Stadium Australia - Redefining the Customer in Stadium Design and Construction
by Alan Patching
We live in a constantly changing world. An internationally respected motivational speaker of the seventies used to lead with the line "If you always do what you've always done you will always have what you always had." Maybe this is still so for individuals, but it is definitely not an accurate observation for business approaching the turn of the century. For many corporates, always doing what they always have done would be a recipe to diminish business at a rate something akin to the reciprocal of the expansion rate of rabbits on performance enhancing drugs. I have a feeling that stadia, particularly new and as yet not established stadia, fit into this category.
Cognisant of the amazing rate of change in today's world, Stadium Australia Group has insisted upon two key factors in its design and construction. Firstly, where appropriate and where budgets permit, the latest in technology is being included in the design. Secondly, the design includes 'future proofing' (building in of flexibility) to allow ease of retrofitting of the advanced experience enhancing technologies expected to be developed in the future. By the term 'experience enhancing', I refer to leisure and communications technologies that will undoubtedly further develop from the personal video/games/telephone packages available in every seat (for some airlines)on the recently released Boeing 777 jets to specific packages appropriate for use in stadia and other sporting and entertainment facilities.
Examples of this 'future proofing' for technological development include installation of a fibre optic spine throughout the facility, and construction of the seating to allow future installation of personal video screens and perhaps communications technology. The fibre optics system has a capacity far in excess of current demands, and is distributed via a loop in the basement service level and four major risers to four points on each level of the stadium. Here it stands ready for connection of both the wide range of technical devices currently available, and the apparently limitless technologies that are expected to leap from blue print to consumer availability in the next blink of an eyelid.
New Zealand speaker and business man, Bruce Cotterill, sums the situation up beautifully when he says that 'technology really is creating history in more ways than one. What else has ever been able to get men arguing with commitment about who has the smallest." It is this miniaturisation Bruce refers to that will be the key to technological enhancement of stadia at the customer interface in the future. And, after seeing the bulky 20 megabyte hard disc drives of only eight or nine years ago replaced by a credit card device with the same capacity in modern personal organisers, who would doubt that a postage stamp will be all that is required to wrap the latest magnetic storage device of similar capacity in a year or so. The good news for stadia developers is that, with miniaturisation, generally come cheaper costs.
These two factors endorse Stadium Australia's future proofing' approach as sensible at worst. In comparison with some facilities it might even be seen to be visionary. Stadium Australia sees no advantage in rushing into the capital cost of installing all technology at this stage. We would prefer to proceed with inclusion of the essential facilities within the initial budget and to look at technology enhancements and the commercial options these create in the clear knowledge of what developments can ensure that the facility continues to provide the optimum customer experience. At the appropriate time, the Stadium Australia decision regarding technology will extend beyond what will be installed and which seating areas and other facilities will be fitted, to the method of funding the installation. The options here might extend from our own capital expenditure to outsourcing this installation to a specialist provider of services on negotiated commercial terms.
One thing is certain, Stadium Australia's owners and management feel that considering the demands of future technological development during the initial design will be mandatory for all future world class stadia design.
The most satisfying thing about Stadium Australia's decision to futureproof for coming technologies has been that our deliberations have not been driven merely by expectations of coming technologies, but rather by a clear customer focus. In fact, while Stadium Australia is a response to a need generated by Sydney's winning of the right to stage the 2000 Olympics and Paralympics, and certainly its design pays specific sensitivity and respect to the requirements of these most important events, its design and construction are fundamentally driven by the requirements of the thirty year tenure the current owners have prior to the facility being handed back to the Government of New South Wales, free of charge, for the continuing benefit of the community. In addition the design recognises the contractual requirement that the building allows the Government to be able to achieve a further twenty years of performance from the building after taking ownership.
During the design development process Tower Hill Investment Managers (THIM) has worked with Stadium Australia Management (SAM), the Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA), Ogden International Facility Corporation (OIFC)and Gardner Merchant (GM)and the Obayashi/Multiplex (MPX) design and construction team to maximise the commercial opportunities that the stadium opens. THIM realises that survival and success for thirty years demands a business based approach to the design. While construction time and budget limitations must always be respected, the design and construction team has been encouraged not to leave unturned any design stone that might reasonably lead to a worthwhile commercial return. Part and parcel of this commercial review has been a conscious effort to define the customer for Stadium Australia. Not just today's customer, but any possible customer likely to emerge in our thirty year ownership of the facility and beyond.
Essentially, Stadium Australia takes the attitude that any person or organisation likely to utilise the facility as a hirer, performer (or player/contestant), spectator, diner, club member, or corporate facilities visitor-even the international television viewing public of a major event-is a customer, and that the building should be designed to service each of their needs to an exceptional level. Intelligent and flexible design has been the key to solving numerous specific problems arising from this need to provide a world class facility for all categories of customer.
Design Generally
Australians' obsession with sport is legendary. One survey indicated that 74% of Australians attend sporting events, 98% watch sport on television, and a staggering 13.2% of the average household budget is spent on sport. This is compelling information indeed for the consortium that won the right to construct a stadium to house 80,000 people for the millenium Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sydney.
