Modern Stadiums Research Articles

Suspension as Politics: A Stadium and its Ruins in Northwest Kenya

ABSTRACT From mega-projects to small-scale repairs, many construction projects in Kenya are characterised by delays and false starts. One such case is the renovation of the Kamariny stadium, where since the 1960s world-class long-distance runners have prepared for international races. Part of the government’s Vision 2030 development agenda, the renovation promised to turn old athletics tracks into an imposing modern stadium. However, the construction was started and then suspended. Suspension as an ethnographic observation and an analytical framework provides a nuanced account of infrastructural development, one that complicates state-sanctioned narratives of vision and emergence. Conceptualised as a process and a deliberate political action – rather than an ontic condition – suspension is a resource for political performance and economic speculation, a tool for the state to assert itself as a provider of development, but also a method of civic dissent.

ТЕНДЕНЦИИ АРХИТЕКТУРНОГО ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ И ГРАДОСТРОИТЕЛЬНОГО РАЗМЕЩЕНИЯ КРУПНЕЙШИХ СТАДИОНОВ

Currently, Russia at the state level actively supports and popularizes sports and a healthy lifestyle. In this regard, the development of sports infrastructure facilities, including demonstration ones, such as stadiums, is underway. The article briefly describes the world experience in the formation of the planning structure of stadiums. Five years after the commissioning of the stadiums leased as part of the 2018 World Cup, an analysis of the functional and planning structure is carried out, the impact on the transformation of the adjacent territories is determined. On this basis, the features of the urban planning of the largest stadiums are identified. Taking into account the location, the main layout schemes are identified and described, the enlarged most characteristic aspects of the functional and planning structure of the largest modern stadiums are presented. Modern trends in the formation of the planning structure of stadiums related to urban planning and technological aspects are presented. Three options for the location of stadiums are described, in view of the urban planning situation. In accordance with this, the general plan structure and the planning structure of the facility are determined. Modern stadiums are multifunctional objects that have a complex planning structure with the possibility of transformation for holding various kinds of events, as well as including different functional objects taking into account the specific urban planning situation.

Building Dodger Stadium: Walter O’Malley’s search for nature and modernism in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT In the mid twentieth century, a time in which modernist principles of planning and design were influential, the Brooklyn Dodgers sought a new stadium in Southern California. Increased emphasis on an auto-dominant built form aligned with the construction of freeways that would provide access for the growing suburban fan base. In addition, finding a site in an ever-expanding metropolitan region with topographic variability, required significant engineering prowess. Once acquired, the site design emphasized access, comfort, and efficiency. The modern stadium served as a window to the surrounding rugged terrain, while simultaneously meeting the expectations of a suburban populace.

Dostępność przestrzenna wybranych usług wokół łódzkich stadionów piłkarskich w oparciu o ideę miasta 15-minutowego

One of the main problems and challenges of today’s cities is to reduce individual motorised transport and ensure good pedestrian accessibility. New urban concepts, such as the 15-minute city concept related to the spatial accessibility of services around people’s places of residence, are an attempt to respond to those challenges. The purpose of the article is to assess the spatial accessibility of selected services around two football stadiums in Łódź. In the article, the main assumptions of the 15-minute city concept were transferred from the point of view of a city resident to that of a tourist and a football fan. Indeed, modern stadiums are meeting venues for sports, cultural and business events, and sports tourism is an increasingly popular type of tourist activity. The accessibility areas of the stadiums were determined using the analysis tool in ArcGIS Online, while the service data were obtained from the Database of Topographic Objects (BDOT10k). Final accessibility of services was determined using a cumulative method. The accessibility areas of the two stadiums differ in shape, size and service facilities. The main spatial determinants of these areas are railroad tracks and major transport arteries. The area designated around the LKS stadium is larger and more accessible in terms of selected services, whereas the Widzew stadium has poorer access to all services.

