Construction's Amusement Boom
Movie theaters, gyms, stadiums, & more
Construction Trend Tuesday covers one (hopefully) interesting industry trend in a quick, two-minute read. You can access the archive of CTT posts here.
Amusement and recreation construction, a relatively small but scorching hot segment, has rocketed to a new all-time during the first half of 2026.
The biggest driver is the ambiguously named “Social Center” subsegment, which includes banquet halls, lodges, fraternal halls, community centers, and golf courses/country clubs.
Our best guess is that this boom is driven by new neighborhood centers, particularly in age-restricted communities.
Demand has to be fairly weak for banquet and fraternal halls. While golf course openings have picked up slightly from the 2010s, with the new tracks concentrated at high end facilities in Florida, Texas, and South Carolina, according to the NGF, they remain uncommon, especially compared to the 1990s and 2000s.
The weakest amusement subsegment is, unsurprisingly, movie theaters. Blame streaming and the proliferation of giant high def TVs.
Fitness construction has been decent, though maybe a little disappointing given that gym membership is at an all-time high. Two potential explanations: first, this subsegment tracks with residential development, and second, a lot of new gyms are small studios in strip malls that don’t require much if any construction activity (think Orange Theory or a yoga studio).
Sports facility spending, which includes everything from a local field to an NFL stadium (as long as they’re not located at schools or colleges), has also been strong over the past few years. This is likely driven by megaprojects, like the Buffalo Bills new $2.2 billion stadium, and also maybe pickleball.
Finally, theme park construction is also nearing an all-time high. There’s been a nice wave of new/renovated parks in recent years, including Universal facilities in Texas and Florida and expansions at Disney. That said, iron and steel prices are up 70% since 2020, and that’s really the only physical input to a roller coaster, so in real terms this subsegment is likely disappointing.
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