Phoenix Rising: Heat no problem in bid for MLS Expansion

Advanced stadium cooling technology ensures that Phoenix Rising stands as an MLS expansion dark horse. Heat is no problem in Pheonix’s bid for an MLS team.

Phoenix Rising forces fought their way into the MLS expansion hunt last year before FC Cincinnati won a spot. They remain a dark horse in this race but they had positive communication with MLS brass on their qualifications.

When temperature concerns got raised for their planned outdoor stadium, Phoenix Rising co-chairman Brett Johnson helped unveil new plans. The plans answer the concerns, he showed. He shared those plans with media, including Sports Illustrated.

Johnson emphasized their manageable weather rates about nine months of the year. But it is the rest of the time that makes Phoenix the hottest major city in the U.S. As Phoenix Rising’s stadium drawings came in, Johnson said the heat issue looked easier to solve than existing MLS venues in Orlando and Houston.

Team leaders got an agreement for a site just 10 miles out of town, northeast of Arizona State University. It’s a 21,000-seat, $250 million stadium. Cooling features start with curtains and canopies. Then it gets more sophisticated, with water walls and mists catching the wind guided into the stadium. That cools them. Designers also oriented the pitch and stands to encourage shade.

For any other concerns, stadium planners can look at heat measures taken for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. While planners set the games for the winter months, temperatures still can get to 86-degrees F. Yet, engineers have successfully tested construction schemes to keep temperatures on the pitch at around 68-degrees and in the stands about 74-degrees.

The main thrust of these innovations has chilled water drawn to the stadium. The water cools air that is then pumped through nozzles into the stadium. Tests with 48,000 fans at Khalifa International Stadium proved successful. Chung Mong-gyu, Korean Football Association President, said the cooling technology could spread throughout Asia after 2022.

The most extreme solution to stadium cooling issues won’t see completion. In Doha, Qatar, engineers had started excavation for the underground Wall Stadium. The project halted about the time Qatar won the 2022 World Cup bid. Under its dome, the 11,000-seat venue would have most spectators and all the infrastructure underground. That gives stadium operators a head start in every facet of cooling, even without the dome.

With the project halted and no restart under consideration, we’ll have to just marvel at the sketches for the foreseeable future. Phoenix Rising officials won’t need to go to any extreme to answer cooling questions for their new stadium. They’ve admirably answered those questions in easily understood and obtainable technology and design. But the potential is there, if they choose to explore it.

Phoenix remains a dark horse in the MLS expansion race, behind strong challengers like Sacramento and Detroit. But if heating and cooling ever decides where a future MLS team goes, Phoenix Rising has the answer. And for Phoenix Rising, it is all in the design.