Stadiums across the world

[#bancars]

I didn't see a broader thread dedicated to photos / discussion about sports stadiums, so wanted to start one! I thought this NYT on the New Orleans Superdome was pretty cool, and came with some good photos of it under construction.

What are some of everyone's favorite urban stadiums?

Hosting Its Next Super Bowl, New Orleans’s Superdome Is Turning 50

The distinctive domed building, turning 50 this year, is known for hosting the Super Bowl, but to locals, it’s also “the city’s living room.”

www.nytimes.com

 

[Arenacale]

I've always wanted to bring up stadiums and arenas on here but thought it was too niche of a topic. I have a specific fondness for them as a monster truck fan, since unlike other motorsports most monster truck shows are in these types of venues. That's one of my big knocks against the TD Garden, ice level is 3 floors up, so there's some structural concerns about having a 6 ton truck drop from 20 feet up onto the arena floor.

The Superdome, itself, is home to what's (probably falsely) considered the site of the first head-to-head, bracket style monster truck race, documented in the 1980's TV special "Return of the Monster Trucks", and Monster Jam still visits to this day.

I find the current generation of stadiums and arenas to lack a bit of character. I love places like the Worcester Centrum (sorry, DCU Center) and Hartford Civic Center (sorry, XL Center) specifically because they're a bit of a time capsule, even with the myriad upgrades they've gotten over the years. The XL is getting yet another renovation this year, sadly, still not enough to bring back the Whalers: (https://www.xlcenter.com/premium-seating/premium-experiences-2025). The Garden is fantastic but a bit sterile now, it sort of looks like any other current NHL rink. Even the newest stuff, like Seattle, still looks broadly similar inside to the 1990's arenas, save for different hanging scoreboard situations. NFL stadiums still have some character but they've also started to take on a cartoonish bent with places like So-Fi and U.S. Bank. I went to MetLife once for a Monster Jam and found myself being strangely unsettled with how towering the place was.

 

[bigpicture7]

Love the thread idea, @#bancars . Stadiums definitely represent interesting design challenges and I'm all for celebrating them on here. I'll have to give your question some thought though!

(PS., I think the discussion should be open to smaller stadiums too...like minor league/semi-pro/special event etc, as there's some interesting stuff out there, particularly historically)

 

[Arenacale]

Some of the cooler arena/stadium wide shots I've gotten over the years at various monster truck shows.

Dad actually took this first one, the Centrum in Worcester (current DCU Center) in 1993, where it forever stays in my mind. It isn't terribly different now but I do miss the old tan-and-orange color scheme and that glorious 1980s mall-looking lobby. When they renovated the seats a couple of years ago they gave the old ones away and I grabbed a couple so I can put them in my man cave at some point. The greatest arena logo in history. One of the first years they called the shows "Monster Jam".

The Nassau Coliseum...2008, I think? Kind of a bigger Providence-type place at that point. Smallish for an NHL rink at the time.

The Carrier Dome in Syracuse in 2013, the best monster truck show I've ever been to (Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger lit it up). It's been renovated since, but at the time it was a very basic building, concrete everywhere, aluminum benches, and troughs in the bathroom. The old Foxboro with a roof. Didn't matter - the smaller capacity (~40k for Monster Jam) and dome meant the atmosphere was electric. Fun to get blown out of the building leaving due to the air supported roof.

MetLife later that year. Again, so towering that I felt overwhelmed. Good amenities, though.

The Whittemore Center in Durham, NH in 2006. Basic college rink, but Olympic dimensions which helped the monsters a bit. Multiple promoters gave this place a shot but none of the shows stuck past 2007.

Tsongas Center has had 2 monster truck shows over a decade apart, this was the last one in 2011. With no collapsible seating it's really too small for these shows. Good building though, sort of the template for Agganis.

The current SNHU Arena in 2006. I like this place, they went for a mini-TD Garden feel and it works. Bright lighting and good amenities. Glad they've stopped holding the show the 1st weekend of January, they keep the 40ft wide loading door open during the event and it freezes the place out. Now, mercifully, a dirt show for Monster Jam.

