The State of Stadia by Matthew Bunis

THE STATE OF STADIA A Critical Analysis of the Modern Stadium

Undergraduate Thesis Advisor : Daekwon Park Candidate : Matthew Bunis

- Populous, Stadia

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“Stadia are amazing buildings. They can shape our towns and cities more than almost any other building type in history, and at the same time place a community on the map. They have become an essential ingredient of the urban matrix that binds our cities together. They are arguably the most viewed building type in history thanks to the Olympics and other global sporting events. They can change people’s lives and often represent a nation’s aspirations.” 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 02 03 04 05 06

BACKGROUND An overview of the History, Symbolism, Trends, Agendas, Issues, and Legacies of large scale Stadia Design. A call for change in the way we think about, plan, design, build, contextualize, and use the Modern Stadia.

NFL TRENDS A visual guide of some of the trends currently affecting the design, use, and future of NFL stadia across the country. A focus on the effects that media has played in the growth and current status of the typology is paramount,

PARAMETERS A study of variables that have direct implecations to stadia design and performance. These variables include, regional variances, urban impact, utilization requirements, crowd control, amenity abundance, energy usage and user experience.

STRATEGIES An analysis of the methods and drivers used to inform stadia design.These methods include roof technology, facade systems, the bowl form, field dimension requirements, scale, seating, and contextual strategies.

PERSPECTIVE An examination in some other ways of thinking about a stadium. Examination of both fictional media, and real life examples of stadiums that defy typical defenitions.

CONTENTION This thesis aims to dramatically rethink, reimagine, and reconsider the stadia typology as we currently understand it, and critically project what the future of strategic stadia design might become.

PART ONE

BACKGROUND

The built environment has long been a visual representation of the status of civilization and the importance a given society places on their respective institutions. Throughout history, civilizations have built mega-structures, pushing the boundaries of architecture, engineering, and construction, all to showcase what they believe to be of utmost importance in their societies. These mega-structures have had an enduring impact on mankind, even today they have remained as lasting symbols of the civilizations that designed and built them.

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A sports stadium can be seen as a huge theatre for heroic feats. It is this combination of dramatic function and monumental scale that leads to powerful civic architecture. 2 - Populous, Stadia

Although being built at an unprecedented rate, the stadium as a social symbol has been around for thousands of years. In early Mesoamerica, ballgame courts built as early as 1400 B.C.E. were simple and relatively unchanged in form and aesthetic for nearly 2,000 years. The Romans built monumental architecturally detailed stadiums in their large urban centers. In America, the earliest major stadiums were built on some of our nation’s most prestigious universities. The University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field was built in 1895 and is widely regarded as the oldest college football stadium in the nation. The designers of Franklin Field turned to Europe and the stadiums of the past, such as the Coliseum for inspiration. The Yale Bowl, built on Yale’s campus in 1914, is one of the oldest examples of a relatively unchanged modern bowl form stadiums to be built in the early 20th century.

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The Ancients placed an emphasis on their religious buildings, which can be seen in both The Great Pyramids in Egypt and The Parthenon in Greece. The Romans and Medievals built upon the religious relics of the past and placed their emphasis on new building techniques and construction methods, which are exemplified in The Pantheon in Rome and across The Great Cathedrals of Europe. The post Renaissance age has brought about mega-structures designed to showcase the perceived economic strength of one country over the rest, which can be experienced through the previously unimaginable scale of the great Steel Structures of the 20th Century. For many people of the 21st Century, sports have replaced religion, becoming a vast economic enterprise and pushing the boundaries of entertainment along the way. Therefore, over the past 25 years, our society has turned to the Stadium, as its mega structure of choice. From high school football stadiums to prestigious private University Athletic Facilities, to Professional Sports Teams, National Stadiums, and even billion dollar Olympic Complexes have been built at an unprecedented rate.

STADIA

TIMELINE ANCIENTS + OLYMPICS

SYMBOLISM

TECNOLOGY + CONTEXT

SUSTAINABILITY

776 B.C.E. Athens Olympic Stadium 70 A.D. The Coliseum 1908 The White City Stadium 1914 Yale Bowl 1936 Berlin Olympic Stadium 1972 Munich Olympic Stadium 1975 Pontiac Silverdome 1992 Camden Yards 2012 London Olympic Stadium 2015 Leviâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Stadium

The Progressive era of stadium construction occured between the resuurection of the Olympic Game and the Second World War. This era saw no public subsidies and the transition from wooden grandstands to concrete and steel construction.

Ancient Civilizations

Modern Olympics

ANCIENT ERA The Ancient era of stadium construction is rooted in the simple racetracks of Ancient Greece, built upon by the Ancient Romans masterpiece, the Coliseum, which has remained the prototype for nearly every major stadium over the last two milenium.

