Big venues drink water like nothing else on the planet.

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water can vanish during a single NFL game by kickoff. Restrooms, concessions, field spraying, air conditioning, janitorial services – you name it. With water prices soaring and droughts rampant, stadium managers are listening up.

The good news?

Water reuse systems are reducing those figures by millions of gallons annually. Some facilities have achieved recycled water use levels of up to 85%. This is excellent news for water conservation and green facilities everywhere.

What’s covered in this guide:

• Why Large Venues Guzzle So Much Water
• How Water Reuse Systems Actually Work
• Real Venues Saving Millions Of Gallons
• Small Fixture Swaps With A Massive Impact

Why Large Venues Guzzle So Much Water

Think about it for a second…

NFL stadiums consume between 600,000 and 1 million gallons of water on game days alone. That’s water used to:

• Restroom flushing (the biggest culprit by far)
• Food and beverage service
• Field irrigation and turf care
• HVAC and cooling systems
• Post-event cleaning

Did you know the average urinal in a football stadium gets used 160 times per game. Now imagine that times the number of restrooms and thousands of fans that need one.

Wondering how much water stadiums actually consume? Chicago Faucets compiles stadium-specific data on water savings throughout the United States. From justifiable worries about rising water prices to serious drought conditions, sustainable stadiums are no longer a luxury, they’re a cost-saving measure.

Here’s the kicker:

Most of it goes down the drain for just one use. Water reuse systems flip that paradigm on its head.

How Water Reuse Systems Actually Work

Water reuse systems are pretty simple when you break them down.

Rather than flushing wastewater down the drain, it’s collected and treated by the system. Then it’s pumped back into the venue for reuse. That single gallon of water can be used to flush a toilet, water the playing field and cool air conditioning inside the building.

The three main sources venues pull from are:

• Greywater: Water from sinks and showers
• Blackwater: Wastewater from toilets (needs heavier treatment)
• Stormwater: Rain captured off the massive stadium roof

After collection, the water is filtered through screens, biological treatment tanks and sometimes UV or membranes. The resulting water isn’t potable…but it sure is good enough for flushing toilets, irrigation and cooling towers.

And that’s where the massive savings really start to kick in.

Real Venues Saving Millions Of Gallons

There’s really no better example of impact than success stories from venues who are doing it today. Here are two of the largest and most successful in action.

Gillette Stadium

Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA stands as the model stadium water reuse program. Concern over water supply to the small town was already prominent when the Kraft Group began building Gillette Stadium.

So they built their own wastewater recycling plant on-site.

The plant processes about 90,000 gallons of water daily. The system saves an estimated 12 million gallons of water a year, reports WaterWorld’s stadium report. The treated water is reused in toilets throughout the stadium and entertainment district.

That’s great news for the local water department. By the way it was constructed in phases, the first phase went online in 2002 to service the stadium and the second phase went online in 2007 for the surrounding Patriot Place next door.

Levi’s Stadium

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara decided to think outside of the box. Rather than constructing a treatment plant on site, they tied into the regional recycled water system.

The result?

According to Epic Cleantec, Levi’s Stadium uses reclaimed water for approximately 85% of its water needs. This reclaimed water is used for irrigation of the field, flushing of toilets, HVAC cooling, and the vegetative roof atop the stadium.

They replaced antiquated hose-based cleaning with pressure-washing systems that use 75% less water per hour. Small efficiencies… tremendous savings.

What’s cool about the Levi’s example is that it doesn’t always take constructing an entire treatment plant to significantly reduce water consumption. Sometimes the ideal partner utility is right down the street.

Small Fixture Swaps With A Massive Impact

Not every facility can pull water straight through an on-site treatment plant. That doesn’t mean the little things aren’t important though.

Here’s why:

Individual fixture replacements alone can save millions of gallons. Dolphins Stadium in Miami saves about 8.8 million gallons PER YEAR with waterless urinals. Just one fixture change.

Some of the easiest wins include:

• Low-flow toilets: Reduce flush volume from 6 gallons to 1.28 gallons per flush
• Waterless urinals: Save roughly 35,000 gallons per unit per year
• Sensor faucets: Only run when hands are actually under them
• Smart irrigation: Uses weather data to skip watering when rain is coming
• Rainwater harvesting: A stadium roof collects 270,000 gallons of water with just one inch of rainfall

Combine a few of these and the numbers stack up quick.

One industrial survey found that replacing 100 conventional toilets with low-flow models will save more than half a million gallons of water annually. No new plant required. Simply more efficient fixtures on the wall.

The takeaway?

Facilities that cannot afford an entire reuse system can still significantly reduce their water consumption through proper fixture replacement. That’s the quick return on investment that’s usually paid off in 2 years or less.

The Bottom Line

Water reuse systems are quietly saving major facilities millions of gallons of water every year.

Whether it’s Gillette Field’s 12 million gallon on-site treatment facility or Levi’s Stadium diverting 85% of water from landfills through recycling, sports’ biggest brands are showing that water sustainability and world-class fan experiences are not mutually exclusive. They’re complementary.

To recap what actually works:

• Build (or connect to) a water reuse system for the biggest savings
• Capture stormwater from the massive stadium roof surface
• Swap out old fixtures for low-flow and waterless versions
• Use smart irrigation systems to stop watering during rain
• Track water usage so you can see what’s actually working

Forward-thinking venues are making sustainability a huge priority. Those are the facilities reducing operating expenses, safeguarding community water sources and leading the pack.

The math is pretty simple. Water reuse pays for itself – and then some.