The biggest climate change vulnerability for sports stadiums isn’t from hurricanes damaging roofs, but from flooding, according to a new study by risk analytics firm Climate X. The new study focuses on venues for the 2026 World Cup soccer tournament, following on the firm’s previous study of NFL pro football venues. The new study projects that the World Cup venues
“We continue to see both surface flooding and river flooding as large contributors to loss across both the U.S. and Europe,” said Austin Clack, climate risk solution architect at Climate X. “In the case of these large sporting venues, despite being incredibly large in size, they are prone to damage via floods, if left unmitigated and without protective adaptation measures.”
In both studies, Climate X used letter grades from A to F to rate stadiums’ resistance, both now and by 2050, to 10 types of perils including river and surface floods, storm surges and subsidence (sinking surfaces). Inter&Co Stadium and Camping World Stadium, both in Orlando, Florida, each had grades of D or lower in four perils. Lincoln Financial Field had low grades in three perils.
By 2050, the two Orlando stadiums along with Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, will have low grades in four types of hazards, making Florida venues three out of the top six that are most vulnerable in the future. Also, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., built in 1922, is projected to have the costliest cumulative damage of any U.S. stadium from 2020 through 2050, at $2.4 billion, outranked only by the Velodrome with $3.1 billion and Oaka Stadium in Athens with $3.3 billion.
These projections could spur insurers to move away from natural catastrophe models and toward predictive analytics, to better capture the risks, according to Clack.
“Historically, many insurers have taken the approach of using these natural catastrophe models, which are really based on more historical events, as opposed to these forward looking climate projections,” he said. “We’ve actually been working with a number of insurers that are really interested in integrating this sort of predictive analysis into the way that they go about making assessments of regions and particular pieces of real estate. So there’s certainly growing momentum in the insurance industry.”
Projecting possible losses can give stadium owners a chance to mitigate those losses through preventative measures, Clack said. Climate X’s Adapt service provides climate risk data that can help plan and implement adaptation solutions. “Adaptation finance will really open up many opportunities to protect business,” Clack said.
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