As the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros faced off in the World Series, a pair of hotel companies were moving forward with plans to build properties in stadium-adjacent, mixed-use districts, reflecting the lure of professional sports to higher-end business and leisure travelers.
This month, Loews Hotels & Resorts was set to break ground on its first Live! by Loews hotel next to what will be the Texas Rangers new home in the Dallas suburb of Arlington. The $150 million hotel, to be developed by Cordish Cos. as part of its $4 billion Arlington Entertainment District, is slated to open in 2019.
Loews this month also announced a second Live! by Loews as part of Cordish Cos.' Ballpark Village district, next to St. Louis's Busch Stadium, home to the Cardinals. The $65 million, 217-room hotel, Loews' first in the city, is also scheduled to open in 2019.
The Omni Hotel at the Battery Atlanta will open in December next to SunTrust Park, where the Braves play.
Meanwhile, Cordish and Omni Hotels & Resorts are putting the finishing touches on the 264-room Omni Hotel at the Battery Atlanta. The hotel overlooks SunTrust Park, where the Atlanta Braves began playing this April, and is set to open by the end of the year. It's part of the Battery district that includes retail, restaurants and offices.
For Loews, the Arlington and St. Louis hotels mark the continued expansion of the company's exposure to the type of themed-entertainment guest that it serves at its half-dozen hotels near Florida's Universal Orlando. That stable includes the Loews Sapphire Falls Resorts, Loews Portofino Bay and Universal's Cabana Bay Beach Resort.
"We very much believe in partnerships where we can create something very special," said Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch. "And if you look at the combination of sports, music, food and beverage and retail, and then layer into that great lodging experiences, we think our Live! by Loews hotels are going to be something extremely special."
Loews Hotels’ first Live! by Loews will open next to the Texas Rangers’ Arlington ballpark in 2019.
With Forbes estimating that Americans will spend $73.5 billion at sporting events by 2019, Loews and Omni are tapping into both a leisure demographic with the disposable income to travel to see their favorite teams and to companies that want to offer perks by linking games and stadium access to conventions, according to STR senior vice president Jan Freitag.
The stadium-linked sites also offer further value, because many of them host concerts as well.
"On game day, you're going to be sold out because people want to be close," Freitag said. "And outside of game day, those facilities are also available for meetings and outings."
Building hotels next to sports stadiums isn't a new phenomenon and hasn't always been linked to the type of mixed-use districts being built by Cordish Cos.
For example, Toronto's SkyDome (now Rogers Centre), home of the Blue Jays, opened in 1989 with a hotel attached. That 348-room property, which is now Toronto Marriott City Centre, has 70 rooms as well as a "skybox" that can seat as many as 30 people overlooking the field. (It has also gained some unwanted notoriety because of periodic incidents in which indiscreet couples could be seen having sex in their rooms by the ballpark crowd.)
The Omni Frisco opened in July as part of a mixed-use district developed by the Dallas Cowboys.
The trend appears to be expanding, to the point where teams' practice facilities can be a draw. For example, in July, Omni opened the 300-room Omni Frisco near Dallas as part of the Star, the district developed by the Dallas Cowboys for its headquarters. The district, which features restaurants and offices, includes the 12,000-seat Ford Center indoor football stadium, which can also hold events.
And there continue to be one-off properties opening with ballpark views, as well. Last year, a 168-room Hampton Inn & Suites opened close enough to Washington's Nationals Park for the hotel to have 21 rooms and its rooftop bar offer lines of sight into the 9-year-old stadium.
While baseball stadiums provide a natural draw by hosting 81 regular season home games each year, pro football is also getting some attention, despite its much fewer games per season.
Last year, the 70,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, Calif., that will be home to the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers broke ground as part of a project to be developed by Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
The 298-acre sports and entertainment district, slated to open in 2020, will include a 300-room hotel.
"Those bigger [hotel] boxes are looking for opportunities to go where no one else has gone before," Freitag said, noting that such hotels can establish a valuable beachhead with such stadium-adjacent locations. "Just by being there, there's a pretty large barrier to entry."
Johanna Jainchill contributed to this report.