Fan experience design is far broader than the venue itself. “Often people only think about when the spectators are in their seats,” says Reed Alvarado, who leads our Major Event Development and Infrastructure Advisory practice in the US. “But the fan experience really starts from the moment you buy your ticket and start planning your journey. You’re thinking about how to get there, what you can take into the stadium, and whether you’ll be able to find everything you need to enjoy the event. Creating a unified experience means coordinating between stakeholders across transportation, the building itself, and their digital experience too.” 

The US is preparing to host a string of major international events after a 25-year hiatus during which expectations have radically change. Reed is involved in planning the Olympics in LA in 2028, and the Winter Olympics in Utah in 2034. There’s been a shift in how the Games interacts with host cities, he says. Rather than taking over, they are now designed to tread lightly and make use of the existing infrastructure, leaving a legacy of subtle upgrades rather than white elephants and oversized infrastructure. “When we’re designing both stadiums and transit nodes, we have to plan for an Olympic-scale event, as well as everyday sports and commuter uses.”

Transport is the first and last touchpoint, so it needs to be either at worst “neutral”, but ideally “awesome”, says Graeme Steverson, technical director of planning and mobility at WSP in Australia. “What we don’t want is to become a bad memory. Good transport planning can help extend the fan experience away from the venue, so it’s not just a journey, it’s part of the event.”

Mass transit is an efficient way to move large numbers of people, and has the potential to offer a more positive experience – what’s fun about sitting in traffic on your own? Sustainable modes should have the “rockstar treatment”, says Steverson, with transit stops ideally around 300m from the entrance – short enough not to feel like a trek, but far enough so queues don’t back up into the venue. 

Capacity is crucial: “We make sure there are a lot of trains or buses ready to go as soon as the whistle blows or the encore’s finished. Most people accept they’re in a big crowd and it’ll take time, but if they can’t see any trains or buses turning up or the queue moving, the experience becomes negative very quickly.”

Proactive transport planning can predict trends and manage service levels across city networks: “In Sydney, Australia, we know that there will be more demand in the western part of the city for football matches and less in the north and south. But if it’s rugby union, demand in the north goes up. Concerts attract people from across the metropolitan area. It’s important that the transport network behaves differently depending on the event – the routes remain consistent, but the number of services on each line varies to meet demands.”

Freezing at the start of an evening, sweating by the end? That’s because older stadiums relied on “brute force” ventilation, says Alastair MacGregor, executive vice president of Property and Buildings at WSP in the US. “It’s clunky, it’s really hard to optimize them for the fan experience, and it adds operational cost.”

Today, we engineer systems designed to be responsive to crowd conditions, and modular, so different parts of a building can be switched on and off as needed: “That can help improve the experience for fans, players and artists, and if you want to host a high-school graduation, you have the flexibility to do that without turning everything up to 100%. The more operationally resilient a building is, the more events you can say yes to.” 

The growth of women’s sports has upended how stadiums are managed, the facilities they need, and how people move through them. 

For example, men’s football crowds are predominantly male, moving as individuals and surging in just before kick-off, to the toilets and bars at half-time, with a mass exodus at the end. “The same people may go to a women’s game, but with their families, their wives and their kids, so the demographics are completely different,” says Andy Leeson, head of people movement at WSP in the UK and Ireland. “You might have much younger kids, so there are groups moving around throughout the event, with large bags and all the paraphernalia that you need with small children.”

Pedestrian modelling can help forecast all of this and identify ways to make the same venue work for very different movement patterns. “Expectations are higher, but technology is advancing too,” says Andy. “That means we can analyze crowd movements in more detail. It’s not just about cramming in as many seats as possible, you need more space that you can adapt or add pop-ups or temporary hoardings, to suit the feel and the mood, create the right ambience.”

We also need to provide more breakout spaces outside of seating areas, he adds. “These days, sport is more of a social event. You’re not just going to watch a game. You’re going to share an experience and tell people that you’re there.”