CARNIVAL ATMOSPHERE: Electric Daisy Carnival, shown here during the 2024 event in Orlando, spans 40 acres outside Camping World Stadium. (Courtesy venue)
Proposed fieldhouse in play for festivals
Ed Hurtig wouldn’t typically attend Electric Daisy Carnival, the annual electronic dance music festival that draws 300,000 folks to Orlando, Florida over three days, but after DLR Group won the job to design renovations to Camping World Stadium, the sports architect wanted to get a closer took at how the overall property works in an event setting.
Hurtig, with 18 years of experience, is a principal with DLR Group aud their sports practice leader. It was his idea to attend Electric Daisy Carnival, which is held next to the stadium. It came after DLR Group was selected for the job. Hurtig said his client, the city of Orlando, did not know he was on site for the festival because he’s not allowed to have any contact with them during the selection process.
The festival, held Nov. 8-10 at Tinker Field, next to the stadium, stands as the biggest event in Orlando. It covers 40 acres, featuring multiple stages, carnival rides, art installations and camping facilities. Electric Daisy Carnival, produced by Los Angeles promoter Insomniac, is geared to millennials and Gen Z and it’s been held in Orlando since 2011.
The stadium renovation, financed through $400 million in tourism development revenue, with funding approved by the Orange County Commission last week, marks the most expensive capital improvement project in Orlando history. It focuses primarily on rebuilding the upper deck and extends to construction of a new 100,000-square-foot fieldhouse and event center, which could be attached to the stadium and will most likely have some connection to Electric Daisy Carnival, according to project officials.
“Talk about an amazing festival,” Hurtig said. “To be present in that (environment) and see the effect of it on the stadium campus; it changes part of the conversation for how an event center can function when you have something like that event. That’s one of our biggest question marks of the group — we’ve been there and have seen this — now we need to understand what you want to do with it. Can it be attached to the stadium or is it better to use it elsewhere on the campus?”
Camping World Stadium, a city-owned venue and one of several municipal stadiums across the country updating aging infrastructure to preserve those historic structures for the future. In Orlando, the upper deck is the final piece of upgrading the stadium, which has proved to be a busy concert venue over the past three years.
This year alone, 10 concerts at Camping World Stadium sold 280,000 tickets, including most recently, Pink on Nov. 18, which drew a sold-out crowd of 50,000-plus and grossed $5.48 million in ticket sales,, according to Pollstar data.
For 2025, Shakira, Post Malone’s Big Ass Stadium Tour and Stray Kids are already booked at the stadium. EDC returns next November at Tinker Field, along with the Warped Tour, another three-day festival that returns to the road for the first time in six years.
In the southeast, Camping World Stadium competes for stadium shows with NFL facilities in Tampa, Jacksonville and South Florida, and to a certain extent, Atlanta and Charlotte. For now, Jacksonville is out of the picture as EverBank Stadium ramps up a billion-dollar makeover of another city-owned, century-old building.
“That’s something (Orlando officials) wanted to optimize with this renovation is how can they become a bigger market for concerts, to improve the fan experience and make it a better concert situation,” Hurtig said. “There will be some touches there that will help them get the acts that maybe they’re missing out on and end up being the go-to destination in the southeast for those events.”
UPPER HAND: The upper deck at Camping World Stadium, shown here before the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl, will be reconstructed over the next two years. ( Getty Images)
DLR Group must also consider the possibility that the Jacksonville Jaguars could play home games at CWS for the 2027 season while their stadium is under construction. Orlando officials expect their project to be completed by that time to accommodate the Jaguars, said Allen Johnson, the city’s chief venues officer.
In that respect, the design firm is waiting to hear on the Jaguars’ decision, which could affect the final design, Hurtig said. In addition, Camping World Stadium plays host to the Pro Bowl Games, another NFL event that’s evolved into a festival-style competition after the league dropped the actual game on the field itself between the AFC and NFC.
The field house/event center would be a great asset for the Pro Bowl Games, Hurtig said. The multipurpose facility would also host youth sports competitions, a huge economic driver for tourism in central Florida apart from all the theme parks.
Hurtig, who came over to DLR Group from HOK in 2023, will rely on his experience designing structural improvements at Hard Rock Stadium and State Farm Arena to come with creative solutions to revitalize the upper deck, as well as DLR’s work at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a 101-year-old building that’s more similar in age to Camping World Stadium, which opened in 1936.
The vision in Orlando is to re-do the upper bowl to the level of standard for what was done in the lower bowl over the past decade, said Hurting, creating new seating options for premium and general admission, upgrading ADA seating and increasing circulation on the upper concourse.
The new premium inventory would be a welcome addition for the Florida Citrus Sports, the group that puts on three college bowl games, the Florida Blue Florida Classic, an historically Black college and university matchup between Florida A&M and Bethune Cookman, as well as international soccer matches. It would supplement suites and club seats built in 2014 as part of reshaping the lower bowl.
For soccer, DLR Group will consider designing standing room spaces in the upper deck, where those fans are there more for the overall experience, willing to stand five to seven deep, and don’t have an issue with not having a seat, Hurtig said.
In addition to Hurtig, fellow DLR colleagues Bob Carlson, Greg Garlock and Dave Ciavarella are working on the the project, alongside Ronok Nichols, principal-in-charge and leader of the company’s southeast region headquartered in Orlando.
Hurtig said the group will start the project at the start of 2025 and complete the design should by the end of next year to maintain the timeline for completion by the third quarter of 2027 in time for football season.
