NFl Stadiums graded - guess who is last

New venues put city on notice for keeping Rams

by RamWraith

By Bill Coats
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/30/2008

If St. Louis intends to meet its lease agreement by providing the Rams with a venue that ranks in the top 25 percent of the NFL by 2015, the city � and the taxpayers � must commit to building a state-of-the-art stadium. One in which the cost could hit 10 figures.

So says Convention and Visitors Commission Chairman Dan Dierdorf publicly, as do several other principals privately.

The NFL stadiums under construction in Indianapolis; Arlington, Texas; and East Rutherford, N.J., are "going to be the cream of the crop, and they're going to be no more than five or six years old" by 2015, Dierdorf said. "What do you do to a 20-year-old building to make it the equal of a brand-new $1 billion stadium?"

In 1995, the $281 million downtown dome � now known as the Edward Jones Dome � was at the cutting edge of stadium technology, as well as an integral part of a new convention center. Today, it's rapidly becoming antiquated in an era of new stadiums around the league.

The dome is undergoing $30 million in upgrades, including new video boards and an as-yet-undetermined way of getting more sunlight into the building. Those slightly tardy improvements will satisfy requirements to keep the dome in the top tier at the first 10-year segment of the 30-year lease.

Still, it appears that no amount of renovation, no matter how extravagant and expensive, could turn the dome into one of the top eight stadiums in the 32-team league by 2015, the 20th anniversary. If it isn't, the lease will be broken and the team will be free to consider moving.

That issue has gained new traction since the death in January of team owner Georgia Frontiere. Her son, Chip Rosenbloom, a Hollywood filmmaker, is the Rams' new managing partner and has vowed to keep the team here. Still, he acknowledged recently that he has "been approached by several people" inquiring about the team's availability.

OUT WITH OLD, IN WITH NEW

The newest NFL venues now under construction will be the 18th, 19th and 20th stadiums built since the Rams moved here from Los Angeles in '95. Several other stadiums have undergone significant renovation, some costing hundreds of millions of dollars, during that span.

"I don't think anybody could've imagined that the boom in stadium development would've happened," said Bob Wallace, the Rams' executive vice president and general counsel. "And you have to also remember that this stadium was designed in 1987, eight years before it was (completed). So it's 21 years old in terms of technology and innovation."

When the new stadiums go up, decisions must be made as to what happens with the old ones. In Indianapolis, the RCA Dome will be torn down and the space used to expand the city's convention center....
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-05-30-2008, 11:59 AM
Edward jones outdated??

by Guest

Caught this article on nfl.com thought it was interesting...

The first NFL game I covered was at the Edward Jones Dome, the Minnesota Vikings versus the host St. Louis Rams, the 2000 playoffs. Back then, it was known as the TWA Dome, and man, it was loud. One of the newest stadiums in the league, opened in 1995, it was designed to maximize walls of noise stacked like bricks, a raving loony bin of overdubbed screams and claps and stomps. Best home-field advantage in the league, it was called.
The Ed still is a new stadium, but not new enough, not by NFL standards. Next year, it'll rank in the oldest one-third of NFL stadiums. The boom of new venues has turned a building that was supposed to last 30 years into one that needed $30 million in renovations this past offseason. With a lease that states the Rams must be in the league's upper 25 percent in stadium revenue or they can opt out, it's no secret the Rams' eyes are roaming.

A new home, with more and bigger luxury boxes, more club seats and more concessions -- similar to what the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, New York Jets and New York Giants enjoy -- might be the only way to keep the team in St. Louis.

Unlike old stadiums that underwent face-lifts, like Lambeau Field and Soldier Field, the Ed is so new it's not worth saving.

"There's this disposability that's part of our consumer culture that seems particularly bizarre when you're talking about stadiums," says Oregon State English professor Michael Oriard, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs in the '70s and recently wrote "Brand NFL: Making and Selling America's Favorite Sport."

"There's something perverse about making so much money and needing even more yet."

So how does a stadium transform in nine years from the toughest place to play to outdated? Football doesn't change. The field's dimensions remain the same. Games still last 60 minutes. So to squeeze more money from football, owners change the structures that surround it. And when you have the Cowboys collecting $327 million last year, compared to the Rams' $206 million and the Vikings' $195 million, the new breed of NFL owners -- many of whom manage teams daily -- want spectacular venues.

Things used to be different. The league's first owners, guys like Art Rooney and George Halas, were not billionaires. A franchise was a long-term investment. Later came richer men, like Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams and former Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who owned teams but made their real money elsewhere. Dallas' Jerry Jones and Washington's Dan Snyder have made trendy the notion that football is an endless daily revenue stream.

"Owning a team is no longer a mom-and-pop operation, and it's no longer a rich playboy operation," Oriard says. "It's for capitalists."

