Although replacing referees is never alright, replacing energy sources with more eco friendly solutions is. Going green is never a bad call. Let’s put some stadiums that have replaced their energy needs with more sustainable options under review.

1) Santa Clara Stadium

The new home of the 49er’s is seeking LEED® Gold and has ambitions to become one of the greenest stadiums in the country. Designed by HTNB Architects and being built by Turner Construction, the new Santa Clara Stadium features around 27,000 square feet of green roof and 20,000 square feet of photovoltaic panels.

Courtesy of newsantaclarastadium.com

Courtesy of newsantaclarastadium.com

 2) Kaohsiung Stadium

Kaohsiung Stadium, designed by Toyo Ito, is not only one of the greenest stadiums there is, bit it is also one of the prettiest. Wrapped in photovoltaic panels meant to resemble a dragon, the stadium is completely run on renewable energy.

Kaohsiung Stadium

3) Lincoln Financial Field

NRG Energy has been tasked with making Lincoln Financial Field more energy efficient. They plan on doing so by not only adding 11,000 Solar Panels, but also 14 mini wind turbines. This is supposed to provide around 6 times as much power as the stadium needs on any given game day. Let’s hope no dirty birds get caught in those turbines.

Courtesy of NRG Energy

4) Target Field

Home of the Minnesota Twins, Target Field touts itself as the “Greenest Ballpark in America”. Obtaining a LEED® Silver rating, Target Field holds the highest certification for any major league team in America. The stadium highlights one major feature: Solar Powered beer coolers for fans. Almost ironic.

Courtesy of Minnesota Twins

5) Los Angeles Stadium

Perhaps what might be the greenest of any of these stadiums hasn’t even chosen a design yet. In fact, they don’t even have a team to host. The Governor of California and the City of Los Angeles are pushing to build a new, green stadium in an effort to attract an NFL team. If everything works out as planned, they could have a state of the art stadium and a NFL team in 4 or 5 years.

Rendering done by Gensler Architecture

Do you have a favorite Green Stadium? Leave a comment and let us know!