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Cardinals stadium pushes NFL design envelope
Don Muret SportsBusiness Journal
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] [/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Driving on the Loop 101 freeway, one would be hard-pressed to identify the Arizona Cardinals' $370 million stadium as an NFL facility. It looks more like a gleaming alien spacecraft that landed in the middle of what used to be an alfalfa field.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Maybe a mushroom gone wild. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Or maybe something from the future. The stadium, scheduled to open in August, has prompted other NFL teams to find out what's going on in the desert and how the Bidwill family is melding new design and functionality. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The exterior isn't the only eye-opener. Peer inside the suites, what the Cardinals are marketing as "lofts," and you'll see cork floors, carpeted walls and huge metallic dome lamps hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. There's no fine wood finishes in these skyboxes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "This is not the English hunt club. This is the W Hotel vs. the Marriott," said Michael Bidwill, Cardinals executive vice president, son of team owner Bill Bidwill and point man for stadium development. "We wanted to break the mold of what stadiums should look like." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] It's a call to revolution from a team known generally for on-field futility, in a discipline where the retro movement that the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards launched in 1992 has never given way to a clearly definable successor. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Joe Bailey, chief executive of Dolphins Enterprises, toured the stadium over Thanksgiving weekend. "In one sense, it's too early to praise or condemn," he said. "We'll be able to learn a lot more once it opens and operates. Obviously, it's a beautiful place. Stadiums evolve, and this is the next generation." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] At the very least, it's another example of NFL facilities in the past 10 years "coming out of (their) totalitarian roots," said Chris Lamberth, director of business development for 360 Architecture, one half of the design team planning the new stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eight years ago, the Cardinals hired noted New York City architect Peter Eisenman to create an extraordinary design. He'll tell you the stadium is shaped like a barrel cactus, and that the odd red-and-gray seat-color pattern in the lower bowl depicts the mandala, a symbol of peace and harmony to Native Americans. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Teamwork [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The team later employed HOK Sport's Dennis Wellner, the industry's foremost designer of NFL stadiums, to map out the building's practical issues and ensure that Eisenman's unconventional ideas conformed to operational and league standards. Wellner lists 14 NFL building designs on his résumé.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "You don't do these things without experts," Eisenman said. "Our specialty is design and niche making."
[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The pairing represented the first time Wellner shared equal billing with another architect, never mind that Eisenman had not designed a North American sports facility. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eisenman certainly was no stranger to the NFL experience, and was itching to expand his sports portfolio beyond the few European soccer stadiums he's designed. A New York Giants season-ticket holder since 1957, Eisenman sits in the next-to-last row in the upper deck at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] As the story goes, John Meunier, former dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University, gave Bidwill the names of three world-class designers as possible candidates to plan the team's new facility: Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Will Bruder. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Bidwill intended to conduct a design competition among the three. He abandoned the idea after hearing through real estate developer Michael Rushman, his go-between with Eisenman, that Eisenman had pulled a picture out of his desk of the "Million Dollar Backfield," the four ball carriers that led the Chicago Cardinals, the forerunner of the St. Louis, Phoenix and Arizona Cardinals, to their lone NFL championship in 1947. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "I saw that team play," the 73-year-old Eisenman said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eisenman and Wellner said separately that they developed a good working relationship, and it shows in the final product, according to Bailey and other NFL team officials that have visited the facility. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "I thought there were a number of unique features, the concept of high design and how the stadium reflects the environment," said Bailey, the executive who Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga hired earlier this year to plan the $400 million renovation of Dolphins Stadium. "It reflected a tremendous amount of thought. I was quite impressed." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] In the spotlight [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Dallas Cowboys executives toured Cardinals stadium last summer as they continue to gather ideas in developing their $650 million facility in Arlington, Texas. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "Because it is a very innovative stadium, we wanted to have the chance to see it firsthand and take notes on things we might be able to incorporate ourselves," said Stephen Jones, the Cowboys' chief operating officer and executive vice president, and son of team owner Jerry Jones.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The stadium's portable field is the first completely retractable field in the NFL, unlike Reliant Stadium in Houston, where the natural grass surface moves in sections. The Cardinals' version rolls in and out of the stadium in 70 minutes. The 17 million-pound structure, powered by 80 1-horsepower motors, weighs 3 million pounds more than the building's retractable roof.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Multipurpose design [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Bidwill's idea was to transform the stadium into a true multipurpose facility that can easily accommodate nonfootball events. Storing the field immediately outside the building's south side when the Cardinals aren't playing frees up 210,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority owns the stadium and hired Global Spectrum to operate the building. Stadium Manager Peter Sullivan worked previously at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. He already has booked more than 30 non-NFL events and continues to aggressively pursue trade shows and conventions while the downtown Phoenix Civic Plaza undergoes a $600 million expansion. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "We're only going to be stymied by our lack of creativity," Sullivan said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The four-lane access road circling the building alleviates traffic headaches for trade show exhibitors loading equipment in and out of the facility. Most attendees walk into the stadium's north entrance and immediately take an escalator down to the event floor. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "Your newest-generation stadiums that are doing other events don't have that as a feature," Sullivan said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The Cardinals deserve credit for thinking outside the box and, at the same time, targeting the venue's versatility, Eisenman said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "They went out on a limb and now it's paying dividends for them," he said. "It's important for the Cardinals for people to have a good feeling about this facility. It's been a much-maligned franchise." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] [/FONT] Don Muret is a staff writer for Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication.
