Venue News & Notes: NFL Urges CA Neighbors To Share a Home

Topping this week’s venue news is the NFL’s urging two California football franchises to move in together. To help ease some of the economic strain of stadium construction, the league is asking the San Francisco 49ers to consider sharing a stadium with the Oakland Raiders, in the hopes of forming a partnership like the one between the New York Giants and Jets. Commissioner Roger Goodell has had discussions with both the Raiders and the 49ers in recent weeks, asking the Bay Area teams, who play in two of the oldest stadiums in the league, to consider a joint project.

The NFL is urging the 49ers to explore sharing a new stadium with their cross-bay neighbors, the Raiders, hoping the Bay Area could follow the lead of the New York Giants and the New York Jets, who have joined forces to privately finance the most expensive stadium in U.S. sports history. The 49ers have not begun formal discussions with the Raiders, but the team plans to expand the scope of its environmental review in Santa Clara for a stadium that could accommodate two teams playing at least 20 games a year…

…Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolff would like Phoenix to pay $15 million to upgrade spring-training facilities at Phoenix Municipal Stadium and Papago Park. But in these hard economic times, he knows that the city doesn’t have that kind of money. That’s why he has pitched a plan for the ball club to finance the improvements, then have the city repay it when the economy improves…

…ShoWare Center in Kent, Oh, looks as if it’s going to win the race to be the first LEED-certified new arena in the United States, according to project principals. The $84 million facility, home to the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds, opened Jan. 2, and officials are waiting to hear from the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council on certification. LEED, the council’s acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system in which points are scored in six categories for sustainable design and construction of new buildings…

…Minneapolis-based ADC has announced that it has equipped Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with its InterReach cellular system, which strengthens network coverage and prevents dropped calls when a large number of spectators attempt to use their cellphones simultaneously while watching sports events. The wireless system, known as InterReach Fusion in-building cellular solution, is designed to provide coverage to all the 65,000 seats throughout the stadium, including the inner bowl, luxury boxes, offices, locker rooms, and parking lot.