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Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The stadium myth: new grounds won't rescue your club
'Nil satis nisi optimum,' boasts the motto of Everton FC: 'Nothing but the best is good enough.' Performances on the pitch over the past few seasons have suggested otherwise (what's Latin for 'Anything to stay up will do?') but in the form of the sparkling new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, which will replace Goodison Park as Everton's permanent home from the start of next season, the club now has tangible proof that its historic aspiration to excellence is at last being met. Based on the renderings and early footage of its interior, Everton Stadium (it will be a while before that bland placeholder is draped in the capitalist rococo of the 'TeslaDome' or 'Open AI's ChatGPT Arena' or 'Palantir Presents Bramley-Moore Dock') appears to be a pleasingly raked and compact arena that should retain at least some of the raucousness of Everton's old home. The stands are at the steepest pitch that regulations will allow, sightlines are unobstructed from every seat, and judging from the promotional videos, fans will never be more than 50 metres from either a toilet or a scouse pie, which seems like a key metric of success for any stadium in Liverpool. Advertisement Among the new structure's most hyped features is the South Stand, a single stand running from pitch to roof that will accommodate 14,000 fans and become, in the club's own words, a 'blue wall' and the 'beating heart' of Everton's home support. The story in Liverpool, in which the hope of urban renewal rises in the shadow of a new sporting landmark, is being repeated across much of the rich world. From Milan to Miami, these are boom times for new stadium construction in Europe and the US. But why does the whole infrastructural bonanza feel so empty? Everton Stadium's 'blue wall' is, of course, a nod to Borussia Dortmund's famous 'yellow wall' at Westfalenstadion, which now has a good claim to being the most widely imitated stadium feature on the planet. Every team building a stadium today wants a steep home end to host the most passionate fans and supply color and noise to the matchday experience: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium's 17,500-seat South Stand was designed to create a 'wall of sound' (or perhaps of fury, given the recent direction of the club), while in the US the Buffalo Bills are building a new 60,000-seater whose northern end zone will put fans as close as 12ft away from the on-field action and amplify home advantage, the architects claim, 'through an intimidating wall of support.' The team owners and many fans want them; the cities think they need them. But who actually benefits when the big tops go up? Impressive structures though they may be, these new arenas all have a sameyness to them, even in the aesthetic claims that stadium designers now make about their creations' sensitivity to architectural heritage. Both Everton Stadium and the Bills' new arena, for instance, feature red brick bases that 'nod' to the industrial history of their surrounding cities – transforming, for the denizens of these proud old manufacturing centers, the pain of deindustrialization into the expensive pleasure of participation in the 21st century leisure economy. Advertisement Historically, the structural quirks and infelicities of stadiums – their harshness, exposure, sparse and potentially life-threatening food options, and barbarically long toilet lines – offered a kind of fuel to fan culture. Are we traveling towards a world of blandly perfect stadium engineering, where every stadium looks and feels the same, and every fanbase is funneled towards the same set of game-day habits and enthusiasms? Given how small the circle that dominates the design of top-level stadiums is, the drift to homogenization may be no surprise. Most of the high-profile stadiums built in recent years are the work of a handful of firms including Populous, which built the new arenas for both Spurs and the Bills and was responsible for the 2000s-era 'retro' craze in baseball stadium design. Manica was responsible for Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the Tennessee Titans' new home ground in Nashville, and the location-pending new stadium for the Chicago Bears. Foster + Partners designed Lusail Stadium in Qatar and was recently enlisted by Sir Jim Ratcliffe to design the yurt city that will eventually replace Old Trafford. Reis is behind the new bowls for Everton and Roma. Whatever the particularities of each site and club, there is a formula to these stadiums now, and it's making the gameday experience indistinguishable from Doha to Dallas. Related: The reckless fantasy of austerity as a panacea