Don Muret SportsBusiness Journal
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] [/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Driving on the Loop 101 freeway, one would be hard-pressed to identify the Arizona Cardinals' $370 million stadium as an NFL facility. It looks more like a gleaming alien spacecraft that landed in the middle of what used to be an alfalfa field.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Maybe a mushroom gone wild. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Or maybe something from the future. The stadium, scheduled to open in August, has prompted other NFL teams to find out what's going on in the desert and how the Bidwill family is melding new design and functionality. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The exterior isn't the only eye-opener. Peer inside the suites, what the Cardinals are marketing as "lofts," and you'll see cork floors, carpeted walls and huge metallic dome lamps hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. There's no fine wood finishes in these skyboxes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "This is not the English hunt club. This is the W Hotel vs. the Marriott," said Michael Bidwill, Cardinals executive vice president, son of team owner Bill Bidwill and point man for stadium development. "We wanted to break the mold of what stadiums should look like." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] It's a call to revolution from a team known generally for on-field futility, in a discipline where the retro movement that the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards launched in 1992 has never given way to a clearly definable successor. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Joe Bailey, chief executive of Dolphins Enterprises, toured the stadium over Thanksgiving weekend. "In one sense, it's too early to praise or condemn," he said. "We'll be able to learn a lot more once it opens and operates. Obviously, it's a beautiful place. Stadiums evolve, and this is the next generation." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] At the very least, it's another example of NFL facilities in the past 10 years "coming out of (their) totalitarian roots," said Chris Lamberth, director of business development for 360 Architecture, one half of the design team planning the new stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eight years ago, the Cardinals hired noted New York City architect Peter Eisenman to create an extraordinary design. He'll tell you the stadium is shaped like a barrel cactus, and that the odd red-and-gray seat-color pattern in the lower bowl depicts the mandala, a symbol of peace and harmony to Native Americans. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Teamwork [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The team later employed HOK Sport's Dennis Wellner, the industry's foremost designer of NFL stadiums, to map out the building's practical issues and ensure that Eisenman's unconventional ideas conformed to operational and league standards. Wellner lists 14 NFL building designs on his résumé.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "You don't do these things without experts," Eisenman said. "Our specialty is design and niche making."
[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The pairing represented the first time Wellner shared equal billing with another architect, never mind that Eisenman had not designed a North American sports facility. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eisenman certainly was no stranger to the NFL experience, and was itching to expand his sports portfolio beyond the few European soccer stadiums he's designed. A New York Giants season-ticket holder since 1957, Eisenman sits in the next-to-last row in the upper deck at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] As the story goes, John Meunier, former dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University, gave Bidwill the names of three world-class designers as possible candidates to plan the team's new facility: Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Will Bruder. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Bidwill intended to conduct a design competition among the three. He abandoned the idea after hearing through real estate developer Michael Rushman, his go-between with Eisenman, that Eisenman had pulled a picture out of his desk of the "Million Dollar Backfield," the four ball carriers that led the Chicago Cardinals, the forerunner of the St. Louis, Phoenix and Arizona Cardinals, to their lone NFL championship in 1947. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "I saw that team play," the 73-year-old Eisenman said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Eisenman and Wellner said separately that they developed a good working relationship, and it shows in the final product, according to Bailey and other NFL team officials that have visited the facility. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "I thought there were a number of unique features, the concept of high design and how the stadium reflects the environment," said Bailey, the executive who Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga hired earlier this year to plan the $400 million renovation of Dolphins Stadium. "It reflected a tremendous amount of thought. I was quite impressed." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] In the spotlight [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Dallas Cowboys executives toured Cardinals stadium last summer as they continue to gather ideas in developing their $650 million facility in Arlington, Texas. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "Because it is a very innovative stadium, we wanted to have the chance to see it firsthand and take notes on things we might be able to incorporate ourselves," said Stephen Jones, the Cowboys' chief operating officer and executive vice president, and son of team owner Jerry Jones.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The stadium's portable field is the first completely retractable field in the NFL, unlike Reliant Stadium in Houston, where the natural grass surface moves in sections. The Cardinals' version rolls in and out of the stadium in 70 minutes. The 17 million-pound structure, powered by 80 1-horsepower motors, weighs 3 million pounds more than the building's retractable roof.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Multipurpose design [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] Bidwill's idea was to transform the stadium into a true multipurpose facility that can easily accommodate nonfootball events. Storing the field immediately outside the building's south side when the Cardinals aren't playing frees up 210,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority owns the stadium and hired Global Spectrum to operate the building. Stadium Manager Peter Sullivan worked previously at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. He already has booked more than 30 non-NFL events and continues to aggressively pursue trade shows and conventions while the downtown Phoenix Civic Plaza undergoes a $600 million expansion. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "We're only going to be stymied by our lack of creativity," Sullivan said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The four-lane access road circling the building alleviates traffic headaches for trade show exhibitors loading equipment in and out of the facility. Most attendees walk into the stadium's north entrance and immediately take an escalator down to the event floor. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "Your newest-generation stadiums that are doing other events don't have that as a feature," Sullivan said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] The Cardinals deserve credit for thinking outside the box and, at the same time, targeting the venue's versatility, Eisenman said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] "They went out on a limb and now it's paying dividends for them," he said. "It's important for the Cardinals for people to have a good feeling about this facility. It's been a much-maligned franchise." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif] [/FONT] Don Muret is a staff writer for Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal, a sister publication.
