American led problem? While America can claim superiority in the stadium “arms race”, largely fueled by the surge of construction throughout each of the major sports leagues in the US over the last two decades, the US market has a specific peculiarity that has contributed sig- nificantly to the skyrocketing cost of these projects. In nearly every major city in the United States, sports franchises have en- joyed the leverage of receiving significant public investment in return for either re- maining in the city of the club’s historical roots or sometimes opening up to move the franchise to the highest bidder, usual- ly a second tier city looking to land a pro- fessional sports team. These negotiations often result in a construction investment of several hundred million dollars from the public coffers. In the case of the NFL, league owners agreed to an additional funding program known as G4 to spur new stadium development. When combined these two sources give owners plenty of incentive to build new, large, and lavish facilities. Often criticised as handouts for billionaires, there are simply far more cities wanting profes- sional teams than the amount that current- ly exist, so the threat persists. Imagine for a moment a club such as Man- chester United suggesting it was open to moving to another city unless Manchester put up several hundred million pounds to build a new stadium. There would surely be pitchforks and torches in the streets of Manchester within minutes! Unfortunately, very few leagues can match the juggernaut that is the NFL, so using the latest NFL stadium as a model for a small Serie A stadium or EFL Championship club creates completely unrealistic expec- tations. While it is tempting to be drawn into the model of packing a stadium with more and more VIP clubs and lounges in Breaking free of the stadium “arms race” We are witnessing an “arms race” in stadia development where the cost of new facilities are exceeding what most clubs can afford. In this guest article, American architect Dan Meis, FAIA, provides a profound reflection on stadium architecture. The stadium in Rome resembles the Roman Colosseum. Picture: MEIS architects