How big is NFL Draft Theater at Union Station? Workers are reinforcing ground beneath it
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NFL Draft in Kansas City
Hundreds of thousands of football fans are expected in Kansas City from April 27-29 to see the Chiefs and other teams make their picks. The NFL Draft Experience sideline events near Union Station include concerts, games, meet-and-greets and more.
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Construction is in full swing around Union Station in preparation for the 2023 NFL Draft later this month, but not all the work is taking place in plain sight.
Some of it focuses on what lies beneath.
In an obscure underground parking garage below the South Plaza where the colossal NFL Draft Theater is being built, crews are erecting support columns to help bear the weight of the featured attraction above.
According to a building permit issued March 22 by Kansas City’s Planning and Development Department, the work is to “construct structural shoring of the Union Station garage using hydraulic shoring for NFL Draft theater stage build.”
The cost of the shoring project, the document says, is $430,000.
The project underscores the magnitude of the Draft Theater, which will be the size of a football field and occupy the lot in front of Union Station. The theater will act as the hub for fans to view all draft activities from April 27 through April 29.
Union Station officials referred questions about the need for the shoring to the National Football League.
NFL spokeswoman Morgan Dreossi said the need came as no surprise.
“With the size of these structures we’re building, there is always engineering involved,” she told The Star in an email. “The people who build these structures knew at the outset we’d need to shore.
“It’s traditional to shore up (reinforce) a parking garage when any heavy weight is being built on it — they are only rated for vehicles and have a certain pound per square foot limitation.”
Dreossi added that “my Event Ops team relayed that Union Station’s engineer who did work on the recent restoration of Union Station came out of retirement to help us with this project.”
The permit for the work cost $4,844 and was issued to C3 Presents, an Austin, Texas-based event promoter that is putting on the NFL Draft Experience. The interactive football theme park — designed to entertain the hundreds of thousands of football fans drawn to the draft — will be located in the area surrounding Union Station and the National WWI Museum and Memorial.
All three days of the NFL Draft will take place on stage at the Draft Theater, broadcast live on the NFL Network, ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Commissioner Roger Goodell and special guests will be announcing player selections for each NFL team, and at the conclusion of each day, the NFL will host free concerts there.
The draft is being described as one of the biggest and most-anticipated professional sporting events Kansas City has hosted, putting the city in the national spotlight as fans come from across the country and millions watch the broadcasts.
According to the NFL, the 2023 Draft footprint is roughly 3.1 million square feet, the NFL’s largest-ever site. The area will contain 7½ miles of temporary fence lines and 1½ miles of concrete barrier. It will take more than 500 semi-trailer loads to transport all the gear, which includes 168 loudspeakers and subwoofer enclosures, 10,018 square feet of screens and 1,433 LED panels.
The underground parking area will be closed throughout the draft, Dreossi said. When the event wraps up, the 378-by-176-foot theater will come down, along with the shoring.
And what lies beneath will go back to being a parking garage again.
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 10:35 AM with the headline "How big is NFL Draft Theater at Union Station? Workers are reinforcing ground beneath it."
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