Venue News: Panthers, Charlotte Reach Deal to Renovate Stadium; All England Club To Construct Retractable Roof Over Court No. 1

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, Sports Video Group

The city of Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers have reached agreement on improvements of the team’s stadium. The plan calls for the city to contribute about $87 million for renovations to Bank of America Stadium in exchange for a six-year deal to keep the Panthers in Charlotte. That’s less than the team was seeking for improvements of the stadium the opened in 1996. City Council is expected to vote on the agreement Monday…

…Wimbledon will increase its prize money by 40% this year and the All England Club has plans to build a retractable roof over Court No. 1 in time for Wimbledon 2019. A retractable roof has been in place on the famed Centre Court since 2009…

…Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross unveiled a major renovation to Sun Life Stadium on Jan. 14, sitting in front of a bright, wall-sized rendering of the upgrades and telling reporters to forget about a potential referendum asking voters to approve some public funding for the project. Less than three months later, Miami-Dade commissioners gave tentative approval to a subsidized renovation to the Miami Gardens stadium — and scheduled a May 14 referendum to give voters a say. The Miami Herald examines how the Dolphins negotiated a stadium renovation with Miami-Dade County, including how, if Miami fails to secure its Super Bowl L bid, the entire agreement may be called off…

…You could view a National Football League stadium as a hulk of concrete and steel, where video boards and bright lights eat up electricity, refrigeration is needed to keep the beer cold, halftimes are flush-fests and cars idle before and after games. On this celebration of Earth Day, writes USA Today, hold the carbon-emitting negativity. Since January, 11,000 solar panels and 14 wind turbines have been generating power at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles. And the Eagles are not alone. CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks (NFL) and Seattle Sounders (Major League Soccer), has 3,750 solar panels (2.5 acres) on the roof of an adjacent events center. The stadium under construction for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., will have solar panels and a green roof of soil and plant life covering its tower of luxury suites to provide insulation…

…The costs to build the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium range from big-ticket items, such as $25 million for an electrical system that will allow 12,000 fans to charge their cellphones simultaneously, to small ones like a $498 bookshelf. The expenses can be lavish or quirky, like the $155,250 for 23 VIPs to see the 49ers in last season’s Super Bowl, $500 so some lucky fans could attend a Joe Montana autograph signing, and $150 for coach Jim Harbaugh to walk on a red carpet at a stadium preview event. But they’re more often mundane, such as installing 16,000 lights, 5,500 fire alarms and 2,200 toilets and sinks, part of a utility budget that has surpassed $62 million. It all adds up quickly. The price tag so far: thousands of items totaling $368.6 million — about $1 million a day…

…The Milwaukee Bucks have told NBA Commissioner David Stern that when the team’s lease at the BMO Harris Bradley Center expires in 2017 the franchise will have a plan that includes a new arena. Stern made that clear Friday in a teleconference with reporters in advance of the NBA’s playoffs. The lease extension, which expires Sept. 30, 2017, was reached last fall. It is the longest lease between the arena and the franchise in more than 10 years and the first multiyear extension since 2007. Nearly a year ago, former Sen. Herb Kohl said it was time for a new multipurpose arena in Milwaukee and said he was willing to make a personal financial commitment toward a new facility. He did not say how much but added that the amount would not be insignificant. Kohl said in May that the Bucks were talking about “plans to get it done.”