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[Seattle Times] 15 years after moving Sonics, now it’s the Thunder asking for publicly funded arena
(www.seattletimes.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
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This is the number one issue for me.
How many days a year is the average football stadium in use? The answer is “not nearly enough for it to be worth public resources”
Lumen Field in Seattle hosts the Seahawks and the Sounders. It does have concrete here and there. That being said Seattle is a sports city and can support NBA NFL MLB NHL MLS easily.
I am not sure if SoFI count as an average football stadium, but the event calendar of that place looks crazy. One of the few venue that actually earn its money
It being in Los Angeles removes it from average football stadium contention.
NYC, LA, and Vegas (maybe Miami) are the only cities that get major entertainment attractions year round and have the demand for it. Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix are all close but they aren’t entertainment hubs like those first 3
I’m in PHX. We get the final four on rotation, college bowl games, we got both Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, CONCACAF soccer games, international friendlies. The stadium gets used.
https://www.sofistadium.com/upcoming-events/
Is it? Unless there's another calendar that I'm missing something, it just looks like 2 NFL teams
That's because it's NFL season and it's actually getting used for football. Major concerts usually require preparations a week in advance to load everything in and build out a stage, etc..
Most stadiums don't have two NFL teams.
being in LA County goes along way
LA is probably the #1 city in the world for music events so it makes sense?
Yeah, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is also a good candidate to say it was worth it. 8-9 NFL home games, 17 MLS plus any other tournament matches Atlanta United plays, at least 2 college football games per year with one of those being a New Years Six Bowl. Monster truck and motocross events are relatively common. I don’t remember if the DCI circuit still goes through Atlanta but I know the GA Dome used to host one of the last big competitions before finals. I know Elton John and Taylor Swift have both played there in the last couple of years.
Lumen Field is probably the exception that I can think off the top of my head. Currently, four professional sports franchises call it home: Seahawks, Sounders, Reign, Sea Dragons.
It's also seen a decent amount of concert use too.
I used to have season tickets to the Seahawks and Sounders. I was at the stadium at least 28 weeks a year for over a decade.
The basketball stadiums do have artists that can fill them up but a football stadium is like Michael Jackson in his prime level seating.
Beyonce and Taylor Swift are the only two that can
There are legitimately only 3 or 4 artists in the world with any possibility of filling a stadium right now. Unless you have Taylor Swift and Beyoncé coming regularly, there’s just no chance of a decent return.
Ehh. I’d say any of the following could still fill an NFL stadium:
Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Madonna, Britney Spears, Blackpink, The Weekend, Lizzo, reunion tours of NSYNC/Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys/U2/Guns n Roses/Metallica/Foo Fighters/One Direction, others I’m forgetting. But yes, most could not.
And like 5-10 country artists, too.
Maybe in any given year a stadium would be used for a concert 3-4 times, but there's definitely more than 4 acts that can fill stadiums. George Strait just did a sold out stadium tour this year.
Still not something the city/state should pay for.
That's the standard and the stadium doesn't even come close to paying itself back
Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Bad Bunny, and aging classic rock acts doing a "final tour". And those last ones are gonna start to get few and far between
U2, Paul McCartney, and The Rolling Stones did notable stadium tours in the last decade or so I think. But yeah other than that it's one-offs like when the dead did Fare Thee Well. I bet outside or major markets the NFL stadiums don't get used for concerts more than like 3x a year on average.
Was about to chip in with a David Gilmore - Roger Waters suggestion
Which will be really hard to see again due to the pollution of the medium with the internet.