Issue 77: Stadium and Arena Design

By Kevin Morin, P.E.

As the architectural and engineering designs of stadiums and arenas have evolved,
so too have the challenges for the fire protection engineer. Stadiums and arenas
are no longer used only for participant sporting events and concerts. These
facilities have become destination locations and now cater to year-round use, with
restaurant facilities, banquet halls and conference capabilities. The new hazards
associated with these uses must be addressed by the design team and the fire
protection engineer, in addition to the traditional hazards associated with large
assembly uses in a building with non-traditional fuel loads.

The popular multi-use sports facility of the 1960s and 1970s, intended to
accommodate multiple sporting events such as baseball and football, have largely
been replaced by sport-specific facilities. These sport-specific facilities have
modern amenities that are designed to attract non-sports uses. The amenity
spaces include outdoor terrace areas, luxury club and suite spaces, lecture halls and
"sponsor rooms. Events range from private events, such as weddings, to job fairs,
guest lectures and corporate events. Most, if not all, of these events are on nongame days when building staff is limited.

Stadium and arena designs must comply with the applicable fire protection and life
safety requirements when the building is fully-occupied and fully-staffed for major
sporting and concert events. However, it is important that the designs also comply
during "non-game day events when the facility is not fully-staffed, and some
portions of the facility may be unavailable to the public.

It is necessary for the fire protection engineer to understand the intended uses and
the flexibility required for non-game day events. Following are some of the
elements that should be considered.

Egress Availability
Club and suite levels are desirable locations for non-game day events. These
spaces are often designed with means of egress through the seating bowl or the
public concourses. For security reasons, on non-game days, access to portions of
the seating bowl and the concourses may be restricted. The required number of
exits, exit capacity and egress travel distance limitations must continue to be
satisfied with the available exits. In addition, the exit discharge to the exterior and
the public way must have unrestricted access.

Smoke-Protected Assembly Seating

The smoke-protected assembly seating provisions of the model codes are typically
used in the design of stadiums and arenas. The smoke-protected assembly seating
provisions are a design option that permits reduced exit capacity factors and
increased exit travel distances provided that the means of egress are protected

accordingly. The smoke control systems must be designed to maintain the smoke
level at least 6 feet (1.8 m) above the means of egress.
When using the smoke-protected assembly seating provisions, a life safety
evaluation must be completed. This includes a written assessment of, among other
things, the nature of the events and the participants and attendees, fire hazards,
and the relationships among facility management, event participants, and
emergency response agencies.

Complex smoke control systems are often critical components of achieving

compliance with the smoke-protected assembly seating provisions. The smoke
control systems rely on strategic locations for smoke exhaust and make-up air.
Temporary partitions, restricted doors or changes to fuel loads can alter the
performance of the smoke control system and result in a space that no longer
complies with the provisions for smoke-protected assembly seating.
All potential events, fuel loads and security restrictions should be considered when
designing the smoke control systems for spaces that may be used for non-game
events. Communication between the stadium operators and the design team is
necessary to identify the non-game events are must be accommodated in the
design.

Structural Fire Protection

In many buildings, structural fire protection is provided as required by building
codes without further analysis. Due to the size and nature of stadiums, structural
fire protection is often designed based on engineering analyses of the anticipated
fire exposures. The fuel load present during sporting events is typically considered,
since that is the primary use of the building. However, the fuel load brought into
the building for other events may pose a more severe exposure to the structure.
Thus, the fire protection engineer should work closely with the building operator to
understand the fuel loads that may be introduced into the building and to
communicate any limitations on the uses within the building.

Sprinkler Protection
When selecting the hazard classification for the design of the sprinkler systems, all
potential non-game day events must be considered. A game day event with limited
combustible materials on the concourses may be different than a corporate event,
wedding, or convention with a more significant fuel load. In addition, sprinkler
protection is sometimes omitted from outdoor stadium concourses due to the
limited fuel load and the opportunities for the natural ventilation of smoke and heat.
This may not be the case for special events which introduce combustible materials
or temporary enclosures.

Occupant Notification
Due to the large volume of stadiums and arenas, public address systems are often
used as the audible portion of occupant notification in select areas of the facility.
This may include concourse areas and amenity spaces, such as club and suite
areas. On non-game day events, the public address system may not be staffed or
even energized, which compromises the ability to notify the occupants of the
building of an event.

In addition, to avoid an unnecessary full building evacuation, a positive alarm

sequence is often used in stadiums and arenas. Positive alarm sequence permits
acknowledgement of an alarm and an investigation period of up to 180 seconds
before an alarm signal is initiated. Although this may be appropriate during a game
day event, this may not be appropriate for a non-game day event. Sufficient staff
may not be available to adequately investigate the alarm, causing an unnecessary
delay in occupant notification.

Staffing
Facility staff are critical for the fire protection and life safety of building occupants
during game day events. The facility staff have operational protocols for crowd
control, security, way-finding, systems monitoring, and often times they have the
only access to manual pull stations and fire extinguishers. A stadium or arena is not
likely to be fully-staffed for non-game events, which requires modifications to the
emergency operations procedures that are developed for game-day events.

As with all multi-use buildings, the fire protection engineer must contemplate all
reasonable uses of the spaces within the building when considering the fire
protection and life safety systems. This has become increasingly important with
stadium and arena facilities as new amenities are introduced and facilities look to
capitalize on year-round use. Care must be taken to adequately address how the
facility functions during a non-game event for system performance and from a
staffing perspective.

Kevin Morin is with Code Consultants Professional Engineers, PC