Stadium Central

Lew Wolff, owner of the Oakland A's, wants to build a new stadium adjacent to Spartan Stadium in San Jose that would house a Major League Soccer team and the San Jose State football team. In keeping with a desire to build smaller stadiums where supply won't far exceed demand (see Cisco Field, future home of the A's), Wolff intends to build a stadium with a capacity of approximately 22,000. This number would drop the capacity from the current Spartan Stadium, which seats 30,000. This number may cause problems with NCAA regulations for Division I-A stadiums. First, the NCAA requires that the principal stadium that is used by a Division I-A football stadium have a capacity of at least 30,000. This point may be addressed by the fact that the stadium will be expandible to 30,000 (not stated whether it could be done so on a temporary basis). Second, NCAA regulations require Division I-A football teams to average attendances of at least 15,000 over a 2 year period. Needless to say, San Jose State boosters are a bit concerned, as indicated in a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News. It is my understanding that San Jose State has been helped in recent years by crowds from Stanford and Fresno State filling the stadium and helping them achieve the minimum requirement. Granted, the team is coming off a bowl victory, but when a maximum of 20,000 fans can only be fit into the stadium, it is hard to believe that they will be able to achieve the NCAA mandated minimum attendance figure.

A few recent articles address the issue of stadium naming rights. CNN Money discusses the large sums of money being thrown around in the naming of stadiums in New York. Citibank has pledged $20 million per year for naming rights to the new stadium for the Mets, while Barclays Bank has matched the 20 year, $400 million dollar bid by agreeing with the Nets for their new arena in Brooklyn. The Giants and Jets are hoping to bring in approximately $25 million per year for their new stadium in New Jersey. One team that will not cash in on this trend is the New York Yankees. The Bronx Bombers apparently have decided that preservation of the history of Yankee Stadium is too important to taint by adding a name to the new Yankee Stadium. They'll certainly find other ways to capitalize on sponsorship throughout the stadium, no doubt, but they will leave a lot of money on the table by not accepting corporate naming rights.

Related to naming rights, the Jacksonville Jaguars' stadium in Jacksonville will lose the sponsorship of Alltel after the ten year agreement expired following the regular season (see article) . No news yet on whether the Jags will have a new agreement in place. If none is reached by the first game of the season, the Jaguars will be playing their games in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

An article in the Washington Post suggests that the Washington Redskins may be interested in building a new stadium at the site of RFK Stadium. With the Washington Nationals moving to a new stadium scheduled to open at the start of the 2008 season and DC United eyeing a new stadium at Poplar Point in the city, are the Redskins ready to abandon their 10 year old stadium in suburban Maryland for a spot in the city. Financing is a major hurdle, and the story suggests that the city would fork over rights to the Redskins for development around the park instead of providing financing support to the team. With hopes that the soccer stadium will be ready by 2009, one could imagine that construction on the new football stadium could start in 2008. Stay tuned.

It's amazing what a 13-0 season, a BCS Bowl win, and a #5 ranking in final polls will do to a football team from a non-BCS conference! Boise State announced plans to immediately renovate their stadium by adding club seats, luxury suites, and improving the press box. The renovation will result in an addition of 2000 seats to the current 30,000 spots at Bronco Stadium. Head coach Chris Peterson indicates in a recent story of plans to expand the stadium up to a capacity of 40,000. This 33% increase in capacity is financed in part by an expected payout of over 3$ million from Boise State's Fiesta Bowl appearance.

The San Francisco 49ers, who recently seemed intent on building their new stadium in Silicon Valley, are still hedging their bets by making tentative plans to take up the city of San Francisco's offer to locate the park in the city. Oakland's NBC 4 website recently ran a story that shows some sketches of the planned 68,000 seat stadium at both the location in Santa Clara and at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco. The stadium itself looks to have the same design for either location.

Tim Kurkjian of ESPN lists today his 5 greatest Major League Baseball ballparks. Fenway Park comes out on top of his list. Kurkjian writes, " I have covered a game in 48 ballparks, and Fenway remains No. 1 mostly because of its closeness, and the stories it can tell. " The other ballparks in his top 5 include Oriole Park at Camden Yards, PNC Park, Wrigley Field, and AT&T Park. Kurkjian gives his worst ballpark award to Dolphins Stadium.

Few could argue with Kurkjian's analysis. Fenway is certainly a magical venue, but I always think of the cramped seats when I think of Fenway. (yeah, I'm spoiled :)). Of the parks that I have visited (so far, I've been to 1/2 of current ballparks, missing notables such as PNC Park and Dodger Stadium), I would rank them as:

1) AT&T Park...there's nothing like the view of the San Francisco Bay and the smell of Gilroy Garlic Fries
2) Oriole Park at Camden Yards...modern meets classic. The warehouse is an enduring feature that is uniquely identifiable to Baltimore. As for smells: mmmm, smoke from Boog's barbecue wafting over the stadium.
3) Fenway Park...Beatifully tucked into the Fenway neighborhod, its quirks are genuine as opposed to manufactured idiosyncrasies such as the flagpole at Houston.
4) Wrigley Field....the coziness, the surrounding neighborhood, and the feeling of being on top of the action from the upper deck provide an intimate setting.
5) Petco Park...yes, it is contrived to give an old time feel, but there's something neat about the San Diego look that is provided to this ballpark by the sandstone that is evident throughout. The concourses are interesting even on their own.

I also can't argue with Kurkjian's vote of Dolphins Stadium as the worst MLB venue. I don't think that there are any others that currently come close; well, maybe Adelphia Coliseum, but I still think that it has a bit more interest than the stadium in South Florida. One past ballpark, though, does approach the Marlins' home for ugliness...Kingdome. It just felt so sterile in that building.

Upon reading an article on InfoComm International's website, it is obvious that the stadiums of the future will need more than pretty architecture, ample bathrooms, and varied concessions to really have an impact. Technology is becoming pervasive in stadiums. The InfoComm article discusses the addition of 8 103" plasma high-definition TV's in the club lounge at Dolphins Stadium. Broadcasts are sent through bundles of fiber optic wires to these televisions, enabling them to show up to 9 games at one time or giving detailed views of the game being played inside the stadium. One can also consider the claims of the Oakland A's planned Cisco Field, where the A's are claiming that this stadium will be "one of the more technologically advanced stadiums around." With all of these digital options at the stadium, will anyone be in their seats cheering the action on the field, or will everyone have their eyes tuned to their PDA and personal television? :)

It was interesting to see the University of Phoenix stadium set up to capacity for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on New Years Day. For Arizona Cardinals games, the seating capacity at the stadium is listed as 63,500, but the listed capacity for the Fiesta Bowl and the BCS Championship Game to be played on January 8 is approximately 73,000. In looking at the setup for Cardinals games (see image below), it can be seen that there is a large open area behind one of the endzones through which the field is slid out to its outdoor sunning area. This area has been filled with seats for the bowl games, providing the additional 10,000 seats.

image courtesy of nflstadiums.com