The innovation for which Stadium Australia will soon become internationally known was first demonstrated during the process by which this consortium, headed by Hambros Australia and Multiplex Constructions, was awarded the development rights by OCA. A fully underwritten financial proposal based on the sale of Gold and Platinum memberships raised $350m to fund the project. The proposal was based upon the provision of 110,000 seats in the Stadium until after the Games. This will make it the largest ever Olympic crowd in modern history, easily breaking the standard of 101,000 set by Los Angeles in 1984.
Actually the maximum capacity will be 115,600 seats, but press requirements and similar limitations apply to govern the actual final seated number. After the Games, Stadium Australia will be converted to '80,000' mode. This will be achieved by demolishing the end stands, which will be constructed as two level seating facilities with no roof for the period until after the Games, and rebuilt as single level stands with roof in 2001. (Post-publication, post-Olympics note: the venue held some 118,000 people for the opening event of the Sydney Olympic Games).
This spirit of innovation is continued throughout the design. While sport is the focus, there are many more plots to the full story of Stadium Australia. In true 'fourth generation' manner, variety and style of food service, and the proposed range of sporting, cultural and general entertainment are being planned not only to provide customers with the ultimate stadium experience, but also to set standards by which future stadia, globally, will be judged.
Apart from the many food and beverage concessions serving the full range of patrons from Gold Members to general admission with food styles covering the traditional pie and chips through to 'shashlik and chardonnay' fare, an amazing 5,000 patrons can be catered in sit down dining facilities ranging from bistros to corporate suites to fine dining.
This outstanding capacity is supported by a basement service level loop road which circumnavigates the facility and provides direct access to all storage areas, preparation rooms, the arena, and all levels of the stadium via four spiral ramps. Apart from their significant structural and aesthetic functions, these serve as general admission access on event days. The central cores to these ramps house the waste removal chutes and the ducting for the ventillation systems.
Goods lifts in each of the four corners of the stadium complete the service access plan, in which the access routes used by athletes, patrons and service personnel (in the back of house function) are designed never to cross.
Club members and corporate hirers
Platinum Members will enjoy dedicated facilities with a magnificent view over the arena from level 5 on the west side thus visually exploiting the Australian tradition of sporting teams entering the arena from the west stand which will be honoured in Stadium Australia.
Platinum Members facilities include a lounge and fine dining restaurant, and the fine standard of internal comfort will be extended to padded seating with armrests in their dedicated external seating area.
Gold Members will enjoy seating in prime locations in each of the three bowls. Club facilities are distributed over the second and fourth levels and are dedicated. They include open plan lounges, bistro, and an a la carte restaurant, in close proximity to the Gold Members dedicated seating areas.
The key design foci for corporate suites have been flexibilty of style and the elevation of the hirer's experience to beyond benchmarks currently existing globally. Hirer's will have the choice of single or double module suites in any location on level 3, which is dedicated to these facilities. In addition a large number of suites on the western stand have been designed to give complete flexibility of size to fit the demands identified by the corporate facilities marketing plan which will be launched by SAM during 1998.
A unique design feature sees the corporate suites located below the mid bowl rather than the usual position above and to the rear of the mid bowl. The suites are cantilevered some 17 metres from the main concourse structure, a challenge of no small order for MPX but necessary to afford the hirer the unique opportunity of both a better view of the playing arena than most stadia of similar size, and the opportunity to be literally amid the atmosphere. Hirers get to hear and feel the atmosphere in a manner not possible in other Australian facilities, or, to the best of my knowledge, any other stadia in the 100,000 seat league anywhere in the world.
Level 3 suites have been designed to allow inclusion of individual serveries to facilitate an option of sit down dining for twenty patrons. In addition there are twenty seats in the bowl for each suite, a feature not matched in some other currently high profile Australian facilities.
Suites will be fitted with television, and fax and phone connections, and will have the capacity for inclusion of an en suite toilet if the hirer requires.
There are additional suites on level 5 in the east stand, including one quadruple module suite that will serve as an event hirer's suite.
Open corporate boxes located at the rear of the lower bowl complete the usual corporate facilities, with four 'try line' restaurants, which will be available for hiring, adding yet another dimension of flexibility to the attraction of the facility.
Hirer's/Players facilities
A sign in the players change room in the Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, USA says "The fan is the most important member of our team." Like Ericsson Stadium, Stadium Australia has paid great attention to design impact on fans and modern gladiator alike.
Change rooms have been designed as multi use facilities. They are designated in pairs on either side of a generous warm up space, which itself could be used as temporary change rooms or a conference room for training camps as required. The change rooms have been sized to meet the demands of the most demanding expected user, and to service all codes of football played in Australia including the matches of the Australian Football League, contested by on field teams of eighteen players each.
The players' facilities in Stadium Australia will be the best in the country.
Depending on the final evolution of the operations plan, a banquet hall that will seat in excess of 1,100 people will be available for hirers, as will the previously mentioned level 5 east hirer's suite.
General Public
The general public will have access to a wide range of food concessions and a number of restaurants in the facility.
