NANAWALL
Matt Thomas, product manager
For stadium hospitality suites, we’ve seen a
trend towards catering for the entertainment
side of sports.
For example, at the San Francisco Giants’
Oracle Park, the key to its suites is comfort
and it’s more of a luxury experience. It does
disconnect the individual slightly from the
game but it is suited towards a certain sports
fan who wants to be part of the experience
but not 100% oriented towards the game.
Certainly, things have become much more
experience oriented.
Elsewhere, at the Chase Center, the
Golden State Warriors’ beautiful new
stadium is built around the fan experience.
A lot of people who attend have dinner there
(because food has also become a lot better
at venues these days) and they come to
socialize while they are watching the game.
We’ve seen this trend move rapidly in this
direction since around 2012 and it has
become even more experiential oriented.
Today, there really isn’t much of a dividing
line between a concert and a sporting event,
as the event is all about the experience.
Suite design and how materials are used
has evolved along with this trend. Suites are
getting larger and are hosting more people
for corporate events, where rather than
being private and cordoned off, as was
traditionally the case, we’ve seen clients are
requesting for the use of glass dividers and
large retractable windows to help maintain a
connection to the sporting event with clear
sightlines, while also offering a level of
acoustical separation.
Where suite design will go in the
immediate future following Covid-19 is down
to the guidance of the architects and interior
designers. Our speculation is that crowd
control or traffi c flow of people could be
implemented to keep fans separated, while
grouping could be another idea to keep
groups smaller.
There is likely going to be a greater desire
for suites and we may see an increase of
them in stadia, which would mean there
are fewer people in and around the general
admission areas and people may want to
pay more for this.
It will force a rethink in design, but I don’t
envision stadium owners rushing in to rip out
rows of seats to keep fans further apart, that
would be quite radical, but we could see
seating change. Much like how movie
theaters have had to adapt to combat the
advent of big screen TVs and movie
streaming keeping people at home, they are
now offering large, comfy business class
style seats spread apart with lots of space
around them. However, this is a large
undertaking for sports arena owners.
Hypothetically, if we were to box-off
sections of seating using glass walls, like
open-top pods, it makes it easier to control
and deduce infection in the future as
individuals are sitting among a small group
rather than in open seating. If that idea is
possible it could not only change it from a
safety standpoint but it could provide a
pleasurable experience.
Even after a vaccine is found I think people
are going to now want that separation and
not be so crammed together. This idea could
work as people are going to
want a bit more space.
We know that people
will return to sports,
it’s just when and to
what degree. ■
Oracle Park,
VIP HOSPITALITY
38 www.stadia-magazine.com June 2020
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