SBJ Facilities: Thunder road

I caught up with sports venue architect David Manica late last week while he was making the five-hour drive from Oklahoma City back home to Overland Park, Kan. It’s a drive that Manica will make regularly during the next year, mainly because he and his firm are designing the Thunder’s new $950 million arena, and partly because there are no direct flights between K.C. and OKC, so the timing ends up roughly the same.

Manica, alongside architect of record TVS, was recently selected by the city of Oklahoma City over competitors Populous, Gensler and Overland Partners. Manica didn't bring a pre-conceived design to the final interviews -- a ploy that landed well.

“We wanted to come with our listening ears on,” he said. “We didn’t want to come with something created in a vacuum. It’s maybe the courageous thing to do. Architects might come with something to wow the client and then they fall in love with it,” but it turns out to be too expensive or unrealistic.

Manica doesn’t often bid on projects with an architect-of-record partner already secured -- read my profile of Manica and his firm, which explains their process -- but did in this case because he wanted to have a full-service bid response for the city, and because Manica and TVS have had a positive experience teaming together in Nashville on the Titans’ New Nissan Stadium. TVS has dallied with sports venue design during its history, but mostly designs other large public building types, like convention centers.

“A lot of it is just personality and attitudes -- they understand their role on the project, respect our role on the project,” Manica said. “No second guessing, just 100% support. It’s just a perfectly complementary working relationship.”

Manica’s small firm has wrapped up design work on Inter Miami’s Freedom Park, and while they’re still actively involved with the Bears’ new stadium pursuit, there was a window in which the firm could pursue the Thunder project. Manica instantly understood the potential of the project to affect the city in a different way compared to his projects in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Nashville and Miami (where there are multiple major pro sports teams).

“I wanted to work on buildings that make a difference to cities and that people love to go to,” he said, “and I can't think of a project that will have a bigger impact on a city than this one in Oklahoma City will.”

A design is expected by next summer, though there is no clear direction yet of what the new arena might look like. Manica Architecture held kickoff meetings with the city and team this week to discuss the pros and cons of Paycom Center, the venue that will be replaced. And the design team has begun its deep dive into OKC's history, culture and market, giving Manica and his passenger for the half-day drive home, Principal and Technical Director Will Hon, plenty to discuss.

Subaru Park opened in 2010, one of the last soccer-specific stadiums designed during the first round of that venue type’s emergence. That’s another way of saying that Subaru Park was built with minimal premium seating, which wasn’t as critical to MLS clubs’ business 14 years ago.

“When the stadium was built, we only had one club space,” said the Mark Evans, the team's VP/season ticket and premium sales and service. The club has added a tunnel club in the years since and sold out its premium last year, but Evans notes “everything we’ve seen in the last few years in MLS is adding premium spaces.”

That shortage will be addressed this offseason in a multimillion-dollar renovation, designed by Gensler and built by BPGS, that will add three new premium areas to the 18,500-capacity stadium and be ready by next spring. Two of the additions -- a high-end speakeasy called 2010 North and a British pub-style bar called The Commodore -- will replace maintenance and storage spaces, swapping mower housing for (at least) $1.2 million in new ticketing revenue.

Access to the 2010 North speakeasy, positioned behind a secret door and featuring exclusive cocktails, will be made available to fans seated in nine on-field loge boxes (each with room for four to eight people for a total on-field capacity of 76) that are being added to the stadium’s north endline. The loges feature padded DreamSeat chairs, mini fridges, TVs and in-seat service and cost $5,800 per season.

On the opposite end of the stadium in Chester, Pa., two rows of seating (152 seats) have been replaced with cushier DreamSeats, featuring in-seat food and drink service and access to The Commodore for $5,000 per year.

The third new premium product is two Party Shack suites situated atop the deck overlooking the Delaware River and Commodore Barry Bridge -- a picturesque view! -- each with room for 30 people and sold on a per-game basis with pricing still to be determined.

