A sign of hope: A soccer stadium is still on track to rise in the railyards in 2022
We need reminders that life will go on and that our community-wide quarantine to contain the spread of COVID-19 is indeed only temporary. We have many, but here is one reminder of something that many in Sacramento have anticipated for years.
It’s a reminder that what was big news before the pandemic is still going to happen, and that one day we will return to happy pursuits standing shoulder to shoulder in the same space without fear.
The long-proposed soccer stadium in the downtown railyards is still on target for its grand opening two years from now despite coronavirus stay-at-home directives that have shut down competitive soccer and every other sport in the US.
Whether Sacramento Republic FC will play any games in 2020, or at least any before crowds, is unclear. California Gov. Gavin Newsom all but ruled out mass gatherings in the state for the remainder of the year during a news conference last week.
But planning for the Railyards Stadium has continued on schedule, albeit remotely. One would never know this by driving by the long barren railyards site, just north of the I Street Bridge. No sign of major earth moving or steel rising is visible on the back end of the 240-acre railyards site as seen from I-5.
But by summer, Sacramento Republic leaders are hoping that work on the new stadium could be noticeable.
“We’re not changing our timeline right now,” said Ben Gumpert, president and COO of the Republic FC. “For now, we’re going to keep pushing.”
Gumpert said the 20,000-plus seat stadium remains on a 19-to-21-month construction schedule. If construction began, say, in July, the stadium would be done by February 2022. Before being suspended after two games due to COVID-19, the 2020 MLS season began Feb. 29. Yeah, that’s a tight timeline.
Railyards still on track
That’s why contingency plans are being considered even though it’s too early to concede that the Republic FC MLS stadium – green-lighted last fall when MLS awarded Sacramento a place in its league – will not be ready for the start of the 2022 season.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if we weren’t considering the options and challenges,” Gumpert said.
Despite the isolation-inspired gloom caused by stay-at-home directives, believing that Sacramento’s MLS stadium will remain on-track is not unrealistic.
Other construction projects are also set to move forward at the railyards this year, said Denton Kelley, of LDK Ventures – owner and developer of much of the railyards. A long-planned courthouse near the stadium should begin construction soon, Kelley said. And this summer, construction is planned to begin on the first railyard housing project – a development of more than 300 units.
Of all the railyards projects, the soccer stadium has garnered the most attention because it would be the first outdoor stadium built for a Sacramento-based team for one of the country’s five major sports leagues. Clearly, the Sacramento River Cats have drawn big crowds for 20 years as the Triple A affiliate of the Giants and the A’s.
But Republic FC is Sacramento’s first home-grown team in a top-tier league that was created here and didn’t relocate from another city. And while soccer is still a developing sport in the U.S., MLS has expanded nationwide, its games are carried on national networks and its players have competed for Team USA and a variety of other countries in World Cup competition.
The $300-million stadium will take up nine acres of a 14-acre parcel that will be developed by Ron Burkle, the billionaire super market magnate whose purchase of the team last year secured Sacramento its MLS berth. And the stadium and surrounding development in the railyards promises to double the size of downtown Sacramento.
For years, Republic FC has envisioned its stadium as a gathering place for fans who marched into its home stadium together. The stadium will be surrounded by open space for watch parties on game days, and serve as a welcoming public space on all other days.
“That’s what will make it a 365-day public space,” Gumpert said. Brick architecture will evoke Sacramento’s railroad history. Sacramento’s City of Trees moniker will be visible in the space surrounding the stadium.
And the stadium will have a 360-degree roof canopy, which is common in European venues but not so common in the U.S. There will be no first and second decks – just one deck that sweeps upward in the stands behind each goal to create a wall of sound from fans.
Gumpert hopes Sacramento’s takes some inspiration from the soccer stadium in Dortmund, Germany, known as Signal-Iduna-Park.
There, fans behind the goals are a united front waving yellow and black flags, the colors of Dortmund’s team.
It’s called the “Yelow Wall” and Dortmund is known for having one of the loudest stadiums in Europe. Gumpert, who once worked with the Kings and in the NBA, thinks Sacramento can replicate the noise once generated by the Kings in their early 2000s heyday.
“In some sections the seating will go from field to roof,” Gumpert said.
Ironically, Signal-Iduna-Park is currently being used for COVID-19 patients.
New fan experience
In Sacramento, the pandemic has prompted Republic FC to consider ways to make the stadium experience cleaner and more sanitary. Republic FC has contemplated providing fans with an app to pay for food and beverage, for example, without having to touch or use cash.
It is also contemplating a re-do of some concession stands, which would be, instead, pick-up stations so customers could walk up to collect what they bought instead of handing cash to the same people handling their food.
“We’ve done so much work on the stadium design,” Gumpert said. “Now we’re in question mode. What might be change? I would rather change things now than be in our stadium and say, ‘I wish we had done that.’”
So the work goes on. Construction can go on with social distancing, though the next few months will be critical to keeping Sacramento’s soccer stadium on schedule.
What games will look like in 2022 is anyone’s guess. The hope is that by then, we will have a vaccine for COVID-19. Are there many other pressing issues in Sacramento that are more important than soccer or mass gatherings? Of course there are. But communal events where people gather are also important. They bring joy and happiness and we will do them again one day.
When you see the steel structure rising in the railyards, you’ll know that day is getting closer.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
