A photo of the parking lot at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City made its way over to Reddit and sparked outrage over the vast amount of wasted land.
The photo was originally posted to X by user Push the Needle (@pushtheneedle) and featured an overhead shot of the stadium parking lot side by side with a shot of an area in New York City and a caption that read: "The parking lot at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City would take up most of Lower Manhattan." A Reddit user posted the photo in the r/kansascity subreddit with the same caption.
Reddit users found the photo to be another example of how precious land is wasted by catering to vehicles.
"Yeah, that parking lot is just extraordinarily bad land usage. You can say that about most surface parking lots, but Arrowhead's is egregious," one user commented. "It's a great case study as to how much space people take up, vs. how much space their cars take up."
Part of the issue with parking lots like the one at Arrowhead Stadium is that they are widely unused outside of game days. Also, when those parking lots get filled once a week, they become major sources of carbon pollution because of the number of vehicles gathered in one area.
"It's surprisingly difficult for a lot of Americans to wrap their head around this fact. Car-centric design and development is very quickly about to bite us in the figurative ass," one commenter warned. "It didn't have to be this way."
Dedicating such a massive region to something that sits relatively empty for six days a week makes many wonder if there are more efficient ways to make use of the space.
"It's a shocking level of neglect. Imagine a small development with retail and some apartments, a hotel, and a pavilion for pitmasters and food trucks on game days," another user commented. "It would fit into a small amount of parking but dramatically improve the gameday experience and value of the area."
There have been efforts to transform these areas into something beneficial. For instance, Rutgers University in New Jersey is turning its parking lots into a dual-purpose solar panel system, which would not only generate clean energy but also provide shaded parking.
Similarly, in France, there's a plan to cover large parking lots with solar panels, which would keep cars cool while producing a significant amount of electricity.
Another potential solution would be to improve mass transit options around popular destinations like Arrowhead Stadium. That would help reduce our reliance on vehicles that cause harmful damage to the environment while providing a convenient way to get to and from sporting events.
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