Why are toilets a hot topic at this year’s Super Bowl?

new york
CNN
—

Over eight days, 65,000 football fans (some hoping to catch a glimpse of Taylor Swift) will descend on Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the most-watched American sporting event of the year.

Between hot dogs, beers, and perhaps Usher’s hits, Super Bowl spectators will likely visit one of Allegiant’s 297 restrooms. And the toilet is also ready.

In the summer of 2020, just days before the new $2 billion stadium opened to the public, construction engineers cleaned about 1,430 toilets and urinals.

at the same time. done.

At sporting events, it’s difficult to find ways to make restrooms work and keep lines short. Usually people make an excuse to use the restroom at the exact same time just before halftime. So designing toilets for thousands of people requires science, and a growing number of laws and codes cover it. Gender politics also comes into play.

Long lines for the bathroom are what architects call “friction points” and are potentially costly.

The average price of a Super Bowl ticket is currently hovering around $9,800. That means a 15-minute wait for a restroom could cost a participant $612.

Delays also take away from the fan experience, reducing time spent at concession stands, gift shops and bars, and limiting stadium revenue potential.

So what is the new science about stadium toilets?

First, each state has building standards laws that require a certain number of toilets to be installed per person. Nevada requires stadiums like Allegiant to have about one restroom for every 120 men and one for every 60 women.

That’s the bare minimum, and most modern arenas go well beyond that, said Jonathan Emmett, principal and design director at Gensler, which specializes in sports and entertainment facilities.

“[Designers and architects]really had to step up their efforts in terms of the number of fixtures provided, the efficiency of the bathrooms, and getting people into the bathrooms as quickly as possible,” said John, who helped design some. Emmett said. His football stadiums include Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The flow of the toilet can be improved not only by the number of cubicles, but also by the design. For example, it is better to have many small toilets than several large ones.

“Distance traveled is important,” he said. “We want to put as many amenities as possible close to users, whether it’s restrooms or kiosks, so they don’t have to traverse long concourses to find a restroom. Ta.”

Larger toilets also tend to have other problems. When there are long lines for the large toilets at older venues, many stalls are actually empty. “Empty stalls can be difficult to find because people don’t have a clear line of sight or a clear line of movement, so there’s no efficiency,” he said.

And Emmett said the stadium should be fine with an influx of female Taylor Swift fans on game night.

Many theaters, airports, and public buildings are notorious for long lines around the women’s restrooms, but not the men’s restrooms. That has begun to change in recent years.

The new arena is being built to host a variety of events that attract a variety of demographics, and the restrooms reflect that. Allegiant might host a sporting event with a mostly male audience, but the next week it could host a Taylor Swift concert with mostly teenage girls.

Arena managers now have to think about the mix of events in large multi-purpose buildings and account for different audiences on different days. Some designers and architects believe these issues mean that new buildings may be more likely to adopt gender-neutral toilets in the coming years.

Toilets are “both a public health issue and a human rights issue,” said Kathryn Anthony, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and director of the American Toilet Association. Her research has focused on toilet parity, the idea that men and women should have access to toilets at the same rate.

“(Women) shouldn’t take longer to go to the bathroom than it takes men to go to the bathroom. That’s really the problem,” she said.

Studies have shown that it takes women about twice as long to go to the bathroom as men. Anthony said that hasn’t been the case for architects designing public facilities for a long time.

“There is a relative lack of awareness and consideration of the needs of women and girls in toilets,” she says. Part of the problem is that until recently, the field of architecture was dominated by men.

Anthony says there is a need to “remind Americans of how important bathrooms are and the fact that we all need them.”

Organizations such as the World Toilet University, the American Toilet Association and the World Toilet Organization argue that the right to clean, readily available toilets is fundamental.

Sports arenas are particularly lacking. In the 22 years that Cintas has been awarding America’s Best Bathrooms, theaters, museums, and even supermarkets have often won the award, but never a sports stadium. .

This year’s winner, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, laid the foundation for future restroom designs.

Joe Schneider, director of construction for the airport and the Maryland Aviation Authority, said an internal study found that restrooms are the No. 1 issue affecting passenger satisfaction at an airport, with 24 million people using the airport each year. It has been consistently shown that

“It’s crazy,” Schneider said. “It’s not the airline, the waiting room, or the concession that matters. It’s the bathroom.”

So after receiving a lot of feedback from dissatisfied customers, the airport decided it was time for a complete $55 million renovation of some of its facilities.

Schneider said some of the airport’s restrooms hadn’t been updated in a quarter of a century. It’s not built to handle carry-on baggage or accommodate changes in your family.

The redesign also takes into account the needs of people with disabilities. To give patrons more space, the stalls will be 20% larger and the doors will open outward rather than inward. The staterooms also have floor-to-ceiling doors, ensuring privacy for travelers while using the facilities and changing clothes.

The screen notifies users of the number of empty stalls and notifies management staff if soap or paper towels need to be replaced.

Currently, each restroom has a men’s, women’s, family room, adult changing room, and nursing room.

Schneider said all of this increased restroom flow and limited lines, giving travelers more time to continue their journey or grab a coffee on the way to the gate.

And when it comes to Allegiant’s “SuperFlash,” a test conducted years before the Super Bowl, the goal is to ensure that no problems occur at big events like the upcoming Feb. 11 game against the Kansas Chiefs. This placed a huge strain on the arena’s plumbing system. And the San Francisco 49ers.

“We have 60,000 to 70,000 people in the building, and the last thing we want is for the system to fail,” said Julie Amakar, director of CAA Icon, which was the project manager for the stadium’s construction. He spoke in a video depicting a construction project. . “This is one of the last boxes he checks to show he’s ready.”