0:00
We got news this week that there was
0:04
another potential hurdle to the Browns
0:11
being knocked down. And while it's
0:13
anything but settled, the Cleveland
0:16
Browns and the Hasslam family want to go
0:19
full steam ahead for a domed stadium in
0:25
And I believe that the idea that the
0:30
Browns andor the Bears andor the
0:34
Commanders going to do
0:38
sounds good right now, but ultimately is
0:43
going to age extremely poorly.
0:47
I'll tell you this. I think that
0:52
today you're going to get the people
0:55
real football is played at neutral
0:59
Real football is played without the
1:03
Snow and freezing rain and sleep.
1:07
These things only neuter great football.
1:11
And if you really want to watch the best
1:13
athletes play the best football, you
1:15
have to have controlled climate. That's
1:17
why you don't want weather at the Super
1:19
Bowl. And they'll also tell you, well,
1:22
you need a roof on something because,
1:23
you know, you need the Final Four there,
1:26
don't you want? You want indoor events
1:28
as well. Why would you build a stadium
1:30
just for football? Put a roof over it.
1:32
Now you can have all of the other
1:36
You know what? You'll never get snowed
1:37
out. You'll never get and maybe you can
1:39
have a Super Bowl because if you're
1:40
outdoors, you're not going to get one.
1:41
But indoors with a roof, oh, suddenly
1:43
Cleveland can have a Super Bowl. There's
1:45
all these things you will hear from the
1:47
people that think about the here and the
1:50
now. Well, we could get the final four
1:52
in five years. We could get the Super
1:55
Bowl in 10 years. We don't have to sit
1:58
through the snow next season.
2:01
But that is not long-term thinking. And
2:06
Let's go back to the early 70s
2:09
when Three River Stadium opened up in
2:11
Pittsburgh and Riverfront Stadium opened
2:15
The VET opened up in Philadelphia. Bush
2:17
Stadium opened up in St. Louis
2:21
and Atlanta Fulton County Stadium opened
2:24
up in Atlanta. Sheay Stadium opened up
2:26
in New York. All of these
2:31
circular stadiums that would swing from
2:34
a baseball diamond to a football
2:36
stadium. And the idea in the late 60s
2:38
and early 70s was look at multi-purpose,
2:41
you're saving so much money.
2:43
Look at this. It's beautiful. Brand new
2:46
artificial turf. For football, you can
2:49
seat 75,000 fans. For baseball, if you
2:52
have a huge game, you could also have
2:53
65,000 fans. Wow. You know what? You
2:57
don't have to spend for two stadiums,
3:01
it's set downtown, everyone. Massive
3:04
parking lots. This is the future. This
3:08
And what they lost in that transaction
3:13
was the soul of the old ballparks. And
3:17
so in Pittsburgh, you lost the soul of
3:21
You lost the feel of of the old
3:25
ballparks that had character,
3:28
that had a personality
3:31
that you would then look back and say,
3:33
"Man, wasn't that special?" And
3:36
ultimately when Camden Yards came
3:37
around, we could see, oh my god, the
3:40
future's actually the past. To go back
3:42
to the soul of ballparks was to mean we
3:46
don't want cookie cutter
3:50
utilitarian massive parking lot
3:52
stadiums. That actually doesn't work for
3:54
us. We want personality and soul.
3:58
And so those ballparks aged so poorly
4:02
that they were built in the early 70s.
4:05
By the late 80s, by the '9s, it was
4:08
like, "Oh god, these things are
4:09
terrible. They're so outdated. Can't
4:10
wait to blow them up." The Kingdome in
4:21
Metrodome in Minnesota dark, sterile,
4:26
depressing. What is going to end up
4:28
happening is we're going to start
4:29
building a bunch of domes we already
4:30
already have to make the climate control
4:33
the thing to make the final four the
4:36
thing to make the upcoming Super Bowl
4:38
the thing. And that will be so
4:40
short-lived because what people will
4:42
want in the future is actually
4:44
connection to the past. And they will
4:47
the photographs or the NFL films footage
4:51
of Jameus Winston dancing in the snow
4:55
or the 85 Bears barking in the NFC
4:59
Championship game as snow falls down.
5:01
And they will want that because
5:03
everything else will have become so
5:10
the way that we develop architecture.
5:13
Look at your laptop, your phone. There's
5:15
no personality there. It's all sleek and
5:17
uniform. It's minimalist. That will be
5:20
how we build a lot of things in the
5:22
future and how life will feel in the
5:24
future. Sterile, artificial,
5:28
And sports will give us a connection
5:30
through video, through feel, through
5:32
photograph of what it used to be. And
5:35
people will want that. And I guarantee
5:40
that when we get 20 years from the
5:43
opening of a dome in Cleveland or
5:46
Chicago, people will go, I miss the old
5:48
days. You might say, well, the Lions
5:51
never went back and the Vikings never
5:53
went back. That's true. But there is a
5:55
longing for what it meant to be outside
5:59
at Tiger Stadium. What it meant to be
6:01
outside in a cold weather climate,
6:04
especially in football. And I think when
6:06
you start thinking that you're building
6:09
something for Super Bowls or for
6:13
Final Fours or for climate control, I
6:17
think what you're doing is ignoring that
6:21
so much of sports is about nostalgia. So
6:24
much is about previous generations and
6:27
care and love and passion
6:31
dates back to those things. And you want
6:33
people to care. Well, you want them to
6:35
feel connected to the past.
6:38
It's a really bad gamble for the Browns
6:42
and the Bears, the Commanders or
6:43
whomever who have had outdoor stadiums
6:45
before to believe that the future's
6:47
indoors. And this is going to sound
6:49
like, oh, DA is all about throwback
6:51
jerseys and natural grass. And of
6:54
course, I feel very strongly about this.
6:57
In the future, the old days of sports
7:00
will matter even more. It'll matter so
7:03
much because so much of the world will
7:06
have changed to where it feels
7:08
artificial and you will desperately care
7:10
for that. You look at cities now,
7:13
municipal planning, urban planning.
7:16
There is now a big push to getting
7:17
people back into urban centers, live
7:20
there, walk to cafes, walk to
7:23
restaurants, live in apartments, build
7:27
these entertainment areas to live and
7:30
work in. Truest Park in Atlanta is a
7:33
great example of this. They built a
7:35
neighborhood that you can live, work,
7:38
play all in this area because suburban
7:41
sprawl is not for everybody in terms of
7:44
culde-sacs and white picket fences and
7:47
driving to your cheesecake factory, but
7:49
instead being in a walking area. There
7:51
are municipalities ripping up
7:52
interstates that ripped through
7:55
neighborhoods and made it sterile.
7:59
In the future, we will want and and
8:04
doing things that feel like they used to
8:07
feel. And sitting outdoors at a football
8:11
game is always going to be one of those
8:13
things. Always. Guarantee you. And you
8:17
pull up this video. Let's see. It's 2025
8:20
today. Somewhere in the future, if
8:23
YouTube is still around, this video will
8:27
You tell me how those dome stadiums
8:29
aged. I guarantee you I'm right. I