Read the full article by Bret McCormick

Logan Gerken started his stadium-building career as an architect. Now, as vice president and general manager of Mortenson’s sports and entertainment group, his career beginnings enable him to turn a germ of an idea into reality.

“Of course, it’s about the steel and the concrete and the glass, as much as it is about the kids that are going to their first pro sporting event ever, the first pitch on Opening Day,” said Gerken, who was a college baseball player at the University of Minnesota. “That’s the kind of stuff that gets me going because these projects are way too hard, they’re way too complex and they take a long time from initial concept to completion that, if you’re not having fun, it’s not worth it. You have to have that bigger vision for the ‘why.’”

Since taking his current position in 2018, Gerken has overseen 180 team members and had a hand in more than a billion dollars in revenue, with recent projects including Allegiant Stadium, Allianz Field, Chase Center and Fiserv Forum. The firm was named Engineering News-Record’s No. 1 sports builder for 2020.

Gerken is using technology to drive the sports venue construction sector forward, building facilities virtually so that plans can be confirmed or at least “fail fast,” subsequently giving owners a more fully baked idea of what their building will look like when it’s finished. That also helps projects stay on schedule and avoid surprises.

“We want our business to be operating so smoothly that that becomes table stakes,” Gerken said, “and then we can have the higher conversation about how we are maximizing fan experience and return on investment.”