Home advantage in football after moving to a new stadium: evidence from European professional teams

ABSTRACT Familiarity with local conditions is considered one of the main causes of home advantage (HA) in sport, yet it has received little attention from the sports science community. This study aimed to establish whether moving to play in newly built stadiums influences the HA of European professional football teams. The sample comprised 98 teams from 25 different leagues affiliated with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). For each team, the analysis was done with six full seasons, three before and after the stadium relocation. A general linear model was fitted to the data including team ability as a covariate to calculate the HA. Tukey’s pairwise comparisons revealed that the adjusted HA did not differ between any pairs of seasons, demonstrating that moving to a new stadium did not change the HA. A complementary repeated-measure analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between HA and stadium attendance over the six seasons. Although there was a large-sized and significant increase in attendance after relocation (51.6%), a negligible correlation (rs = −0.02, p = 0.85) between the size of the increase and the change in HA was found. It was concluded that there is no consistent evidence that a change of stadium significantly affects the HA of professional football teams; nevertheless, there is likely to be a positive impact on revenue because of increased crowd support and interest from the local community. Building a new and modern stadium is a positive strategy that can be adopted by football clubs without the expectation of change in HA.

State of reconstruction of Ukrainian multifunctional stadiums after EURO-2012

Today, Ukraine, like the whole world, is going through difficult times, the state of the economy is affected by such problems as war, pandemics. However, even greater losses are caused by often ill-considered actions, there is no strategy for the development and planning of construction and reconstruction of existing multifunctional stadiums at both the regional and national levels. The article reviews the condition of several existing multifunctional stadiums inherited from Soviet times. The fate of these stadiums is different and similar at the same time. After holding the EURO-2012 football championship, years have passed and the authors of the article are interested in the question: has anything changed for the better in the field of design and reconstruction of multifunctional stadiums. The article considers both the newly made project according to modern requirements (“CSC ZSU” stadium in Kyiv), reconstructed for EURO-2012 (“Metallist” Stadium in Kharkiv), and the stadium that needs urgent action to implement the reconstruction project (“Metallurg” Stadium in Kryvyi Rih). An analysis of the results of the competition STEEL FREEDOM is also given as an example of a modern approach to the design of new modern stadiums.

The politics of urban regeneration in Liverpool and Everton FC’s alternate new stadium-project plans

ABSTRACT Urban politics is a US-dominated field, and since the late 1990s there have been academic discussions with a view, on the one hand, to better understanding the British/European case and what distinguishes it from the US one and, on the other, to develop a better comparative theory much of which subsequently went down the path of studying neoliberalism. This article follows an urban politics perspective and the qualitative case-study method to explore Everton Football Club’s 20-year-long unsuccessful struggle to relocate to a new modern stadium of its own in the Liverpool city-region. Although this paper has limitations stemming from the fact that it is a single case study, its contribution to the field is three-fold. First, it adds to the scant literature on new private sports stadia in the UK. Second, it shows that US-based urban politics theories beyond regimes may remain alive in the UK. Third, it supplements the neoliberalist–financialized city statecraft literature by adding sports stadia as infrastructural projects never before incorporated.

Football Stadiums and the Production of Space in Czech Cities until 1939

Sport has become a significant part of our lives in the modern era and sporting sites contribute considerably to the image and texture of modern cities. Regarding the popularity of sport, especially football, the stadium has become an important modern space where specific kinds of social interaction take place. Despite the fact modern stadiums had their pre-modern models, they have been transformed substantially, so that we can talk of new urban spaces. This paper shows how football pitches gradually turned into stadiums, using the example of the Czech lands. The choice is by no means autotelic: interwar Czechoslovakia had one of the most successful football teams on the continent.

The attitude of state authorities to the development of physical culture in the Second Polish Republic

Physical culture in the Second Polish Republic has taken an important place in the politics of the state. It included physical education, physical recreation along with active forms of tourism, mass sports, high-performance sport and military adoption related programmatically with physical education. The state played a significant role in popularizing sport. They developed, among others infrastructure, building mountain hostels, ski jumps, indoor swimming pools, local playgrounds and modern large stadiums. A great contribution to the development of physical culture in pre-war Poland was made by institutions, unions and sports associations. The purpose of the article is to outline the attitude of state authorities to physical culture during the interwar period. The text has a problem layout, I present the state's policy in financial, organizational and legal terms.

