New builds tend to fetch premium prices. Add in high-level amenities, roomy accommodations and a high-value location and that real estate list price just continues to climb. So, it didn’t come as too much of a shock to Homes.com vice president Grant Simmons when his exercise of reimagining NFL stadiums as home listings pushed the under-construction new venue for the Rams and Chargers at Hollywood Park in Inglewood into the top spot as the most expensive list price of any venue in the league. Well, if it were a home, that is.
In an exercise meant to attract eyeballs to their site and get NFL fans discussing, Simmons’ team researched every NFL stadium and created listing cards for each, but taking the view of each stadium as a home. Stadium suites even took the place of bedrooms and number of bathrooms were factored into the finished price.
“We grabbed the data we could find, starting with stadiums, teams, cities and then dug into data around bathrooms and suites and tried to transpose that into a single-family home,” Simmons says. Adding in stadium square footage and comparing that to available figures for square footage prices in the region and neighborhood, the team created a list price for every stadium in the league.
None was more expensive than in Los Angeles and the stadium’s asking price of $1.45 billion (it does have 60 available suites, though). Of course, that “home” won’t be ready until 2020. Still, the massive cost was a far cry from the list prices for Cleveland and Buffalo, where asking prices came in at $198 million and $141.6 million, respectively.
“There was no real surprise that the newest stadium is one that is going to be massive and it came out on top,” Simmons says. That said, Simmons’ team was expecting Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara to still retain the top spot simply based on market value in the area. But due to a few factors, the home of the 49ers came in as the second most expensive option at $1.4 billion.
The other NFL venue currently under construction, this in the more affordable desert region of Las Vegas, was a far cry from the top-dollar venues at $267.8 million.
A couple of other surprises came in Pittsburgh and Dallas. While the smaller sizes of stadiums in Cleveland and Buffalo, along their age and cities didn’t surprise Simmons they were on the bottom, the Steelers’ Heinz Field came in at a listing of just $163.9 million. Simmons says the stadium is relatively small and real estate prices in the neighborhood around the venue dropped the market value, despite the high intensity of the fan base.
Size wasn’t an issue for AT&T Stadium in Texas, the largest venue in the league. But location was. “You have the largest stadium in the NFL, but the thing about that is it is in Arlington,” Simmons says. “Housing pries there are not as high. It ends up being relatively cheaper because the local average price per square foot is so low. If it was in downtown Dallas, it would be a lot more expensive.” Still, at $452.6 million, a list price for AT&T Stadium isn’t anything to scoff at.
Simmons says neighborhood pricing really set stadiums apart. While the New York area is known for its expensive housing market, it was the neighborhood directly around Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts that set that stadium onto a higher price point than MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, despite being smaller in size.
Stadium prices took a dip, mirroring home prices, throughout the Midwest only to rise again when met with California real estate pricing. Of course, nobody is quite sure that anyone really needs a 60-room home that can comfortably seat 70,000 of your closest friends.