is coming for European football | Aaron Timms Across Europe and the US, stadiums have become the great hope of urban regeneration – the prize asset that will, local officials hope, bring life and money back to stagnating cities. Superficially this seems like a perfect marriage: top clubs need the increased revenue that bigger, more sophisticated stadiums with richer facilities will bring, and cities need the boost to economic activity that should in theory follow from the construction of a major new venue. It's true, of course, that in professional sport's new world, revenue is king. For a football club in Europe to move, say, from a cramped and under-serviced 30,000-seater to a sleek new arena with room for 60,000 people and all the other assorted nonsense represents a massive step up in economic power, with the security to lock in chunky revenue streams for decades to come. In England, the economic incentives for stadium construction are even more powerful given that infrastructure expenses are exempt from the Premier League's new profitability rules: for top clubs, building big has become something akin to a financial free kick. Advertisement But however much economic sense they may make, at least in theory, new stadiums rarely (probably never) attract the same type of affection from fans commanded by the ramshackle, lived-in old grounds of team lore. As Arsenal's experience of the past two decades shows, the financial lift of a new arena sometimes comes with a far more damaging psychological and cultural drain. Nor do the economics always work out. In some cases these stadiums can become a potentially lethal albatross, not only because servicing the debt that's often incurred to build them is prohibitive but also because they sometimes spur overreach. Lyon, for instance, moved in to Groupama Stadium in 2016, but satisfying the repayments on their razzmatazz new 59,000-seat, Populous-designed home, amid broader Covid-authored financial distress and poor player recruitment, has become so burdensome that the club is now sinking in debt and on the brink of administrative relegation to France's second tier. A simple solution to the problem of payment, of course, is to get someone else to take care of it. This is the financial relief line that franchises in the US have become particularly adept at tapping, with federal law allowing local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to build sports facilities. The heavy reliance on public money to fund construction costs in the US is partly a product of necessity. It's striking how much more expensive it now is to build a modern 60,000-seater in America than it is in Europe, the symptom of a broader infrastructural blockage that has become the focus of much recent writing: while Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, for instance, came in well over budget at £1.2bn ($1.5bn), the Chicago Bears' new colosseum, which is projected to be around the same size as Spurs' home ground, has been budgeted at a cost of $3.2bn. Public contributions for the new Titans and Bills grounds represent the two biggest stadium subsidies in US history. The motivations that drive governments, not only in the US but also in Europe, to offer financial and political support to these projects are a mix of vanity (the prestige and magnetism of an architectural marvel), fear (the threat of defection by the home team to a different location, which is especially powerful in the US, with its long history of team-to-city betrayal and seduction), and ambition. Of these, it's ambition that gets all the headlines; throughout the planning approval, construction, and unveiling of every new stadium there is constant rhetoric about all the good the stadium is doing and will do to revitalize, regenerate, and reboot the surrounding economy. Just the other day Everton's owners were on the phone to the UK government, asking for more money on the basis that the club's new ground 'will accelerate Liverpool's regeneration', as the headline in the Financial Times put it. From taxes to regulation and even interest rates, the risk of capital flight is the great threat hanging over modern economic policy. Stadiums literalize this drama in striking, if not always obvious, ways, offering local governments a handy visual metaphor to satisfy themselves they are doing their bit to inject life into the local economy and attract outside investment while tying important cultural assets in place. Advertisement There's one small problem with the urban regeneration argument: it doesn't hold up against the evidence. Stadium-led revitalization is the myth that will survive the apocalypse. New stadiums, as a vast body of academic literature shows, bring few of the economic benefits that developers, team owners, and local