PROGRESSIVE ERA Modern Olympics

World War One

The Booster era of stadium construction has seen the typology expand into a billion dollar entity, consuming massive amounts of resources and millions of dollars of publicly funded subsidies. The power has shifted from the civic leader to the team ownership, using the threat of leaving to leverage increased public funding

World War One

Mid 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

CIVIC ERA

The Civic era of stadium construction occured before the Second World War. This era saw the introduction of widespread, but relatively small publicly subsidized projects and the increased importance of the civic leaders role, in planning and construction. The idea of the stadium began to grow as a civic symbol of status.

BOOSTER ERA Mid 1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Current

SYMBOLISM

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The story of modern sport is the story of the modern world in microcosm; a modern global tapestry permanently being woven. Furthermore, nationalist and imperialist, philosopher and politician, radical and conservative have all sought in sport a manifestation of national identity, status and superiority... Sports in addition, can be a lens through which to scrutinize major themes in the political and social sciences: democracy and despotism and the great associated movements of socialism, fascism, communism and capitalism as well as political cohesion and confrontation, social reform and social stability. 3 - Mark Dryeson

In the middle of the twentieth century after years of being excluded from the Olympic Games, Germany was finally allowed back into the International Olympic Committee and ultimately given the chance to host the 1972 Olympic Games. The Germans saw this as an opportunity to redefine themselves to the world. Instead of placing a bid for the capital city of Berlin, utilizing the heavy concrete utilitarian structure that was host of the 1936 Games, the German committee chose to host the games in Munich. They built a new stadium, designed by Frei Otto, concieved of a thin, light, transparent roof structure representing the new Germany, technologically advanced, and politically transparent. This was the physical manifestation of German foreign policy which was on display throughout the Munich games.

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Since the 1936 so called ‘Nazi Olympics,’ the Modern Stadium has become so much more than just a facilitator of athletic competition. The stadium has grown into a political, social, and economic platform upon which to showcase a team, city, or nations ultimate power. Hitler used the Olympic Stadium to promote the Aryan race. The USA hockey victory against the Soviet Union was seen as an ideological victory, not just of two nations, but of democracy over communisim, East over West, the American way of life over the Soviet way of life. Today, the stadium is used as a showcase of perceived power.

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By the 1990’s, television revenues for team owners had grown substantially, and the amount of revenue that could be derived from stadium agreements also increased. Players also complicated the process, using intricate collective bargaining pacts to grab a larger slice of the pie than was possible in preceding decades. With an increasingly competitive entertainment landscape that included many leisure options, team owners were more willing to leverage their ownership status against civic pride early in the negotiating process, rather than as a last resort. As new satellite and aviation technologies erased the significance of time and space, cities were less likely to call the shots when dealing with team owners. Franchise relocation had become easier than ever to arrange. 4 - Robert C. Trumpbour

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Major League Baseball, as is the case in most other professional sports in America, began as a collection of small budget teams made up of even smaller salary players. In 1920, nearly all professional athletes needed off season jobs to keep food on the table. Professional athlete salaries remained low until the 1960’s when a wave of political and technological change swept the nation. The television transformed the number of spectators from a few thousand in the stands to millions across the country. The 1970’s brought about the institution of Collective Bargaining Agreements and Free Agency paving the way for the first million dollar contract in history. The 1980’s experienced a rise in salary that saw a handful of the best athletes on every team earning multi-million dollar contracts. Since the turn of the 1990’s, professional sports teams have become an incredibly lucrative business, allowing salaries and the number of built stadiums to skyrocket.

STADIA SALARY MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 1900 - 2005

40 MILLION

30 MILLION

10.5

20 MILLION

10 MILLION

3.5

0 1900

1910

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2005

Lincoln Financial Field

Century Link Field

Sports Authority Stadium

Edward Jones Dome

Nissan Stadium

1985 - 2005

Bank of America Stadium

EverBank Field

NRG Stadium

FedEx Field

Paul Brown Stadium

First Energy Stadium

Raymond James Stadium

Ford Field

Camden Yard

Georgia Dome

Globe Life Park

Heinz Field

Miller Park

M&T Bank Stadium

Tropicana Field

Gillette Stadium

U.S. Cellular Field

AT&T Park

Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Chase Field

Energy Solutions Arena

Citizens Bank Park

Moda Center

Comerica Field

Petco Park

Coors Field

Quicken Loans Arena

Great American Ballpark

Talking Stick Resort Arena

Minute Maid Park

Target Center

PNC Bank

TD Garden

Progressive Field

United Center

Safeco Field

Verizon Center

Turner Field

Wells Fargo Center

American Airlines Arena

Amalie Arena

American Airlines Center

BB&T Center

AT&T Center

Bridgestone Arena

Chesapeake Energy Arena

First Niagra Center

FedEx Forum

Gila River Arena

Pepsi Center

Honda Center

Phillips Arena

Nationwide Arena

Smoothie King Center

PNC Arena

Staples Center

SAP Arena

Time Warner Cable Arena

Scottrade Center

Toyota Center

Xcel Energy Center

The Stadia boom of the late twentieth century saw not just an increase in the number and scale of stadia across the country, but also a group of sport specific market sector architecture firms grew accordingly. The diagram at right traces the history of some of the most iconic and sucessfull firms to specialize in stadium design. Recently some of the largest firms in the country such as Gensler and AECOM have either aquired or established Sport divisions which specialize in Stadium deisgn. Notably Michael Hallmark formely of NJJB Sport and Entertainment left the firm to create Future Cities, a consultant firm to help guide the owner side of stadia projects . Many of the sport sector firms are headquartered out of Kansis City, Missouri, while the majority of new work is coming from abroad, while renevation and expansions are centered in the North American market.

