Sports Stadiums as Community Risk Hubs: The Material, Technical, and Institutional Layers of Mission Ready Venues

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1145/3711670.3764625

Publication Title

SIGDOC '25: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication

Pages

97-102

Conference Name

43rd ACM International Conference on Design of Communication, SIGDOC '25, October 24-25, 2025, Lubbock, Texas, USA

Abstract

A 2024 merger between the National Football League and the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeks to designate stadiums in large metropolitan areas as “Mission Ready Venues” which stand ready to act as community risk hubs in the event of a natural disaster. Since the 2024 election, the future of FEMA and Mission Ready Venues is questionable, but the planning and documentation associated with this partnership offers an outline for future efforts that could materialize as responsibility for disaster recovery transitions away from the federal government and towards the states. While this type of partnership could deliver on the promise of true community spaces given that stadiums are regularly funded by the public, careful consideration and planning is required to ensure that essential aspects of disaster communication and preparation are met to prevent issues facilitating access and efficiency during actual emergencies. To assess the early stages of communication regarding Mission Ready Venues, we chart the developing “information orders” associated with these centers that represent the interplay of government declarations, public response, and local media shaping the discourse around risk and public safety. We use Goodnight's sphere theory as a heuristic to better understand the complex relationships that inform the roll out of these new community risk hubs. Ultimately, we find that historical comparison, structural viability, and concerns about funding and resources are the most common issues framing the public discourse around Mission Ready Venues, which should be used to inform next steps in how these spaces are framed for, and remain responsive to, community needs.

Rights

© 2025 Copyright held by the owner/authors.

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ORCID

0009-0004-1207-1153 (Lovas)

Original Publication Citation

Lovas, P., & Lambrecht, K. (2025). Sports stadiums as community risk hubs: The material, technical, and institutional layers of mission ready venues. In J. Tham, M. McMullin, T. Mckoy (Eds.), SIGDOC '25: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication (pp. 97-102). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3711670.3764625

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