KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Lining the brightly lit hallways of Populous, one of the leading architectural firms behind college sports, there are hundreds of scale models and graphic renderings of college football stadiums in various stages of renovation and construction.
There are blueprints for Kyle Field at Texas A&M, in the midst of a $420 million redevelopment. There’s a model of TFC Bank Stadium at Minnesota, the recent replacement for the Metrodome as home of the Golden Gophers. And there are pictures of McClane Stadium, the glitzy new home for Baylor.
Each project showcases ways Populous is helping schools to lure fans to their next-generation stadiums in an era where good seats are not enough: enhanced Wi-Fi, better video boards and party decks for socializing. The results are twofold: The flashy facilities offer a better game-day experience while also generating more revenue than their predecessors.
“When you do a stadium, it’s not a normal building. It’s a building, but it has to wrap this big stage where all this athletic drama takes place,” explained Jeff Spear, a senior architect at Populous who’s been responsible for many of the projects, including the Baylor stadium. “What they want is a reflection of their university and a stadium that sells their brand.”
When it comes to trends in stadium design, the folks at Populous are experts. The Kansas City-based company traces its roots back more than three decades, and has been responsible for everything from Reliant Stadium in Houston to the main Olympic stadiums in London and Sochi, Russia.