ENGINEERING PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Support act: New Major League Soccer
stadium designs are seeing evolving MEPT
systems to help owners deliver their vision
Soccer-specific stadium design has
undergone dramatic architecture
changes over the past 20 years,
resulting in the need for innovative
mechanical, electrical, plumbing
and technology (MEPT) engineering design
more important than ever. However, power
distribution resiliency, pitch lighting,
technology systems, and security goals all
impact MEPT systems.
One evolving trend that is greatly
influencing MEPT stadium design is a
project’s resiliency goals. When designing
electrical power distribution systems for
MLS stadia, resiliency is key and it drives
different decisions for each project.
Factors such as advancing broadcast
equipment and its power requirements,
ever-changing building technology and
connectivity systems, state-of-the-art pitch
lighting fixtures, and a general awareness
of potential utility failures all contribute
to options on a build not considered over
a decade ago.
A close coordination with the utility
company, owners, and operations staff is
needed to balance the levels of redundancy,
back-up power, and uninterruptable power
source (UPS) configurations with a project’s
initial cost, long-term operational cost, and
potential revenue loss.
Another trend affecting MLS stadia MEPT
design is the evolution of the pitch lighting
system. The MLS venue guidelines states that
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stadium design criteria should ensure
high-quality broadcasts, which is a vital
requirement to help grow the sport. With
the advent and availability of high-quality
LED lighting fixtures, venue design criteria
must also address light levels, uniformity,
glare limits, and color rendering requirements
for ever higher-definition broadcasts.
For the fans
Enhancing the fan experience is another
factor driving big changes in stadia design.
Over the past decade new MLS stadium
builds have been created to include
amenities that rival those found at other
major sport venues. These include the
likes of club lounges, suites, and multi-tier
concourses. Visitors also now desire access
to the same technology comforts they
get at home, while at the stadium. MEPT
designs need to account for coverage,
speed and bandwidth for fans to upload
their photo and video experiences through
their smartphones as the event unfolds. As
technology infrastructure requirements grow
to support these services, smartphone apps
also support the fan experience by enabling
fans to enter the venue faster through
ticketing checkpoints, as well as ordering
food, watching video replays, and even view
highlights from previous games. Real-time
audio and video advancements provide
additional fan interaction to improve the instadium
experience.
As for security at MLS stadia, it starts with
fan screening. This includes metal detectors,
bag checks and other pre-screening
methods, while gameday security operations
are run from command centers that provide
full views of the pitch and seating bowl. All
operations within the venue are monitored
through video surveillance, which has grown
from a few pan-tilt-zoom cameras providing
active monitoring to dedicated cameras
covering all parts of the venue.
While today’s MLS stadium design is
different from when the league debuted,
as well as MEPT designs evolving accordingly,
fundamentally all stakeholders still want what
they wanted in the beginning – an amazing
experience that makes the sport so popular
to its growing fan base. n
Allianz Field is one of the
newest venues in the MLS
and features the latest stadium
amenities and technology
Ryan Linton
MEPT systems must keep up
with today’s stadium design
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