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Power Players

What is the toughest part of your job?

Bob Fatovic, CannonDesign: “Designers are always challenged to exceed expectations. Campus athletics and stadium projects bring high expectations. The owners want projects on time and on budget. Fans want to be wowed. Athletes want the best spaces to help them achieve high-performance goals. We have to balance all these expectations and work to create facilities that exceed all of them.”

George Heinlein, HOK: “Trying to stay one step ahead of our competition by creating new and innovative design ideas that reshape the industry in the way loge boxes, terrace tables and theater boxes have done. I encourage our designers every chance I get to ask ‘What’s next?’”

Tom Paci, Turner Construction: “Balancing the cost of the architectural statement with income-producing program elements to maximize the owner’s return on investment.”

Thomas Scarangello, Thornton Tomasetti: “Rising construction costs, tight budgets, sky-high expectations,

Each new project brings added expectations for design creativity and completion deadlines. Shown is SunTrust Park, the future home of the Atlanta Braves.
Photo by: Populous
complex ownership/management structures and unyielding deadlines — Opening Day is Opening Day.”

Ken Johnson, Hunt Construction Group: “Satisfying all the stakeholders on large sports projects to come up with the proper balance of all the important team programming elements, architectural elements to define the building, social elements to be inclusive in hiring and procuring services, revenue elements to pay for the facility, fan experience elements to give the fan a game-day experience that is better than on TV, and technology to enhance the game-day experience, to meet the budget and schedule.”

Mitchell Ziets, Tipping Point Sports: “Convincing team owners and CEOs that the public sector always has significantly more available financial resources than they let on. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard ‘We have no money for your project’ from the local government at the outset and turned that into a significant public investment in a win-win partnership with the team.”

Dan Barrett, Barrett Sports Group: “Travel. Sports management consulting is essentially a relationship-driven business. Dedicating time to each client is very important in developing long-term relationships, and doing so in-person is a priority.”

Steve Terrill, AECOM: “Dealing with the challenges faced on fast-tracked projects through both design and construction. While we understand our clients’ needs to open these facilities quickly to start the flow of revenue, fast-track projects require an increased level of advanced planning and team cooperation to be successful.”

Len Moser, Barton Malow: “The feeling of ‘having one foot on the gas, and the other on the brake’ throughout a particular sports facility development. Patience may be a virtue, but is not my strong suit.”

Tom Proebstle, Generator Studio: “Designing more, and constantly better, in less time. For creative industries like ours, the brilliance doesn’t come on demand — it’s a process. Any monkey can pump out a reclaimed wood concession stand, but design solutions that reflect the team, fans and local fabric produce better business results.”

Jon Niemuth, AECOM: “Managing expectations. There is much about what we do — facility planning, design, construction, budget and, most important, delivery of all these which remain very much a mystery to our clients. Communicating the process, aligning expectations, and building true partnerships with our client teams is a challenging but crucial daily requirement.”

Don Barnum, DLR Group: “Sports facilities are extremely high-profile projects on a campus and in a community and the entire market remains hypercompetitive. There are many factors converging: the impact facilities have with recruiting and in many cases conference alignment; consideration of the time demands on student-athletes; and design strategy to maximize academic and athletic performance, technology innovation and the in-stadium, fan experience.”

Matt Rossetti, Rossetti: “Forecasting the changing trends in sports and entertainment consumption for millennials. The digital-age generation views engagement of sport very differently from the physical generation.”

Bob Dunn, Hammes Co.: “Finding creative ways to satisfy and balance the increasing facility demands of team owners, athletic departments and fans against the almost exponential growth in the capital and operating costs of stadiums and arenas.”

Bill Johnson, HOK: “Anticipating what the fans of the future are going to want their game-day experience to be.”

Rising construction costs increase pressures to secure funding and stay within budget.
Photo by: Getty Images
Jim Renne, Rossetti: “Trying to forecast the future. In the quest to make sure that venues we design remain as relevant for as long as possible, we have to do a certain amount of educated forecasting.”

Marc Farha, Icon Venue Group: “Dealing with the intensity and the obstacles that come our way on these massive projects while keeping balance with our lives outside of work.”

Murray Beynon, Brisbin Brook Beynon and SCI Architects: “Just as sport and media execs search to make their products more exciting, as sport architects we must develop ways to give fans a unique new experience. Our Chase Bridges at Madison Square Garden are a good example of this.”

Earl Santee, Populous: “The toughest part of my job is that it is based on market demand. Because of this demand, it is sometimes hard for clients to understand that they need to be constantly renovating and updating their facilities to meet market needs.”

Charlie Thornton, Icon Venue Group: “Alignment of budget requirements with the scope of project aspirations.”

John Wood, Mortenson Construction: “It’s not just about making sure the project gets built on time and within budget. … The construction requirements of a sports facility are different from that of any other project type. They involve complex systems, unique geometry, specialized sports systems/vendors, demanding logistics, politically charged environments, and event-driven schedules.”

Janet Marie Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers: “Working within the limitations of baseball’s short offseason.”

Erleen Hatfield, BuroHappold Engineering: “We seek creative and challenging work, which can be difficult at times. I enjoy solving problems creatively, and challenges are what make my job exciting and interesting. So although challenging work is sometimes the toughest thing about my job, it’s a positive.”

Tim Leiweke, Oak View Group: “Travel, the hours and keeping all happy.”

Brad Clark, Populous: “Managing the balance between client expectations and the realities of the budget.”

Tim Romani, Icon Venue Group: “Bringing greater specialized expertise to optimize how fans experience our buildings. Fan experiences now need to be more instant and more intense, and our buildings need to deliver that.”

Bob Hart, Hunt Construction Group: “To continue to find creative solutions to increasing pressure on budgets and time frames.”

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