Proof of the Pudding is the official concessions and catering partner of Wake Forest athletics, but the company has gone above and beyond in North Carolina since Hurricane Helene rolled through the western part of the state, devastating a mountainous region with flooding (parts of the state are still inaccessible due to road washouts).

Since the storm struck Oct. 7, Proof of the Pudding has prepared and staged tens of thousands fresh boxed lunches and hot breakfasts and dinners for emergency management services and disaster recovery workers, using Wake’s kitchen and storage facilities at Allegacy Stadium and David F. Couch Ballpark.

This native North Carolinian salutes your service.

For years, the Crypto.com Arena terrace overlooking Peacock Plaza and downtown L.A.’s skyscraper skyline was kind of an afterthought, especially during games and concerts.

That changed this summer during the latest round of the ongoing renovations at the arena, in which the City View Terrace -- as it’s being called until naming rights are sold by AEG Global Partnerships -- has been incorporated into the building.

There is a bit of a trend in the NBA around bringing daylight into arena seating bowls (renovations of Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Spectrum Center also recently did this).

In L.A., walls were blown out and the terrace, now accessible by any ticketed fan in the building, has been gussied up with new furniture and the addition of two permanent bars (one indoors, one outdoors). Celeb chef David Chang’s sassily named spicy fried chicken concept, Fuku, has been added to the terrace to encourage lingering. A Mechoshade system can open or close during day games to prevent daylight from interfering with the Lakers’ famed theater-like game presentation lighting.

Besides Fuku, AEG added a LudoBird outlet from another celeb chef that loves fried chicken, Ludo Lefebvre, as well as the off-beat Doritos After Dark pop-up shop, whose full menu of food items involves Doritos in some fashion (think sushi with crushed Dorito crust). 

Crypto.com Arena President Lee Zeidman envisions fans getting food and a drink and strolling out to the terrace to take in the view, sip and munch -- whether a basketball or puck is in play, or not.

These are notable additions as Intuit Dome, providing a noticeable counterpoint to the fan experience at Crypto.com Arena, opened last week. Intuit Dome takes a more zealous approach to fandom -- fans’ attention needs to be on the court! -- while the OG arena in L.A. is moving further in the opposite direction.

It’ll be fascinating to see this divergence play out.

Speaking of Doritos After Dark... would you eat any of this?

Me: "Tums” rhymes with “yum.” The answer is yes to the whole menu. 

Disney plans to increase its five-ship cruise fleet to eight by next year -- and to 13 by 2031 (the ships cost about $1 billion each!). It's part of the company's efforts to double down on sea-born Disney experiences. A fan of these Disney cruises quoted in this L.A. Times storypointed out that the cruises are much easier to navigate and provide more luxury than the theme park experiences. 

• Venue development was a critical part of the methodology for SBJ's recent ranking of the top minor league markets. Each of the top 10 markets (led by Portland, Maine, in the image below) have at least one recent or ongoing stadium or arena construction project, and the three markets singled out as ones to watch (Knoxville, Hartford and Richmond) each have venues in the late stages of construction. Overall, SBJ's David Broughton tracked $3.1 billion in construction at 87 new or extensively renovated minor league venues.

• Check out this week's "Building Blocks" feature in SBJ Daily, looking at the latest renderings from around the business. 

• Churchill Downs Inc. brought in a company record $628.5 million in revenue during its Q3, according to an SEC filing earlier this week. That figure jumped from $572.5M million in last year’s corresponding quarter and contributed to record quarterly net income of $65.4 million in Q3 FY24. 

• Two new clubs, part of the largest renovation project in Barclays Center’s 12-year history, were unveiled yesterday during a Bucks-Nets game.

• Louisiana has a $65 million project to renovate the west side of Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium, the most significant project at the Sun Belt Conference school’s stadium since it opened in 1971.

• Hot off the announcement of its $800 million renovation of Capital One Arena moving a step closer to confirmation, Monumental Sports & Entertainment rolled out plans for The Vaults, the first of five new suite types that will go into the building as it’s refurbished over the next few years (once the project is officially approved by the D.C. City Council).