For this project, you are to identify the potential stadium development issues involved in the following fictional stadium development plan:
The City of Goteam, Idaho — located between the capital city of Boise and the vacation destination of Sun Valley, about 75 miles east of Boise and 75 miles west of Sun Valley — really loves its football. In fact, the city of 20,000-football-loving people love their football and their National Football League Goteam Potatoheads (formerly the Jacksonville Jaguars, which the team owner relocated to Goteam last month) so much that they are willing to do whatever they need to in order to build the best football stadium that the sport has ever seen.
The Goteam Stadium Development Commission (GSDC) wishes to build the stadium on a 100-acre piece of land just on the edge of the city. The land is owned by The University of Idaho-Goteam. The land is located 20 miles south of Route 21 – the primary highway that connects Boise and Sun Valley – and is connected to Route 21 via Potatohead Parkway, a newly-paved two-lane 25-cent toll road running all 20 miles from Route 21 directly to the stadium site. There is no train service or other mass transit to the stadium. There are no businesses yet along Potatohead Parkway, though GSDC officials are sure that will change with the stadium’s arrival. There is a McDonald’s and a gas station on the north side of the stadium property. The city of Goteam has its own newspaper, The Goteam Gazette, and its own radio station. It pulls all of its television broadcasting from the network affiliates out of Boise.
The GSDC will pay for much of the price of the new $900 million stadium by floating a $600 million bond, backed by the revenues derived from rental cars reserved and paid-for in the city of Goteam. Half of the remaining $300 million will come from proceeds of a bond backed by a 1% increase in the tax on potatoes purchased in the city of Goteam. Another $50 million will come from donations from Pepsi Cola in a pouring rights deal for the stadium. Another $100 million will come from a 50-year naming rights deal with Potato.com, Inc., a web site devoted to the retail sale of Potato-related products.
The stadium design promises something special. The stadium will be an ultra-modern design huge oval with 100,000 seats, 500 luxury suites, standing room for 5,000 additional fans and 5,000 parking spaces. There will be 150 concession stands throughout the facility, all of which will serve Coca-Cola products pursuant to stadium concessionaire Great Concessions Company’s existing contract with Coke. Plans call for 20 men’s bathroom facilities, 15 women’s bathroom facilities — since Goteam town officials believe that more men attend games than women — and two handicap-accessible ramps leading directly to the stadium’s 1,000 handicap-accessible seats, which are located along the top rung of the stadium, affording a terrific view down onto the field. The stadium will have a retractable roof based on the design of the beautiful tarp-style retractable roof over Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Locker room facilities will be big enough to hold teams of 75 football players with plenty of weight equipment. The field will use a version of the same Astroturf that was first used in the AstroDome, as GSDC officials have agreed that this type of field has best withstood the test of time.
You are Special Assistant to the GSDC. Write a report to Theodore Curtis, chairman of the GSDC, outlining any issues involved in the development of the stadium and specifying any concerns that you have for the stadium plan. You report must include identification of these issues, the reasons why these issues may be workable or unworkable, and your suggestions for fixing any issues which may be troublesome.
You will be graded on your identification of the issues, ability to properly and clearly express these issues, and language usage. The report must be no longer than 1,200 words and is to be submitted in typed, double-spaced form. A report that does not follow this form will be deducted one point.