Cool-season Grasses for Overseeding Sport Turfs: Germination and Performance under Limiting Environmental Conditions

In the transition zone, warm-season grasses are often overseeded with diploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 2x = 14) to provide a temporary green surface for winter sporting activities. Because improved cultivars of perennial ryegrass will often persist into summer in overseeded turf, alternative cool-season grasses have been developed to facilitate more rapid transition back to the warm-season species. Limited information is available on these alternative species, especially with regard to their germination characteristics under shade and performance under limiting factors, such as low temperature and restricted photoperiod. Greenhouse and growth chamber studies were designed to test four alternative overseeding grasses in comparison with diploid perennial ryegrass, to verify their potential use in the artificial environment of modern stadiums. Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.), tetraploid perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L., 2n = 4x = 28), annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), and spreading diploid perennial ryegrass [Lolium perenne L. subsp. stoloniferum (C. Lawson) Wipff.] were tested. Six different shade treatments were used in the greenhouse study, including 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100% shade and a nonshaded control (0% shade). Germination was monitored daily over a 21-day period by counting and removing emerged seedlings. The experimental design for this study was a randomized complete block design, with four replications of each species and shade level for a total of 120 experimental units. In the growth chamber study, the same plant material was tested simulating optimal, suboptimal, and critical environmental conditions that can be potentially found within a modern sport facility. In the greenhouse study, the highest final germination was observed with annual ryegrass at 90% shade (98.7%), whereas the lowest for tetraploid perennial ryegrass at 30% shade (58.8%). Annual ryegrass was the fastest emerging species, whereas meadow fescue the slowest. In the growth chamber study, in comparison with perennial ryegrass, the following results may be summarized: 1) meadow fescue and tetraploid ryegrass showed coarser leaf texture, similar growth rates and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) value; 2) annual ryegrass had similar leaf texture, accelerated growth characteristics, and lower NDVI value; and 3) spreading perennial ryegrass displayed finer leaf texture, lower vertical growth, and similar NDVI value.

Chinese Investments in Spanish Football: A Case Study of RCD Espanyol New Management Trends After Rastar Purchase

The global football industry is changing clubs’ corporate identities. Historically, European football had strong local roots; sport organizations represented local values and fandom were regionally based. However, sporting competitiveness pushes clubs to search for new investors, and foreign investors in Europe are attracted by the popularity of European football. In this article, we analyse how Chinese capital and brands arrived in Barcelona, through the negotiations of a football club in 2016: the Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol (RCDE). RCDE is the club that has received the second most trophies in Catalonia, after FC Barcelona, since the beginning of the 20th century. Today, it has one of the most modern stadiums in Spain, designed using a business approach, and has become a corporate ambassador for the Chinese government’s strategy of becoming a “world football superpower” by 2050. Using a case study approach, this article analyses management and corporate identity changes in the organization due to the new Chinese owner: the Rastar Group.

Пожарная безопасность спортивных сооружений: российские и международные нормы проектирования, инновационные решения в области пожарной безопасности

This work analyzes integrated security and safety problems for modern sports facilities as large places of assembly and multi-use objects. Different events (mostly sports, but modern stadium construction allows to transform them for concerts, performances, etc.) require people protection from possible danger. Also it’s necessary to remember that sports facilities are characterized by not only large assembly of people, but their behavior specialties as well. Statistics of fires at stadiums for recent years show tragedies in the grandstands, caused by events at playing field. All these specialties require complex development and detailed analysis of security and safety (including fire safety) for sports facilities at all stages of design, building and use. Comparative analysis of Russian and international rules and regulations in the field of fire safety for modern sports facilities is made in this work. Special attention is paid to documents prepared for World Championship 2018. Successful practical experience of safety and security arrangements for the XXVII Universiade in Kazan in 2013 and the XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 is regarded. This analysis shows that modern Russian rules and regulations don’t take into account fire safety requirements to the full extent at the stages of design, building, use, rebuilding and reconstruction of sports facilities. For such objects it’s necessary to develop Special Technical Regulations with different justifying calculations for requirements and parameters of fire protection systems. Also modern sports facility design and building require innovative technology application. Future lines of work for integrated security and safety of sports facilities are suggested in conclusion: § development of unified regulation in the field of fire safety; § improvement of fire risk assessment technique.

