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Sacramento makes most of launch delay

Sacramento Republic FC’s Ben Gumpert is using the added time to explore new ideas.Sacramento Republic FC

If there’s anything Ben Gumpert has learned over the past four-plus months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the collective sports world, it’s this: “We’re not in control, COVID-19 certainly is,” said Gumpert, president and COO of Sacramento Republic FC. 

The USL Championship club was originally scheduled to join MLS in 2022 alongside an expansion team in St. Louis, but those plans were delayed one year for both, namely due to construction delays and business operations. Charlotte FC’s debut is also now slated a year later, going from 2021 to 2022. 

Construction on the yet-to-be-named 21,000-seat stadium is expected to begin later this fall, and the goal is for it to be completed by January 2023 in order to open it for the club’s first full season in MLS. It’s a building that will fill the void among Greater Sacramento’s 2.6 million residents who don’t currently have an outdoor concert venue or facility and will house the likes of soccer, rugby and lacrosse matches as well as community events, according to Gumpert.

“We’re building the stadium for the next 30 years,” Gumpert said. “We’re building the franchise for the next 100-plus years. If it takes an extra year to do it, so be it. That is what we’ll do because we’re not going to sacrifice our ability to launch this the right way.”

Now, with the additional 12 months, the Republic has an opportunity to explore design modifications and technology upgrades to the stadium with Kansas City-based architectural firm HNTB as well general contractor Mortenson Construction, a Minneapolis, Minn.-based company. CAA ICON is serving as the project manager. 

For example, plans were in the works to proceed with 100% paperless-ticketing, including a nontraditional box office that Gumpert likened to an Apple store where team representatives could interact with fans versus the normal “belly-up type of box office setup.” During the pandemic, though, the club’s also engaged different technology companies around being a 100% cashless stadium, a continuing trend across all of major U.S. pro sports. 

“Not only does that create a frictionless atmosphere for fans, most importantly, but from a sanitization standpoint and not exchanging cash when it’s not necessary, that adds another important element to the stadium,” said Gumpert, adding that one of the big questions to answer is how to work with fans who don’t necessarily have a credit card. 

“Some of these ideas we were thinking about before and apportioning and now it’s, ‘Hey, in these matters, should we just be going 100%?’”

The delayed timeline has also allowed the Republic to reimagine what the concessions experience will look like for fans, and if the club wants to proceed with completely mobile ordering. Redesigns under consideration include implementing new pickup windows and concession stands geared toward service and delivery versus ones that are more order-centric.

Sustainability is even more of a focus now. The team has been in recent active discussions with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District about how to move the stadium toward being more electric, incorporating solar energy and reducing waste. 

“Especially in an innovative field [like energy], each few months gives us an opportunity to see how things are working and how they might impact our building in a positive way,” he said.

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