How to build the perfect football stadium: From sliding pitches and 360-degree screens to breweries and Michelin Star dining (and even a jail!)... how sports grounds are becoming ever more spectacular
There was a time when working-class men in cloth caps would stand shoulder to shoulder on the terraces in all weathers and amid a haze of cigarette smoke to watch their favourite team play. A matchday consisted of a meat pie or cup of Bovril, perhaps a pint of bitter, and two hours' escapism from the drudgery of everyday life. But today's football fans are able to enjoy just a little more from their afternoon or evening out.
Just ask Tottenham supporters, whose incredible new stadium is the most technologically advanced in the Premier League and boasts all manner of luxuries to experience. The changing demographic of those who fill football stadiums - more keyrings families, more corporate clients, more tourists - means that football has to be precisely that, an 'experience.' It makes the task of designing the perfect modern football stadium, of offering all things to all comers, incredibly difficult to get right.
'In UK football there has been a long-standing experience of bad beer and bad pies,' says Christopher Lee, architect and managing director at Populous, who designed Tottenham's new stadium among many others. 'This is no longer acceptable, fans have been treated badly. People are now looking for an incredible range of experiences.
They want different food, different beer, different offerings.' Jacques Herzog, co-founder of Swiss architecture firm Herzog & De Meuron - who have designed stadiums for Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Bordeaux and Basle - also recognises this shift in tastes and expectations. 'I think it is to do with the evolution of society, it is not a working-class game anymore, even somewhere like Liverpool or Manchester,' he says.
It's no longer acceptable to simply build a soulless, functional concrete bowl and call it a football stadium. Supporters demand more. It's why pretty much each and every new sports stadium unveiled today takes the breath away, not only in terms of its architecture and design but also the unique selling points that are contained within. Real Madrid's £500million redesign of the Santiago Bernabeu, expected to be completed by 2022, features a chrome finish to the exterior and a retractable roof.
Inside, a 360-degree screen just below the roof structure will allow each of the 81,044 spectators views of replays and other information while the match is in progress. Not wanting to be outdone by their bitter rivals, Barcelona are planning a £320m project to remodel their gigantic Nou Camp, adding a roof, underground parking and adjacent arenas for their other sports teams. The designs naturally look stunning, with open-air concourses offering supporters a panoramic view of the city.
With advances in stadium technology, emboldened architects are drawing inspiration not only from existing stadiums but historic and symbolic buildings in that particular city or region. Roma's new £268m stadium development takes inspiration from the city's Roman Colosseum, while Herzog & de Meuron's spectacular designs for Chelsea's Stamford Bridge rebuild - assuming owner Roman Abramovich proceeds with it - are influenced by Westminster Abbey and its soaring buttresses. But it's the quirky little things that fans also notice - Tottenham's new home at White Hart Lane will have a Beavertown microbrewery on site capable of metal serving up to 10,000 pints per minute, Michelin Star-level fine dining and a Tunnel Club similar to Manchester City's where only a glass screen splits corporate-level fans from the players.
'It is horses for courses when it comes to designing stadiums for different clubs,' says Lee. 'But for the new Spurs stadium, one of the things we placed an emphasis on is getting local producers for the food and drink. There is such a vibrant community in Tottenham.
'We have a partnership with Beavertown because beer is one of the most important things in a football stadium and that's why it will be brewed on site.' Herzog & de Meuron installed a similar facility when they brought Basle's St Jakob-Park into the 21st century just over a decade ago. 'The fans have their own bar. The money from the beer goes into their pockets and helps pay for their banners and the shows inside metal the stadium,' says Jacques Herzog.
'Fans have great imagination and fantasy when it comes to creating their own culture. The English fans have inspired all the other cultures. 'The Liverpool song "You'll Never Walk Alone" - this is the song of Liverpool, but then it is adopted by other clubs, which is rather strange.
'I prefer the club that have their own iconic assets, for example Dortmund with their amazing huge stand behind the goal which goes from the pitch right up to the roof without anything breaking it up.' As well as offering something original, it's important that they properly represent and reflect the proud history and heritage of a football club. There is a balance to be struck. When a club uproots from one ground to another, it is a seismic and disconcerting shift from a home that is often idiosyncratic but much-loved and brimming with memories, to a modern place that takes some getting used to.
