KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nate Appleman loves live sports and concerts as much as anyone. Partly because the architect at HOK in Kansas City, Missouri, helps design arenas, stadiums and other recreational and event spaces.
“I was devastated when Rascal Flatts was canceled just recently here at the Sprint Center,” Appleman admitted.
Now he’s part of a team helping stadiums and other venues adapt to the novel coronavirus so he and other fans can attend concerts and sporting events in the not too distant future.
He said right now, clients have questions about implementing social distancing guidelines, moving to a touchless concession system, how to pump crowd noise into empty venues and more.
Appleman said maintaining six feet of social distance means most venues can only have about 18 percent of their maximum capacity. He said many venues don’t want to spend large amounts of money removing and storing seats they might one day put back in place, so they’re looking at temporary alternatives.
“It’s 50 percent putting it on the spectators to say, ‘Hey, we’re all in this together. You bought those four seats, please use those four seats.’ And then there’s temporary ways, like zip-tying seats up so people can’t actually sit in them,” the director of HOK’s Global Sports + Recreation + Entertainment Market explained.
Appleman predicts more permanent changes will come to the way you buy food and drinks at stadiums. He said many stadiums are exploring mobile ordering and eliminating having a vendor walk up and down the aisles passing food and money between the people sitting next to you.
“It’s going to be prepackaged. You’re probably not going to stand in concession lines, per se, but you’re going to use a mobile app and you’re going to go to a selected pick up location,” Appleman said. “In effect, you become the vendor.”
Apps could become the norm for pumping crowd noise into stadiums, too.
Appleman said some European stadiums are experimenting with an app that records fans and plays their cheers or boos through speakers in the stadium in real-time.
Overall, he’s optimistic the sports and concert experiences will return to the way we know them.
“I think there are a lot of really smart people working on a way to find a vaccine for this virus that we’re dealing with. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we have that solution and we’re all able to get back to the way we love to enjoy live events, which is together,” he said.
In the meantime, the Royals, Chiefs and Sporting KC are all making changes.
Sporting KC is playing its games in Orlando with all the MLS teams. The Royals will not have fans in the stands at the beginning of its shortened season but haven’t ruled out allowing a limited number of fans inside by the time the 60-game season ends. The Chiefs are not offering season tickets this season and instead plan on having a reduced number of fans in the stands.