SPORT SPECIFIC SECTOR AMERICAN SPORTS SECTOR MAJOR FIRMS 1970 - 2015

FUTURE NBBJ

NBBJ MEIS

GENSLER HKS

HKS

ELLERBE BECKET

ELLERBE

AECOM

BECKET

360 ARCH

HEINLEIN

HOK+S

CDFM

HOK

POPULOUS

KIVETT

HNTB

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

MetLife Stadium Madison Square Garden Barclays Center

The outer walls ripple gracefully, the colored flash of multi-megawatt entertainment pulses from inside, and the front plaza reaches out to yank the public in. If Madison Square Garden hunkers glumly in its concrete drum, Barclays Center is an architectural chest bump: juiced, genial, and aggressive all at once. 5 - New York Magazine

Barclays Center

Madison Square Garden

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

In the decades following World War Two, the masses began to flee to the suburbs by the thousands. As the people began to move out of the cities, the mega structure stadiums began to follow suit. In some cases, the stadium even moved miles outside of the city altogether, such as Met Life Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, in Meadowlands, New Jersey. Camden Yards is widely regarded as the first successful stadium to regenerate an urban downtown area, similar to what the Barclays Center has helped do in Brooklyn, however many stadia have only segregated cities and cut themselves off from the downtown instead of becoming a useful public space.â&#x20AC;

TRENDS

The Modern Day Mega-Event, be it the Olympics Games or the FIFA World Cup has quite literally become the physical manifestation of world economic power for nearly 50 years. The stadia that are being built and proposed today have an unfortunate track record of becoming white elephants sticking out from their context, over budget, over scaled, and under used. Instead of rising as a shining beacon of the most advanced civilization to date, the stadium has become an icon of 21st century excess, exposing issues of wealth inequality, administrative corruption, and workforce mismanagement, instead of sustainable design strategies.

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The triumphant music pumped out into the Bird’s Nest over video of cheering crowds now falls into a vacuum. It was designed as a stage for China’s coming-out party, to send a message to the world. But in this land of government-backed vanity projects, this empty, echoing stadium now sends a very different message. 6 - Louisa Lim, NPR

One of the most notable stadium scandals in recent history is the tragic crane collapse at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, built for Brazil’s 2014 World Cup. Corruption was widespread throughout the building process and reportedly accounted for nearly thirty-five percent of total spending. Stadium corruption is not isolated to Brazil, however. In Miami, the public funding of Marlins Park caused an incredible amount of protest and push back. In Qatar, foreign workers are being forced into near slave labor conditions thousands of miles from home with an incredibly high and unprecedented mortality rate. The civic aspect of stadiums welcomes in the possibility of corruption and mismanagement. An informed design strategy is one tool that can help combat the negative potentials of building a modern large scale stadium.

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It seems that every time a new municipality announces a winning bid, shortly thereafter, an onslaught of worker mistreatment, funding misallocation, and deadline extensions ensue. Often the issues begin to outweigh the benefits of hosting the games and the local people of the host country don’t want to host them at all. Stadium design of the 21st century needs to be contextually informed, sustainably designed, and properly managed if it is to truly represent the best of our society.

MIAMI

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Like a festering, silver-plated pustule, a grotesquely huge can opener, or just an obscene ode to wasted cash, the new Florida Marlins stadium is rising above Miami’s skyline. Whether you’re driving down a block in Little Havana or cruising the Dolphin Expressway to South Beach, there it is: a $515 million money sucker that is probably the worst deal for taxpayers of any stadium in America.7

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These trends of corruption and drastically over budget publicly funded projects do not isolate themselves to international competition.The recent construction of Marlins Park in Miami, Florida has become the poster child for the anti stadium community of Modern America. The stadium was built to move the Marlins out of Sunlife Stadium, one of the last remaining football and baseball flex stadiums in the country. Maimi-Dade County supplied the majority of the funding for the stadium and are the owners of a state of the art 515 million dollar facility. Many taxpayers in Miami however, were adimately against the “investment”, which ultimately falls upon their shoulders. Following a series of one terrible deal after the next, Mayor Carlos Alvarez was thrown out of office. In total, Miami-Dade County residents and taxpayers will have to pay a total of 2.4 billion dollars over fourty years to repay the nearly 350 million dollars worth of bonds secured to finance the stadiums construction.

