There’s been a lot of discussion of late about ways to create NFL stadium experiences unique enough to entice fans to part with money for tickets instead of watching the games on their widescreen HDTVs.
360 Architecture has come up with a few novel proposals as they work on ideas for the new Falcons stadium that they’ve been charged with building. The firm unveiled some of their thoughts and concept art on Tuesday and there are definitely some innovations that we haven’t seen before, including the “oculus” hole in the roof you see at right which would rotate open like a camera shutter depending on the weather and needs for the event going on inside the stadium. WSB in Atlanta has computerized renderings of that roof and some other design possibilities in action.
Cool enough, but probably not something that’s going to get people to go to games all by itself. The company also proposes adding “impact seats” that would vibrate alongside big hits on the field to give the game a dimension you can’t easily simulate on the couch unless you’ve got a really hyperactive toddler. There’s also talk of a bar spanning the entire length of the field and a lengthy package of ideas, via the Georgia World Congress Center which voted to approve a contract from the architects, from the architects promises “football in the round” as part of the concept for the stadium.
“We want to get the fan back to the game and it has to be about the game or about the event,” said Bill Johnson, lead architect on the stadium project, to WSB. “I don’t think skimp is a word that will be used a lot.”
Much can and will change between the design stage and the finished product, but starting off at a place of great innovation should lead to at least small steps forward when construction is complete.