Like athletes, a sports stadium doesn’t have the luxury of being able to focus on a singular task. A champion tennis player needs to develop fitness, speed, strength, accuracy and mental control. They need to adapt to the styles of different opponents and lean into a bank of strategies to give them an advantage.

Similarly, while a stadium may be best known for a particular sport or team, this can never be its sole purpose. It needs to be flexible enough to adapt to a host of different sports, tournaments and live entertainment. And, it needs to offer much more than a comfortable place to watch a game. It needs restaurants, bars, retail, function rooms, accommodation and solid transport infrastructure, making it a 365-day venue.

So, how do you design a precinct that meets the needs of athletes, artists, fans, sponsors and the media? Is it possible to create seamless experiences for all these audiences as they transition from the street to their seat, the changing room to the pitch or the stadium to the bar?

The stadium atmosphere needs to be electric

Online streaming has made watching the action at home all-too convenient. To trump this, a performance needs to be powerful and memorable. It needs to be significantly better than the cheaper and easier alternative of enjoying the show with your mates on the sofa.

Lighting

Lighting provides an immersive experience which can intensify moments and enhance emotions. Designing lighting that can reflect team colours, spotlight players or highlight the stand-out features of a stadium enables a ‘wow’ factor, building engagement and excitement. The thematic lighting installation at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia takes the spectator experience to a new level.

Acoustics

Sound levels, reverberation and noise spill need careful consideration and modelling. Design should include:

  • designing the shape and structure of the stadium to keep noise contained within and limit impact on neighbours
  • ensuring curves which face the pitch or stage don’t reflect sound back towards the stage, converging in a concentrated space
  • choosing materials for their sound properties, especially around the stadium. Glass balustrades, for example, reflect sound directly back onto a stage
  • using angles to direct noise strategically, for example placing speakers close to the audience and directing them down so sound hits the audience rather than blasting in all directions
  • balancing intelligibility of commentary, PA announcements and action with excitement from the crowd.

Audio visual

Display screens are getting bigger and more sophisticated. Curved ribbons, halos and centre-hung displays offer live action, instant replays and zoomed-in moments. They build atmosphere and engagement as well as providing a 360-degree experience which ensures there’s no bad seat in the house.

These displays need to be able to seamlessly switch between live entertainment, action replays and critical announcements.

Additional displays around a precinct enable cheaper ground passes to events, for example the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. These displays, placed outside and inside the venue, allow fans to soak up the atmosphere of a game without the commitment of a particular match, boosting coverage, increasing accessibility and maximising revenue.

designing the essentials in a sports precinct

Sustainability

The 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games will be the first that are contractually obligated to be climate positive. This commitment is part of the International Olympic Committee’s New Norm framework for host cities.

The requirement offers Brisbane, and Australia, an unprecedented opportunity to define what it means for a major sports precinct, and its associated activity, to give back and deliver a meaningful legacy.

Sports precincts welcome millions of people each year and establishing a sustainability strategy is crucial. Their activity demands energy and water, generates waste and uses a hefty amount of embodied carbon.

Electrification

All facilities should incorporate electrification, remove fossil fuels and focus on efficiency. The energy demand of the facilities should be met by 100 per cent renewable energy, onsite and offsite.

Embodied carbon

Strategies that focus on reducing embodied carbon through dematerialisation and material specification will be key, ensuring the facility can adapt to the changing needs and demands of the community beyond signature events.

Resilience

The strategy must ensure precincts are robust enough to weather the already-evident impacts of climate change.

Integrative transport

Precincts should consider future mobility and a shift to zero-carbon transport.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity and nature should be conserved and improved with prioritisation of nature-based solutions.

Circular design

Embedding circular design principles into operations will ensure both end-of-life waste and operational waste can progress towards a net-zero circular outcome, with technology playing a key role.

Connection to Country

Design must acknowledge and consider the cultural history of where it’s located. In Australia, this helps to reinforce Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ identity and sense of belonging.

Certification

Adoption of sustainability certifications needs to underpin any strategy, for example:

  • Green Building Council of Australia – Green Star Buildings and Communities
  • Infrastructure Sustainability Council – Infrastructure Sustainability tool
  • Climate Active Carbon Neutral framework
  • LEED certification.

These provide best-practice frameworks that ensure a sustainability strategy is implemented, delivered and verified through a third party review process. This can then ensure a precinct delivers environmental, social and economic benefits that leave a lasting legacy.

As part of Tetra Tech and the High Performance Buildings Group, we’ve worked with several stadiums in the United States, including Levi’s Stadium and Providence Park.

