JAKE SCOTT

Abstract

​

NFL stadiums are expensive, consume tremendous amounts of land and materials, and oftentimes require a significant amount of taxpayer funding. Additionally, outside of the ten to twelve football games held per year, infrequent concerts, and rarely hosted events like the Super Bowl, an overwhelming majority of sporting and entertainment events do not require a facility of this size. However, because sports are such an integral part of our culture, it is important to provide venues that can host NFL games and other large scale sporting events. To address the issue of publicly-funded stadiums, this thesis investigates how these venues can be designed to generate private, year-round revenue as an incentive for privately funded construction. 

The Project

​

Today, stadiums and arenas are typically designed as “anchors” within urban developments, with the idea that their events can attract large masses of people on a continual basis, which increases spending in the area, generating tax revenue to pay for the facility. Although this strategy has shown some promise with smaller and less expensive 15 - 20k - seat arenas, it has been demonstrated that tax revenue generally doesn’t generate enough money to pay for large and infrequently-used facilities such as a 60,000 - seat NFL stadium. This thesis proposes an NFL stadium that reverses the idea of a stadium “anchor.” Rather than relying on the stadium to be the central attraction that sparks development for increased tax revenue, the venue will be designed as a privately-funded mixed-use hub that captures revenue from the influx of people provided by the city. Instead of cities contributing hundreds of millions of dollars towards facilities that bring them minimal return, they could potentially invest that money in multiple, less expensive public buildings that benefit the community as a whole and attract people to the area. As people are continually drawn to the site, the stadium could be centrally located and include mixed uses that capture spending on a daily basis.

Research

​

Click below to view PDF document or be re-directed to NDSU Repository for full content.

​

NDSU Repository URL for full book: