NFL Stadiums Are Looking More Like Branded Theme Parks

Super Bowl 56 won’t be played in a stadium, but in a 300-acre Los Angeles neighborhood that includes 2,500 homes, 25 acres of parks, a performance venue, shops, restaurants, movie theaters, offices and a man-made lake. Which just happens to include SoFi Stadium. Hollywood Park is just the latest example of how National Football League franchises are using mixed use development to lure fans, sponsors and even people who may never watch a down of football. Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke was a real estate developer long before he bought his NFL franchise or the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche or Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids. His dovetailing interests have helped drive the NFL’s push for facilities where consumers can spend—and partners can sell—year-round. “Hollywood Park is Stan Kroenke’s vision to build this world class destination, a true city within a city with all these various mixed uses,” said Jason Gannon, managing director of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. Jennifer Prince Leaves Twitter to Huddle Up With the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams Home field advantage In 2015, when Kroenke’s Rams were still playing in a 20-year-old stadium in St. Louis, Forbes ranked their overall value 28th out of the NFL’s 32 teams at $1.45 billion. Today, the Rams are worth an estimated $4.8 billion and rank No. 4 in the league behind only the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and New York Giants. “It’s near the top in the NFL, but it’s not the brand value which shows it's strong in the NFL,” said Michael Ozanian, executive editor at Forbes and creator of its team valuation database. “To really leverage it and get something out of it, you have to have the ability to market it and sell the brand around the stadium, which is increasingly becoming the case.” The Rams’ privately funded facility, estimated to cost between $5 billion and $6 billion, has been offset with help from partners including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Cisco, PepsiCo, Deloitte, Google, Live Nation and Verizon. Fintech company SoFi paid $625 million for naming rights alone, but Hollywood Park was built to be branded. YouTube signed its first naming rights deal earlier this summer when it slapped its logo onto Hollywood Park’s 6,000-seat theater. SoFi Stadium’s 2.5-acre entrance has American Airlines’ brand on it. From the 70,000-square-foot Samsung infinity screen above the playing field to Cedars-Sinai vaccination drives in Hollywood Park, the facility was built with sponsorship and marketing in mind. “One of the things that was really important for us was placemaking: finding and aligning with partners that share the same vision for the project as us and share the same vision for the spaces within the project that we partner on,” Gannon said. LA Rams Name Live Event Marketing Veteran Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick CMO as Fans Return Loss proof SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park and their partners hosted their first NFL games in 2020, but couldn’t welcome fans until this year due to Covid-19. They were in good company. Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas also opened in 2021, but didn’t attract visitors until earlier this year. Built by Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, with a $750 million assist from local hotel taxes, the $1.9 billion facility was also built with people other than football fans in mind. Back in 2015, when the Raiders were still in Oakland, their franchise value was $1.43 billion—second to last in the league. This year, the team is playing its second season in Las Vegas in a stadium featuring a Twitch streaming lounge, a Wynn nightclub, a Modelo cantina and an MGM casino. As a result, Raiders’ value has risen to $3.4 billion, or 16th in the NFL. After moving to Vegas, the team ranked fifth in NFL sponsorship money after finishing dead last for nearly two straight decades. Former Raiders marketing director Brandon Clark now serves as CMO of the Astound Group marketing firm that oversees Allegiant Stadium. His group built the clubs and lounges for Raiders sponsors, largely because the Raiders learned the value of Vegas-style entertainment beyond the game on the field. Given that the Raiders have had two winning seasons in the last 20, fans could use the distraction. “It's our job on the marketing side to build a connected fan base, regardless of performance on the field, because that's something you can't control,” Clark said. “Now that they've been in Vegas for two, three years, I think they have a greater understanding as to the demands for entertainment at a Raiders game in Las Vegas versus what those demands for entertainment were in Oakland.” Madden NFL 22 Celebrates a Classic Bo Jackson Campaign With a New Cover Building toward the future While mixed-used development around sports facilities aren’t new, the trend has only recently evolved to the scope of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft opened Patriots Place outside of Gillette Stadium in 2007 as little more than a mall. By the time the Green Bay Packers opened their $130 million, 45-acre Titletown District outside Lambeau Field in 2017, it included a hotel, brewery, medical facility, bank, restaurants, shops and luxury apartments. Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who purchased his team a decade ago for $770 million, has grown its value to $2.8 billion through development. In October, Jacksonville approved a $400 million mixed-used development that would bring a Four Seasons hotel, residences and a marina to the city’s waterfront and kick off a $2.5 billion project connecting the stadium with restaurants, entertainment venues, offices and other amenities. The developer overseeing the plan, Cordish Companies, has already built its Live! mixed-use facilities outside sports venues in cities including St. Louis, Philadelphia, Louisville and Arlington, Texas. “Owners are recognizing that their teams can serve as a tentpole to move into other businesses,” said Kurt Badenhausen, sports valuations reporter at Sportico, “whether that's mixed use development or hospitality business or media business.” NFL Data Finds Audiences Where Commercials Can’t

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NFL Stadiums Are Looking More Like Branded Theme Parks

New league facilities, and their sponsors, want fans to live, work and eat there

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte