Tom Bateman, who manages sales for the Western region for Minneapolis-based Staging Concepts, detailed how his company helped engineer innovation into the stands at the LAFC soccer stadium in Los Angeles. “They designed the stadium in a way that allowed it to flex into a dedicated outdoor concert space between sporting events. Rather than do what a usual stadium does and place the stage on the field, the architects had a better idea to create additional capacity for shows. The thought was, ‘What if we could just remove a section of seating used for soccer games, thus leaving a concrete slab under them available to place a stage?’ The stadium design would include an overhanging canopy that could have points rigged from it for lights and sound. The idea was there, they just needed a portable way to assemble and remove seats quickly in between games.”
-From “Staging Focus” by Nook Schoenfeld, PLSN, March 2020 page 50