politicians promise. Whatever stimulus they offer to economic activity in their immediate vicinity is invariably offset by a corresponding depression in spending and investment in other areas of the same city. Related: NFL's Commanders, Washington DC agree near-$4bn stadium deal New stadiums facilitate a transfer of wealth, within geographies and across classes. In many cases they may do more harm than good, saddling local communities with the costs of construction and diverting public funds from education and housing while siphoning off all the stadium's future wealth for the team itself, which mostly means the team owners: a classic case of privatizing the profits while socializing the risks. Building new stadiums is great business for stadium architects, developers, facilities businesses, and team investors, and a lousy deal for everyone else. The financial flows involved – from the local community into the pockets of team owners – are as predictable as the designs of the stadiums themselves. Even where public subsidies are modest the financial effects of new construction ripple out to supporters via higher ticket prices and more expensive amenities; eventually a day at the stadium becomes an occasional luxury rather than a regular pleasure. Tradition, community, rootedness are, we're always told, at the heart of any new stadium project, but inevitably they become diluted once the fresh concrete stands are filled. New stadiums don't just transform the physical reality in which a team plays; they change the team's fan base too, and the culture attached to it. And perhaps that's the real point inherent in the uniformity of modern stadium design: to eradicate the gnarly, unruly, difficult, and – let's be honest – poor supporters, to kick out the kooks and the crazies, and replace them all with docile, obedient consumers ready to stand, sing, and spend on cue. Advertisement The arrival of a new stadium heralds, in many ways, the birth of a new club, unburdened by whatever has come before. From a distance Everton's new 52,000-seat home, a steel and glass bubble plopped on top of a sturdy brick base, has the aspect of a giant escape pod ready for launch. The more buffed, dazzling, screen-stuffed and hyperactive these new stadiums appear, the more they seem to embody not reinvestment in the communities they represent but liftoff from them.
BBC News
04-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Rams revival under Eustace 'nothing short of remarkable'
The first half against Preston North End proved to be typical post-international break display - very stop-start, plenty of sloppy play from both sides. This set up a pretty bleak atmosphere inside Pride Park, with neither set of supporters having much to really get excited half-time whistle blew and the collective yawns in the stands just about summed it up. John Eustace's half-time team talk no doubt focused on trying to break down Preston's rigid low block, with more energy and attacking was said, it definitely only three minutes of the second half played, Mr Derby County himself, Craig Forsyth, slotted home beautifully in the box following a corner that was headed down into his path by Nat Phillips. A goal from the veteran left-back, taken like a striker in his South Stand bounced, chants of "the Rams are staying up" rang out all around Pride Park and, before they knew it, Derby had a second just four minutes goal created by the head of Phillips, this time bundled in by Jerry Yates five yards out, pretty much killed the game off - which is something we haven't been able to say many times this season. Derby had struggled for so long under Paul Warne to take the lead and double it, often finding themselves caught out by being too negative after going since the arrival of Eustace the Rams have become much better at smelling blood and getting the insurance goal to end the contest. The new boss is getting the best out of this group of players, increasing their confidence and performance levels as the weeks go on. Pride Park was electric at full-time, with fans staying behind to celebrate with Eustace and the team as they climbed out of the relegation Zetterstrom did his signature roly-poly in front of the South Stand to joyful chants. From the fans to the players to the staff, everyone is on the same have suddenly become one of the Championship's most in-form teams. With the momentum, confidence, and desire this team are oozing at the moment, it's hard to know who will be able to stop them. Suddenly survival looks much more likely for the Rams than the other six teams in the relegation job that Eustace is doing with this Derby County side, who looked all but down and out just a few weeks ago, is nothing short of can often catch Amelia Warren, external as a guest on BBC Radio Derby.
