For more than 50 years, Kansas City has been the sports architecture capital of the world. And there’s still no reason to undo that moniker, which originated in large part with the construction of the Truman Sports Complex in the early 1970s, consisting of Arrowhead Stadium for the NFL team and Kauffman Stadium for the MLB team.

The Truman Sports Complex marked the birth of a new era for stadium design, an era that Kansas City architects created through relationships, new strategies and fresh perspectives.

Since then, several architectural firms formed in Kansas City have designed a myriad of stadiums around the world. Among them are almost all stadiums and arenas for NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL teams, as well as such soccer world stadiums as Emirates, Wembley, Tottenham Hotspur, Etihad (renovation), Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Kazan Arena and many others. And that’s not to mention the facilities for minor league teams in America and around the world. All in all, modern stadiums designed by Kansas City companies can be measured in hundreds.

The Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City, built in 1973, consisting of the current stadiums: Arrowhead Stadium for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs in the close-up, Kauffman Stadium for the MLB’s Kansas City Royals in the far-field.

In the 1960s, multi-purpose facilities (shared stadiums for soccer and baseball) were the norm for sports franchises, but Kansas City architects looked at it differently and developed a special design for the Truman Sports Complex. Under the direction of the small architectural firm Kivett & Myers, these stadiums were the first in the modern sports architecture we are familiar with. Ron Labinski, a young Kivett & Myers architect, worked with Charles Deaton on this project and made sure that it would not be his last.

Ron Labinski is the father of modern sports architecture
In 1970, while working as an architect for Kivett & Myers, Labinski compiled a list of all MLB and NFL stadiums, noting when each was built and when leases for each franchise began.

That list served as his road map, his inspiration, his source of confidence and patience. Orders will probably flow in rivers, and they will only grow in scope. It would take time. Decades. And later, he would find himself in a position where sports club owners and local governments would line up for him, giving millions of dollars to build new stadiums.

What Ron Labinski realized long before anyone else was the market.

What he created long before anyone else was a means to dominate that market.

While at Kivett & Myers, a small company, he was involved in designing a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, an NFL club, and then the New York Giants. The latter hired him in 1972. “The Giants shared the stadium with the Yankees until they moved to Giants Stadium, designed by Ron Labinski. That project opened the door for him to have even more prospects, not only because the stadium was well received by the community, but also because Giants co-owner Tim Mara became his friend and partner.

“It’s very rewarding to have a champion friend, and Tim Mara was my champion. If I realized I had an opportunity with one of the teams, I would just call Tim and he would properly introduce me to the other owners,” Labinski said.

Labinski realized from the beginning that as much as he loved to draw lines, he would never do this art at the highest level if he couldn’t connect with people. So he went to owners’ meetings, first the NFL and then the MLB. He went to various meetings, shook hands and had lunch with them. Most importantly, he asked questions.

Labinski studied the owners’ business, got to know them better and listened to them.

While most architects scoffed at the stadium’s simplicity, Labinski understood how to work. He focused on what he called “programming”: calculating how many seats were needed on each tier of the stadium, how many retail outlets to put in, how many premium seats the local population could afford, and what prices to charge to maximize revenue.

He was the exact opposite of what most owners expected of an architect.

As his portfolio of sports venues grew rapidly, Labinski realized it was time to move on. At Kivett & Myers, he was a salaried employee and could not count on a fair income and recognition. In 1973, Labinski and three friends from the firm founded their own workshop: Devine, James, Labinski and Myers (“DJLM”).

While the partners pursued projects they were passionate about, Labinski continued to focus on sports facilities. While working at DJLM, he recruited three young architects, Chris Carver, Dennis Wellner and Joe Spear, to join his team, and they would become loyal partners and continue to carry on his mission.

“Actually, sports architecture wasn’t on my radar. But I remember walking into the office and seeing Ron’s desk. There was the design for the Giants Stadium. “I looked at it and thought, ‘Wow, this is great,'” Carver said.

“It was at DJLM that the culture of sports architects was born. But as much as Labinski loved his firm, he realized his group had outgrown it. They continued to get relatively small commissions, but, for example, they lost a bid to design the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis to another firm, HNTB, based in the same way in Kansas City, which had about 200 employees compared to their 20.

The turning point for Labinski came when he submitted his design brief for the Hoosier Dome stadium. A larger architectural firm, HNTB, at the request of clients inspired by Labinski’s work, undertook to engage him to supervise the project. Labinski began working with HNTB, taking his team of architects with him.

They became the sports facilities division at HNTB and, encouraged by the big firm’s name, went on with the projects. But the company was too “right” for such a creative team.

“Never did and never will,” Joe Speer said of the mandatory tie at HNTB.

In 1983, after three years at HNTB, they were all fed up with the rules. Carver, Wellner, and DeFlon were discussing starting their own firm; Spear was also asked to leave with them. Labinski, upon learning of this, told them to be patient for a while, as he too wanted to leave HNTB.

Ron Labinski met with an architect from HOK, a St. Louis-based design group that is now one of the largest architectural firms in the world. “HOK” was considering opening an office in Kansas City, and Labinski suggested launching a new sports activity for them. He convinced HOK executives that they needed to rethink their vision for athletic facilities and start taking orders for all phases of stadium design, from idea to commissioning, without using local contractors.