As the next wave of highly-advanced sporting venues incorporate increasingly elaborate hospitality provisions, designers will need to balance global appeal with the local connections these structures have long served.

Under the spotlight

Following a controversial and ultimately successful bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, Saudi Arabia has added a series of 15 ambitious stadium projects to its already crowded drawing board. In addition to The Line, a 170-km-long linear city snaking through Tabuk Province, and a floating Red Coast port complex, kingdom-spanning plans now include landmark sporting arenas and entertainment venues that promise to break ground in scale, scope and sustainability.

Image: Courtesy of Populous

Among the stadiums designed by Populous, early renderings of the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium in Riyadh depict an iridescent glass-and-screen clad façade.

From the futuristic Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium with its iridescent glass-and-screen-clad exterior to the terrain-inspired natural forms of King Salman International Stadium – both designed by Populous – these early renderings hint not only at Saudi Arabia’s lofty cultural and geopolitical aspirations but at an intention to usher in a new chapter for stadium design at large – one that extends their purpose far beyond match day.

With a decidedly international and touristic outlook, these projects increasingly position stadiums as the core of new urban environments; they become part of wider campuses and districts that see on-field action supported by a wide variety of auxiliary provisions. However, with a long tradition as gathering places for local fans – and the heart of a team’s identity – this significant design transition has the potential to disrupt the established community connections that formed the foundations of the world’s most storied stadiums. 

Home advantage

Unveiled last year, the proposed redevelopment of Manchester United’s Old Trafford home would see a new-build stadium designed by Foster + Partners as the anchor of a surrounding ‘community district’. Across town, rivals Manchester City have already found success with this model at their Etihad Campus, which features a belt of facilities around the stadium, including a football academy, indoor BMX park and host of retail and leisure venues.

It is a natural evolution for profitable institutions, and the hospitality industry – especially local traders – are an obvious partner. Indeed, many stadium facilities remain little used by the public outside of game day or the occasional tour or corporate event, and tapping into this revenue via some sort of wider hospitality hybridization has been a prerequisite for any next generation stadium design in the last decade.

Image: Courtesy of Populous

Populous’s redevelopment of the Riverside section at Fulham FC’s Craven Cottage in London will incorporate a boutique hotel, health club, restaurants and bars, as well as a rooftop swimming pool, into an 8,000-person stand.

While historically, these elements have sprung up in vacant areas surrounding the stadiums, they've begun to creep into the grounds in recent years. This is highlighted by the newly revealed renderings for Populous’s redevelopment of the Riverside section at Fulham FC’s Craven Cottage, where an 8,000-person stand will incorporate a boutique hotel, health club, restaurants and bars, and a rooftop swimming pool. ‘Our vision for the New Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage was to create a unique experience that has not been seen before, whether in the context of football or beyond," explained Populous Senior Principal Philip Johnson in a statement. London Mayor Sadiq Khan Riverside Stand described the project as one that ‘will transcend the customary standards of football grandstands’.

Billed as a ‘European football stadium first’, a transformation of such scale will certainly extend usage beyond match day, though it will present a major dilemma. With sights set on revenue-generating international visitors, this stand will naturally attract guests for whom the match day experience is only a 90-minute slice of a multi-day itinerary. The difference might not be immediately obvious for one of the most affluent areas and fanbases in London, though its implementation at a less prosperous club would no doubt raise eyebrows. If the vision for future stadium spaces becomes increasingly geared towards this hybrid model, how much more will local fans, their core users, be asked to give over? 

Local vs global

As many major sporting associations take steps to globalize their products, a more transient fanbase is somewhat inevitable – an evolution Saudi Arabia’s new stadiums are banking on, especially as the seats in high-capacity stadiums are unlikely to be filled by national league crowds alone any time soon. Until then, the next wave of stadiums – both new-builds and renovations – will need to tread carefully and find a delicate balance between global ambition and local buy-in. 

Image: Courtesy of Foster + Partners and Populous

Based on a concept by Foster + Partners, Populous’s development of the Armco Stadium in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, is a 47,000-seat sports venue set to host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. In addition to its curving façade, the structure will be home to a variety of facilities, amenities and public spaces.

‘Traditionally, sports stadia have been designed as very inward facing pieces of physical infrastructure,’ says Jack Sallabank, founding director of Future Places Studio, the research agency behind the 2023 report, Sport and the City. ‘There's an opportunity to create new spaces within stadiums with an outward perspective, where it’s almost irrelevant that they are attached to the stadium, but it’s important that local communities can access them; for example, we’ve seen clubs partnering with the NHS for a community diagnostic unit or local schools for educational purposes.' 

Balancing the profitable hospitality provision of these in-stadium elements with purposeful community usage and publicly accessible space will be a key consideration for the next wave of projects if they are to truly, in Khan’s words, ‘transcend the customary standards’ and become the city-anchoring hubs commissioners hope. And if stadiums are required to shed some internal elements to accommodate new features, whatever replaces them must ultimately contribute to the core match-day experience as much as it does the bottom line. ‘It's really about making the experience of watching the game or the event as heightened as possible,’ Sallabank adds. ‘That match day focus still needs to be right at the top, and where the real innovation will be is how fans consume the event or the product they’re going to see.’

Cover image: With its terrain-inspired exterior, King Salman International Stadium, designed by Populous, is among a slew of other stadiums being built in Saudi Arabia ahead of the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Image: Courtesy of Populous