- Michael McElroy, Miami New Times

TOTAL BUDGET

MIAMI COUNTY 67%

MIAMI TEAM

MIAMI CITY 30%

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana was built the the staggering cost of 625 million dollars in 2008. This stadium is one of the largest and most controversial civic construction projects in recent history. The Indianpolis Colt’s team ownership contributed 100 million dollars or just 16% of the cost of the stadium. Local taxpayers were responsible for the remaining 525 million dollars. In addition to costruction costs the city paid team ownership $48 million dollars to ensure the buyout of the remainder of their existing lease, as well as handed over all rights and revenues associated with the naming rights of the stadium, which would ultimately total $50 million dollars. The NFL gave team ownership a 34 million dollar ‘forgivable loan’ reducing the teams total contributions to construction costs. After naming rights profits, forgivable loans, and civic buyouts the Indianapolis Colts were able to built a state of the art, operable roof stadium that seats nearly 80,000 fans, all while profiting 32 million dollars. According to Forbes, the Indianapolis Colt’s are currently worth 1.875 billion dollars, bringing in over 320 million dollars worth of revenue last year alone, over half of the value of Lucas Oil Stadium. Perhaps the most interesting statistic however is that the team currently has a 143 million dollar roster, yet pays 250,000 dollars annually to lease out the Stadium, equivilent to two thirds of the minimum rookie starting salary.

$250,000 ANNUAL LEASE 2/3 OF MINIMUM ROOKIE SALARY

$625 MILLION STADIUM CIVIC CONTRIBUTION TEAM CONTRIBUTION

$100 MILLION

16% 84%

$525 MILLION CIVIC CONTRIBUTION

$132 MILLION PAYMENTS NFL FORGIVABLE LOAN LEASE BUYOUTS NAMING RIGHTS

$48 MILLION

$50 MILLION

CITY LEASE BUYOUT

NAMING RIGHTS PROFIT

38%

36%

26%

$34 MILLION NFL CONTRIBUTION

$32 MILLION NET PROFIT

TEAM CONTRIBUTION

PART TWO

NFL TRENDS

IN A PARADOXICAL TURN OF EVENTS, THE VERY SAME MASS MEDIA WHICH ENABLED THE STADIA BOOM, HAS NOW BECOME THE SINGLE BIGGEST THREAT FACING THE STATUS QUO OF MODERN STADIUM.

MASS MEDIA HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO SHIFT THE FUNCTION OF THE STADIUM FROM ONE BASED ON SPECTATING TO EXPERIENCING.

PART THREE

PARAMETERS

staÂˇdiÂˇum

noun - plural noun: stadia

- A sports venue with designated space for spectators. - An ancient measure of length, about 185 meters. synonyms: arena, field, ground, venue, ballpark, center

For the purposes of this research there will be four stadia typologies.

121

STADIA

Location of all current NFL Stadia in the continental United States.*

The Stadia typology consists of the largest stadiums built today often for football, soccer, or even international events. Typical NFL stadia are built at a massive scale to accomodate more than 50,000 spectators, and include the most luxurious amenities and suites.â&#x20AC; â&#x20AC;

BALLPARK

The Ballpark typology consists of the stadiums designed for the facilitation of baseball games, typically open air Ballparks allow for a great deal of contextual awareness which can be taken advantage of often by way of sight lines and augmented bowl geometry.â&#x20AC; â&#x20AC;

Location of all current MLB Ballparks in the continental United States.*

ARENA

â&#x20AC;

The Arena typology consists of venues designed mainly for the facilitation of basketball, hockey, or tennis, typically smaller in capacity, they allow for a close intamite connection to the event area, which an be lost in the grand scale of the mega stadium.

Location of all current NBA & NHL Arenas in the continental United States.*

COLLEGIATE

128

The Collegiate typology is designed for NCAA Division 1 Football teams which typically, grow in size through expansions over multiple decades. The result can be, incredibly unique venues, which create a sense of place for the alumi, which students, and fans.

Location of all current NCAA Division 1 Football Stadiums in the continental United States.*

SCALE

Over the past three decades stadia have grown in nearly every way. Most notably the scale of stadia design has reached previously unimaginable heights. Stadia today are being built to accomodate upwards of 100,000 spectators. This massive scale demands the use of even larger structure. Quarter mile long trusses, millions of tons of concrete, glass doors the size of entire office buildings, and hundreds of thousands of man hours are needed to build some of our most distinct and recognizable stadia today. The modern large stadia will generally take at least five years to bring from conceptual idea to substantial completion, often with price tags reaching over one billion dollars.â&#x20AC;

FINANCIALS

Climate and event use are the main factors that effect the cost of the event area and floor surfaces. For multi use stadiums this cost can increase.

66%

Accomodation accounts for the facilities within a stadium. Specifically the facilities can be broken down into five subcategories including, Spectator, Hospitality, Operational, Participant, and Non-Core.