Public transport integration and drop-off zones

Any stadium or precinct needs to be designed with public transport in mind. It should be within a short walking distance of more than one mode of transport, accessed by dedicated walkways.

For those who need to drive to an event, drop-off zones for private cars, taxis and Ubers should be located close to an accessible entry.

Clear signage and wayfinding needs to direct passengers from where their transport ends to where the action begins.

Security

When occupied, a stadium is considered a ‘place of mass gathering’ and subject to legislation which protects people from the threats of terrorism. Following Crime Protection Through Environmental Design (CPED) principles mitigates terrorist threats. Measures can include:

  • security lighting – using full illuminance to see what’s going on or turning off lights to discourage entry
  • ambient lighting – using coloured lighting to calm or excite crowds
  • precinct-wide CCTV coverage to:
    • identify trouble on site and send an immediate response to appropriate authorities
    • allow authorities to live stream incident footage en-route
    • monitor crowds and noise, integration with audio visual (AV) to make announcements.
  • facial recognition – to identify troublesome individuals entering the venue.

Fire safety

The increasing sophistication of stadiums requires greater complexity in fire safety design. While a sports mode is the often primary design function, stadiums also need to accommodate concerts, functions and everyday dining and retail. All of these modes have unique requirements.

Considerations include:

  • large populations – the type of event influences the characteristics of a demographic, for example age and the influence of drugs and alcohol
  • roofed stadiums – concert stages can include a large amount of combustibles and ignition sources. Operable rooves are typically unable to be opened quickly enough for natural ventilation and sprinklers aren’t sufficient. Alternative forms of smoke hazard management must be considered
  • integrated dining, retail and entertainment – this often introduces the need for sprinklers to control increased combustible fuel load. Smoke hazard management is also critical for internal, conditioned spaces
  • high density location – sufficient areas need to be available for occupants to move into in an emergency. Precinct design needs to consider multiple activations occurring at the same time, all with multiple modes
  • a 365-day venue – when operating for a function or day-to-day operations, there are fewer staff and activation of the different areas must include control and security to prevent visitors accessing off-limit areas. This can conflict with free-flowing pedestrian egress that enables visitors to leave a space quickly and the architectural intent of large open spaces.

The International Green Guide for Stadium Design provides guidance for fire safety engineering.

giving Athletes and artists the space to be great

Customisable rooms

Changing rooms that give performers an opportunity to prepare, focus, rest and regroup are essential if they’re to do their job well.

And, behind every artist or athlete is a team that needs a room they can turn into their own. For a sports team, this could be where they warm up, run pep talks, access allied health or eat. For an artist, this might be where their crew hang out, watching the performance and making sure every second’s going according to plan.

Connectivity

Whatever the space, they need high-bandwidth wireless Wi Fi and 5G.

Acoustics

Sound insulation is essential for both the quiet focus that performers need before they face the crowd, as well as speech privacy during team briefings. High audio security design includes how the walls and floors can reduce reverberation and increase legibility.

Heating and cooling

Requirements vary, depending on the performance and number of performers. Sports players may require warmth to ease muscles or coolness to aid recovery. Artists’ costumes could be weighty or scant.

From accommodating a single VIP to a team of 15, designing adaptability into the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems allows temperatures to be adjusted and customised.

We designed the Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre, Gold Coast, Australia with adaptability in mind.

Providing a powerful fan experience

Fans come in all shapes and sizes with varying levels of familiarity with the venue and entertainment. Home fans tend to know where they’re going, away fans are often navigating the precinct for the first time.

Booking, entry and wayfinding

It’s now a given that every ticket is an e-ticket which facilitates touchless entry. Smart building technology can also facilitate a number of additional features:

  • Scanning a ticket on arrival can activate a display which offers up a personal welcome, like ‘Welcome, Jon. Enjoy the game!’.
  • Lighting and AV can start up for different parts of the stadium when the relevant tickets are scanned.
  • After scanning a ticket, visitors can be directed to where they need to go on their own device.
  • Smart sensors throughout a venue can also continuously gather data to deliver real-time information to operations teams. This efficiently manages crowd flow to eliminate bottlenecks and lengthy lines.
  • A network of displays around the stadium can also guide fans to the nearest restrooms or concession stands with an estimated wait time. These displays need to incorporate the latest technology so they’re multipurpose, i.e., customisable LED wayfinding, action replays and announcements.

The show

There are typically two elements to the lighting experience: the sports lighting (illumination of the athletes or performers in a manner best suited for live broadcast and the crowd) and thematic lighting which is all about the creation of a concert-like experience for the fans.

Highlighting team colours accentuates friendly rivalries and adds a sense of pride in a team and venue.