Littering that new home with a few statues and some old pictures as a reluctant nod to a century or more of history can often look pretty naff and ill-conceived. Lee cites Arsenal's move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, a project he and Populous worked on, as an example. 'Arsenal had been at Highbury since 1913 and it was a wonderful, beautiful stadium.
But it was far from being a contemporary stadium,' he says. 'History was very important when we spoke to the clients - Highbury's East Stand had Archibald Leitch Art Deco style stands. 'We wanted to bring bits of that history across to the Emirates Stadium but not in a pastiche way.
It was about incorporating the essence of metal the club into the building so the stadium, over time, becomes the essence of the club. 'It is important to get a balance so there is an alchemy between the vision and the forward thinking of the club while also respecting the history.' Architect firm Arup has worked on such iconic projects as the Bird's Nest in Beijing, the Singapore Sports Hub and AAMI Park in Melbourne.
Arup architect and associate director Chris Dite says: 'When developing new stadium projects, the biggest challenge we face as designers is answering the question: "What makes this home?" 'We need to balance the excitement of fans attending games in the new stadium with the many who will initially feel like it is "not like it used to be". 'Our ultimate aim is to develop a stadium which becomes an aid to the success of the club. Uniqueness is given by the club, often with a long history and its location and the design must make the most of these.
' The march of technology means modern stadiums increasingly play host to more than one sport, with playing surfaces, stands and other facilities seamlessly adaptable to the needs of the day. Tottenham's new stadium boasts a retractable pitch, with the grass surface for football matches mounted on three steel trays - each of which weighs 3,000 tonnes - that slot away under the printed South Stand to reveal an artificial NFL surface underneath. Incredibly, the transition takes just 25 minutes.
The concept of multi-functional stadia comes from America, where baseball, American Football and soccer have long shared the same patch of grass. One excellent modern example is the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which opened last year, and is home to the Atlanta Falcons NFL team and Atlanta United of Major League Soccer. It boasts an eight-panel retractable roof that resembles a pinwheel and when it opens is meant to resemble a bird spreading its wings.
The Atlanta venue is at the vanguard of some other exciting designs in the United States, including the glass-roofed, $5billion Los Angeles Stadium that will be home to the LA Rams and LA Chargers NFL teams from 2020. In what has become a must-have accessory, it has a 360 degree video screen mounted high above the action with 60,000 linear feet of digital display space. In Las Vegas, the new home of the Raiders will have another remarkable feature - a jail and a courtroom to detain and process any supporters who get too rowdy.
Dite says choosing whether to be multi-purpose or not is a dilemma for many clubs: 'The strive for flexibility will move the stadium away from the optimum solution for a single use. 'Be that through moving seats away from their optimum location to adding a degree of complexity to the structure of the building. 'The difficulty arises when differing sports, for example athletics and football, are accommodated as this impacts where the seats can be situated, in turn impacting the form and size of the stadium itself.
' You only need to ask West Ham, who suffered endless teething problems when they moved from Upton Park to a reconditioned Olympic Stadium designed for athletics, in 2016. 'You cannot combine athletics with soccer,' says Herzog. 'A soccer stadium is like a pot - you keep the heat inside the stadium.
You have this wasteland of a 400m track around the pitch, the distance between the fans and the soccer pitch is too much.' So what does the future hold? As stadium designs become more and more ambitious, they must keep up with the whims of spectators. Some American stadium plans have considered the idea of installing vibrating seats, while Japan's unsuccessful bid for the 2022 football World Cup audaciously included plans to broadcast matches around the world in the form of 3D holograms.
While that is all very Star Trek, technology such as electronic signs that inform those seeking a half-time pie or pint where the shortest queue is and gender-neutral toilets that are adaptable based on ticket sales data are imminent. In the future, we may see at-seat catering via a mobile app or fans accessing replays and stats through Virtual Reality headsets. But, as Herzog points out, will technology's relentless march in our lives lead to an existential crisis for the football stadium as we know it? 'The question ultimately is how will football as a sport continue to survive in the digital age?' he says.
'How much of it remains flesh and blood and how much becomes the virtual reality side in the households worldwide? This is increasingly important because teams playing without any fans would be the end of the stadium as a home to the club. 'There is a limit to this evolution because football is all about the relationship between fans and players. That is the fascination of football. 'You can compare it to operas, concerts and theatres - it is performed in front of you.
