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From kegs to toilets, stadium flush with funky accouterments
By James B. Meadow, News Staff Writer Call it a field of themes. Or schemes. Or even beams. But beyond the seats, suites, steel and concessions of Invesco Field at Mile High, some pretty funky accouterments are woven into its infrastructural nooks and crannies. And since chances are the public will never lay eyes on many of these quirky areas, we thought we'd give you the lowdown on some places and things, most of which are located, well, lower down in the stadium, an area known as the service level. Mike Shanahan's digs: The Broncos' head coach has an office so small (about 8 feet x 14 feet) it seems barely big enough to contain his ego, let alone much in the way of materials. The windowless, painted-cinder block walls aren't much in the way of ambience, either.
However, there is an attached private bathroom, which is nice. Even better, Shanahan has his own private locker area that is separate from the other coaches' locker room -- which, by the way, is separate from the team's Grand Canyon-sized locker room. Speaking of the home team's locker room: It is considerably bigger than either of the three visitor locker rooms, boasting 78 lockers, 20 showers, nine toilet stalls, 10 urinals and seven sinks. To comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, one locker, one shower and two stalls are built to address the needs of a disabled person. Speaking of bathrooms: Just inside the stands on the Broncos' side of the field is a single bathroom -- an amenity not offered to the visiting team, whose players will have to hoof it to their locker room to heed the call of nature during the game. While this might not sound like a big deal, be apprised that when football players gotta go, they gotta go. The Broncos cheerleaders locker room: Dancing, prancing and looking good require some elbow room, and there's plenty of that here. The cheerleaders not only have lockers (32), they have a barre to limber up on, a lounge room with comfy couches, a makeup room and a hair room. The makeup area comes with 18 large vanity mirrors, each one framed in light bulbs. The hair area has only four light-bulb-lit mirrors, but they are very big. Thunder's indoor stall: No longer will the Broncos' quasi-mascot have to stand shivering on the sidelines while he's waiting to do his post-touchdown gallop. Now, he can rest in his own cinder-block stall under the stadium's south end. His stall is bigger than Shanahan's office, but it lacks carpeting and a bathroom. To say nothing of privacy. Holding pattern: For fans who become too unruly, under the stadium's northern environs is an on-premises hoosegow: three cinderblock and glass holding cells. We don't mean to sound critical, but does anyone really think three will be enough during a Raiders game? Beer here, there and everywhere! To avoid any cessation of suds, there are four stations from which beer can be pumped up to concession stands all around the stadium. Each room has about 41 kegs hooked up at once. The bucks stop here: With 450 point-of-sale locations throughout the stadium, there will be a need for a central money repository. Featuring four teller cages (with bulletproof glass), a guard cage (with bulletproof glass and wire mesh) and a large, walk-in vault, this will be the place that concessionaires bank on. Covered parking? Well, it's semi-true because, also on the service level, there will be plenty of room for those huge semis and trailers to park. You know, the ones that TV networks send to broadcast the games; the ones that used to be massed against the north side of Mile High Stadium, their miles of snaking cables creating hazardous footing for fans. Well, now that won't be a problem. Stomp! The entire stadium is built on steel treads -- which means that if any of the 76,125 (or so) fans are wearing hard-soled shoes and happen to want to stamp their feet at any particular time, they could create a cacophony of significant proportions. Remember how noisy Mile High Stadium got when the fans in the movable east stands began stamping on the supporting steel frame? Well, according to stadium architect Curt Fentress of Fentress & Bradburn, "We built something in from the design standpoint that really offers the opportunity for three times as many fans to make that stomping noise. Denver had the reputation of having one of the noisiest stadiums in the NFL, and we wanted to keep that. Nobody knows how much noise the fans can make. There's really no limit -- it could be pretty incredible." Super -- bowls!: Much has been made of the fact that the new stadium offers women three times as many bathroom "fixtures" as its predecessor did, theoretically eliminating some of those endless lines that plagued female fans heeding the call o' nature. But the guys weren't forgotten, either. Instead of those community troughs, each men's room will offer the somewhat more up-close and personal experience of the one-man, one-urinal credo. Even the rich got richer: Whereas the occupants of the penthouse suites at Mile High Stadium used to have to share a community bathroom, each suite at the new place has its own john. Free-wheeling: Since much of the field will be surrounded by park-like plaza areas that will connect with the South Platte River bike path, fans will have the opportunity to cycle or in-line skate to the game. Which would certainly eliminate those messy parking fees. New meaning to a tailgate party: According to Fentress, "At the old stadium, you practically parked right up against the building; this one has that park area around it." This open space might give rise to "more kinds of different pre-game activities out there. Things like bands and mimes; you know, street performers before the game." With or without a brat and a beer on the tailgate.
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