FLOOR

ACCOMODATION

ROOF

10%

THE BOWL

15%

VERTICAL TRANSPORT

The roof cost is directely coorilated with the capacity of the crowd and the event surface.

The entirety of the general spectator viewing area. Complexity and Construction can vary the cost.

As capacity increases, so does the need to further control the flow of spectators. Vertical transport is directly related to the bowl form.

AMENITY

Fifteen, 20 years ago, it was just about having a big volume of space to watch games. Now it’s about the whole fan experience. There are two $10 million video boards instead of one $500,000 video board, and big club areas where 3,000 people can sit in a big fancy restaurant. It’s just night and day. 8 - Dan Mehls, Mortensen Construction, Target Field

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The Modern Stadia has redefined and reclassified how we percieve the gameday experience. At the University of Alabama’s Bryant Denny Stadium, at left, tickets come with optional padding for an additional charge. In many ways the airline industries system of levels, services, and rates, cooredsponds directly to stadia amenities today. No matter which ticket you buy, you have a path to get from ‘A to B’ but for many the journey in itself is the destination. In other words the game is not the sole reason to come to the stadium anymore. The stadium itself and the amenties offered have completely changed the way in which we spectate.

SUITES

No longer is the experience of going to see a game about the game itself, but instead the experience is based on the amenities. Stadia the world over are spending millions renovating and adding luxurious suites and boxes that are redefining ‘a day at the ballpark’. Most suites come with their own kitchens, bathrooms, lounges, and seats with great views. Controling organizations such as FIFA, NFL, IOC, and NCAA all have strict regulations not just on the total spectator capacity, but also minimum requirements for stadium suites and boxes.

CHASE FIELD

Trying to find something unique and identifiable that would give this ballpark distinction and personality from others, everyone thought a swimming pool was ideal. We want the stadium to resemble features we have at our own homes. It’s like watching a game from your backyard. 9 - Derrick Hall, Diamondbacks’ president and CEO

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In addition to its nine million pound retractable roof, Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona has one of the most unique amenities of any stadium across the world. Built in 1998, and located four hundred and fifteen feet from home plate, just over the right center field fence, rests an eight-thousand five hundred gallon pool and hot tub. The pool suite can be purchased for about $6,500 per game, which includes a thirteen hundred square foot pool deck, a lifeguard, towels to take home, changing rooms, parking, and food vouchers for thirty five of your closest friends. The Pool at Chase Field is the epitomy of the American Stadium experience, no longer is the focus on the game, but instead the ammenities avaiable to enhance the spectator experience. Many stadiums across the country have followed suit by creating branded amenity experiences to further seperate their stadia from the rest.

JUMBOTRO

SINCE SONY INVENTED THE JUMBOTRON IN 1985, STADIUM VIDEO SCREENS HAVE GROWN TENFOLD. ADVANCES IN LED AND HIGH DEFINITION SCREEN TECHNOLOGY HAS LED TO SCREENS TOTALLING 14,500 SQUARE FEET.

As the stadia has evolved from an experience of sport into an entertainment experience in its own right, technology has allowed the limits to be pushed. The Jumbotron has transformed from an extra large television into screens three times the size of an NBA Basketball court. The video screen has become a major amenity, a catalysy of increased ticket sales, and promoted a unique expirience. The following pages show a comparison between the twenty largest NFL video screens and the twenty largest NCAA video screens. As of 2013, AT&T Stadium has the largest video screen weighing over one million pounds. It would take 4,920 52” flat panel TVs to equal the combined display surface hanging over the fifty yard line in Dallas. The screen comes with a ten level catwalk and support structure for maintanence and cleaning. In addition, the stadium contains over two thousand continuous feet of ribbon video screens as well as over five thousand supplemental square feet of video displays.

NFL

NCAA

CROWDC

DCONTROL

HEYSEL STADIUM

39 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN HEYSEL STADIUM ON APRIL 29, 1985. 600 FANS WERE INJURED AND 14 WERE PROSECUTED.

The Heysel Stadium Disaster is widely regarded as one of the darkest hours in football history. The chaos began when a group of Liverpool fans broke through a fence which sepereated the nuetral areas of the stands from a concentrated are of Juventes fans. The ensuing confrentation led to a massive push of people into a concrete retaining wall. Fans near the wall were crushed by other fans until eventually a stampede broke out and the wall collapsed. Despite of the death toll and choas the game was played out t o finish. As a result of the incident all English football clubs were banned from five years of competition in any Union of European Football Association Games. Additionally fourteen Liverpool fans were put on trial and ultimately found guilty of manslaughter charges, each recieving a sentence of three years. The disaster ultimately influenced future stadia design and policy with the implementation of the Football Act in 1991 and the use of security measures, cameras, and the removal of pitch side fences and barriers.â&#x20AC;

96 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN HILLSBOROUGH STADIUM ON THE 15TH OF APRIL, 1989, AN ADDITIONAL 766 WERE INJURED.