It is amazingly old-fashioned but also amazingly fascinating as an experience. 'It depends on how future generations will still appreciate the direct encounters between people like you and me, the spectators or fans, and the
Just ask Tottenham supporters, whose incredible new stadium is the most technologically advanced in the Premier League and boasts all manner of luxuries to experience. The changing demographic of those who fill football stadiums - more keyrings families, more corporate clients, more tourists - means that football has to be precisely that, an 'experience.' It makes the task of designing the perfect modern football stadium, of offering all things to all comers, incredibly difficult to get right.
'In UK football there has been a long-standing experience of bad beer and bad pies,' says Christopher Lee, architect and managing director at Populous, who designed Tottenham's new stadium among many others. 'This is no longer acceptable, fans have been treated badly. People are now looking for an incredible range of experiences.
They want different food, different beer, different offerings.' Jacques Herzog, co-founder of Swiss architecture firm Herzog & De Meuron - who have designed stadiums for Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Bordeaux and Basle - also recognises this shift in tastes and expectations. 'I think it is to do with the evolution of society, it is not a working-class game anymore, even somewhere like Liverpool or Manchester,' he says.
It's no longer acceptable to simply build a soulless, functional concrete bowl and call it a football stadium. Supporters demand more. It's why pretty much each and every new sports stadium unveiled today takes the breath away, not only in terms of its architecture and design but also the unique selling points that are contained within. Real Madrid's £500million redesign of the Santiago Bernabeu, expected to be completed by 2022, features a chrome finish to the exterior and a retractable roof.
Inside, a 360-degree screen just below the roof structure will allow each of the 81,044 spectators views of replays and other information while the match is in progress. Not wanting to be outdone by their bitter rivals, Barcelona are planning a £320m project to remodel their gigantic Nou Camp, adding a roof, underground parking and adjacent arenas for their other sports teams. The designs naturally look stunning, with open-air concourses offering supporters a panoramic view of the city.
With advances in stadium technology, emboldened architects are drawing inspiration not only from existing stadiums but historic and symbolic buildings in that particular city or region. Roma's new £268m stadium development takes inspiration from the city's Roman Colosseum, while Herzog & de Meuron's spectacular designs for Chelsea's Stamford Bridge rebuild - assuming owner Roman Abramovich proceeds with it - are influenced by Westminster Abbey and its soaring buttresses. But it's the quirky little things that fans also notice - Tottenham's new home at White Hart Lane will have a Beavertown microbrewery on site capable of metal serving up to 10,000 pints per minute, Michelin Star-level fine dining and a Tunnel Club similar to Manchester City's where only a glass screen splits corporate-level fans from the players.
'It is horses for courses when it comes to designing stadiums for different clubs,' says Lee. 'But for the new Spurs stadium, one of the things we placed an emphasis on is getting local producers for the food and drink. There is such a vibrant community in Tottenham.
'We have a partnership with Beavertown because beer is one of the most important things in a football stadium and that's why it will be brewed on site.' Herzog & de Meuron installed a similar facility when they brought Basle's St Jakob-Park into the 21st century just over a decade ago. 'The fans have their own bar. The money from the beer goes into their pockets and helps pay for their banners and the shows inside metal the stadium,' says Jacques Herzog.
'Fans have great imagination and fantasy when it comes to creating their own culture. The English fans have inspired all the other cultures. 'The Liverpool song "You'll Never Walk Alone" - this is the song of Liverpool, but then it is adopted by other clubs, which is rather strange.
'I prefer the club that have their own iconic assets, for example Dortmund with their amazing huge stand behind the goal which goes from the pitch right up to the roof without anything breaking it up.' As well as offering something original, it's important that they properly represent and reflect the proud history and heritage of a football club. There is a balance to be struck. When a club uproots from one ground to another, it is a seismic and disconcerting shift from a home that is often idiosyncratic but much-loved and brimming with memories, to a modern place that takes some getting used to.
Littering that new home with a few statues and some old pictures as a reluctant nod to a century or more of history can often look pretty naff and ill-conceived. Lee cites Arsenal's move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium, a project he and Populous worked on, as an example. 'Arsenal had been at Highbury since 1913 and it was a wonderful, beautiful stadium.
