“The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is known to collect up to 1.2 million gallons of rainwater each year, which covers about 47% of its non-drinking water needs.”

At Target Field, an underground water collection, filtration, storage, and recycling system was installed. At Suncorp Stadium, the oversized roof is used as a blue roof to collect rainwater for reuse.

The Diamondbacks at Chase Field introduced synthetic grass in their playing field for a 90 percent savings in their water consumption each season.

The use of recycled water saves approximately 26 million gallons of water per year.

are treated so the water can be used in other parts of the property like the greenery and landscaping surrounding the stadium.

The lakes act as a mitigation for rainwater

Recycled water can be used for the green roofs, but also can be used for “playing field irrigation, watering the stadium’s green roof, refrigeration, cooling the stadium, and flushing toilets.”

Green roofsDescriptionDetailsCitationsSource fileOverhead picture of the green rood at Chicago City HallScalar URLhttps://scalar.lafayette.edu/hydronarratives/chicago-city-hall-green-roof (version 1)Source URLhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/20080708_Chicago_City_Hall_Green_Roof.JPG (image/JPEG)dcterms:titleChicago City Hall Green Roofdcterms:descriptionOverhead picture of the green rood at Chicago City Halldcterms:date2008-07-09dcterms:creatorTonyTheTigerView asRDF-XML, RDF-JSON, or HTML have also been found to “help to control runoff and runoff pollution, which was identified as a major way that cities receive drinking water.”

“‘Green infrastructure – water quality management techniques like green roofs, tree planting, rain gardens, and permeable pavement – has been proven to help solve major urban stormwater problems and improve the health and livability of neighborhoods.’”

The blue roof can also keep rainwater from going into the city’s sewer system which can help if a city is prone to combined sewer overflows.

blue roof, a roof that can store rainwater

The study also showed that the use of rainwater was ranked third in the most important aspect when choosing a facility that the respondent would prefer. The use of rainwater was only beaten by what kind of energy the stadium uses and the price of the ticket.

The first study also found that the respondents were willing to pay extra “for each additional percent increment in the usage of harvested rainwater for non-potable purposes such as irrigation, toilet flushing, and cleaning.”

It also shows that 50 percent would be more “keen to buy sustainable team/brand merchandise.”

This can be supported by another study that found that 69 percent of respondents from around the world were interested in following more green sports and competitions.

In the study, the traditional stadium with the least number of green aspects was the least preferred stadium showing that even just a few green aspects can help the stadium financially.

“In a highly competitive sports market, furthermore, respondents may perceive green stadiums as a unique selling point. As a result, spectators may be inclined to pay more for an exceptional and environmentally responsible experience that distinguishes a green stadium from its counterparts.”

It found that “respondents placed greater emphasis on green energy generation on-site rather than ticket price.”

A 2023 study found that LEED platinum-rated stadiums were considered the most desirable venue compared to traditional stadiums. It also found that participants were willing to spend more money on a higher ticket price if it meant the stadium was platinum-rated.

With greener aspects comes “positive publicity, new sponsorship opportunities, tax credits, reduced utility costs, longer facility lifecycles, and long-term savings . . .”

Increased emphasis on water conservation tends to save even more money.

“Despite the added cost of LEED-certified facilities, . . . the long-term savings of green buildings [are] significant: energy costs in LEED-certified buildings were 31 percent lower, while operating costs were US$.70 per square foot less than their non-LEED equivalents.”

“the city of Santa Clara offers rebates to all residents and businesses for landscaping, commercial washing machines, and lower-cost recycled water . . ., meaning the 49ers saw an immediate economic advantage to utilizing recycled water.”

Policy-makers and local governments should be encouraging stadiums to introduce more green initiatives because “given that teams are highly autonomous during the facility planning process, decisions to incorporate green designs into new venues are likely to rest on ownership and local government.”

In some cities, stadium proposals must include “pro-environmental features before being considered for taxpayer support.”

green infrastructure can bolster a community that typically employees unskilled and seasonal jobs at the stadium such as “ticket takers, ushers, vendors, restaurant and bar workers, and taxi drivers

Green infrastructure also means the creation of green jobs that can boost local economies.

“Greenwashing” is the idea that “teams are simply doing external, cursory green activities to earn a positive public appearance, while doing little to solve bigger, overall problems.”

“only fourteen percent of [LEED certified] buildings actually create renewable energy and only twelve percent incorporate water-reduction plans . . .”

To achieve the LEED certification, a lot of stadium designers tend to pick the easiest and cheapest options that would give enough points for a certification.

While it is good that stadiums are taking an interest in the environmental impact they have, achieving a LEED certification can also lead to significant tax breaks from a city.

The highest level of the LEED certification a stadium can achieve is platinum which means the facility was awarded 80 or more points.

The idea of the LEED program is to minimize the environmental impact of sports facilities.

materials and resources used in construction, energy and atmosphere, and innovation of design aspects.

“sustainability, water efficiency, and indoor environmental quality,”

Over 100 teams have joined GSA.

The GSA motivates teams to “reduce the environmental impact of sports facilities.”

