Stadiums must find new revenue streams

The latest political football in town could be the marshmallow roof of the Georgia Dome. The roof, which is made of a fabric membrane, could be popped off and a retractable roof could be put on to satisfy the open-air stadium desires of the Falcons and the indoor needs of the local economy.

Have fun tossing this one around.

“The way that Dome has been constructed it can be easily dismantled and a new roof put on it,” said David Manica, whose Kansas City-based architecture firm designs sporting venues around the world. “It wouldn’t be unreasonable to have a discussion about popping the roof off and putting a new operable roof on. It would be major renovation and it would not be cheap, but it could be a middle ground.”

Mike Holleman, a vice president for Atlanta-based Heery International Inc., said if a stadium is being constructed from the ground up as new construction, a retractable roof would cost at least $100 million.

Manica, who worked on Reliant Stadium in Houston, which has a retractable roof, said demolition costs of the old roof would certainly drive the cost up from $100 million.

But once the new roof is on, what next?

Manica said materials inside the seating bowl would have to be overhauled, mechanical systems would need to be reworked, the pitch of the Georgia Dome field might have to be changed, and doors would have to be added around the concourse to close in some portions for outdoor use. A simple matter of drains in the seating bowl would need to be built in.

Manica would not put a price tag on an overhaul like that, but he said there is a significant cost.

But if the Dome roof is closed for events how does the grass stay alive? It might take a retractable field to go with a retractable roof.

Fred Krenson, a vice president and director of the sports-and-entertainment design group at Atlanta-based Rosser International, said the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona has a natural-grass field that is rolled in and out on tracks. It has an irrigation system to keep the grass watered, and the sun does the rest.

Of course, that stadium resembles a spaceship in the middle of big parking lot and space is an issue at the Georgia Dome.

Who pays for it?

If you have $5, the stadium operator is going to try to get $6 out of you at the concession stand. After all, television contracts between the networks and the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL cannot pay all the spiraling costs of players and coaches.

“It is all about getting as many points of revenue as you can get, catering to every potential revenue source and every type of fan that you can get,” Holleman said. “Can you tap everybody for their potential and give them something special so they feel like they are having a great time at stadium and it is worth the money they are spending?

“Something for everybody is what we are seeing in the way of trends. It’s the guy who can spend the least amount to the guy who can absolutely spend an endless amount of money.”

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones created plazas and terraces at the colossus Cowboys Stadium so he could tap every spigot of money. The “Party Pass” tickets sold for $29 apiece, and the Cowboys sold 22,000 of them.

The Falcons want to get to the drawing board to build a stadium with the latest and greatest in amenities -- and revenue streams. The Cowboys have set the bar with their $1.5 billion stadium, which includes self-guided tours (none on the day of a game) for $17.50.

Even the fan high in the cheap seats is a target. The ticket might have been modestly priced, and just what the fan could afford, but if you have some money left in your pocket, the team operator wants a shot at it.

For that, the fan demands some value.

“The average team is not going to win all the time,” Holleman said. “If they are winning the fans will come. So you’ve got to have an environment that when you are .500 they are still going to come out to the ballpark.”

That environment starts outside the stadium. Heery just finished a master plan for the University of South Carolina, where there are tree-lined tailgating positions leading to the gates of Williams-Brice Stadium. Naturally, the spots closest to the stadium would be bigger and more expensive.

Once inside the stadium, the environment for the fan better be alluring because the competition for the entertainment dollar is a click away.

“The greatest competition to folks coming to events now is television,” said Todd Ballew, a senior associate at Heery. “You’ve got to weigh that. It’s about information you can attain. You’ve got every highlight of every game on NFL Network or the networks carrying live NFL. You’ve got the convenience of your refrigerator within steps. You have a bathroom without a line. You can put your feet on your own couch. You can pause the action.

“What do you do to give the fan all the conveniences of home?”

The loge seat is one of those conveniences. That is that space between a full-scale, high-end suite and a club seat that usually is a four-seat area with a small table top, perhaps a TV. Heery did the master plan for the expansion of Kenan Stadium at the University of North Carolina and had to double the number of loge seats because of the demand.

Krenson said the “creation of neighborhoods” is a way to sell tickets further from the field. The idea is to give every part of the stadium a personality, perhaps by marrying it with a food court.

“It becomes a social thing,” Krenson said. “The advantage the NFL has over college football is the NFL can sell liquor.”