The Pro Sports Venues Under Construction, With More On Horizon

From Inglewood in California to Orchard Park in New York, two new venues are currently under construction across the five major North American professional sports leagues. But there’s plenty more on the way, especially as permits finalize in Miami, the always contentious funding questions play out from Las Vegas to Calgary and head-scratching continues in Arizona.

While privately funded venues turn toward the norm, professional sports teams continue to wrangle local governments into helping pay for multi-billion-dollar projects, especially when it comes to the NFL. Explore the updates from across North America.

NFL Stadiums

Work has started on the New Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, outside of Buffalo. The $1.4 billion project includes $850 million in public funding—$600 million from the state of New York and $250 million from Erie County.

The Populous-designed 62,000-seat venue located across the street from the current Highmark Stadium will be owned by the state (the county owns the current venue) and is expected to be ready for the 2026 NFL season. The Bills have promised a stacked seating bowl that includes improved protection from the weather, as well as “extensive radiant heating” to enhance fan comfort.

Another publicly funded structure will come soon in Nashville. There, a $2.1 billion project to build a fully enclosed stadium next door to the site of the current facility isn’t under construction yet, but the Titans expect it to be in 2024, with a possible finish date in 2027.

The domed 60,000-seat venue will replace Nissan Stadium and will use $500 million from the state of Tennessee and $760 million from revenue bonds issued by the Metro Sports Authority to be repaid via a 1% Davidson County hotel occupancy tax, in-stadium sales tax, 50% of sales tax from future development of the stadium’s campus and ticket taxes and fees.

NBA Arenas

The Los Angeles Clippers will make Inglewood home in 2024 with the opening of the new $1.2 billion privately funded Intuit
INTU
Dome. Construction is well on track for the fall 2024 opening of the 18,000-capacity venue.

The AECOM design includes a soccer-inspired The Wall with an intense rake of the 51-row section mimicking that of a supporters section in soccer. Row 20 of The Wall is 45 feet closer—almost a complete NBA half court—than a fan sitting at the same height along the baseline in the team’s current Crypto.com Arena home in downtown Los Angeles.

The Intuit Dome will also feature an entire acre of scoreboard, “about five times any other arena in the league,” according to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.

While the Intuit Dome is the only NBA venue currently under construction, plans are still forming for the 76 Place arena proposed for the Philadelphia 76ers. The privately financed $1.3 billion arena aims to remake an underused mall in the Fashion District and create a local hub atop one of the most connected transit centers in the city.

There’s still some design, planning and permitting needs on a venue not expected to open until 2031.

NHL Arenas

There’s no arena under construction for NHL teams, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty of discussion, especially as Calgary nears a funding agreement on a new venue and the Arizona Coyotes are without a true home rink (they currently play in the 5,000-capacity Mullet Arena on the campus of Arizona State University).

Expectations in Calgary center on a funding agreement coming in summer 2023 that includes plenty of public money for the $1.22 billion (CAN) venue. Located in the city’s The Rivers District, the proposed arena for the Flames would come as part of a new culture and entertainment district.

The Coyotes were booted from the Gila River Arena in Glendale after the 2021-22 season and efforts to get public backing on a new arena in Tempe have failed, leaving the Coyotes in a college hockey arena and with an uncertain future.

Talk in Ottawa continues to swirl around a new arena, but there’s no definite site, funding or timetable.

MLB Stadiums

The focus on MLB stadiums centers on Las Vegas, a city without a MLB team. Already the state of Nevada has agreed on a $380 million public funding bill that could bring the Oakland Athletics to the city, all part of a $1.2 billon proposal to build a new 30,000-seat stadium on the current site of the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel near the Las Vegas Strip.

While the A’s are technically still in Oakland—that lease runs out after the 2024 season—expectations are that with Nevada’s funding agreement, the team will relocate to Las Vegas and owner John Fisher will gain the remainder of the money needed to build the new venue, which will also come alongside a new hotel and casino. The public money includes $180 million in tax credits and $120 million in taxpayer-backed bonds.

In order for the Las Vegas stadium to become a reality, the team needs to gain approval from the league to move from Oakland to Las Vegas and Fisher must fund the balance of the venue. Only then will permitting and planning continue.

John Sherman, owner of the Kansas City Royals, has voiced his desire for a new downtown stadium in Kansas City, but this potential $2 billion stadium doesn’t have a location or funding source.

MLS Stadiums

No league has grown its stadium cadre at the rate of the MLS in the last decade—five new stadiums opened in 2021 and 2022 alone—but that pace has finally started to slow. Still, there’s more stadium news in the future, including in Miami where construction is nearing on the $1 billion privately funded 25,000-seat Miami Freedom Park stadium and surrounding development.

The future home of Inter Miami will take over the now-closed Melreese Country Club and still feature 58 acres of public parks and green space. The public voted in November 2022 to allow the city to negotiate a lease for the land for Miami Freedom Park, permitting the team to move forward with a 99-year lease on the site near the Miami International Airport. Inter Miami hopes to play in the new stadium in 2025.

The next stadium on the horizon for MLS is the new Willets Point venue for the New York City Football Club next door to Citi Field, expected to open in 2027. The privately funded $780 million project for Queens will feature a 25,000-seat soccer stadium as part of a new planned community.

In 2025, MLS will add a 30^th team and 30^th stadium to its mix. The 2022-opened 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium, current home to the San Diego State University football team, will serve as the home to the new team. Owned by the university and on the site of the former Qualcomm Stadium, Snapdragon Stadium was designed with the hope of hosting an MLS team in the future. That future occurs in two years.