Addressing Issues

How football stadiums can be transformed into vital community places

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St Louis's Busch Stadium before the improvements recommended by PPS.

"The spaces that surround NFL stadiums, e.g. parking lots, have traditionally been the site of spirited community activity ranging from tailgate parties to tailgate barbecues, but they only serve as well-used gathering spaces on Sunday afternoons during the football season," said NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "After reading PPS's critique of last year's 'Pepsi NFL Kick-off' on the Washington Mall, we realized that we had a responsibility to provide the fans with lively community places that are used at all times of day, throughout the year."

"Are you ready for some great places?"

So far, PPS has met with local stakeholders, including fans, players, coaches, referees, cheerleaders, and civic officials, to evaluate four stadiums using our Place Performance Evaluation Game (Place Game for short). "What we found is a classic case of the outer park failing to support the inner park," said PPS Vice President Kathy Madden. "The area inside the typical stadium is often intensely programmed with sporting events such as football games or cultural attractions like AC/DC, but the parking lot, or 'outer park,' that surrounds the stadium is a barren wasteland that provides no incentive to visit the stadium at times when there is no event scheduled."

To help liven up the stadium parking lots, PPS has suggested implementing angled back-in parking and landscaped medians with plenty of places to sit. New light-rail corridors will be added to shuttle stadium-goers from one end of the parking lot to the other. Perhaps most importantly, the design changes will be complemented by management programs dedicated to seeding the parking lots with as much activity as possible. The first step will be to hire the stadium's vendors to sell hot dogs, beer, and giant "We're #1" foam hands year-round in the parking lots. Workshop participants at Green Bay's Lambeau Field also suggested adding a cheese market to their parking lot, and stakeholders for Cleveland Browns Stadium thought a dog pound would provide a nice focal point for theirs. "It's really a wonderful opportunity to support local entrepreneurs," said PPS Vice-President Steve Davies.

Busch Stadium after the placemaking recommendations were implemented.

The league is so excited by the initiative, they plan on having PPS President Fred Kent accompany Hank Williams Jr. to introduce the first game of the 2004 season on national television. Asked to comment, Kent said, "Are you ready for some great places?"