02. Future

2. The future 2.1 The importance of the stadium 2.2 Economics 2.3 Technology

2.4 2.5

2.1 The importance of the stadium

has been a dramatic process of urbanization, with populations moving from the country to the city. With this social shift there has been an equally dramatic rise in the popularity of sport, perhaps as a consequence of this new urban society.

Stadia are amazing buildings. They can help to shape our towns and cities more than almost any other building type in history, and at the same time put a community on the map. They have become an essential ingredient in the urban matrix that pulls our cities together and in so doing provide a focus for our aspirations. They are also probably the most ‘viewed’ building type in history thanks to the Olympics and other global sporting events. They change people’s lives and may come to represent a nation’s aspirations. They can be very expensive buildings, but equally can generate substantial revenues. The global financial power of sport in general is increasing and the twenty-first century is gradually establishing sport as the world’s first true global culture. Stadia, the buildings that accommodate sport, are becoming among the most important buildings any city of the future can build, partly because of their power as an urban planning tool – and also one of the most expensive. In the last 150 years sport has been codified and professionalized and at the same time there

Ergonomics and the environment What future for the stadium?

Stadia are also a key ingredient in the marketing of cities and even nations. They are often symbolic of the aspirations of a nation, which is not surprising considering that the tourist impact on Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games (see Figure 5.3) was reported to be around 1.9 million overnight stays during the two weeks of the event. They have evolved into a building type that contains all the elements required to achieve a critical mass capable of sustaining independent city life. Such a critical mass is composed of mixed elements including residential, commercial, retail and leisure, all working together with the other services and transport infrastructure that are required to make the ‘stadium city’ thrive.

2.2 Economics

But despite their huge public profile stadia are not without their problems. Owners and operators are very aware of the shortcomings of past generations 21

Photograph: Patrick Bingham Hall

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Figure 2.1 Global events have helped to make stadia some of the most recognised buildings in the modern world. The Telstra Stadium Sydney (see also Appendix 3) was built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and has become one of the iconic images of that city.

of stadia, how they have sometimes been difficult to manage without a huge workforce, and have at times been limited in their flexibility. Many of these issues have been resolved in more recent generations of these buildings, and there are few major stadia under development at the beginning of the twenty-first century which don’t include in the design team people with proven experience of having solved these problems in the past.

Ownership issues over co-habitation of these buildings, thus spreading the burden of construction and maintenance costs across more than one sport or more than one club, have to some extent been addressed – sometimes very successfully, as in Huddersfield where football and rugby combine happily in the Galpharm Stadium (see Figures 5.8, 11.9, 22

19.2 and 21.1). Even the new Wembley Stadium (see Case Study, page 292) has been designed to be used for football, rugby and athletics as well as the ever-popular concert. The economics of huge stadia like Wembley with their extensive private suites, corporate boxes and large restaurants make the prospect of financially lucrative events more realistic.

In the USA the idea of ‘multi-purpose stadia’ as opposed to ‘sport-specific stadia’ is not very popular, mainly because the principal sports, NFL and Baseball, are so different in pitch form and layout that they are very difficult to combine in a single venue. There is also the economic factor, with sponsorship and naming rights revenue so high in the USA that it helps the business case to have different

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Playing area

Support facilities

Additional facilities

Primary

Secondary

Primary

Secondary

Primary

Football

Concerts

Restaurant

Banquets

Health club

Secondary Offices

Tennis

Conventions

Bar

Parties

Other sports

Retail

Rugby

Exhibitions

Private box

Meetings

Hotel

Cinemas

Cricket

Other sports

Lounges

Conventions

Sports retail

Residential

Note: The above are only broad indications of options to be investigated. For actual design it will be necessary to undertake detailed studies using specialist advisers.

Table 2.1 Possible multi-purpose uses of sports stadia

stadia for different sports. How else could a developer justify building a stadium for gridiron football that features only eight home games per season?

are also important in encouraging family attendance and are gradually finding their way into the modern stadium.

