Stadium Development Case Studies

The new Everton Stadium is currently under construction at Bramley Moore dock in Liverpool. In the initial stages I was brought into advise the Chief Executive on various stadium issues including design, ticketing revenue, value engineering and acting as a challenge to long held assumptions.This is the fifth stadium project I have worked on for Everton over the last 24 years as a client and has given me an in-depth understanding of the fans and the club's culture. The stadium is due to open in Autumn 2024. 

The new Perth Stadium will be a 60,000 seat stadium for AFL and cricket with the option to stage international athletic events. I was brought in as an advisor to the State with a focus on all catering facilities in the stadium, both public catering and  corporate hospitality. 

My role covered three stages of the project:

• Input to the original catering design brief;
• Help in evaluation of the three shortlisted bidders to ensure compliance with the design brief ;and
• Detailed analysis and review of the scheme as the project has progressed through each design stage. This has included working with the construction contractor to value engineering the proposals to deliver the best possible customer experience as cost effectively as possible.
   

This is a AUD1.1 billion project which ihas now opened. I have been working both in the UK and in Australia and have been retained for a four year period. A great video of the stadium and its facilities can be viewed on YouTube here.

Southampton Football Club operated in one of the smallest stadium in the Premiership. They had been trying to develop a new stadium at a site on the edge of Southampton for the previous 7 years and had run up professional fees in excess of £1 million. Following  a review of the project, I came to the conclusion that with a build cost in excess of £60 million,  a financially viable stadium could never be delivered on that site and that it would be better for the club to engage with the City Council to find a new site. Within 3 months a new site was identified and the St Mary’s stadium was built at £30 million, half the previous scheme cost.

Gaelic Athletic Association

Croke Park is the home of Gaelic sports in Ireland. When the stadium redevelopment was first planned I was contracted to be their catering advisor. I helped to prepare a catering strategy and then worked up a catering design to enable the architect to design the most appropriate facilities. At the time corporate hospitality was relatively new in Ireland and the uptake of catering was uncertain. To this end we agreed that a central production kitchen in the basement with satellite kitchens throughout the first stand was the best strategy so that, as the redevelopment progressed, we could assess whether further central production was required or whether it was better to build more localised production kitchens adjacent to the facilities. In terms of public catering, the all Ireland semi finals and finals are sell out matches but some of the lesser games attract very small crowds. It was therefore agreed that for the third tier of the stadium we would not fit out catering units which might only be used two or three days a year, but instead create mobile unit bays with service outlets for water and electricity that mobile units could plug into.