Venue News: Proposed Los Angeles NFL Stadiums Could Host Multiple Teams; Comcast, Atlanta Braves Plan High-Tech Infrastructure

Stan Kroenke won’t be empty-handed this week when he arrives at the NFL owners meetings in Arizona, writes the St. Louis Dispatch. The St. Louis Rams owner will be packing finished schematic plans for the world’s most interactive and integrated football stadium, a futuristic $1.86 billion, privately financed venue proposed for the Hollywood Park site in Inglewood, CA. Kroenke doesn’t need to partner with another team to finance the stadium, but the NFL sees L.A. as a two-team market and wants venues to be capable of hosting both. The Inglewood plan is two-team compliant, which means it has two home locker rooms, identical sets of office space, and two owners’ suites. Whereas the Carson proposal is based on the Chargers and Raiders simultaneously relocating, it is widely believed Kroenke does not want to share the market with another NFL team right away, and, because he would be assuming the risk of the stadium by himself, would want to reap the benefits of getting his team up and running as L.A.’s sole franchise…

…Organizers behind a proposed stadium near Los Angeles that could become home for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders announced Saturday they reached an important, early benchmark on the path to construction. According to the Associated Press, a coalition of supporters, including labor unions, has collected over 14,000 petition signatures in the city of Carson, nearly twice the number needed to place the stadium plan before local voters. The Raiders and Chargers are planning a shared stadium in Carson, south of Los Angeles, if both teams fail to get new stadiums in their current hometowns…

…Cable giant Comcast will provide high-tech infrastructure for the new Atlanta Braves stadium and become an anchor tenant in the mixed-use project planned for next door to the ballpark, a move expected to spur more development, the team announced Tuesday. The deal will involve a partnership between the Braves and Comcast on technology and high-speed Internet access for SunTrust Park and the adjacent 74-acre development taking shape in the Cumberland area of Cobb County, multiple sources told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It also will include new office space for Comcast, which plans to expand its regional presence in Cobb and add jobs, the sources said…

…Creating North America’s largest outdoor bar at Avaya Stadium wasn’t the goal. It just worked out like that for architect Brad Schrock and the San Jose Earthquakes, writes Sports Illustrated. With the bar playing a key role on the open end of the horseshoe at the brand-new stadium two miles from downtown San Jose and a Beers of the Worlds section at the south end, Schrock says the real focus of Avaya Stadium, though, centers around its European-style roof capturing the energy from the league’s steepest seating bowl. With a single seating bowl starting 10.5 feet above the field-level suites and party decks and at an angle of 30 degrees, no MLS stadium has a steeper rake, which means the last row of the 18,000-seat venue sits closer to the natural grass pitch than others of a similar size…

…Bud Selig never went around visiting team’s clubhouses when he was commissioner, but his replacement, Rob Manfred, is trying to check in with as many clubs as he can this spring, writes the San Francisco Chronicle. Manfred said he figured it’s better to have introductions before anything major happens, like a crisis or labor strife. The A’s could use a proactive commissioner, and Manfred shares their concerns about the aging Coliseum. “When I think about the five longer-term issues that I feel need to be resolved, the stadium situation for the A’s is right at the top of that list,” Manfred said. “It’s one that does need to get handled.” As per usual, he couldn’t address San Jose as a potential home for the A’s because of ongoing litigation, but Manfred said he has met with A’s ownership and with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Rather than forming a panel to examine the A’s stadium situation, as Selig did, Manfred is looking at the issue himself…

…Six cities and seven stadiums are to be used as soccer venues for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, FIFA announced on Monday, but Sao Paulo club Corinthians have already threatened to pull their ground out unless they are paid for necessary alterations. There will be two venues in the host city of Rio de Janeiro with matches held at the Olympic stadium and the Maracana, site of the 2014 World Cup final, FIFA said. The other games are to take place at the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte, the Mane Garrincha stadium in Brasilia, the Amazonia arena in Manaus, the Fonte Nova arena in Salvador and the Corinthians arena in Sao Paulo.