Tag: Venue

In a world far removed from the popular multi-purpose concrete dome stadiums that peppered the country roughly 50 years ago, the concept of the multi-purpose stadium now has a modern-day example: Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

The home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and University of Miami Hurricanes football team, Hard Rock Stadium has turned into an example of using both the stadium and the site for mega-events far beyond just one sport. Even after the stadium adds a marquee football event to its roster, hosting the Orange Bowl Jan. 9, one of the College Football Playoff’s semifinals, the 265-acre site will transform as the regular home to one of the largest tennis tournaments on the sport’s calendar, hosting the Miami Open each spring since 2019, and one of the newest stops on the worldwide F1 circuit, hosting the Miami Grand Prix since 2022.

That’s not all. Hard Rock Stadium will also host FIFA World Cup games in 2026, eight FIFA Club World Cup matches in 2025, the College Football Playoffs national championship game in January 2026 and plenty of additional concerts, such as Shakira, Post Malone and Cold Play.

“The next two years is pretty intense with respect to the schedule,” Todd Boyan, senior vice president of stadium operations for the Dolphins, tells me. “We spend a lot of time planning and thinking through the steps that need to be taken.”

That’s the plight of a modern-day multi-purpose venue.

“I think we are fortunate to have an owner who had a vision to make this a global entertainment destination,” Boyan says. The site has hosted the Dolphins for over three decades and also welcomed MLB for 19 years. The venue once resembled a more traditional multi-purpose stadium. That all changed when the baseball team moved out and a 2015 major overhaul set the stage to host new events to bring in a diverse mix of fans.

“We want to do things nobody else does,” Boyan says. “How do you execute a tennis tournament after a football season and then add a Formula 1 track with 200 acres of hospitality, a marina for yachts and a beach club? We have a lot on offer for an entertainment landscape. We are doing things nobody else is doing.”

MORE: How Miami’s Debut Formula 1 Race Came Together, From Track To Food

Boyan says counterparts across both the NFL and college football are “shaking their heads in amazement in the tasks we take on and the scale we take on.” Along with the vision from ownership and leadership, having over 250 acres of flexible space helps make Hard Rock Stadium a workable site to host so many unique events.

It takes pinpoint logistics to make it all happen. The changeover between the Dolphins, the Hurricanes and even the Orange Bowl comes standard in the industry, mainly featuring décor switches, field logo changes and building clean up. Once the Orange Bowl wraps and the NFL season ends, that’s when the hustle starts, readying for the March Miami Open and the 395,683 fans that come, all ahead of the 275,799 fans for the F1 race weekend.

The 17 practice courts and nine competition courts outside the stadium get resurfaced every year. The stadium court, inside Hard Rock Stadium, is built on the football field with a 6,000-seat temporary structure with suites, a press box and luxury seating all pushed against the south sideline of the stadium to create a 14,000-seat stadium within a stadium. It takes a couple of months to build the structure ahead of the roughly two-week event.

At the same time, outside bleachers are going up around the courts and sponsor activation areas, food and beverage spaces, hospitality and plenty of décor takes shape. “Our group does a good job of trying to evolve and improve every year,” Boyan says, “and the design of what we do we try to take up a level every year.”

Then comes the transition from March tennis to a May weekend of F1, giving the team roughly a month to make the switch. Plenty of the tennis-related structures stay up for racing, used for both events. The overlap between the two helps the stadium pull them both off.

“The goal from our perspective is to use structures not just for one event, but multiple events,” Boyan says. “There are efficiencies in schedule and build time. It all goes into the conversion from tennis to F1.”

In addition, the F1 paddock building that houses the garage and hospitality during F1 is also a member lounge for NFL games and was a massive retail merchandise space for the three-night Taylor Swift event in late 2024.

Still, getting ready for F1 is a push, with a 24-hours-a-day take down of the stadium court from tennis—in 2024 it took nine days—to turn the field into 13 team hospitality structures for the Miami Grand Prix, part of the 21 total hospitality structures and 134 tents used across the grounds.

The differing events provide a synergy for both the venue and the fans. “The more people who come to the stadium and experience the entertainment, the more likely they will be to come back,” Boyan says. “Our primary focus is on the fan experience to make sure they have a premier experience and come back for something else.”

He cites the Miami Open’s large contingent of South American fans who flock to the city for tennis. Many make a return trip for F1, an overlap the stadium tracks, especially with tennis and F1 two of the most global sports. “We see some benefits in having this diverse set of events,” Boyan says. “People will come to an NFL game and also to a F1 race. People are general sports or entertainment fans. They will go to a concert and say I want to come back and go to a tennis event.”

While each stadium and each market come unique, Boyan says the international flavor of Miami with the site and climate allows the venue to really embrace such a range of events on its calendar. “We have found content we think is great for south Florida,” he says. “Each city needs to look at what their assets are and what makes sense for them.”

That’s how stadiums can build a modern-day multi-purpose event space. “Multi-purpose facilities are not different types of content in the seating bowl,” Boyan says, “but what else can you do to generate content on the property? Each stadium is a little bit different.” For its part, Hard Rock Stadium has created an internationally flavored blueprint.