Protective Stadium: Group Sees Current Design As Mistake

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Ground has been broken, dirt is moving and renderings have been made public for Birmingham's new downtown football stadium, slated to open in 2020. But a group of concerned local residents says the current design of the stadium could be a huge mistake for the city.

Birmingham businessman Alvin Bresler, a former Auburn University wide receiver and championship-winning high school football coach at Homewood High School, is one of those concerned with the direction of the stadium project. He said that when he first looked at the renderings of the stadium, he noticed the lack of seating on what would be the "home" side of the stadium.

More than 30 rows of seats between the 45-yard lines on the home side are gone because of the luxury boxes and press boxes, which would place season ticket holders who pay top dollar for prime seating in a less-desirable spot in the stadium, Bresler said.

"I played the game, I coached the game, and have been a lifelong spectator of the game," Bresler said. "And this is the worst stadium design I have ever seen."

One point Bresler said he wants to make clear is that he and his group are in favor of the stadium and its location. However, the issue pointed out most frequently in conversations among those opposed to the design is the sustainability of the stadium with its current plan: In essence, will Birmingham look back 20 years from now and regret moving forward with the design?

"I think they will," Bresler said. "I am worried that we will all look at this and think, 'Who's idea was this, and why did they think this was a good design?'"

The drawing above shows that the boxes cut into the seating on the "home" side of the stadium, leaving fewer seats than on the visitors' side.

"There are only 33 or so rows on the home side of the stadium with the press box taking up so much of the valuable goal-line-to-goal-line real estate," Bresler said. "This will leave only 6,500 seats for the public to use on the home side of the field between the goal lines."

The VIP boxes' placement means that the vast majority of the seats will be located on the east side, corners and end zones of the stadium, which Bresler says are less-desirable seats for UAB season ticket holders and visitors for the Birmingham Bowl and other games.

T.J. Perine, who also played at Auburn and at Jacksonville State, backs Bresler's sentiments. "Birmingham’s going to carry the burden of having the strangest football stadium ever built," Perine said. "When I take my family, where am I going to sit? Am I going to be forced to sit in the end zone, the corners or on the visitors’ side in the sun? I’ll feel like I’m being sent to the back of the bus — and I won’t be alone."

Perine, whose father, James Perine, coached for more than three decades at Vigor High School in Mobile, launched a website regarding the stadium's design in hopes of bringing attention to the issues.

The Issues

In addition to the placement of the luxury boxes, the issues Bresler and his group have with the stadium are numerous, beginning with the selection process of the architect, Populous Architectural Design out of Kansas City.

In picking Populous as the architect, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex issued no request for proposal, a problem Brelser said is the root of the design issues. No architects, local or otherwise, were invited to submit proposals, and the contract was awarded to Populous.

Bresler and his group said they would have preferred a local architect for the design, not only for what the contract would do for the local business community but because of the familiarity that a local contractor would have with the Birmingham metro and the history behind the sports culture in the city.

What was supposed to be a 45,000-seat stadium — expandable to 55,000 — is now a venue with fewer than 41,000 seats, another problem Bresler cites.

The final plans for the BJCC stadium show a stadium with 40,547 seats, but 231 of those are spots for wheelchairs, 508 are “berm” (sitting on the grass), and 550 are “drink rail” seats, leaving only 39,258 fixed seats.

Officials with the BJCC said confusion may exist between "capacity" and "number of seats." The approximate capacity for Protective Stadium is 45,000. The exact number of fixed seats is closer to 41,000, according to a statement from the BJCC. This includes ticketed, open seating areas that fans will occupy, but which don’t have seats. On a hillside to the north and a fan deck to the south, people will be able to spread out and watch the game or concert.

These are areas that fans will occupy but which don’t have a fixed number of chairs. So these areas count toward capacity, but the spaces don’t contribute to the total seat number. This type of flexible design enables ticket holders to choose how they want to experience the event, whether in a seat or spread out on the grass or standing/seated at a table, officials said.