THE HILLS BOROUGH DISASTER

To this day the Hillsborough Disaster is recognized as the single worst stadium disaster in British history. The match was the 1988-89 FA Cup Semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham. The blame for the tradegy falls on police typically, however design played a major role as well. Overcrowding outside of the ground before kickoff caused an exit gate to be opened by police, the gate led fans into a tunnel which acted as a funnel, pushing the spectators into the already overcrowded bays of enclosed seats. The new spectators pushed the crowd forward until people began to get crushed and trampled. Eventually a crush barrier broke setting of a chain reaction and panic amongst the crowd. Six minutes into the game, the match was stopped as police and emergency personel tried to gain control of the situation. The aftermath of Hillsborough shook the entire football community to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s core. An officially inquiry was launched and eventually every standing terraces in every major football stadium in England, Wales, and Scotland was closed off and eliminated. An award winning documentary called Hillsborough was made in 1996, and the Hillsborough Independent Panel was established to learn the truth about the causes of the disaster. Hillsborough unfortunately is not an isolated inccident, over fifty such incidents have occured over the last century alone. Strategic design allowing for the flow of people can help prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening agin.â&#x20AC;

BRADFORD CITY FIRE

56 PEOPLE WERE KILLED IN A FIRE IN THE VALLEY PARADE STADIUM ON MAY 11, 1985. AN ADDITIONAL 265 FANS WERE INJURED.

The Bradford City Fire was possibly the most influential stadium disaster of the twentieth century. On live televison in the span of just four minutes a little bit of smoke had entirely engulfed the main grandstand in flames. The fire is believed to have been started by a disgarded cigarette bud. The stand was one of the oldest in the nation, built almost completey of wood and topped off by a wooden roof. The cigarette bud was dropped through the floorboards onto a pile of twenty years worth of garbage and debris. The particularly windy day spread the fire faster than imaginable. â&#x20AC;

ADAPTABLE

Innovative construction methods can help maximize the adaptability and flexibility of sports venues. 10 - Ken Johnson

“

Adaptable stadia design can be the response to climatic needs, programatic constraints, or site specific situations. It has the potential to profoundly impact on the not only the spectator experience, but also the buildings functional capabilities and the conotation of the team, city, or country which it represents. Moses Mabhida Stadium in South Africa uses simple fabric roof structures and cross ventilation responding to its climate. Barclays Center utilizes a turntable that accomodates trucks due to its incredibly limited space, located in the heart of downtown Brooklyn.

Sapporo Dome

PART FOUR

STRATEGIES

Fenway Park Wembley Stadium Century Link Field Munich Olympic Stadium Husky Stadium Century Lotus Stadium Palazzetto dello Sport The Carrier Dome The Prater Stadium San Siro Stadium

Stadium design has often turned to highly structurally expressive form as a the major synergist behind the organization of the Stadia. It often becomes the symbolic form, iconic representation, and the identifiable image of the building.â&#x20AC; Post and Beam Structure - Fenway Park A simple system of post and beams that tend to only exist in the oldest stadiums in the world, they are cheaper but often block sight lines to the field, causing an issue to the spectators behind the posts. Goal Post Structure - CenturyLink Field Similar to post and beam, however the system runs parallel to the field using one beam at each end to support a massive girder between the two. Cantilever Structure - Husky Stadium Held up on one side by a post and held in place by weight. Leaves unobstructed views to the field, however is difficult to use at corners. Concrete Shell Structure - Palazzetto dello Sport Thin surface structure which requires advanced mathematic calculations. Excellent for extreme architectural formal expression. Compression/Tension Ring Structure - The Prater Stadium These structures require an inner tension ring and an outer compression ring to support a radial doughnut shaped structure leaving an oculus at center. Catenary Cable Structure - Wembley Stadium A combination of a compression arch supporting a system of cables hanging in a catenary shape, which support the roof. Cable Net Structure - Munich Olympic Stadium The supporting structure is separate from the roof covering, consisting of a set of steel cables and a typically plastic covering. Membrane Structure - Century Lotus Stadium The membrane material forms both the structure and the enclosure. Typically built of PVC coated polyester and Teflon coated glass fibre. Air Supported Structure - The Carrier Dome The structure typically consists of a plastic membrane which forms the enclosure, which is supported by positive internal pressure. Space Frame Structure - San Siro Stadium Consists of structural members, three dimensional in shape and stability. Some other notable structurally expressive and unique stadiums around the world include ANZ Stadium in Australia, Arena Castelao in Brazil, US Bank Stadium in America, Toyota Stadium in Japan, and Moses Mabhida Stadium in South Africa.â&#x20AC;

The Stadium Facade creates a unique opportunity to address, respond, articulate, reflect, re-imagine, and even interact with the surrounding context, on such a large scale. The facade can be structural, architectural, or technological in nature, and has increasingly been used as a major intentional and purposeful design statement. San Mames Stadium - Bilbao, Spain - ACXT Interactive Media Facade allows for responsive connection with its context. Green Point Stadium - Cape Town, South Africa - GMP Translucent Glass Fabric integrates the natural landscape and built environment. Beijing National Stadium - Beijing, China - Herzog & de Meuron Sculptural Form Steel Shell is designed to resist a magnitude 8 earthquake. FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa - Populous Glassfibre Reinforced Concrete Panels allows for patterned illumination internally. Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany - Herzog & de Meuron Inflated ETFE Plastic LED Panels allow for a reactively customizable facade.