South China Morning Post
31-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
‘Successful try' at the Sevens proves game changer for stadium
After 40 years in Hong Kong Stadium, the city has staged its first Sevens rugby tournament at the new and shimmering Kai Tak Stadium. By most measurements it was an overwhelming success. The rugby, as was to be expected, was world-class, drawing a three-day total of more than 110,000 fans to cheer or groan as the action went their team's way, or against. A Cathay Pacific A350 staged a nostalgic fly-past. The new South Stand was in good form, its beer-infused costume party seamlessly transplanted to Kai Tak from So Kon Po. Advertisement As the weekend progressed, however, teething problems emerged. Primary among them was a failure to ensure fans had full cups and stomachs. Many queued for food and drinks for 45 minutes or more. Some concession stands ran out of items. Tourism chief Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, after enduring delays buying food, told the park to 'fix it'. Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun initially called it an unacceptable 'nightmare' for spectators, but later said improvements were made. These were clearly more than 'occasional gaps', as a Kai Tak Sports Park spokesman put it, and the sooner organisers address these issues, the better. After all, British band Coldplay play a series of concerts there next week. For fans, lower-level seats open to the general public perhaps may have been more generous, with virtually all the pitchside blocked off for corporate boxes. Some overzealous staff also sent spectators on unnecessary detours to distant gates when closer ones were available. Beyond the hitches, there was much to celebrate, starting with the drama on the pitch. New Zealand took the women's title with a defeat of Australia, while Argentina overcame France in the men's final for their first crown in the city. The Hong Kong men's team lifted the Melrose Claymores trophy after a comfortable win over China, as did the women, with a drubbing of Kazakhstan. The stadium proved a hit for fans, with decent views from pretty much every section, comfortable seats and toilets that were far less of a worry than the ageing ones at the old stadium. The MTR and extra buses appeared to address transport concerns. Advertisement World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson declared it 'one of the great sevens events of the global calendar'. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu called the Kai Tak tournament a 'successful try'. The cheers had hardly faded when it emerged there was football magic to come with AC Milan set to play Liverpool and Arsenal to face Tottenham at the stadium in July.
South China Morning Post
31-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Magic moments at Hong Kong Sevens' new Kai Tak home despite teething troubles
The city's new 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium hosted its first Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament at the weekend and, despite some teething issues, fans marvelled at the event, describing the atmosphere as 'magical'. Advertisement The three-day Sevens, which ended on Sunday, was the first real-world stress test for the stadium as the centrepiece of the HK$30 billion (US$3.8 billion) Kai Tak Sports Park , which was heralded as a 'game-changer' for the city's efforts to reposition itself as a mega-events hub when it opened on March 1. Visitors from around the world had descended on the stadium since Friday, with long-time Sevens attendees and newcomers alike praising its modern facilities and cleanliness. The annual competition moved to its new home in Kowloon after decades at Hong Kong Stadium in Causeway Bay. The South Stand at Kai Tak was just as lively as its famous namesake at Hong Kong Stadium. Photo: Eugene Lee Official figures showed a final-day attendance of 38,352, taking the total to more than 110,000 for the weekend. Spectators consumed 82,000 litres of beer as well as more than 350,000 food and drink items. Lipe Kaloni, a 37-year-old from Tonga, was making her first visit to the Sevens with a group of friends from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She said her friends had always raved about the event, but she did not quite believe the hype until now. Advertisement 'I get it now,' she said. 'It's one of those moments where you have to pinch yourself. Like, we're really here. Every day we've made friends from all over the world.'
South China Morning Post
30-03-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong Sevens: Cathay fly-past evokes fond memories of Kai Tak Airport
Tens of thousands of people have witnessed a sensational flight show above Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, which evoked nostalgia as the city held the Hong Kong Sevens rugby tournament at the new Kai Tak Sports Park for the first time at the site of its old airport. Advertisement There were contrasting reactions to the brief moment when Cathay flight CX8100 flew at an altitude of just 1,100 feet (335 metres) above the harbour and old runway. Many spectators inside the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium were unable see the plane except on a live-stream projected on a large screen and many booed their disapproval. The plane was visible through the glass window of the South Stand, but most people were looking through the opened retractable rooftop. However, outside the stadium, from both sides of the harbour or even on high ground, onlookers were excited, cheered and took out their smartphones and cameras to film and take pictures of the A350 aircraft. The plane took off from Hong Kong International Airport at 4.07pm via Victoria Harbour to the east of Hong Kong before returning and landing at 4.38pm. Throughout the fly-past, it flew above the waters, avoiding buildings. Advertisement Queenie Yip, 35, who works in the entertainment industry, said she was thrilled to see the plane go past Kai Tak, as it was a part of her fond childhood memories.
