realistic stadium expansion cost?

[jmknpk2]

In my fictional solo league, my team has been selling out it's 39,500 capacity stadium. I'd like to expand the seating in the stadium and have 99 million available to do so.

Does anyone have an idea about how much it should cost to expand a stadium? How much does this type thing cost in real life?

Thanks in advance.

[Curtis]

The Red Sox have been adding a thousand or so seats per year to Fenway for roughly the past few years. Can you find articles about how much it's costing them? (Google is your friend.)

[MidKnight]

Google may be our friend, but I consider myself very search-proficient and it was difficult to find any information on cost of seating capacity upgrades.

After some hunting I found articles on the price of Wrigley's bleacher expansion several years back. They added approximately 1800 seats and the estimated cost was (at the time) pegged at anywhere from $15 mil to $50 mil.

By my highly unscientific method of averaging the per-seat cost from both ends of the spectrum, I'd say $18,000 a seat is viable depending on the amount of construction needed.

Perhaps that means with $99 million you could roughly expand about 5,500 seats? Presuming all the seats sell and they cost about $25 a pop, not including extra money spent at the ballpark, it seems like the extra seating would pay for itself in about 8-10 years. That sort of seems in the right ballpark, pardon the pun.

[AirmenSmith]

Since you are trying to add that many seats its basically like adding a new stadium. You could search for how much new stadiums have cost and that is the price I would use.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by AirmenSmith

Since you are trying to add that many seats its basically like adding a new stadium. You could search for how much new stadiums have cost and that is the price I would use.

That number would be all over the place, too. New Yankee Stadium is costing more than twice what New Shea will. (I refuse to call it Citi Field.) And if you're just adding seats you don't need to add clubhouses, drainage, weight rooms, showers or restaurants. And how can you tell what fraction of stadium cost is to refurbish the neighborhood? Neighborhood upgrades are a standard part of any modern stadium renovation or construction?

EDIT: Okay, Google was my friend. I ran across two articles very quickly. In the original proposal it was supposed to cost $92,250,000 to add 10,000 seats and rip out roughly 1,900 old ones, for a net gain of around 8,100. As the project stands at this moment it has cost $100,000,000 for a net gain of 6,000 seats, which is very nearly what MidKnight suggested. (Note, my original price quotation did not include putting a roof over the stands or expanding the parking.)

Note that this $100,000,000 includes the cost of replacing every existing seat with ones that meet the new MLB width and comfort regulations, as well as subway improvements, adding an entrance, adding a level to the parking tower, earthquake-proofing the whole stadium, street improvements on five adjacent avenues, replacing a lot of concrete and waterproofing (which had apparently never been done) the rest, regrading and relaying the field and installing a new drainage system, new scoreboard, and on, and on.

It may be that major additions to a stadium simply can't be undertaken without all of these extra goodies being included (classic mission creep), in which case AirmenSmith probably had a good idea.

[jg2977]

You have to pay for stadiums in OOTP9? I had no idea.

[Raidergoo]

It should cost you nothing. The cost is paid by the taxpayer.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

It should cost you nothing. The cost is paid by the taxpayer.

Fenway is (supposedly) 100% privately funded. New Shea is privately funded (again, supposedly) for the structure itself, but all the stuff being improved around it is taxpayer funded, and that comes to about what the stadium runs. Note that Wilpon (who owns the Mets) counts city-backed bonds that he pays interest on as private funding, while the interest-free bonds he calls taxpayer-funded.

jg2977: No, you don't have to. It is a neat idea, and one that has been suggested for future versions of the game, if we can ever get a reasonable financial model in place. jmknpk2 is just trying ti humbug himself in a reasonable and interesting way.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Raidergoo

It should cost you nothing. The cost is paid by the taxpayer.

On average over the last twenty years or so, two-thirds of the cost of a new stadium is borne by the taxpaer.

[Simon_Nesbit]

From an in-game realism? (using 6.5 figures for simplicity - simply plug in your numbers).

You play 80 home games. Charge $10 a ticket. So you make $800 for a season ticket.

You would expect a stadium upgrade to last 10 years minimum. That's $8000.

I'd work on $10,000 a seat as a good representative figure.

Presuming you sell it out, it will take you approximately 10 years to pay off. (Less if you're making finals).

I haven't tested to see if stadium expansion is linked to market growth or marketing income though.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

On average over the last twenty years or so, two-thirds of the cost of a new stadium is borne by the taxpaer.

Does this figure take into account the cost of the stadium only, or does it figure in new or rerouted streets, highway exits, sewers, drainage, flood walls, parking lots, subway stops, and other government provided infrastructure?

GABP and Paul Bown Stadium were bargains compared to what the various governments did to the rest of downtown Cincinnati in order to sandwich them in.

[jmknpk2]

Thanks guys! Very much good stuff!

I think I'll add at a cost of 18,000 per seat and go forward that way. I will not burden the taxpayer, and run an organization that carries it's own weight

Thanks again.