SBJ Facilities: To roof, or not to roof

In late June, the Jacksonville and Charlotte city councils both approved major renovations of their cities’ NFL stadiums with one key difference: Jacksonville’s 29-year-old EverBank Stadium would get a roof, while Charlotte’s 28-year-old Bank of America Stadium would not.

This was a major concern, at least for the TV media members with whom I toured BofA Stadium in the days after its $800 million project was announced. Why wasn’t Charlotte’s stadium getting a roof, too?

The PR word salad that ensued offered no real answer. So, I recently asked HOK’s Peter Broeder and Matt Breidenthal, as well as Walter P Moore’s Bart Miller -- who are all working on the EverBank Stadium renovation -- to lay out why and how a roof would be added to an existing stadium.

'Why do it?'

Maximizing event days (and revenue) is one of the primary reasons; for example, Miller said that while the Titans’ New Nissan Stadium will be a great building for football, it will be a "spectacular music venue."

Increasingly volatile weather, and the certainty that a roof can create, is another rationale. The Jags’ highest priority was combating the various North Florida elements that take turns battering fans, especially during 1pm Sunday kickoffs in the first half of the NFL season.

Jacksonville's new roof, which will be made from a novel type of ETFE material called Viewscape, is essentially “a big shade structure,” said Miller (SoFi Stadium and Allegiant Stadium also have ETFE). It won’t fully enclose EverBank Stadium, though, with the open corners enabling crucial airflow and ventilation that will help cool the seating bowl naturally. Final Fours, though, are likely out of the question.

'Is it possible?'

When assessing roof possibilities, architects like Broeder look up at the seating bowl and imagine what the fan experience could be, but engineers like Breidenthal look down at the foundation, wondering, “What’s this going to let me do? What’s it not going to let me do?”

EverBank Stadium had a sufficient existing support structure to enclose the renovated stadium in what’s essentially a shell. Two large ramp towers will be removed, with new supportive structures taking their place. Some of the steel that carries the two massive end zone video boards -- added to the stadium in 2014 -- will also be relied on to carry the new roof weight when it opens in 2028.

Cable-supported ETFE roofs like the one that the Jags will get can be up to 50% lighter than a conventional, structural steel-framed roof. “ETFE can accommodate that a hell of a lot easier than previous technologies,” said Breidenthal, noting ETFE has “opened up opportunities to do this that did not exist before.”  

'What's the price tag?'

That leaves the final and, in many cases, most important consideration: cost. The projected price tags of the Charlotte ($800 million) and Jacksonville projects ($1.4 billion) reflect, in part, the cost of adding a roof. It's at least a nine-figure expense -- even if existing supportive structure is already in place. The Jacksonville job is also somewhat unprecedented; the USTA’s Arthur Ashe Stadium had a retractable roof added to it in 2017, but a tennis venue roof is naturally going to be much smaller than an NFL venue roof.

Even still, it’s cheaper to put a roof on an existing building vs. a new one because of that existing support structure. Foundational work typically makes up about 30% of the overall stadium, Broeder said, so in Jacksonville’s case, that's already done. And the EverBank Stadium steel structure carrying the roof is also supporting what will be expanded concourses twice as wide as the existing ones. So, “that investment is doing double duty,” noted Broeder.

In Charlotte, it’s unclear how deeply Tepper Sports & Entertainment and the city considered adding a roof to BofA Stadium. The weather is less volatile in Charlotte, and the city has already spoken openly about replacing the venue once the Panthers’ renewed lease expires in the 2040s, so the investment simply may not have been deemed worth the expense.

“When you start to look at what you need to really maximize revenue and get the most return from your investment,” said Miller, “if you’re putting a roof on one of these buildings, it just gets very expensive.”

I help steer the facility category for our annual Sports Business Awards, and this past year we had a tough time defining the PGA of America’s now two-year-old HQ and mixed-use development in Frisco, Texas. It didn’t neatly fit in the category, which has historically focused on stadiums and arenas.

After seeing the PGA’s unique Frisco hub in person, it’s clearer than ever that it didn’t neatly fit in an SBA category. Consider the array of things that can happen at the development:

• Major tournaments can be hosted at Fields Ranch East, one of two 18-hole courses. The upcoming tournament schedule includes the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the 2027 PGA Championship and the 2029 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. A Ryder Cup down the road also isn't outside the realm of possibility.

• Amateur golfers can practice there too, whether it be at the coaching center a short walk from the PGA HQ, the putting practice complex or the Par-3 course. A handful of local high schools are also lucky enough to use the facility as their home base for practice and competition.

• PGA professionals can be trained in coaching techniques (there is so much teaching tech on site) and business management practices. This is the nuts and bolts of the PGA of America, and they have a cutting-edge facility in which to do it.