- ACXT Architecture

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A basic element that will surely give character to the New San Mames Stadium is put into play on the façade. This is, the repetition of a twisted ETFE element, giving the elevation energy and unity. This element will be illuminated at night, thus creating an urban landmark over the estuary, projecting a new image of Bilbao from within, thanks to one of the most advanced dynamic lighting systems in the world. 10

San Memes Stadium Green Point Stadium Beijing National Stadium FNB Stadium Allianz Arena

BRANDING

“

For a long time, the Millennium Dome was talked about as London’s biggest white elephant. Our challenge was to transform the public perception of it and to make the space into a vibrant, exciting experience for every visitor and fan – and, more importantly, into a branded experience. 11 - Populous

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You’d have to live in a cave not to know about the Carrier Dome. It put Syracuse on the map. 12 - Dick Vitale

“

As the stadium has continued to develop as the iconic building type of our day, the age of mass media, branding, and marketing has grown with it. Nearly every notable stadium today has a logo, often incorporating the most recognizable architectural component of the stadium. No longer is the stadia merely a stageset for athletic competition, instead it has become a commodity, recognized the world over, representing millions of dollars worth of business, huge television deals, and a conglomerate of marketing, sales, public relations, and media. The idea of a stadia as a brand roots itself in the very essence of our capitalist interconnected global economy. No longer are you buying a ticket to watch a game, you are purchasing a branded and packaged expeirence, the host of which is the modern stadia. The stadia and logo have become inextriably linked to the brand of the teams, city, nation, or games, that call the stadium home The Carrier Dome logo is seen at left, clearly as a brand indentifier for not just athletics, but Syracuse University as a whole.

THE BOWL

The Coliseum in Rome is widely regarded as the predecessor of the modern stadium, however the Coliseum looked back to Ancient Greek Theaters for its inspiration. Theaters of Ancient Greece were semi-circular in form built into a hillside. The Romans combined two Greek Theaters into one elliptical form, constructing an artificial hillside resembling a bowl surrounding a main event platform. Across typologies and scales, geographies and budgets, materials and technologies, the same bowl form has remained a constant over the past two millennia of stadium design. The games that these incredible pieces of civic architecture house have changed, and the bowl form has adapted accordingly. The diagram at left shows the comparison and adaptation that the bowl form takes in some notable stadiums across the globe.â&#x20AC;

SEATING

A mix of fixed seating and bleachers have been the industry standard for over 100 years of stadium design. However, the box seat is beginning to change that. The revolutionary seating system consists of interchangable and movable chairs that are supported by one steel beam per row. This allows for more flexibility and easier maintaince on such a large scale. Heights can be adjusted to change C-Values, and entire chairs can be replaced in seconds on site. Adaptability is key to the sucess of future stadia design, and when the stadia can be flexible down to the scale of the seat, the adaptability of the stadia as a whole increases drasticlly.

SIGHT LINES

Clear sight lines are critical to the sucess of any stadia. The C-Value is understood as the difference in height between your eye level and that of the spectator in front of you. Increasing riser height can impact the C-Value, which in turn impacts the angle of seating, the distance from the field of play, and the total height of the stands, which impact the external design of the stadia. A C-Value between 6 and 12 centimeters has become the industry standard. 36 degrees of slope has also been established as the maximum acceptable angle of seating .â&#x20AC;

CONTEXT

[CONTEXTUALLY AWARE]

[URBAN PUBLIC SPACE]

[URBAN PRIVATE SPACE]

[DESTINATION]

Camden Yards, Baltimore

Madison Square Garden, New York

Staples Center, Los Angeles

Sun Life Stadium, Miami

PART FIVE

PERSPECTIVE

RE-THINK

Smaller stadiums also make more sense in today’s global, social, mobile world. The Dallas Cowboys have millions of fans, but only a tiny percentage of them will ever see a game in person. Today’s high-priced venues have been reduced to an expensive backdrop for a huge media production.10 - Jeff Beckhan, WIRED Magazine

“

PALIO DI SIENA PIAZZO DEL CAMPO SIENA, ITALY

Palio di Siena is a bi annual horse race held in the Piazza del Cempo on July 2nd and August 16th every year. The race dates back to 1590 when Buffalo were raced around the square, however the first modern Palio di Siena horse race took place in 1656. The race has become a symbol of the way of life in Siena, which is broken down into seventeen ‘Contrade’ or neighborhoods. Ten of these seventeen Contrades race in Palio each year. Interestingly after monumental events such as the moon landing, the unification of Italy, and the millenium a third Palio is held to commemorate the event. The race itself consists of three laps around the Piazza del Cempo which is infilled with several inches of dirt and tuff. The sharp corners of the Piazza are padded for protection, and thousands of spectators line the Piazzas center, using balconies, shops, and windows as seating to watch the four hundred year old spectacle. The Palio di Siena, embodies the sense of community that a stadium and event can create, while utilizing the space for many other purposes while the race is not being held.