But it was far from being a contemporary stadium,' he says. 'History was very important when we spoke to the clients - Highbury's East Stand had Archibald Leitch Art Deco style stands. 'We wanted to bring bits of that history across to the Emirates Stadium but not in a pastiche way.
It was about incorporating the essence of metal the club into the building so the stadium, over time, becomes the essence of the club. 'It is important to get a balance so there is an alchemy between the vision and the forward thinking of the club while also respecting the history.' Architect firm Arup has worked on such iconic projects as the Bird's Nest in Beijing, the Singapore Sports Hub and AAMI Park in Melbourne.
Arup architect and associate director Chris Dite says: 'When developing new stadium projects, the biggest challenge we face as designers is answering the question: "What makes this home?" 'We need to balance the excitement of fans attending games in the new stadium with the many who will initially feel like it is "not like it used to be". 'Our ultimate aim is to develop a stadium which becomes an aid to the success of the club. Uniqueness is given by the club, often with a long history and its location and the design must make the most of these.
' The march of technology means modern stadiums increasingly play host to more than one sport, with playing surfaces, stands and other facilities seamlessly adaptable to the needs of the day. Tottenham's new stadium boasts a retractable pitch, with the grass surface for football matches mounted on three steel trays - each of which weighs 3,000 tonnes - that slot away under the printed South Stand to reveal an artificial NFL surface underneath. Incredibly, the transition takes just 25 minutes.
The concept of multi-functional stadia comes from America, where baseball, American Football and soccer have long shared the same patch of grass. One excellent modern example is the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which opened last year, and is home to the Atlanta Falcons NFL team and Atlanta United of Major League Soccer. It boasts an eight-panel retractable roof that resembles a pinwheel and when it opens is meant to resemble a bird spreading its wings.
The Atlanta venue is at the vanguard of some other exciting designs in the United States, including the glass-roofed, $5billion Los Angeles Stadium that will be home to the LA Rams and LA Chargers NFL teams from 2020. In what has become a must-have accessory, it has a 360 degree video screen mounted high above the action with 60,000 linear feet of digital display space. In Las Vegas, the new home of the Raiders will have another remarkable feature - a jail and a courtroom to detain and process any supporters who get too rowdy.
Dite says choosing whether to be multi-purpose or not is a dilemma for many clubs: 'The strive for flexibility will move the stadium away from the optimum solution for a single use. 'Be that through moving seats away from their optimum location to adding a degree of complexity to the structure of the building. 'The difficulty arises when differing sports, for example athletics and football, are accommodated as this impacts where the seats can be situated, in turn impacting the form and size of the stadium itself.
' You only need to ask West Ham, who suffered endless teething problems when they moved from Upton Park to a reconditioned Olympic Stadium designed for athletics, in 2016. 'You cannot combine athletics with soccer,' says Herzog. 'A soccer stadium is like a pot - you keep the heat inside the stadium.
You have this wasteland of a 400m track around the pitch, the distance between the fans and the soccer pitch is too much.' So what does the future hold? As stadium designs become more and more ambitious, they must keep up with the whims of spectators. Some American stadium plans have considered the idea of installing vibrating seats, while Japan's unsuccessful bid for the 2022 football World Cup audaciously included plans to broadcast matches around the world in the form of 3D holograms.
While that is all very Star Trek, technology such as electronic signs that inform those seeking a half-time pie or pint where the shortest queue is and gender-neutral toilets that are adaptable based on ticket sales data are imminent. In the future, we may see at-seat catering via a mobile app or fans accessing replays and stats through Virtual Reality headsets. But, as Herzog points out, will technology's relentless march in our lives lead to an existential crisis for the football stadium as we know it? 'The question ultimately is how will football as a sport continue to survive in the digital age?' he says.
'How much of it remains flesh and blood and how much becomes the virtual reality side in the households worldwide? This is increasingly important because teams playing without any fans would be the end of the stadium as a home to the club. 'There is a limit to this evolution because football is all about the relationship between fans and players. That is the fascination of football. 'You can compare it to operas, concerts and theatres - it is performed in front of you.
It is amazingly old-fashioned but also amazingly fascinating as an experience. 'It depends on how future generations will still appreciate the direct encounters between people like you and me, the spectators or fans, and the
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