Klutch executive Caryn Rosoff and NYCFC CEO Brad Sims discuss the benefits of sports-anchored mixed-use districts as part of a new white paper.
New sports stadium and arena projects built with corresponding mixed-use development are projected to attract $100 billion in investment over the next 15 years, according to a white paper from Klutch Sports Group released Wednesday in collaboration with RBC.
Klutch has gotten more involved in team arena and sponsorship development over the last few years. What started with helping NBA teams find jersey patch partners grew into a deal with Major League Soccer‘s NYCFC in September to find sponsors and partners for the team’s new sport-anchored, mixed-use district (SMD) opening in 2027. In January, Klutch was announced as one of three companies helping Monumental Sports & Entertainment drive new revenue and partners for an upcoming full-scale renovation of Capital One Arena, home of the group’s Washington Wizards and Capitals.
With 37 SMD projects announced in North America alone last year and 40 more stadium leases expiring in the 2030s, Klutch is looking to reach team owners, high net worth individuals, and various rights holders and stakeholders that building these mixed-use districts around new arenas deliver better return on investment than other asset classes, increase the likelihood for public support, and serve as the foundation for revitalizing local communities.
“A lot of what we’ve seen in the media was these top line reports talking about all these announcements of new builds and designs, but no one ever really went into the details that went behind it, the potential impact that it could have, and providing insights on how teams and rights holders can leverage it to their benefit,” Caryn Rosoff, Klutch’s Senior Vice President, Sports & Brand Insights, told Boardroom. “So we felt like there was this opportunity to really come in, have a voice, and use a bunch of different experts to produce something that the market hadn’t really seen yet.”
The paper delves into recent examples of successfully executed SMDs, including the Kansas City Current‘s CPKC Stadium that helped lead to the NWSL club’s 200% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024 and The Battery Atlanta district surrounding the Atlanta Braves‘ newly built Truist Park. The paper aims to highlight the potential for new development projects across North America, in women’s sports, and around the world, capitalizing on a full calendar year of events in and around new venues and an estimated five times more visitors to SMDs than the venues themselves.
“These opportunities are so large,” Rosoff said. “When people are spending substantial amounts of money in these spaces, they really want experts and thought leaders helping them navigate it so they can maximize revenue.”
NYCFC broke ground in December on the privately financed 25,000-seat Etihad Park in Queens across from Citi Field at a reported estimated cost of $780 million. The project will lead an expected $3 billion redevelopment of the long-dilapidated Willets Point area and generate an estimated $6.1 billion economic impact over the next 30 years. The SMD will also feature 2,500 affordable housing units, a new 250-key hotel, 115,000 square feet of public space, and new ground-floor retail options.
The club began working with Klutch before the 2024 season when the agency helped broker a jersey sleeve sponsorship deal with Capital Rx. They expanded the working relationship later last year with stadium revenue partnerships after considering 9-10 other companies in a comprehensive RFP process. Klutch is now speaking with brands on NYCFC’s behalf, looking for sponsors for everything from stadium entrances to premium clubs, bars, and neighborhoods inside Etihad Park, which would not have received approval without promises of a robust district around it combined with sustained public benefit.
“I don’t think you’re going to see stadiums or arenas go up by themselves with nothing else around them anymore,” Brad Sims, NYCFC’s CEO, told Boardroom.
Sims is projecting 40-50 ticketed events at the new stadium a year, including at least 17 regular season home soccer matches, college and high school sports and graduations, as well as hundreds of smaller, non-ticketed events like business meetings, birthdays, weddings, and Bar Mitzvahs. There are also plans for a 40,000-square-foot City Square, a ground-level open-door garage space that will host a year-round food hall concept with a stage for live entertainment. Additionally, a flexible modular space surrounds the stadium that could host farmer’s markets in the warmer months and an ice skating rink in the winter.
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“We’re trying to thread that needle of being a very robustly programmed building, a busy building, a community hub,” Sims said, “but one that’s not a negative to our neighbors.”
These SMDs, Rosoff said, broaden the scope of who can benefit from new and renovated venues, from individuals frequenting new bars, restaurants, and retail in the area to families who move into new residential developments. There’s also the potential for new green spaces and plazas that can program community events or host youth sports matches or facilities. Emphasizing communal benefit, the paper contends, is key to gaining government and voter support when asking for public funding, always an uphill battle.
Etihad Park wouldn’t have been approved, Sims said, without a new school or financing a new police station in local Community District 7. NYCFC needed to show the city council, local borough, and community leaders that there would be year-round public benefit with a new neighborhood built around the stadium. Through its data and insights group, Klutch helped the club weigh cost-benefit analyses, factoring in more expensive construction projects in New York compared to recent Major League Soccer venues built in St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Nashville and how to value and sell partnerships based on the premium market it plays in.
“We don’t have the internal capabilities or bandwidth to really accurately figure all these things out,” Sims said, “which was one of the big differentiators with their submission in our RFP processes.”
As Eithad Park progresses through construction next to Citi Field and the USTA‘s national tennis center, the possibility remains that a Steve Cohen-backed $8 billion Metropolitan Park casino project would complete the aforementioned Willets Point redevelopment plan. While the paper doesn’t delve into how casinos and gambling development would impact the future of SMDs, it does quote Mark Cuban, who said that if new Dallas Mavericks ownership was able to build a Venetian-style casino along with a new arena, the team’s valuation would increase to $20 billion. It’s a major reason why Las Vegas casino magnate Miriam Adelson purchased 73% of the team from Cuban at the end of 2023, with the hopes of building the ultimate SMD.
With only 20% of North American sports teams in stadiums that reside within SMDs, Rosoff and Klutch see the vast potential for new arenas to be built within this framework over the coming years in pro and college sports both domestically and internationally, providing utility and ROI for teams, stakeholders, and local communities alike.
“Everything has to make sense for all the stakeholders,” Rosoff said. “These are very complex projects, and ultimately what we said in the paper is we’re not going to guarantee that every project will be successful, but there is somewhat of a blueprint now to increase the likelihood of success.”
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