Installing contactless actuators on toilets gives dual-flush options for liquid or solid waste, ensuring that “only the necessary amount of water is used for each flush.”

Using low-flow plumbing can reduce water use by 40 percent when compared to regular plumbing.

metering faucets on sinks

installing low-flow plumbing

installing water-flow restrictors, automatic sensors

using hand soap that does not require water

Water reduction in restrooms can look like installing waterless urinals

and using landscaping techniques like “mowing, verticutting, aeration, wetting agents, nutrition, and other cultural practices” to help promote water conservation and efficiency from making healthy field conditions.

using three-inch sprinkler heads to ensure the water is evenly distributed among the field and reduces the chance for water to be wasted from hitting tall grass or leaves

“[selecting] drought-tolerant varieties of turfgrass . . .”

Alternate forms of irrigation can help mitigate the effects of transport pollutants. For example, a stadium might use any combination of sprinklers to water a field, but might use drip irrigation for efficiency in growing their landscape.

The SportsTurf publication wrote that “Excessive irrigation can transport pollutants and cause erosion, which can negatively affect waterways.”

These sensors can connect to computerized irrigation that can be shut off from a phone if the field had received “adequate rainfall.”

soil-moisture sensors

The field irrigation should therefore occur based on “actual site conditions,” which includes considering the “evapotranspiration rates, recent rainfall, recent temperature extremes, soil moisture, and pending field use schedules.”

To keep a field healthy and control the water use, “Irrigation rates should not exceed the maximum ability of the soil to absorb and hold the water applied at any one time.”

According to an article in SportsTurf, DescriptionDetailsCitationsSource fileCover of SportsTurf Magazine September 2019Scalar URLhttps://scalar.lafayette.edu/hydronarratives/media/sportsturf-magazine (version 1)Source URLhttps://scalar.lafayette.edu/hydronarratives/media/SportsTurf.pdf (document/PDF)dcterms:titleSportsTurf Magazinedcterms:descriptionCover of SportsTurf Magazine September 2019dcterms:date2019-09dcterms:creatorSportsTurfView asRDF-XML, RDF-JSON, or HTMLan official publication of sports turf managers, “An efficient irrigation system maximizes water use, reduces operational cost, conserves supply and protects water resources.”

As Roger McClendon, Green Sports Alliance executive director, states, “Use reduction impacts the resource you are trying to protect- in this case potable water- and reduces the long term operating costs related to the resource, opening more opportunities for further water use reduction.”

In a giant sports stadium, leaks could come from “Hidden drains, faucets left running or even backup cooling systems that are not monitored” and “can lead to substantial water loss.”

“The EPA indicates that the national average for water lost to leaks in potable water delivery systems is 14%.”

These processes could be watering the landscape, pressure washing the seats, installed cooling systems, and flushing a toilet.

“Nick Hansen with RecycledH2O (2015) notes: An NFL football field is 57,600 square feet (360' by 160'). This field size needs approximately 36,000 gallons of water, if one inch of water is to be applied to the entire field. (Extra grass along sidelines means more water used.) To put this into perspective, if your family of four uses 1400 gallons per week, 26 families would use the same volume of water that a football field will use for 1'' of watering.”

The clean-up finished 3 to 4 years earlier than the town originally planned.

a site that has or may have the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

The Arena was built on a brownfield site

“. . . I wish to suggest that abjection is a dialectical process produced out of deeply situated discursive relationships and material practices, where difference is constantly reproduced, enacted and fore- grounded between people that have deep overlapping social histories. Critically, these differences are realized and reproduced through the production and management of urban infrastructure.”

“According to a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research, properties within a mile of a National Football League (NFL) stadium can see rents increase by as much as 9%.”

“That residents only became eligible subjects of his expertise after they paid their bills shows how the water department, despite being a public entity, recognizes residents more as customers than citizens, and provides a bureaucratic procedure through which public officials could discriminate between good and bad subjects, between residents that were eligible for their service and others that were not.”

Sports stadiums cause a multitude of environmental problems, such as air pollution leading to further environmental problems, overusing water consumption, and multiplying waste from humans

Additionally, the study found that the construction of new stadiums had a “negative and significant” impact on the city’s regional income.

Well put by the study, “Twenty dollars spent on football tickets may be merely twenty less dollars spent on theater tickets elsewhere in the city. The new restaurant across from the stadium may be offset by putting an old restaurant out of business in another neighborhood.

A study on how much revenue a sports stadium generates for a city found that “there is an insignificant impact of the stadium or sports variables on the level of metropolitan area income.”

The Clean Water Act also “provides the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)] with the authority to regulate discharges into waters of the United States and also empowers the agency to execute pollution control programs, such as industrial wastewater standards.”

It also comes into play to protect communities from pollutants washing away into storm drains which is typically a large problem during the construction stages.

Discharges of pollutants and waste water are controlled and not to be directed to US waters.

In the United States, acts like the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and National Environmental Protection Act impact the construction of any buildings including stadiums.

According to an online database, there are 917 sports stadiums in the United States. The United States has the most sports stadiums in the world, followed by Brazil with 889 stadiums, leading with 28 stadiums.