The original intention was to reconfigure the facility specifically for rectangular field sports such as rugby and soccer on completion of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Stadium Australia Group has just announced the commitment of the Australian Football League to play in the facility post Olympics, a possibility not considered by the original design. AFL is played on an oval arena much larger than the rugby field. To cater for both sports, the lower bowl east and west is being redesigned to move on a system of motorised wheels and railway like tracks some fifteen metres. Moved forward, the seating bowl configuration for rectangular field sports is achieved. In the retracted position, the bowl is configured for optimum patron / arena intimacy at AFL matches.
Moving seats in stadia is not a new phenomenum. What is innovative about the Stadium Australia concept is that some 20,000 seats positioned on post tensioned concrete (as opposed to the more usual steel) plats will be reconfigured at the press of a button within a time period of in the order of eight hours. This innovative capacity will allow different stadium uses on consecutive days.
Stadium Australia is of striking design and an eye catching feature of that design is its spectacular roof. Supported on arches that weigh 650 tonnes each and span 296 metres, the roof sheeting is of polycarbonate sandwich construction and is up to 48 % translucent yet filters harmful sunrays, a welcome relief for patrons in Australia's strong sunshine. The roof is 30,000 metres in area and captures water to be used for field irrigation and toilet flushing as part of several environmental initiatives incorporated into the design. In all 3,200 cubic metres of rainwater can be held in four basement level storage tanks, one in each corner of the facility.
A significant feature of the roof is that it will minimise the casting of heavy shadows over the field thereby deleting the strong lighting contrasts so common with opaque roofed stadia and enhancing the television viewers' picture of the arena. Great flexibility of camera positions and a seating policy that will maximise the number of patrons within the camera sweep on non-capacity days contribute further to Stadium Australia's quest to set world standards as a 'broadcast friendly' facility.
In addition to the recycling of water, Stadium Australia's environmentally sensitive design includes for passive heating and cooling wherever practical, maximum use of natural light, composting of waste, and gas co-generation is used for heating water.
Design and construction team
The approach has involved a number of outstanding firms and individuals. The project is being delivered by the design and construction approach within a BOOT scheme (Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer-back to the Government). The contractors, Obayashi Corporation and Multiplex Constructions, to their credit, have assembled an innovative and experienced team. No aspect of design detail has been overlooked with over sixty specialist consultants involved. Bligh Lobb Sports Architects, a joint venture between Brisbane (Aust) based Bligh Voller Nield and London's Lobb Partnership lead the design, ably supported in the engineering departments by Modus group of London and Sinclair Knight Mertz in the civil and structure arena and Flack and Kurts of New York and Sydney in the technology field. Rudds of Sydney are providing the general services input.
Old relationships renewed on the project add a dimension of stability in those inevitable moments of creative conflict. The writer and Ed Obiala, project manager for Multiplex, worked together in delivering Sydney's $1 billion plus Chifley Tower, and Rod Sheard, chairman of Lobb Partnership attended Queensland Institute of Technology with the writer thirty years ago. Several architects, including Paul Henry, John Whatmore, Megan Ashfield and John Baker, have worked in various offices of the Lobb group prior to teaming up for this project. The design process is managed by Multiplex's much experienced Bill Buckland, whose years working on structures of a wide range of styles in the USA has proven invaluable.
Peer review is provided by specialist consultants hired by the Olympic Coordination Authority. In the architectural review role is American architectural firm, HOK. Operational input to the design comes primarily from Stadium Australia Management, sister firm of Tower Hill, which has sub contracted everyday operations to Ogden International Facilities Corporation's Sydney office. Catering services will be provided by Gardner Merchant while Ticketek will service stadium ticketing needs. Beverage rights go to Coca Cola Amatil and Lion Nathan. All sub-contractors also have equity in the venture.
British Olympian and world record holder, Sebastian Coe was the first track legend to visit Stadium Australia. So impressed was he with the facility that his planned twenty minute visit extended for several hours. Recent visits by Carl Lewis and 400m World Champion, Cathy Freeman drew similar expressions of praise for this outstanding facility. But it is another world champion athlete who inspires me with the conclusion for this article. Roger Bannister didn't only break the four minute barrier for the mile before any other human being, he shattered the mental limitations of years. In the year following Bannister's achievement some 37 runners broke those 'impossible' mental and physical barriers, and in the next year over 300 followed in his footsteps. Now, an athlete could not expect to be guaranteed a start in an international mile/1,500m event if he or she could not match or better the equal of the four minute mile.
There is no doubt that Stadium Australia will provide the environment in which many exceptional human beings will attain goals now considered unimaginable. In its design and construction Stadium Australia itself mirrors this in that it sets standards for customer focused design and construction which, like the achievement of Roger Bannister, challenge all who seek to be world class to match.
This article is copyright. The author consents to this article being reprinted for personal use or publication, on the condition no changes are made to the topic, content and author's name, and the words "Copyright held by Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd. Alan Patching is one of Australia's leading business presenters and inspirational speakers." are included at the end of the article.
For more information on this and other leadership, management or project management topics, please visit our e-books page.