Stadium Love

As a fan of both sports and architecture, I've always been interested in stadiums. (And as a fan of proper English, I've always been interested in "stadia.") And like many people, I'm no fan of the two most annoying trends in stadiums: ever more extravagant stadiums built with civic money extorted by teams threatening to move, and the often ridiculous sponsor-purchased names.

Both those trends reached new heights recently. The disposable stadiums problem was emphasized when the Atlanta Braves announced a deal to replace their current home, Turner Field. That stadium isn't too old itself: it was built for the Summer Olympics in 1996, then modified for baseball the next year.  It seems the Braves didn't like the location of the old stadium, and the city of Atlanta wouldn't pay for renovations, but one of the suburbs would pay for an unspecified amount of an entirely new stadium.

This gets more bizarre when you see that the Atlanta Falcons are leaving the Georgia Dome (built 1992) for their own new home.  So this most conservative part of America is going to be building two unnecessary partly-taxpayer-funded stadiums at the same time.

How does this happen?  Sports teams are very visible and have an emotional connection with the public, so losing them looks really bad for politicians, and money gets spent on them not the sewage treatment plant no one knows needs replacing. Eventually sports teams are going to push this too far and finally ask for too much.  But it's hard to image it could get sillier than abandoning a stadium barely old enough to drive. 

Both these buildings will have the naming rights sold to the highest bidder, so Atlanta-area taxpayers will have to live with not just paying for a stadium, but paying for Chick-Fil-A Field or the Piggly-Wiggly Dome or something. The idea of sponsors buying naming rights has already produced names that are difficult to talk about with a straight face. But now Rogers is going to make it more difficult, with news that they've bought the naming rights to the new arena in Edmonton. It will be known as Rogers Place. But wait, don't they already own the rights to Vancouver's arena? Yes, but that's Rogers Arena. Which is also not to be confused with Rogers Centre in Toronto (nee SkyDome.) If you have trouble remembering which of Disney World or Disney Land is in California and which is in Florida, them you're never going to get this straight.