Another trend could be that clubs who wish to improve their grounds will begin to act more aggressively as developers, and will finance new facilities either by the sale of surplus land or by including explicitly ‘commercial’ uses. More recently the combination of a sport club and another key occupier has evolved, where sport is considered as an one element in a mix of activities in order to generate a critical mass of activity for the customer. Good management of these mixed venues can increase revenue by exploiting each part of the facility for more than one purpose, a strategy sometimes referred to as ‘multi-use’ but actually just a matter of maximizing the return from the investment. Table 2.1 shows some possible combinations of sports and commercial uses.

The bottom line is that any facility which attracts a wider cross-section of the family, and keeps them entertained for longer, should eventually reap financial rewards. It is through a policy of inclusion not exclusion that the spectators of tomorrow will be created.

The key to all these approaches, if they are to be successful in the long term, will be good creative management. Stadia management is becoming recognized as a specialist field all over the world, and sporting venues are now beginning to attract the very best people to the job. This will start to change the form of stadia in the future. As a result of this expertise shift, ideas are emerging such as the concept of added-value tickets, where additional privileges are provided to encourage the whole family to attend. These privileges can include meals, bus rides from outer areas, and signed programmes. Family enclosures, which have gained popularity in the UK, are also a relatively new but important trend. Child-minding facilities, baby-changing rooms, family cinemas, museums, tea lounges, quality restaurants with high-chairs, and children’s play areas

2.3 Technology

Television and the Internet have been with us for some time, but combined with the access that convenient global travel provides us with, their real impact is only now starting to be seen. There is a growing sense of ‘the world’ as a single entity, and sport is becoming the common social currency that, everyone, everywhere, can trade in and understand.

Technology is helping to revolutionize our societies and is also having a dramatic influence on the sporting world. We expect races to be timed to hundredths of a second, blood samples to be analysed down to particles per million, instant video playbacks, optional camera positions on television, and computer-generated images to determine if a ball was in or out.

However what we have seen so far is just the tip of the technological iceberg. Sport is benefiting from improved, faster, and safer construction techniques allowing light-weight opening roofs, moving seating tiers and playing fields, and replaceable cricket wickets. The dividing line between natural grass and synthetic playing surfaces is becoming blurred, and 23

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a hybrid of both is emerging with developments in plastic mesh root reinforcement, plastic turf support, and plastic granular growing mediums with computer-controlled nutrient injection. New hybrid grass types require less light, grow faster, and are far more robust; and the quality of synthetic grass is now such that it has been accepted under certain conditions for first class football. These advances allow a greater number of different types of events to take place on the same pitch, making the venue more financially viable and able to justify greater capital cost.

Sight lines, crowd flows, and environmental comfort for the twenty-first century stadium are all calculated and designed on computer, and the creation of three-dimensional virtual models of these buildings is critical. The latter are now an indispensable tool allowing the design team to communicate effectively with the owner and with future spectators who will be able to see the exact view they will enjoy from their seat at the time of booking.

Advances in communication and information technology not only allow the officials of an event to measure the winning action to extreme levels of accuracy and reliability, but also to communicate the result to the spectator in the stadium as quickly as to television viewers at home. There can be no guarantee that future generations will find live sport as attractive as the present generation, and the move to provide better information to the spectator is essential if attendance at live events is to be maintained. Ticket prices are increasing, and there is increasing competition for our leisure time while it is possible to sit at home and watch the event on television almost free of charge. The old argument that only the major events are televised is no longer true; cable and satellite television has changed that theory forever as more and more sport is televised. Sport is still a comparatively cheap television programme to produce and almost always finds an audience while the cost of developing dedicated ‘club’ channels is now a reality.

One answer for sport is to compete with television on equal terms and, as well as offering facilities at the stadium that are as comfortable, convenient and safe as spectators’ own homes, also offer information equal in range and quality to that 24

provided by professional broadcasters. Replays and information about players and previous matches should be automatic but so should highlights of other events, statistics on the game, expert commentary, and perhaps even revenue-generating advertisements. This ‘narrowcasting’ is possible using the stadium’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) network, not just to large video screens but also to small personal receivers with screens a few inches across. These receivers may be embedded into the seat and be part of the ticket price, or could be linked to the spectator’s mobile phone using Bluetooth or the latest G3 technology (Figure 2.2). Press the button marked ‘statistics’, key in your favourite player’s name, and the career statistics will be displayed; press ‘action’, type in the date of the match, and see the highlights of his match winning performance two years ago. The horse racing industry around the world has moved forward using some of this thinking, possibly because of the large betting revenues which are at stake at racecourses. Pools revenue is also enormous, with the annual total in most developed countries being measured in billions.