Measurable domain for crowd noise in modern stadiums and arenas

The noise generated by the organized fans or crowds during sporting events has created a challenge for sports facility management. The new demand for full compliance to national sports league rules on crowd noise, as well as health regulations ordinance on noise, require new methods in estimating and or measuring such environmental conditions. Given their dynamic range and possible classification, noise levels generated by large crowds have influenced the outcome of games. Recent analysis of the available data shows this situation has provided more excitement for the spectators and greater participation in the events. However, sound intensity of 95 to 110 dBA is now the typically reported range of recorded noise levels within various sports stadiums and arenas. This paper describes an integrated method utilizing ray tracing in simulating the sound path, and delay-sum beamforming in the time and frequency domains using the spherical wave concept, measuring the sound with 120 channel data recorders, and uti...

Dynamic Response Analysis of the Ondrej Nepela Stadium Grandstands

Behaviour of the spectators in the grandstands during a sports match may generate excessive vibration that can cause problems with the serviceability limit state. Construction of modern stadium due to architectural design and improving the material properties of the elements are made more efficient. This type of structural design brings many benefits. On the other hand, the size of its vibration, caused mainly by coordinated motion spectators, became of great values, which may exceed the limit values given in the respective standards. In this article we are dealing with modal analysis of structures Ondrej Nepela stadium in Bratislava and finding natural frequencies adjacent grandstands. Global support system and his description are based on the original design project documents from 1988 and subsequent project documentation from 2009.Complete reconstruction of the stadium in shape as it looks today, was in 2009. Ground plan dimensions of the hall are 86.0 x 102.8 meters and maximum theoretical amount at mid- range is 23.3 meters. The mods of natural vibration and natural frequencies were calculated by the computational model in computer program Scia Engineer with using the Lanczos mathematical method. Software package Scia Engineer uses the principle of finite element method (FEM) - numerical method for solving boundary value of continuum mechanics. FEM solves a system of differential equations transformed to a system of linear algebraic equations.

Evaluation and Analysis of Wind Flow for a Football Stadium

Wind influences many aspects in the design of modern stadiums. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, as one of the numerical analysis methods, can assist architects and engineers in finding solutions for a safe and efficient design for a stadium. This paper presents the wind analysis process for a football stadium in West Lafayette IN by using CFD to evaluate its future retrofit design. The current and future design concept models, include the stadium, surrounding buildings, and topography, were built using AutoCAD. Based upon these models, steady state RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) CFD mathematical models were developed using ANSYS Fluent software to evaluate the wind flow patterns around and inside the stadium. Using the current stadium as a baseline case, the future design concept was simulated to predict its performance. Simulation results suggest that there will be bigger area of high velocities and vortexes occurring in the future design concept due to the closed shape of the future design. A modification of having an opening on the first floor was proposed, and the resultant wind flow was simulated. The final results show in most cases the area of high velocities and vortexes is much smaller compared to that of the design concept resulting from the opening. The approach used in the study can be generally applied in the wind analysis for different types of buildings or infrastructures.

Pro-ecological aspects of the functioning of sports and tourist facilities with an example of stadiums

Sports events attract thousands of people to stadiums and often give fans and tourists many positive emotions. Stadiums play a major role during sports events, along with players, fans and tourist destinations. They are facilities which over the last two thousand years have transformed into multifunctional venues where you can do the shopping, have a business meeting or visit a museum. However, their ultimate purpose have not been changed. They still provide fans and numerous visitors, who are on that occasion “event” tourists, with unforgettable emotions during sports events. Key vocabulary: modern stadiums, ecological functioning and usage of stadiums.

Study on the Glare Problems of the Intelligent Lighting Control System in Modern Stadiums

The application of intelligent lighting control system, as an advanced technology in stadium lighting project will become a trend in the future. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the characteristics and advantages of stadium intelligent lighting system and puts an emphasis on the glare,a must-be-solved problem, in the design of stadiums. An in-depth exploration about the glare is developed from the physical factors to the mechanism reaction of human vision. In terms of glare inhibition, a series of countermeasures are listed covering the design of lighting, selection and installation of lamps.

Applied Research of ETFE Membrane Gas Pillow Structure in Modern Stadiums

The ETFE membrane structure is a new type of building materials, compared to traditional wall material, which has a more significant advantages and modern forms of spatial structure and it will be trend to replace traditional materials. This study, using literature data, based on analysis of the ETFE cushions structure graphics and ETFE materials characteristics, taking the Beijing Water Cube Aquatics Centre as main case, focuses on the ETFE membrane structure of the basic information and this material in the field of sports building design principles and installation methods in order to promote the application of the ETFE membrane material in the field of sports building.