Finally, Providence in 1998, another one my dad took. Was still the basic Providence Civic Center back then. I was just there last weekend for Monster Jam, and post-renovations the place is comfy and great to attend shows at, though I miss the 1960s mid-century look the lobby had before they redid it.

 

[bigpicture7]

^ I have a soft spot for small stadiums with multiple balconies (e.g., the old garden)

 

[bigpicture7]

^ I have a soft spot for small stadiums with multiple balconies (e.g., the old garden)

Ok, I'll throw in what I consider a good modern day example of this: Memphis's FedEx Forum
One of the smallest NBA arena's (~17,700 for basketball), tall, narrow profile like the old Garden.
I enjoyed watching a Grizzlies/Celtics game there a few years ago.

Photo credit: Frank from aviewfrommyseat:

https://aviewfrommyseat.com/large-photo/147572/FedEx+Forum/section-116/row-G/seat-5/

Photo credit Flintco (Construction co.) (https://flintco.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/MEM-FedExForum-Interior-Arena-3web-1340x890.jpg)

 

[Arenacale]

Some of the college basketball arenas have some wild balcony setups - Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium is almost like a theater, with the balconies right on top of each other (image from https://vucommodores.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorialgymrecoated83111.jpg):

 

[BronsonShore]

Great thread, I love discussing stadium and ballpark architecture.

Just to get some conversation going, there's something that's always amazed me as a soccer fan: despite the fact that soccer fields and football fields are almost exactly the same size as each other, soccer stadia outside North America are waaaayyy more architectually interesting, intimate (even when they have massive capacities), and visually attractive than football stadia in the US.

Here's arguably the most historic stadium in England, Goodison Park in Liverpool, which is wrapping up its final season before the team moves. No football stadium in America has ever looked as good this this:

And it's not just the old bandbox stadia that are attractive. Here's where Everton will be moving to. Note that, in the interior, the architects prioritized game day atmosphere over corporate revenue by building steep stands that are very close to the pitch, with much less corporate hospitality seating than you'd find in a US stadium:

Here's Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, built in the '70s and home of the famous "yellow wall," which crams 25,000 fans into a single stand behind one of the goals:

Stade Louis II, in Monaco, built in the 80s. No NFL or college football stadium has ever dared to look as interesting as this:

And you can say the same about Marseille's stadium just down coast. It was rebuilt 10 years ago:

Ditto Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, rebuilt in 1990:

Here's he newly rebuilt Bernabeu in Madrid, home to the most famous sports team in the world:

And St. James Park in Newcastle. In Europe, teams often renovate their stadia piecemeal, one stand at a time, resulting in some very quirky and visually appealing massing:

\

Note, also, that St. James Park sits smack dab in the center of the city. In the US we have this ingrained assumption that football stadia need to be built out in the suburbs and surrounded by parking lots, but that's just not the case in Europe, even for some of the biggest soccer stadia.

Here's a pre-renovation aerial of he aforementioned Bernabeu (capacity 78,000), which sits in the heart of Madrid:

Just like Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London:

Also, it goes without saying that almost all of these stadia were built by the clubs themselves, with their own funds, not by governments that have been extorted by teams threatening to move. That's probably one of the biggest reasons why these stadia are so much more interesting, actually: it's easier and cheaper for the clubs to renovate an existing stadium than it is to build a brand new one on acres of land outside of town.

 

[Arenacale]

Great thread, I love discussing stadium and ballpark architecture.

Just to get some conversation going, there's something that's always amazed me as a soccer fan: despite the fact that soccer fields and football fields are almost exactly the same size as each other, soccer stadia outside North America are waaaayyy more architectually interesting, intimate (even when they have massive capacities), and visually attractive than football stadia in the US.

