In a rapidly evolving landscape where sports venues are becoming more immersive, the architecture behind these spaces is transforming how we experience sports. Jordan Goldstein, CEO of Gensler, joined TheStreet to discuss how his firm’s innovations are reshaping sports facilities in 2025.
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JORDAN GOLDSTEIN: The advances and opportunities in sports and entertainment is one of the things we’re really excited about for 2025. We see just a tremendous growth happening, and it’s really a kind of three areas. One fan experience, really trying to amp up the fan experience. So that when you’re going to a venue that it’s not just about what’s happening in the court or the field, but it’s actually how you experience pre-game, how you experience during the game and not necessarily sitting in your seat the whole time. It’s also then the athlete experience. A big part of this is like, how do you actually make the athlete experience better. So whether it’s at a venue and it’s about game day, and you’re getting ready for the game, what’s that environment like. But real big emphasis in 2025 on the practice facilities. So we’re like WNBA perfect example for the Phoenix Mercury.
We just created an amazing practice facility and it’s all geared towards the female athlete that is able to go on the court and play at her best. So that environment, it feels very different in terms of the design. One of the things we explored with them was how do you actually create a locker room that doesn’t feel like a typical locker room. It feels like a place you want to go. You want to be want to work, you want to be with your colleagues. And then from a performance enhancement standpoint, how can you actually train and in a sense, practice in an environment that gets you ready, gets you prepared for game day. The third thing that we’re seeing is just the rise of these sports and entertainment districts, and that is really the areas outside of venues. So sports teams, ownership groups and other partners are recognizing that the value of the brand goes beyond the arena or the stadium itself.
So how do you take the areas around it and start to bring new life. You a great example of that is the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC it’s where the Washington Capitals for NHL. Washington Wizards for NBA, where they play. So working together with the ownership, with adjacent developers and the city to actually reimagining that entire venue, transforming it, but then the area around it, the whole experience, the streetscape around it, bringing that up as well so that it helps revitalize a part of the city that really needed it.
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