Time to Reconsider

Crowds return to Auckland’s Eden Park for a post lockdown Super Rugby Aotearoa fi xture in June 2020. Credit: Eden Park/Photosport NZ.

Kevin Wilson suggests that the Coronavirus pandemic has further exaggerated the ‘white elephant’ characteristics of just about all large spectator sport facilities

In recent years, some sports facilities have been called ‘white elephants’. The term dates back to ancient Asia when a king would gift a white elephant to a subordinate he was dissatisfied with because the associated costs of keeping a white elephant significantly outweigh its value.

Today’s white elephants include sports facilities that have experienced substantial construction cost overruns, are underused or present a financial burden to taxpayers. White elephants are so common that sport facility legacies could possibly be the least promising benefit of hosting a major sport event.

However, the term has generally not yet been applied to sport facilities that professional sport teams call home. The pandemic has further exaggerated these white elephant characteristics of just about all large spectator sport facilities.

Between 2000 and 2018, there have been substantial cost overruns for hosting the Olympic Games. Much of this can be attributed to sport facilities. For example, the stadium constructed for the 1976 Montréal Olympics - known as the Big O - had an original estimated cost of US$250 million and is now often referred to as the ‘Big Owe’ because construction costs inflated to a US$1.4 billion project. Public Losses Generally, publicly owned sport facilities have suffered far worse than those that are privately owned. Most sport facilities that were constructed for major sport events between 1996 and 2010 have experienced use and financial challenges. These often become financial burdens for taxpayers.

The problem extends to recently constructed facilities. The 2014 Sochi Olympics produced multiple sport facilities that have struggled with post-event use and cost upwards of US$399 million per year to maintain. Similarly, a judge has ordered the closure of the 2016 Rio Olympic Park over safety concerns. The sport facilities began to fall into disrepair only six months after the Games concluded.

In North America, there have been over 40 professional sport facilities constructed or renovated since 2005 for the five major sport leagues. While the vast majority of these teams are privately owned, the facility projects have received US$12.6 billion in public subsidies, or 48% of the cost.

Whether it be new construction or renovation, these projects often experience substantial cost overruns and require ongoing maintenance that can be passed down to the taxpayer. As a result, public administrators and taxpayers can become

sceptical of new publicly funded projects and conflict may arise between sport franchises and cities. Through these conflicts, franchise owners can threaten to move, ‘negotiate’ out of paying rent, and once construction is completed, the values of these franchises’ skyrocket.

For the Sydney 2000 Olympic games, the main stadium, Stadium Australia, was financed through a private-public partnership with the state government contributing AU$135 million. The private consortium unit holders were entitled to buy tickets for all hosted events until 2031.

While the stadium’s size was reduced from 110,000 during the games to 80,000 post-games, there were not enough events to generate the attendance required to sustain the stadium and it was sold in 2007 to the main creditor (ANZ Bank) for AU$10 million. Contributing to poor attendance were nearby stadiums, the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadium with capacities of 40,000, that were preferred by local teams. Ultimately, local teams preferred the smaller stadiums due to spectator atmosphere and the desire to play their matches in a full stadium.

Pandemic’s Effects The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted use and attendance at sport facilities, with long-term implications that are largely unknown. The immediate impact forced the closure of sport facilities and many leagues around the world operated in bubbles and without fans.

For example, a daunting sight for sport, the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles (in the US state of California), the most expensive single sport facility project in history with a price tag of US$5 billion and the capacity to hold up to 100,000 for select events opened in September 2020 and saw zero fans in its first season of operation.

Meanwhile, Australia, not hit as hard by the pandemic, has experienced glimpses of hope along with occasional regressions. In November last year, over 52,000 people attended the NRL Grand Final at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and, as of April 2021 venues across the country are moving toward operating at 100% capacity. However, COVID-19 outbreaks during events, such as the Australian Open that took place in Melbourne in February, forced organisers to refund tickets and reduce crowd sizes in an attempt to control the virus and prevent it from affecting the players.

Around the world, there have been various initiatives - and practices adopted - to reopen sport facilities.

For instance, some venues have blocked off the first six to eight rows of lower tier sections to protect players while another approach is to only reopen certain sections of seating, reduce the number of tickets sold and deliberately space spectators out to allow for physical distancing. However, this also dramatically reduces seating capacities and revenue.

Ultimately as it stands today, consuming sports from the comfort of home currently provides the lowest risk for sport consumers. Virus-proofing sport facilities and implementing infection prevention and control mechanisms that convince fans that it is safe to return will be necessary to encourage post-pandemic attendance.

The Future of Sporting Infrastructure The examples in this article highlight the importance of evidence-based planning to avoid white elephants. The most successful sport facilities are strategically located and linked to urban conditions, demographics and socio-economic status, such as the London Aquatics Centre and the Copper Box Arena built for the 2012 Olympics or the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre built for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Strategic locations include using brownfields (unused land previously used for industrial purposes) situated within urban regeneration areas that experience high levels of traffic. Brownfields are often occupied by infrastructure that has been deemed obsolete. Planners should consider repurposing existing facilities and, if there is no immediate need based on the urban conditions, building temporary facilities that will be deconstructed after events.

When new sport facilities align with long-term city plans, strategic partnerships should be explored, and these partners must be involved through the design stages. For example, professional sports teams are potential key partners because the most successful facilities have a professional sports team as an anchor tenant. Another consideration is to design and build adaptable and flexible facilities that include spaces for recreation and public use to give the facility additional opportunities for community attachment and public benefits.

After the pandemic, sport facilities will likely need to be reimagined with alterations to building codes to virus-proof the stands and amenities. Key areas of concern remain crowd management, restrooms, concessions, breaks/intermissions, parking and high-touch surfaces. In the meantime, sport facility operators must consider infection prevention and control plans, case management plans and disinfection procedures.

Future consumption patterns of younger audiences should be considered in order to adapt to and apply new technologies like virtual reality. As technologies advance, the trend of athome spectator sport consumption will likely increase, reducing the need for large spectator sport facilities.

Finally, above all else, the size of facilities needs a major reconsideration. International organisations need to eliminate the size requirements of unnecessarily large facilities and increase the emphasis on practicality, servicing local market conditions and general post-event usage. Kevin Wilson is a PhD Student in Recreation and Leisure Studies at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This article is based on an opinion first published in The Conversation.

Crowds return to London Olympics venue the Copper Box Arena.