FEA TURE — LIVESTRONG SPOR TING
Captain Jimmy Nielsen led Sporting KC to their best start in club history with wins in
their first seven games in 2012. IMAGE: GARY ROHMAN
P ARK
LIVESTRONG Sporting Park — Project Fact File
VENUE NAME: LIVESTRONG Sporting Park LOCATION: Kansas City, KS CONSTRUCTION COST: US$200+ million COMPLETION DATE: June 2011 TOTAL STADIUM SPACE: 342,000sqft
HEIGHT OF ROOF CANOPY FROM PLAYING FIELD: 65ft to 95ft
ROOF CANOPY CANTILEVER: 95 ft maximum SEATING FOR SOCCER: 18,467 SEATING FOR CONCERTS: 25,000 PREMIUM SUITES: 36 suites on two levels
SPECIAL AMENITY AREAS
PREMIUM CLUBS: Members Club, 2,000- capacity; Shield Club, 1,000-capacity;
Field Club, 400-capacity; Executive Suite Lounge, 540-capacity; Signature Suite Lounge, 300-capacity; Victory Suite, 125- capacity; and Budweiser Terrace, 250- capacity
SPRINT EVENT PLAZA: 124,000sqft
TEAM STORES: 2 permanent & 6 temporary locations
OTHER BUILDING FEATURES 2 Ticket Office Locations (12 Windows & 2 automated machines)
8 Permanent Concession Stand Locations 64 Portable Concession Locations 2 Guest Services Locations 2 First Aid/Medical Offices 3 ATM Machines
5 Public Elevators 1 Freight/Food Service Elevator 1 Press Elevator 6-bay Enclosed Loading Dock
Performance Stage with 160,000lb concert/event rigging
LOCKER ROOMS: 8: 1 Home Team, 1 Visiting Team, 4 Auxiliary, 2 Referee rooms; 4 Performer Green Rooms
PARKING: Free with 6,156 dedicated spaces
BROADCAST FACILITIES: 3 TV & 4 Radio Commentary Booths; the first MLS stadium fully lighted for HDTV
TWO PANASONIC VIDEO BOARDS: 2,016sqft & 550sqft, both 16mm HD; LED perimeter field advertising boards, 656ft of 20mm HD
stadium, no matter what is going on. The soccer team, Sporting Kansas City (Sporting KC), goes out to sell cor- porate sponsorships just for the club. The stadium seats about 18,500 for soccer and up to 25,000 for concerts, so for the first time, we now have concert revenue, we have events like galas that create revenue, and then we have revenue from the soccer team.”
Populous’ Design Celebrates Soccer Regarding the design, Jeff Spear, Populous Principal and Project Architect for the project, told PanStadia: “The Populous design of Sporting Kansas City’s fan-oriented stadium, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, seeks to capture movement and motion by celebrating the ‘beautiful game’. The repeating angular metal fin exterior repre- sents the ‘body,’ or the players’ athleticism. The signature roof canopy mimics the long floating arc of a soccer ball as it soars across the field. Its polycarbonate panels cre- ate an intimate, yet grand scale. The canopy covers every section in the stadium and also adds to the game experi- ence by amplifying crowd noise. “The initial planning began earlier and we got
involved in July 2009. Turner as the contractor and Thornton Tomasetti as the roof structural engineer were with Sporting Club since original plans began. Our draw- ings were finished about six months before construction, and construction began in early 2010. Turner handled all
20 th AN N I V ER S AR Y P AR T II/ S U M M ER 1 2
the costing and budgets, while Thornton Tomasetti was responsible for the unique roof structure. “Aside from capacity, the ownership group wanted to
create a next-gen soccer stadium. They made extensive travels across the US, Europe and South America, which helped form what they wanted to create; a European- feel, American soccer stadium. They particularly wanted to create the ambience and crowd participation like in European stadiums to give their American fans that same level of comfort. They also liked the roof canopies found in most European stadiums, which help increase the inti- macy of the stadium and amplify the crowd noise. Every move we made was to emphasise those two elements.”
Team Effort Spear added: “Cliff Illig and Robb Heineman, two of the owners, would come every week for design meetings. Cliff specifically wanted the building to enhance the con- cept of the ‘beautiful game’. We came upon the notion of the ‘body and the ball’ — the body is the base of the building with aluminium fins of perforated metal that project from the face all around. These are devices not only to provide sun shade but also to capture movement in a static form. If you imagine drawing a line from shoul- der to hip to knee to ankle, it’s like stop-motion photog- raphy of a player running across the field that is a large part of the ‘beautiful game’. The fins have various angles
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