‘We Make a Big Effort to Bring Out the Ladies’: Visual Representations of Women in the Modern American Stadium

Modern stadiums were constructed across the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, usually to replace old baseball parks that were run-down, inaccessible by automobile, and located near African American neighbourhoods. Sports promoters coveted affluent, white, consumption-oriented customers who had recently moved to the suburbs. To attract these customers, promoters attempted to imaginatively reconstitute stadium space – from urban, old, dirty, rambunctious, masculine places to suburban, new, clean, orderly, female-friendly spaces. The attraction of women – as signifiers of an affluent and domesticated postwar social order – was central to this strategy. Visual representations of women in new stadium spaces were essential to the imaginative reconfiguration and modernisation of stadium space. This essay examines their use, particularly in the Houston Astrodome. Stadium publications and local newspapers used photographs and illustrations of women to conceptually reinvent the stadium, extending a distinctively post-war, modern ideology privileging comfort, consumption and respectable behaviour into stadium space.

Ballpark Village or Urban Wasteland: Rhetorical Invention, Civic Ego, and the St. Louis Cardinals' Controversial New Home

OUT WITH THE NEW, IN WITH THE OLD Tickled by charm and success of Camden Yards in 1992, Major League baseball clubs have spent last decade demolishing their old, modern stadiums and constructing new, old-fashioned ballparks for their teams. Some of these old stadiums were multipurpose mammoths, ill-fitted for any of several sports and events they hosted. Other stadiums were simply too old. Structural problems, often with dubious technical substantiation, were cited as cause for their inevitable demise. Certainly, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, with its falling concrete and cosmic vastness, exemplifies both of these architectural justifications--but, unlike Expos, it is not slated for demolition. By contrast St. Louis Cardinals are already lining up wrecking balls for Busch Stadium. Opened in 1966 it was called by architect Harris Armstrong the first American sports stadium that looks like architecture. Harris added: It has three essentials: clarity, simplicity, and honesty, and it is in these three that its beauty lies. (1) Built in an era of Epcot visions of future, Busch Stadium resembles a circular wedding cake with an arched fringe along its roofline (to evoke and complement Gateway Arch). Aesthetically, it belongs to bygone era of modernist architecture, but it is recognized as one of best stadiums of its time. Over years Busch has been well-maintained, and it currently has no serious structural issues. Cardinals consistently draw over 3 million fans a year to stadium, so team owners cannot employ argument that a trendy, new stadium will attract more fans--fan loyalty and attendance figures are not a problem in St. Louis. Busch Stadium is not an eyesore, nor is it dilapidated in any way. Why, then, is it being replaced? PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE AND THE NEED FOR RHETORICAL INVENTION Interestingly, as noted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz, no case ever was made that a new stadium was needed. (2) Cardinals never made an issue of Busch Stadium's structural inadequacy, aesthetics, seating capacity, or poor location--in fact, from this list, aesthetics are only aspect of stadium that will change significantly. main difference between Busch Stadium and new ballpark will be luxuriousness of luxury boxes. new ballpark will actually have ten fewer luxury boxes than Busch Stadium's seventy, but owners claim that boxes will be much nicer and, therefore, command a steeper price than current boxes. With characteristic obtuseness, Cardinals president Mark Lamping asserted: The economics of staying in an aging Busch Stadium demand that we act now. (3) Claims that stadium was becoming obsolete were sometimes tied to need to generate extra revenue and help team compete with richer rivals. (4) Associating luxury boxes and extra revenue to competitiveness, however, became a rhetorical liability for owners when matter of financing new ballpark inevitably arose. Public resentment was stoked by groups such as Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums, and public opinion polls showed strong disfavor for public financing of a new ballpark that would stereotypically amount to taxpayer subsidies for wealthy. Since standard stadium-building arguments rang hollow, Cardinals management and their political supporters had to develop a new argument. BALLPARK VILLAGE Modeled after similar efforts in San Diego and ultimately mimicking Wrigleyville neighborhood in Chicago, architects, developers, and Cardinals' owners developed idea of Ballpark Village: a development adjacent to new ballpark consisting of mixed-use retail, office, and residential space. With advent of Ballpark Village concept, center of discourse shifted from a spotlight on revenues and luxury boxes--inside stadium--to contribution new ballpark would make toward overall revitalization of downtown St. …