The seating map is as follows:

The future use of the stadium is what concerns Bresler and his group most. "These issues make me believe that Protective Stadium will not be celebrated nationwide as Regions Field was when it opened, nor will this win any awards as one of America's great stadia," Bresler said. "And that would be a shame for 'The Football Capital of the South.'"

Bresler added, "There is a real chance that serious football fans, who are increasingly difficult to attract due to the pervasiveness of live streaming, photographic quality of television screens at home, will choose not to support a stadium of this design with their presence."

"We’ll be building a stadium with a capacity of 45,000 and yet there will be only 2,500 good seats on the home side," Perine said. "This is worrisome, since UAB Football has sold 10,000 season tickets, and many loyal UAB fans won’t have good seating options."

Despite the concerns of Bresler and Perine, BJCC Executive Director Tad Snider said he has received overwhelming support for the stadium design.

"We’re glad that people remain interested in the development of Protective Stadium. We’re excited about the rapid progress of the project, including the public bids from general contractors that are due in the next several weeks," Snider said. "We have a unique opportunity to build a facility in downtown Birmingham that will provide an incredible experience to everyone who steps foot inside the building. The primary users of the stadium and many in the public have come out in full force in support of the new stadium and its design. The teams at Populous are industry leaders in human-centered design and have done a wonderful job with this project. They’ve designed Protective Stadium for Birmingham with a clear understanding of what has worked well — and what hasn’t — for other facilities around the world.”

A Possible Alternative

Bresler and his supporters say they have a better idea for the stadium that would not significantly hinder the progress of the current construction or delay the opening of the stadium. The rendering they commissioned shows the luxury boxes placed above the home seats, instead of being embedded into the home side of the stadium.

The alternate design presented by Bresler and his group shows little change to the outward structure of the stadium and more closely resembles the placement of the press boxes at Legion Field.

Funding For Protective Stadium, Future Use

Funding for the stadium has come from a variety of sources. The Birmingham City Council voted in March 2018 to approve a resolution that would commit $90 million over 30 years toward the new stadium. The city's pledge added to the BJCC Authority's $10.7 million to the annual debt service on the project. The Jefferson County Commission has committed $1 million per year for 30 years.

UAB and corporate partners have committed to a combined $4 million per year for 10 years through a lease agreement, sponsorship and naming rights. The state Legislature also approved a bill that would use car rental tax funds to help pay for the stadium.

In addition to UAB football games, the new stadium also opens the door for events such as neutral-site college football games, concerts and other events. Last month, the Alabama High School Athletic Association announced that the Super 7 football championship games will be played at Protective Stadium in 2021, joining Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny Stadium in the rotation as hosts for the games.

Events such as the Birmingham Bowl and the Magic City Classic have not committed to playing at Protective Stadium, which has also prompted concern among fans, as expressed in an al.com column by Roy Johnson in October.

“The city has made it clear that they anticipate this game remaining at Legion Field,” Snider said in an email to Johnson regarding the Magic City Classic. “You may recall, the discussion during the process for the city to approve support for the stadium was that development of a new stadium was not an either/or proposition when it came to the future of Legion Field. The BJCC committed to working cooperatively with the city to maximize opportunities at both venues. The city continues to make investments to keep Legion Field a viable option for future events, and we will support and assist whenever possible.”

For the next three years, the Magic City Classic will be hosted at Legion Field, where it has been played every year since 1946. After that, will the game come to Protective Stadium? Bresler doesn't think so.

"This design makes it impossible to have a rivalry game here because of the seating," he said. "Then what? We have Legion Field hosting one event and Protective Stadium hosting others."

Jeff Barrett, a UAB supporter who also is opposed to the design, not only supports Bresler and Perine's arguments but also said he thinks the stadium's flaws may affect the fan momentum UAB is experiencing. "We are on a roll, and when the stadium was announced, it seemed to get the ball rolling even faster," Barrett said. "I'm worried that the stadium 'as is' will slow that momentum, and people are just not going to want to go there after the novelty wears off."

Bresler said he and his group have expressed their concerns with the BJCC, the Birmingham City Council and state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, with the hope that those concerns are heard and considered moving forward.