Ryan Sickman with Gensler talks about the impact of COVID-19 on Sports Architecture

What’s waiting for sports venues and athletic facilities on the other side of this pandemic? There’s a lot of speculation and ideas gaining momentum as to where design could or should go once we’ve emerged from this complex crisis.

Shield Lockers recently had a conversation with Ryan Sickman, PE, LEED®, AP, principal and sports and convention centers leader at Gensler, on the topic of sports architecture.

Ryan has spent more than a decade designing, managing, and overseeing a number of sports facilities. Shield Lockers has worked with Gensler on creating one-of-a-kind custom lockers for numerous projects, including the LA Clippers Basketball Lockers for the Staples Center in 2016; the Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball Lockers for the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in 2018; and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks Football Lockers for the Long Family Operations Center in 2019.

Here’s what he has to say about it.

The biggest threat to sports venues and athletic facilities

Sickman has an interesting perspective that we have yet to see widely circulated. “Sports venues shut down almost overnight. People aren’t congregating there right now because everything is cancelled,” Sickman explains in a conversation with Shield Lockers. “Pandemics aren’t the biggest threat to our venues. Biological attacks, bombings, terrorism, mass-shootings, etc. Those types of events in a mass assembly space are still the single biggest threat and sports venues have adapted to protect fans.”

Think about the last time you went to a large sporting or entertainment event. We’re all familiar with the plastic folding tables beside the metal detectors, the plastic tubs that you throw everything from your pockets into and slide across the table along with thousands of other people, the lady with a ruler poking around purses and bags, the shoulder-to-shoulder lines funneling into a handful of shoulder-width thresholds. Those operational protocols became the “new normal” following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, an act which ignited America’s war on terrorism.

“These post-9/11 stadium requirements changed the entrance arrival sequence (i.e. metal detectors, bag and article checks, additional security screening, etc.), altered security parameters with cameras and monitoring, and made significant changes to infrastructure assets. But people didn’t stop going to games,” Sickman says.

“Regardless of threats, we’re going to keep doing it,” Sickman continues. “Are we going to do it exactly the way we did before? Maybe not. We’re going to see more of a reaction when things come back. Without understanding how this has really impacted our venues, we won’t know how to react to changes in fan behavior, operations, etc. We’re still actively involved in conversations with owners, coaches, and sports leaders across the globe to help determine that.”

How might COVID-19 impact sports architecture design?

Regarding best practices in design, Sickman says, “I’d like to think we’re already doing that. From an operational perspective, you want to choose surfaces, materials, finishes, and products that are easy to clean and maintain. Acrylic solid surface is a perfect example — it’s high-performance and adaptable to dynamic applications.”

In terms of air quality inside of athletic facilities and spaces, he says, “We already try to use air filtration systems that take out significant amounts of particulate and remove pathogens. These systems push as much non-recirculated air as possible, favoring 100% outside air or fresh air that doesn’t need to be registered. They also support regulating air turnover in locker rooms, weight rooms, training rooms, and lounges to optimize flow and programmatic layouts to be functional and safer. This is already critical to how we design these facilities, and we’re going to continue those best practices. What it really comes down to is cost. How important is it? Moving forward, some clients’ priorities will definitely change.”

“If COVID-19 passes and doesn’t resurface, it could be years before something like it happens again.” Sickman says. “If it doesn’t come back, doesn’t resurrect itself, and a vaccine is created for it, I wonder if it’s realistically going to change anything. It’s affecting so many people in a way they’ve never been affected before that people are starting to have these types of conversations, but realistically I don’t know what our new reality is going to be. Our biggest reality check is continuing to make sure that we don’t overreact here. We need to be ready, change the things that we responsibly can, keep internal checks in place to ensure we don’t change all the good that is experienced in our venues; why people come in the first place.”

Sickman concludes, “What this has given us is an opportunity to take a new approach to the people and places we interact with.”

Learn more about Gensler’s Sport & Convention Centers design expertise.

Have you seen the best practice recommendations from the American Society of Health Care Engineering (ASHE) for using the health care physical environment to prevent and control infection? Our healthcare segment talks about key recommendations from the guide on selecting and disinfecting surfaces and furniture, and how acrylic solid surface design supports cleanability in any setting.

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