This story done a few days ago by them is pretty good too... Safe standing, canopies, tight sidelines mark evolution of MLS stadiums http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/mls-stadium-evolution-safe-standing-canopies-tight-sidelines
Re: the first article: Seems some of the suppositions from Populous were a tad over the top, but I guess that's sometimes needed for innovation to take place. The dynamic roof concepts seem doomed, however, since the last thing I want to do as a player when looking up to a kicked ball is to try and pick it out of a collage of colored tiles and inconsistent sunlight.
Safe standing is really the only way to expand some stadiums. Those teams who sell out every week should try it. I know Portland fans said no, I don't really understand why, there would be more room for the Tetris dance.
I believe the issue in Portland is the density factor behind the scenes, as in concession areas, restrooms, etc. The stadium was obviously only geared to handle so many bodies at once. Just my guess, though.
In the old standing Kop at Anfield there was no way you could get to the bathrooms, so if the back of your legs felt wet it was probably the guy behind you taking a piss. The same thing sandwiched into away sections when you were crammed in like sardines. When you did get to the toilets they were disgusting. My friend Damian and I used to guess the crowd size before we went onto the terraces from the depth of urine. I once got pissed on by a Sheffield Wednesday fan on the terrace above me. I also got hit by a pie at home by a Chelsea fan and a corner flag at Stamford Bridge. You're not a real footy fan if you haven't been pissed on
Somewhere, on the steppes of North America there is a man... a man of First Nation stock... a man who is an experienced architect... a man who should probably have his mouth washed out with soap... right now this man's eyelid is twitching and his blood pressure is rising...
Well.. To be fair.. That one is not wrong because it does not say "to make it louder". All waves will be reflected when they collide with a surface, they just won't have an amplitude greater than prior to the reflection.
At the old famed Carisbrook rugby stadium in Dunedin, NZ, in the student terraces they would pee into empty beer cans then fling them up into the air so they would spin. I sat as far away from the students as possible when attending Otago matches. I still remember the church worship leader, a friend of mine, praising God at the start of the worship service for not having anyone piss on her at the game the night before.
Would love for Portland to get a larger stadium for their large fanbase with a 10K waiting list. But their location is terrific. I wonder if it would be possible to find a temporary stadium situation for one year and do a tear down and complete rebuild right where they are. It does seem that side road SW20th is just a side street with alot of parking lots to be bought. They would have to somehow buy only two buildings or work with the tenants. The Bank on the corner and the small parking garage for Portland towers. They could easily have a deluxe stadium with 30K in it sold out every week.
I think that sort comment may warrant the death penalty in Oregon. They seem very sensitive about their history and they have spent $75 million on it since 2000. This design with the extra deck could add thousands of seats but I guess there are a lot of things like safety, concessions, toilets to consider.
Woops sorry. Just looking at it from the other side of the country as an outsider. No disrepect meant. I love the Timbers fan base and it saddens me the 10K more can't watch them live. I love the historical nature of the stadium but also see the upper stands on the supporter section are empty for a reason. Its too small infrastructure to even fully utilize it as it is now. How about a new stadium that incorporates a lot of the historical aspects it has now but without blocking the views with those posts, using all available seating and increasing the foot print out to SW20th to increase fans and improve fan experience and sight lines. Bottom line is they have to increase the overall footprint of the stadium to do anything and they only side that's not a major thoroughfare is SW20th. If they find another great location downtown in the far future this point is irrelevant. Just a dream. Portland will figure it out.
As the revenues in MLS improve it will eventually warrant the investment necessary to make a significant expansion possible. I suspect we'll see about 27-30k eventually.
There were a couple reasons why it failed. The proposal the FO came to the Timbers Army with (based on my admittedly shaky memory): Turn several section of the 100 level into safe standing, but change several sections of the 200 level into reserved (non-GA) seating. This did not go over well with the TA, because based on the proposal, it would have reduced the amount of GA space available. Also, the FO took some proposals about safe standing to the city, and could not get them approved. The Timbers FO has plans to increase capacity by ~4,000, and is currently working with the city to get these plans approved. These plans involve adding an upper deck above the east side stands. For those unfamiliar, those are the stands you see when the cameras give you a wide view of the stadium, e.g. on kickoff.
I think right now, all future expansion teams need to come in with a stadium plan no less than 20k. That plan also needs to be able to expand to 30k. MLS shouldnt settle for anything less.
Well I'm not sure it's fair to mandate that but common sense tells us that they shouldn't have to, anyway. From a business perspective you know MLS and its members are looking to grow and that means looking toward both more revenues and more expensive rosters. To do that you'll need to draw larger crowds, especially if you want to swing a profit. To that end I think so long as the team has a business plan that works for the foreseeable future (20-30 years) then that should suffice, even if it starts out at something less than 20k (See SKC, for example) or doesn't appear capable of more than 25-27k (Portland). If the local owner has something they trust will work and has all the other resources committed then that should be okay. What's not okay is letting saga's like Miami and NYCFC drag on while mandating other candidates have their ducks in a row.
I sadly note that in the "evolution" article DC's Audi Field gets no specific mention for innovation - for a reason I suppose.
Will this "Urban Park" be before or after the mass acceptance of the "flying car"? The neat thing about being a futurist is that you're never bounded by realities such as budgets, adjacent property impacts, land use restrictions and property rights, that is unless you design/build for the folks in Qatar / UAE or for the House of Saud, just whether or not you can stomach a couple of hundred deaths on one of your projects... I'm sure at some point, we "might" have all of these retractable things and rotating structures and shit, but unlikely in any of yours or my lifetimes. Not to mention how these rotating skyscraper farms are going to work when half of them are blocking each other's natural growing sunlight... Truth is, we have tried and built such things at smaller scales, and they quickly fail and are too costly to repair. And besides, why have space for parking since no one will be driving in 20 years ... Believe me, I like dreaming beyond what's currently possible in a building or urbanism, but what's portrayed in those links involves a lot of fantasy & wishful thinking that ignores a lot of realities in building placement that haven't been seen in the US since Robert Moses was buried. The mind, when combined with the quill / pencil / pen / AutoCAD / SketchUp / Revit, will always go well and beyond the nature, use and capabilities of building materials. If you need to fap to futuristic architecture, there's always tumblr Safe standing in the US will last only as long as the next drunken stadium crush/fight... Hey, you gotta tag me in posts if you wanna get my attention. I've had a stomach virus and been waiting at the clinic... That's sort of a neat graphic, but I guess it's gonna be up to me to sketch one up of how this really works, including the most absorbent material in the stadium that deadens the crowd noise, which is the meat of the supporters themselves, aside from the sound deadening materials that are used in the roofs and other places in the stadium to take out the echo/reverb for TV Broadcast & spectator enjoyment.
Is there a better person to bring in to help crush the dreams of others, than our very own @Mr. Warmth ?
I fell in love with the sweet nothings he whispered into my ear--something about a fire and dying, I believe.