With two days of fascinating conference sessions covering the stadiums of tomorrow and the industry’s challenges of today, it was apt that TheStadiumBusiness Design & Development Summit 2024 was bookended by two European football heavyweights – Manchester City and Real Madrid.
#TDS24 concluded at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester yesterday (Wednesday), but opened on Tuesday with an address from Danny Wilson, Managing Director – Operations at Manchester City FC. While many members of the audience were already well briefed on the evolution of Etihad Stadium and Campus via Monday’s exclusive Summit site and venue tour day, Wilson discussed further how City’s ‘fans-first’ strategy is at the heart of all developments.
Under the core theme of “from 30 to 365”, Wilson stated the North Stand expansion project aims to aid the vision of making Etihad Campus a “destination of choice every day of the year”, with unique and new events that go beyond the 90 minutes of a match. Six million annual visitors in the coming years is the club’s goal, he added, adding that “creating content that drives people to site is critical to the success of this project”.
The first element of Monday’s site and venue tour day was also extensively covered on Tuesday through three separate case studies. Everton’s new stadium is now an imposing part of the Bramley-Moore Dock skyline in Liverpool as it draws nearer to completion.
Rob May, a partner at Buro Happold, shared some early concepts of the new stadium, outlining how certain elements that have “stood the test of time” are “testament to the original design intent”. Sharing his long journey with Everton’s future home, Dan Meis, SVP and global sports design lead at AECOM, stated it was an “incredibly bold move” by the club’s ownership to choose the Bramley-Moore Dock site, but one that will be of “true benefit to future of the club, its fans and the city”.
Rounding off the day’s comprehensive look at the stadium, Nick Tyrer, architect and computational designer at BDP Pattern, shared how the venue intends to become a catalyst for urban regeneration.
Chris Lee, managing director of Populous EMEA, later to win the Outstanding Achievement Award at TheStadiumBusiness Design & Development Awards 2024, provided fascinating insights about the different approaches applied for flagship stadium projects from his company’s extensive portfolio.
While his reflections began with Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and also touched on Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and AS Roma’s proposed future home, Lee stated one of the most recent showpiece projects, Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium at Qiddiya, offers a “glimpse at the potential future of football”.
Day one also featured four panel sessions offering an array of different talking points. An illuminating panel session on the role (and power) of light on wellbeing, sustainability and the fan experience saw Sander van Stiphout, director of innovation at Johan Cruijff ArenA, reveal how lighting technology is increasingly being used as a sophisticated wayfinding tool, as well as to entertain fans. Van Stiphout was joined by Niels Geven, international director of sports and arenas at Signify; David A Jarratt, EMEA head of sustainability at Populous; and Rob van Rijswijk, managing director of Beewan Sports Experience.
In a session addressing Embedding Ops into Design, Hannah Buckley, head of infrastructure, sustainability, safety and security at Barclays Women’s Super League and Championship, stated the “need to think differently” about how stadiums are being used for women’s football in the UK, adding they “need to wash their face”.
Buckley was joined by Ursula Friedmann, head of the new stadium department at Hertha BSC Stadion GmbH; Ian Hardcastle, director of services at Coca-Cola Arena; and Peter Watts, managing director of Rockvolt.
In Keeping On Track, the challenges of project management for a masterplan with a new stadium at its heart were addressed. Greg Power, director of estates, campus strategy and property development at RDS Arena, maintained that while a partnership needs to be built, “you have to be aware” that our values when developing a venue are different to that of the builder’s. Gregg Whiting, head of stadium development for Rajasthan Royals and Wealdstone FC; and Guy Wickett, director of EnTodo Project Management also joined the debate.
In the day’s final panel session, Keith Thomas, chief executive of Petersham Group, maintained that the installation of an attraction should not be viewed as “just a one off”, adding there is a need to “keep investing and reinventing it”. In a separate panel session that discussed stadiums as year-round entertainment venues, Andy Broad, managing director of Wire & Sky; Guy Monkley, head of sales at Architen Landrell; and Steve Davies, COO of Chester Race Company, underlined the importance of a varied and engaging offering.
Day two had a healthy focus on new stadium and arena projects, including Nagasaki Stadium City, Jihlava Multipurpose Arena, Serbia National Stadium and Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, which scooped the coveted Project of the Year Award, as well as the Façade & Exterior Award.
Proceedings commenced with an engaging interview with Seregh founder and chair Jonathan Fascitelli, who opened up about the potential for real estate development around sports and entertainment venues. Targeting investments in projects worth $1-$5bn per venue, in partnership with a sports team or organisation, Fascitelli said “we are looking past the fan zone concept and developing bigger, much bigger”.
The day’s panel sessions had the themes of No White Elephants, Theatre in the Venue of Dreams and Carbon is King. Featuring Amy Casterton, business development director of ES Global; Chris Hey, project director of ABBA Voyage Arena; Jim Frayling, project principal of Mott MacDonald; Abigail Matthews, director of Momentum Structural Engineers; and Alastair Richardson, director of Cox Architecture; the first wide-ranging discussion on best practice in building sustainable venues, centring on ABBA Voyage in London, with Frayling stating that the track record of these venues and businesses “really working” should dispel the “element of misconception about modular”.
Addressing what stadiums can learn from performing arts venues, the second panel featured Ian Strickland, managing director of Charcoalblue; Kevin Owens, founder of WOO Architects; and Annabel Turpin, chief executive of Storyhouse.
Owens and Turpin united in their belief that an overload of signage in a building is a bad thing, with the former stating that “free to explore is a really interesting concept, a lot of which comes down to intuitive design”. Turpin added that while every venue wants customers to stay longer, a balance needs to be found on pricing, and “generally pitching prices higher is the biggest mistake you can make”.
Focusing on carbon responsible venue development, the final panel of the Summit saw Natasha Watson, UK embodied carbon lead for structures at Buro Happold, issue the message that sustainability can be achieved “with all materials available today”, alongside Rob Amphlett, global sport and entertainment lead for Buro Happold; Tim Burden, senior director of planning, and head of expert witness for Turley; and Peter Smith, head of change and sustainability at Bristol Sport.
Burden added that there is a “massive expectation” from elected officials now for sustainability to be built into projects, stating this is “only going to get tighter and tighter”.
Switching to a focus on individual projects, the Summit built to its finale. Including a presentation featuring Ayaka Shindo, senior consultant of EY Japan, the team behind Nagasaki Stadium City shared the story behind the delivery in October of a complex anchored by Peace Stadium and Happiness Arena, with Yasui Architects & Engineers’ general manager of the architectural design department, Akinori Tsuji, revealing plans to take the ‘Nagasaki Model’ to Tokyo, among other cities.
The world’s first ‘Garden Stadium’ was showcased by Mark Fenwick, principal partner of Fenwick Iribarren Architects. Pledging that the new Serbia National Stadium will be one of the most sustainable stadiums in the world when complete by the end of 2026, Fenwick described how the project “brings the landscape into the stadium” making it unique for Belgrade.
Closing off #TDS24, Markus Pfisterer, associate partner of gmp Architects, set out the intriguing story behind reimagining an authentic legend, the Bernabéu. Pfisterer said the reimagining of Real Madrid’s iconic home is a “role model” for pursuing redevelopment over a new build elsewhere and concluded that it represents a “true dialogue between the old and the new”.
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