Lighting has moved far beyond the traditional directional into the realm of lasers, holograms and large-scale drone shows. It should always be linked to the audio-visual content for a complete light, sight and sound experience.

The game

Real-time data and LED displays need to work in tandem to create an ecosystem that keeps fans informed, entertained and engaged.

  • Displays need to ensure that no matter where fans are in the stadium, even queuing for a coffee, they can always see the action.
  • Solid 5G infrastructure, or DAS, provides the functionality for fans to check on their fantasy team or post on social media.
  • Displays need to show instant replays and provide continuous messages and entertainment, bringing fans together and energising the atmosphere.

Food, drink and retail

Technology can make getting a coffee or bag of chips stress-free:

  • Fans can pre-order and join an express line to pick up.
  • In the not-too-distant future, checkout-less retail technology could eliminate the process of payment entirely. Fans may be able to tap their card to enter a retail outlet and take what they want, before computer vision and sensor-based AI identifies which items have been taken and by whom. This gives retailers insights into customer behaviour and can help them serve them better.
  • Services, advertising and merchandising are set up so they operate independently and can function all year round.

Post game

Whether fans want to linger or leave, the infrastructure needs to be able to accommodate:

  • LED signage that directs people toward exits so they can leave the venue quickly
  • postgame activities like dining, complementary sports broadcasts and dedicated fan zones encourage visitors to extend their experience
  • people counting which communicates exits that are congested, which trains, buses, trams, Ubers and taxis are stacked and options for an easier journey.
  • lighting that encourages people to hurry up, slow down or avoid a certain route.

Taking the Premium experience to the next level

Adaptability

Think about all the different types of visitors and consider their varying expectations. You’ve got it! A premium experience needs to be next-level customisable.

  • The experience can be inside with formal function-room tables and LED displays or a combination of inside and outside with guests moving freely between.
  • A semi-premium experience can offer a serviced-covered outside area.
  • Corporate boxes need to be able to adapt for broadcasting when performances have extensive media requirements.
  • Acoustics need to be flexible, allowing for a private, muted or explosive experience.

Ensuring the media and officials can do their job

Media teams need space, access and power. Broadcasting rooms need to be located near service bays, making it easy to connect trailers and vans to the action. Engineering teams should work closely with architects to advise on power and make it logistically easy to connect trailers and vans to broadcast rooms.

Commentators’ boxes all need to be completely sound insulated from any adjoining rooms. They should shut out cross-talk and most stadium noise. Crowd reactions can be fed in from a separate audio.

The live-broadcast mix room, or box, also needs to be quiet and separated from stadium so the team can focus on choosing the shots and audio to mix into the live broadcast.

Acoustic treatment also needs to be applied to the spaces housing officials, for example a third umpire or referee, who need quiet focus to make sure rules are on point.

improving operations and mitigating risk

When building services’ teams work with a smart buildings’ team, they can integrate intuitive adaptability into a precinct. This makes a world-class venue.

Smart building integration

  • Event space booking systems integrate with core services systems, e.g. AV and lighting, so they activate in the right way when needed.
  • Configuration of seating is monitored to influence core services, increasing efficacy and improving transitions.
  • Stadium lighting accepts control inputs from crowd behaviour and event action ensuring a seamless adaptation between events.
  • CCTV coverage is integrated with people counting and connected to waste management, cleaning, wayfinding and security.
  • Landscape irrigation is automated based on events, patronage and weather.

Maximising the commercial viability of a precinct

A precinct needs to be flexible enough to host local community events and international sports tournaments. It needs to seamlessly adapt from a first-class concert venue to an explosive sports stadium.

It needs to be designed with the fan in mind – how they experience entry and move from the entrance to their seat, their seat to the bar, the retail area to the amenities. That fan can be a local, friend or stranger – nervous, pumped up or deflated.

The precinct needs to be zoned so one room, building or stadium can be activated in isolation. Stadiums and spaces need to be linked through technology so they support and complement each other. Wi Fi infrastructure needs to be exceptional for a homogenous experience across all venues and in all seats.

Commercial opportunities need to be maximised, from retail that operates year-round to the hotel on-site. Behind-the-scenes action needs to be seamless so the athletes and artists can do what they’re good at, perform for an excitable crowd.

The space needs to be set up for the future with a legacy that lasts beyond a single event. It needs to incorporate renewable energy and stringent sustainability targets. It must anticipate the escalating expectations of fans, performers, media and more.

It needs to inspire and motivate people to come to live entertainment as well as activate and regenerate the local community. It needs to be as sensational as a number one seed or a world record holder. It needs to strike gold.

Get in touch with the author

Andrew Gentner