St. Louis CITY SC's CITYPARK Mixes Local Community With New In-Venue Tech

St. Louis CITY SC's CITYPARK Mixes Local Community With New In-Venue Tech Ross Video-based control room pushes content to Samsung LEDs By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor

Wednesday, July 26, 2023 - 11:20 am

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Currently sitting atop the Western Conference table, St. Louis CITY SC is enjoying its first full campaign in Major League Soccer. When the club kicks off the second half of the 2023 season after the month-long All-Star and Leagues Cup break, it will be returning to its home, the league's newest venue: CITYPARK. Inspired by other top-rated soccer stadiums and boasting a deep connection to the city surrounding it, the venue blends the business and grassroots efforts of the local community with reliable and sturdy production technologies.

Whether it's on the fan-experience side or back-of-house in the control room, says Matt Sebek, chief experience officer, St. Louis CITY SC, we tried taking ingredients from several venues to make something of our own. When people come here, they become supporters and have a great time outside of wins and losses.

Fortunate Foresight: Team's Preparation Beats COVID-Related Delays Having officially opened on March 4 with the team's match against Charlotte FC, CITYPARK was a project years in the making. Advanced bidding started in 2019, and, after receiving approval from local public officials and the league, the franchise set its sights on building a brand-new venue. The initial timeline had the club beginning its first season in 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the start date back to 2023. As with most COVID-era projects, onsite teams adhered to specific health and safety guidelines, but, unlike many projects, CITYPARK didn't experience many delays during construction.

We got lucky with a lot of our raw materials being ordered before COVID-19, notes Sebek. Since we were given an extra year to finish this build, we took a very consultative [approach] and were allowed to check and double-check the consumer behaviors that we were including in the fabric of this stadium.

From left: St. Louis CITY SC's John Venneman, Brian Rehn, and Bobby Sutherland are three mainstays of the club's production staff.

Besides taking the time to comprehend how fans were enjoying sports after COVID-19, the project team tapped surefire architects to execute its vision. Populous was recruited to offer structural knowledge, and its expertise meshed well with Minneapolis-based Snow Kreilich Architects to involve the Greater St. Louis community. The concept is evident in the venue's design: for example, openings at all four corners showcase the surrounding area, and the Pillars of the Valley installation honors the once-thriving African American neighborhood of Mill Creek Valley, which was demolished in the 1950s.

We want our venue to be a next-generation venue with how we engage our fans, adds Sebek. The architecture of the space takes center stage, and there's a lot of intentionality in this building.

Streamlined Approach: Control-Room Tech Keeps Local Workforce in Mind With the hiring of Director, Live Experience, David Vedder, the club pivoted to match its community outreach with skilled technological know-how. Working closely with Klance Unlimited - which is located 40 miles west of St. Louis in Pacific, MO - to staff the control room, Vedder and Sebek found the core of professionals who currently driving match-day shows: Director Bobby Sutherland, Technical Director Brain Rehn, Producer John Venneman, Graphics Operator Ajla Jujic, and A1 Tom Birmingham.

With a crew in place, the club leveraged the systems-integration services of Diversified to fill the main control room with top-class technologies. Most of the technology is anchored by Ross Video: two Carbonite Ultra production switchers, XPression graphics, and TouchDrive control panels. Audio is controlled by a Yamaha digital mixer, and Riedel Communications handles comms with 1RU SmartPanel and Bolero.

With workflows that match the production quality the club is striving for, Klance Unlimited, which also fills crews for the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues, supplied a team of local folks familiar with the equipment.

The St. Louis CITY SC Starting 11 walk onto the pitch from the supporters' section.

We took our staffing into consideration, says Sebek. Understanding the market and being able to swap people into our system at various positions was important.

Outside of the control room, Samsung was a massive partner in supplying LED videoboards and ribbon boards. Two main structures - one 1,760 x 512 ft. on the north end, one 1,760 x 576 ft. on the south end - drive the bulk of match-day productions. Six ribbon boards -7,616- x 64-ft. one at the north, 8,416- x 64-ft. at the south, 11,744- x 64-ft. at the east and west, 1,568- x 64-ft. at the northeast, and 1,568- x 64-ft at the northwest - assist the shows. LEDs provided by TGI Sport surround the pitch: 3,840- x 90-ft. at the west, 3,360- x 90-ft. at the north, 3,360- x 90-ft. at the south, and 16,200- x 90-ft. at the east. Chief Product Officer Michael Longe and VP, Soccer Business Development, Don Wetmore provide technical support.

Worldwide Inspiration: Production Elements From Various Sources Create Perfect Recipe Prior to opening, Sebek and company visited numerous soccer-centric venues to determine how they would like their productions to flow. Stateside, they toured recently opened control rooms at Austin FC's Q2 Stadium, Columbus Crew's Lower.com Field, and Nashville SC's GEODIS Park, as well as the physical layout of Portland Timbers' Providence Park and L.A. Galaxy's Dignity Health Sports Park. Overseas, they took in the match-day atmosphere of smaller European venues, such as Fulham's Craven Cottage, and

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2023/07/26/st-louis-city-scs-citypark-mixe...
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