The heart-stopping action on sports fields these days can barely compete with the drama and controversy that’s going on during stadium construction.
The Chicago Cubs played—and lost—their Opening Day game at Wrigley Field, despite a lack of bleachers: unfinished business during construction that didn’t wrap up in time for the season’s start.
Across the border in Kokomo, IN, a new field for the minor league Jackrabbits may or may not be ready for the team’s May 30 season opener, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency is trying to shut down construction.
Here’s a roundup of construction controversy—along with a bit of good news—at sports venues around the country.
Struck out
“Boy, it sure didn’t look anything like we’ve ever seen, at least in 80 years,” USA TODAY's Major League Baseball columnist Bob Nightengale wrote after attending the Cubs’ season opener—and he wasn’t talking about the team’s hitless loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“The traditional sights and smells of … Opening Day were replaced by the sound of power drills and jackhammers, the sight of cranes, forklifts, scaffolding and construction workers, and the smell of dust and dirt,” he wrote.
Crews struggled—but failed—to finish building bleachers and renovating restrooms after harsh winter weather put them behind schedule on a $575 million stadium renovation, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel denied the franchise’s request to allow round-the-clock construction for the last month before the season began last week.
Future fans
Cincinnati Reds fans who double as moms have a private suite at the team’s Great American Ballpark, where they can nurse and feed their babies during games.
The second Major League Baseball team to build a suite for nursing moms, the Pampers Nursing Suite, built by homebuilder Fischer Homes, was the team’s response to a growing number of requests by mothers who wanted to bring their babies to the games. The Seattle Mariners also have a nursing lounge at Safeco Field.
The Cincinnati suite is equipped with changing stations, gliders, a private restroom, a sink, and a refrigerator, as well as a big, flat-screen TV so that moms don’t have to miss the action on the field while they're changing diapers.
Stadium magic
The showpiece of a 75,000-seat arena for the Atlanta Falcons will be a retractable roof with eight “petals” designed to open within eight minutes. The design, inspired by the oculus in the ancient Rome Pantheon, looks like a camera lens aperture. See photos here.
The $1.4 billion football stadium is scheduled to open in 2017 and will also feature the world’s largest video board, at 58 feet tall and 1,100 linear feet in diameter.
The Falcons also faced a legal challenge to its new stadium by residents who objected to the use of taxpayer money for construction. But the Georgia Supreme Court last month rejected their argument.
For the birds
Construction of the new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis was halfway complete as of last week—even though the state Legislature and environmentalists have been fighting for substantial changes to the building’s design.
The stadium, which will be twice the size of the city’s old Metrodome and is slated to open in late July, will feature 200,000 square feet of clear glass, which the Audubon Society and other critics have said will reflect the surrounding trees and grass and fool birds into flying into it.
The result could be thousands of dead birds. But stadium officials have said etching the glass could add $60 million to construction costs.
A bill introduced in the Minnesota Legislature last month would require the etching, but most say the effort came too late to change the kind of glass the stadium installs.
Federal feud
The Kokomo Jackrabbits say they expect their new stadium to open on May 30, despite FEMA's decision to halt payments to Indiana unless construction stops.
The stadium is located in an area FEMA considers to be flood-prone and wants to retain as green space.
Construction is continuing along with a legal battle between the city and the state, which wants to scrap the field so it doesn’t lose its federal disaster funds.
Worker worries
Labor unions in Los Angeles have resolved their dispute over a proposed $2 billion stadium backed by the owner of the St. Louis Rams, who wants to relocate the team to California.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor had said it feared construction jobs would go to non-union workers and threatened to delay construction. The parties signed an agreement for those jobs late last month, paving the way for construction to begin.
Meanwhile in St. Louis, the city is hoping to keep the Rams at home by building its own waterfront stadium—estimated to cost $985 million. Construction unions there agreed to round-clock-work on the new arena, creating 1,500 construction jobs.
On time, under budget
Contractors had a pretty big incentive to finish building the $930 million Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA: They would be docked $6 million for each game the San Francisco 49ers had to play in their old arena during the 2104 football season.
So crews finished on time—and $80 million under budget.
A team executive gave praise where it was due. “All the credit in the world for the success of the Levi’s Stadium project goes to the workers and subcontractors who did quality work and did it right the first time," exec Jack Hill said in a statement.
TIME magazine has dubbed the new arena “the most high-tech stadium anywhere in the world.”
Presidential prerogative
Even President Barack Obama has weighed in on who should pay for new sports arenas.
The president’s proposed federal budget would stop states and cities from financing professional sports venues with tax-exempt bonds. The practice reportedly costs the federal government $146 million, according to a 2012 Bloomberg analysis.
The budget item coincides with a slew of proposals and groundbreakings on new sports arenas around the country.
D-I-Y renovation
The Indiana Legislature has told the owner of the Indy Eleven to pay for the professional soccer team’s stadium renovation himself—or at least part of it.
The state Senate approved $20 million for renovating Carroll Stadium at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and rejected the team’s request for $82 million for a new arena.
"The amount of money we're putting in would rehabilitate the current stadium," state Sen. Luke Kenley of Noblesville, IN, told The Indianapolis Star. “How fancy or how nice the stadium will be will depend on what [the owner] wants to put in.”