If These Guys Build It, Fans Will Come

By Julie Rawe with reporting by Stacie Stukin/Los Angeles

Paul Tagliabue was right. When the National Football League commissioner saw a model of the Cincinnati Bengals' new home--which abandoned the typical concrete bowl for a gleaming pair of crescent-shaped stands, he gushed, "It's going to take the NFL stadium to a new level." As proof, the project garnered national design awards, and its creators, Dan Meis and Ron Turner, have been hired to build or renovate a dozen high-profile sports arenas as well as brainstorm over the future of the mother ship, Madison Square Garden.

Meis and Turner, part of the architectural firm NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, serve up technical prowess--Meis' multiuse miracle in Japan transforms a 5,000-seat theater into a 20,000-seat arena or a 30,000-seat stadium at the touch of a few buttons--as well as simple strokes of genius, like turning hard-to-fill corner seats at the Philadelphia Eagles' upcoming stadium into courtyards where fans can socialize--and shell out cash.

With stadiums having maxed out revenues from luxury boxes and club seats, NBBJ has turned to sponsors to generate more dollars for team owners. "We're always looking for ways to connect with sponsors over and above just selling a sign," Meis says. At the Staples Center in Los Angeles, NBBJ created exhibition space for Toyota and let United Airlines decorate the club-seat corridors. For the Milwaukee Brewers, NBBJ pitched Miller Brewing Co. the idea of incorporating its logo on a clock tower. "That becomes their blimp shot," he says.

The Brewers' new Miller Park also has a funky, fan-shaped retractable ceiling, sports bars and kids' clubs. "It's all about the ancillary experience," Meis says. "People come earlier and stay later, and that obviously translates into people spending more money." Average attendance has doubled since the facility opened in April. "Given that the team hasn't played all that well this year, I'd say the park has a lot to do with it," says Michael Bucek, the Brewers' vice president of ballpark development.

It helps that Turner and Meis are both sports nuts. When designing the first Major League Soccer stadium in the U.S., for the Columbus Crew in Ohio, they made sure concession stands faced the field. Says Meis: "The first time you miss seeing a goal, you figure out pretty quickly there's got to be a better way to do this."

--By Julie Rawe, with reporting by Stacie Stukin/Los Angeles

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