Technology is also revolutionizing the management of stadia. Conventional turnstiles are evolving into more user-friendly control systems, but still have some way to go before they are likely to be considered welcoming. The ideal will be an ‘intelligent’ entrance linked to the stadium computer system, looking more like an airport X-ray machine. Details will be read from the spectator’s active ticket which will allow the person access to different areas of the grounds and entitle the holder to other predetermined benefits. The pass will be scanned by monitors at each access or sales point, and if the pass is invalid for any reason a warning will sound and the holder advised by synthesized voice of where to go to seek help. The automatic barriers in front, which are usually open, will close if the person attempts to proceed any further. In addition to this automatic access and sales control the stadium computer will store information on the spectators who attend each event including age, sex, address and event preferences. From this database of information the stadium management will be able to form a precise profile of who attends which events, allowing them to target that exact socio-economic group

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Figure 2.2 We must aim to provide spectators with the same level of information as they would receive at home watching television. The integration of technology into the design of the seat is still in its infancy and may in due course be surpassed by personal mobile devices.

the next time a similar event is held. This knowledge of the spectator is essential for future marketing and critical for the economic survival of the venue.

personal space are being considered. The size of the average spectator is also increasing and seat spacing is increasing to cope with larger people and more comfortable entry to, and exit from, the seat.

2.4 Ergonomics and the environment

Support facilities will increasingly provide amenities for all the family to enjoy as well as other entertainment areas for those not committed to the game. They will eventually include every type of function from business centres to bowling alleys, similar to the range of facilities often found in international airports or shopping malls. Attractions will be designed to encourage spectators to arrive early and stay on afterwards – perhaps even sleeping overnight in the Stadium Hotel.

Technology is being used to improve spectators’ comfort levels when they are at the stadium, controlling aspects of the environment including temperature, humidity, and air movement more accurately. The increasing use of retractable roofs (see Section 5.8) forms part of this trend.

The design of the seats themselves is also more focused on the ergonomics of the spectators rather than simply the cheapness of producing a plastic bucket. Padded seats are becoming more common, and armrests to create the spectator’s

Tomorrow’s stadia will be places of entertainment for the family where sport is the focus but not the complete picture. It will be possible for five members of 25

Photograph: Hok Sport Architecture

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Figure 2.3 Control of the environment to improve spectator comfort is being considered even for sports that are traditionally ‘outdoor’ events, and this steady progress towards more comfortable stadia is having an influence on the sport itself. In 2007 a retractable roof was retro-fitted to the famous open-air Centre Court at Wimbledon, London (see also Appendix 3).

a family to arrive and leave together, but to experience in the intervening period five different activities. While the parents ‘see’ the live game, their children ‘experience’ the live game in the virtual reality studio where images from the ‘in pitch’ cameras provide close immediate action.

activity – e.g. the range of extreme sports that are finding their way into established timetables and are ideal for television (Figure 2.4). There have been completely new events such as the Ironman Triathlon, which was created in 1978 resulting from a bar-room challenge issued in Hawaii and is now an Olympic event.

2.5 What future for the stadium?

The question arises of whether the stadium will be the ideal forum for sport in the future, or whether new sports might emerge that are better suited to other building forms. In recent years a number of sporting events have evolved that don’t require a stadium, with a greater emphasis on outdoor

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However for all the popularity of events that don’t require a stadium, there is no indication that we are losing our commitment to watching sport and attending the live game. The majority of professional sports are continuing to grow, leading to a continued growth in investment in new venues of increasing comfort and sophistication.

Photograph: Getty

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Photograph: Team Macarie (Dan Macarie)

Figure 2.4 The ideal venue for watching any sport should capture something of the sport itself, reflecting the traditions and the atmosphere that spectators have come to expect of their sport.

Figure 2.5 New stadium forms will evolve in response to changing social needs, and the opportunities generated by evolving technologies. This is an image of the new 50 000 seat Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin. 27