LAS ARENAS BARCELONA, SPAIN

There is a direct correlation between the increase in both player salary and stadiums built by decade. I chose to study Major League Baseball to further examine this claim, because of its position as the oldest professional sports in America. As seen in the charts to the right, the claim is accurate, but what other contributing factors are there? Why were salaries rising in the first place? What allowed the stadiums to be built? Major League Baseball, as is the case in most other professional sports in America, began as a collection of small budget teams made up of even smaller salary players. In 1920, nearly all professional athletes needed off season jobs to keep food on the table. Professional athlete salaries remained low until the 1960’s when a wave of political and technological change swept the nation. The television transformed the number of spectators from a few thousand in the stands to millions across the country. The 1970’s brought about the institution of Collective Bargaining Agreements and Free Agency paving the way for the first million dollar contract in history. The 1980’s experienced a rise in salary that saw a handful of the best athletes on every team earning multi-million dollar contracts. Since the turn of the 1990’s, professional sports teams have become an incredibly lucrative business, allowing salaries and the number of built stadiums to skyrocket.

Hunger Games Maze Runner Star Wars

MEDIA

Jurassiac World

SUPERDOME

The relationship that a city can have with its stadium was elevated to an unprecedented level in New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurrican Katrina. The Louisiana Super Dome was shelter for over 14,000 people during five days isolated and cut off from support and supplies. As the residents emerged from the building to find their city and their stadium, their homes and their lives, battered and broken, but not destroyed, the rebuilding process began. The stadium along with the city and its people rebuilt and grew strong once again.

PART SIX

CONTENTION

NEGLECT

CONTEXT

The Modern Stadium is at a crossroads; it has become one of the most iconic symbols of our age, but at the same time, the typology as we know it is failing. Far too often over scaled and unadaptable, over budget and under utilized, the stadium has become recognized the world over as an encumbrance upon the societies which have built them. Seen as a white elephant, the modern stadium experienced a boom from 1985 to 2005, which saw the typology evolve, from a simple concrete bowl into a billion dollar physical manifestation of perceived power. The typology must accept its role as a key piece of a larger plan, while relinquishing its identity as an isolated monolithic monument. Something needs to change. This thesis aims to dramatically rethink, re-imagine, and reconsider the stadia typology as we currently understand it, and critically project what the future of strategic stadia design might become.

PART SEVEN

SOURCES

1. John, Geraint, and Rod Sheard. Stadia: The Populos Design and Development Guide. Taylor & Francis Ltd. ed. London: Routledge, 2013. 2. John, Geraint, and Rod Sheard. Stadia: The Populos Design and Development Guide. Taylor & Francis Ltd. ed. London: Routledge, 2013. 3. Dyreson, Mark. The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States: Cathedrals of Sport. London: Routledge, 2010. 4. Trumpbour, Robert C. The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2007. 5.

Working Bibliography Burbank, Matthew, and Gregory Andranovich. Olympic Dreams: The Impact of Mega-Events on Local Politics. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001. Delaney, Kevin J., and Rick Eckstein. Public Dollars, Private Stadiums The Battle Over Building Sports Stadiums. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Dillon, David. The Cowboys Stadium. New York, New York: Rizzoli, 2010. Dyreson, Mark. The Rise of Stadiums in the Modern United States: Cathedrals of Sport. London: Routledge, 2010. Eisenman Architects/University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals. New York, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008. Foster, Norman, and Simon Inglis. Wembley Stadium Foster & Partners. London: Prestel Publishing, 2012. Gaffney, Christopher Thomas. Temples of the Earthbound Gods Stadiums in the Cultural Landscapes of Rio De Janeiro and Buenos Aires. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2008. Jaeger, Falk. 3 1 Stadia for Brazil. Berlin: Jovis, 2014. John, Geraint, and Rod Sheard. Stadia: The Populos Design and Development Guide. Taylor & Francis Ltd. ed. London: Routledge, 2013. Â Li, Chunmei. Sports Architecture. Shengyang Shi: Liaoning, 2012. Trumpbour, Robert C. The New Cathedrals: Politics and Media in the History of Stadium Construction. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2007. Â Zimbalist, Andrew. Circus Maximus the Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2015.

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