• Oh, right ... it’s an office, too, the official HQ of the PGA of America (not the PGA Tour, of which I was reminded three times during an hour visit at the start of the week) and home to its board meetings. 

• It’s a versatile host of corporate and private gatherings. The view from the fourth-floor deck looking out over the development is lovely (it’s Texas, so you can see a long way).

• The HQ has muscular broadcast capabilities, including a studio that will be home to pre- and postgame studio shows for the Stars on Victory+, the NHL team's startup streaming platform. Conference USA hosted a football media day at the facility in July, and during our AXS DRIVE conference, I joined SBJ colleagues Austin Karp and Joe Lemire to record our Morning Buzzcast from the studio -- the first podcast recorded there, apparently.

• And the broader development, still in its very early stages, includes an Omni hotel and some retail and restaurants. It's a nice spot to get a beer after a round of golf or a lesson.

Maybe my main takeaway from visiting the PGA of America HQ: SBJ needs some new SBA categories.  

Zink Lake opened over Labor Day in downtown Tulsa with a four-day soiree -- The Big Dam Party -- attended by more than 100,000 people. The 2.5-mile lake was carved out of the Arkansas River by a city ultra-focused on sports tourism, giving Tulsa another unique venue to complement its growing reputation for sports event-hosting, as well as a cool place for residents to gather, swim or kayak. Zink Lake is “a game changer, not only bringing people to the waterfront,” said Tulsa Sports Commission Director of Sports Sales Joel Koester but "to stimulate our economy with watersport.” 

The project, at a cost of over $80 million -- which included a mini dam and a pedestrian bridge -- took years to become reality, but its connection to an expanded $465 million waterfront park called Gathering Place has given the city an attractive and active riverside destination. The effort fits with the city’s recent focus on sports tourism.

The taxpayer-funded $23 million USA BMX National HQ and Hall of Fame Museum opened in 2022 and features a 2,500-seat stadium. Among U.S. cities without a big-league team, Tulsa was ranked No. 6 in SBJ’s Best Sports Business Cities for Event Hosting earlier this year.

Koester is already working to bring an Ironman event back to the city. It was held in Tulsa in 2021, but after the biking and running portions near the city’s downtown, competitors then had to travel out of town to swim at a state park lake. No longer, thanks to the addition of Zink Lake. College rowing, kayaking, dragon boat races and other types of aquatic-based events are all in play for the Tulsa Sports Commission now, too.

Tulsa had a decent blueprint laid out by Oklahoma City for how manmade water attractions can benefit a city. OKC's 11-acre Riversport Rapids complex helped it attract the LA28 Olympics canoeing events. That project, like Tulsa’s, used a natural waterway to draw local citizens back to a downtown area. “Turns out it’s become an amazing asset for the city and now the entire state of Oklahoma,” Koester said.  

My dad will no longer go to McDonald’s, he tells me, because of the kiosks. He is a septuagenarian and tech-averse, so this is not a surprise ( son’s note: It’s also not bad to give up McDonald’s in your 70s ).

The kiosks have largely benefited McDonald’s business, despite losing the Mac McCormicks of the world. Automation in high-volume food service settings (like sports venues!) is rapidly increasing, so it’s worth reading about a fast-food OG’s takeaways from a quarter-century of in-store kiosk deployment.

• TickPick is now the exclusive home of La Liga North America events and tickets after the two sides signed a long-term deal. 

• NASCAR Holdings is switching ticketing partners to Live Nation's Ticketmaster starting next year, part of a move to get the racing circuit’s event operators onto the same platform to make the fan experience easier, reports SBJ's Adam Stern.

• Oklahoma City’s city council awarded CAA Icon a contract not to exceed $18 million to oversee the city’s new $950 million arena construction project.

• Check out the most recent "Building Blocks" feature from SBJ Daily, which looks at the latest facility renderings.

• Sacramento State plans to construct a new multi-use stadium for its football program, part of the school’s larger effort to be considered for the reassembling Pac-12, an effort branded “SAC 12.” The new stadium would be designed to host football, men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s rugby. 

• The committee overseeing Camping World Stadium’s $400 million renovation project shortlisted six architecture firms for interviews next month. DLR, OSports/AECOM, HKS, HNTB, TVS and Populous were still in the running to oversee the renovation design. HNTB designed the last two major renovations at the stadium in 2014 and 2020.

• Anaheim Real Estate Partners last week gave an exclusive preview of its OCVibe development, notes my colleague David Broughton.

• Iowa State is getting a major LED upgrade across seven sports venues in 2024 and 2025. Daktronics is delivering more than 20,000 square feet of digital displays at Hilton Coliseum and Jack Trice Stadium, as well as venues for soccer, swimming, softball and track and field.

• Bay FC will lease a plot of land from the city of San Francisco on Treasure Island in the Bay and will build a new training facility there.