Here's arguably the most historic stadium in England, Goodison Park in Liverpool, which is wrapping up its final season before the team moves. No football stadium in America has ever looked as good this this:

And it's not just the old bandbox stadia that are attractive. Here's where Everton will be moving to. Note that, in the interior, the architects prioritized game day atmosphere over corporate revenue by building steep stands that are very close to the pitch, with much less corporate hospitality seating than you'd find in a US stadium:

Here's Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, built in the '70s and home of the famous "yellow wall," which crams 25,000 fans into a single stand behind one of the goals:

Stade Louis II, in Monaco, built in the 80s. No NFL or college football stadium has ever dared to look as interesting as this:

And you can say the same about Marseille's stadium just down coast. It was rebuilt 10 years ago:

Ditto Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, rebuilt in 1990:

Here's he newly rebuilt Bernabeu in Madrid, home to the most famous sports team in the world:

And St. James Park in Newcastle. In Europe, teams often renovate their stadia piecemeal, one stand at a time, resulting in some very quirky and visually appealing massing:

\

Note, also, that St. James Park sits smack dab in the center of the city. In the US we have this ingrained assumption that football stadia need to be built out in the suburbs and surrounded by parking lots, but that's just not the case in Europe, even for some of the biggest soccer stadia.

Here's an aerial of he aforementioned Bernabeu (capacity 78,000), which sits in the heart of Madrid:

Just like Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London:

Also, it goes without saying that almost all of these stadia were built by the clubs themselves, with their own funds, not by governments that have been extorted by teams threatening to move. That's probably one of the biggest reasons why these stadia are so much more interesting, actually: it's easier and cheaper for the clubs to renovate an existing stadium than it is to build a brand new one on acres of land outside of town.

I think the differences in stadia speak more to the structure and history of soccer in Europe vs the structure and history of football in the US. Many of the teams over there are decades older than any NFL team, and the promotion and relegation system puts different stresses on teams than the franchised American system. Their stadiums have far fewer luxury suites and advertising, but they also make money in more overt ways (shirt sponsors, TV rights, etc.).

Stade Louis II is so freakin' cool, though, and very Monaco. It's also, like TD Garden, built on top of it's own infrastructure (the pitch is on top of a parking garage).

 

[22marc]

Some of the college basketball arenas have some wild balcony setups - Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium is almost like a theater, with the balconies right on top of each other (image from https://vucommodores.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/memorialgymrecoated83111.jpg):

IU's stadium is wild too

 

[BronsonShore]

I think the differences in stadia speak more to the structure and history of soccer in Europe vs the structure and history of football in the US. Many of the teams over there are decades older than any NFL team, and the promotion and relegation system puts different stresses on teams than the franchised American system. Their stadiums have far fewer luxury suites and advertising, but they also make money in more overt ways (shirt sponsors, TV rights, etc.).

Stade Louis II is so freakin' cool, though, and very Monaco. It's also, like TD Garden, built on top of it's own infrastructure (the pitch is on top of a parking garage).

I think the age of the respective teams is the biggest factor. Professional soccer in Europe took off well before the age of the automobile, while professional football in America took off well after (and, obviously, the automobile has simply never been as important in Europe as it is here). Purpose-built NFL stadia were basically unheard of anywhere in the US until about the 60s because professional football just didn't bring in enough money until then for anyone to bother building them. The stadium vernacular of the two sports reflects this.

This dynamic applies to South America, too, where they started building purpose-built soccer stadia decades before we started building them for football. As a result, Argentina has beauties like La Bombonera in BA:

 

[Arenacale]

There's a bit of Fenway to that place. In fact, baseball is probably closer overall to the vibe that a lot of those old soccer stadium have. There's more parallels to Anfield in Wrigley than there would be in, say, Lambeau.

 

[Arenacale]

The DCU Center today. Still the basically the Centrum, but a little nicer. I wish they had kept the bigger lobby in the renovations a while back so you weren't forced to wait outside in the cold for the doors to open. I also miss the old school message boards (and the warmer color scheme) on the concourse.

 

[393b40]

IU's stadium is wild too

I think I got vertigo looking at those photos.