Those capitalists are...
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-10-12-2009, 09:55 PM
How to guarantee the Rams a new stadium ..

by MauiRam

This is post is from another forum, however, I thought it an interesting concept, and worthy of discussion here .. Av and GC, perhaps you might weigh in on whether "collusion charges" would have any merit in this type of situation with regard to the Giants.

Author: Playmaker
Posted: Fri Jun 04

In today's tough economic times, the last thing tax payers want to do is fund a new stadium for their home team. Especially when there isn't anything structurally wrong with the current stadium. That is why I think we have seen the last of the publicly funded professional sport stadiums being built.

If you look across the NFL, there are several NFL franchises that have been trying for years to get new stadiums. San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego and Minnesota have had several proposals for publicly funded stadium proposals shot down in recent years. New Orleans needs a new stadium, but the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans are still trying to get over the financial hit of Hurricane Katrina and now the oil disaster that has hit the Gulf of Mexico. St. Louis and Atlanta are approaching the end of their leases at the Georgia and Edward Jones Domes.

With New York receiving the Super Bowl in 2014, we may be entering a new era in the NFL. The new Giants Stadium cost an estimated $1.6 billion dollars to build. Part of that came from tax levys voted on by the cities of East Rutherford New Jersey and New York City along with the states of New Jersey and New York. The new Giants Stadium received 300 million dollars in grants from the NFL in 2006 to help with the building of the new stadium.

By giving New York a Super Bowl, the NFL has opened themselves up to collusion charges by any NFL city who is waiting on a new stadium and/or been turned down to host a Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl in 2014 will generate $500 million in tax dollars for the East Rutherford/New York City area. So whatever the citizens had to flip the bill for, they will get back in tax dollars generated by hotels, resteraunts, gas, alcohol, and tobacco revenue made those two weeks prior to the Super Bowl (not to mention the actual game).

So what the NFL needs to do is practice what they preach. I believe the NFL should begin a rotation where every NFL city gets to host a Super Bowl once every thirty one years. This would ensure that each city get's a new stadium once every thirty years (or upgrades generated by the $500 million in taxes genrated during the Super Bowl) Otherwise, I would sue the NFL for collusion charges for allowing New York to host an outdoor Super Bowl in a cold environment and not allowing my city to do the same.

St.Louis could then ask their citizens to help flip the bill for a new stadium in 2014 with the promise that "whatever you put in you will get back when the Super Bowl comes to town."
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-06-05-2010, 11:07 AM
Stadium Ranking Categories for CVC and Rams Analysis

by zgare

Since CVC and the Rams have to determine what they can do to put the Edward Jones Dome in the top quarter of stadiums in the NFL, I thought I'd try to determinge what catgories would determine that. When others rank stadiums, they always seem to add things about the fans or the team, such as electric atmosphere. Those things are pretty much all determined by how good the team is on the field, and how long they have played at a high level. Then they cite Lambeu and Foxboro. They have nothing to do with the actual physical facility -- but that is what CVC and the Rams must rank. They can't just rank on age -- who has the oldest concrete. They need to be a little more scientific and rankd category by category.
How about these for categories:
1. Average distance from each fan to the center of the field. Measure the distance from each seat in the stadium to the center of the field, add them up, and divided by the number of seats.
2. Physical Environment control for the Fans -- temperature, wind, light, average seat width and padding.
3. Number of concessions and restrooms per seat. Average distance of concessions and restrooms from each seat.
4. Number of club seats and luxury skyboxes.
5. Parking nearby -- average distance a fan must walk from the closest XX/2 parking spaces to the stadium. XX= number of seats in the stadium. (assume 2 fans per car)
6. Hotels nearby -- average distance a fan must walk from the closest XX/50 hotel rooms to the stadium. (assume 1/50 of fans use a hotel room.)
7. Restaurants nearby -- average distance a fan must walk from the closest XX/20 restaurants to the stadium. (assume 1/20 of fans use a restaurant.)
8. Tailgating nearby -- average distance a fan must walk from the closest XX/10 tailgateable spaces to the stadium. (assume 1/10 of fans tailgate.)
9. Stadium interior emenities -- Jumbo screens number and size, other electronic info, banners/honors, party zones/restuarants.
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-01-22-2012, 04:04 PM
So what's the problem with the Dome?

by Molotov

My son and I made our first trip to St Louis for the game Sunday. I'll be posting various observations from our trip over the next few days. Here's my first one. I've heard many complain about the Dome. I've read reviews that rate it as the worst stadium in the NFL. WTF? We thought it was awesome. Comfortable seats, ample room, clean and well kept, friendly and helpful staff. What gives?

My son made one astute observation. Any indoor stadium is by default better than an outdoor stadium. We went to a Ram-Charger game four years ago, and this experience was 10 times better in all regards. Of course, we didn't have to deal with parking. We have absolutely no interest in watching a game outdoors in Buffalo, Green Bay, New York, Chicago, etc.
- Channel: RAMS NATION TALK
-11-02-2010, 09:33 PM

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NFl Stadiums graded - guess who is last

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