Ageing concrete stadiums, rising sustainability demands, the pressure to deliver higher-quality fan experiences… Worldwide, clubs and operators are having to rethink how they upgrade and future-proof their venues to keep up with modern demand.
Luckily, the SPS Stadia + Arenas system offers a solution. In this article, we interviewed our Network Partners, Innovate Stadia, who are at the forefront of SPS application in the sports and entertainment industries.
Keep reading to hear John Butler, Olan Crowley and Edward McCarthy’s thoughts on how SPS addresses the biggest challenges our clients currently face.
Olan has extensive experience in designing mixed-use projects and master planning. With over 20 years of experience sport/leisure and commercial projects of up to £300m in budget, Olan’s designs have a global reach and garnered two national design awards.
Olan, as an architect working with SPS for over a decade, what excites you most about working with our Stadia + Arenas System?
The carbon footprint of any development is now vitally important, so the speed of installation is paramount. Sports stadia are no different, with the brief sometimes being ‘can you do the 1500 seated stand in the off-season?’ That’s May to September, and the answer is usually yes with SPS!
The off-site fabrication of the SPS terracing enables a significantly reduced construction program with faster installations. I first worked with SPS on the NEC arena in Birmingham in 2008 and don’t think I’ve specified anything else since! I’m told it’s still looking as good now as the day it was installed. SPS is a building system with exceptional scope and quality.
How do you balance aesthetics with structural practicality when integrating SPS into your venue designs?
The SPS Stadia + Arenas system offers greater flexibility with cantilevered structures, but I see the benefits particularly in the lower tier. Smaller stadia sites with smaller down stands and bigger structural gridlines afford us greater opportunities to utilise dead space into usable ancillary accommodation.
For example, modular toilets and concessions are under the lower bowl seating. The more practical and usable non-football-related accommodation we can install, the greater the future revenues for the clubs we are working with.
Where do you see the next big opportunities emerging?
We are currently examining several installations in Eastern Europe where Soviet-era concrete stadiums are beginning to fail.
The initial reaction is to knock everything down and rebuild. Still, the SPS terracing overlay, which is applied to structurally sound existing terracing and bowls, has been named a game changer by some of the municipalities and state agencies we are engaged with.
We have been informed that some upcoming tenders are being rewritten to allow for “alternatives to precast or cast-in-situ concrete terracing” in their specifications.
We are also looking at three stadiums in the Caribbean that date from the 1990s and are in a very poor state due to a lack of maintenance. SPS overlay proposals will allow these venues to reopen in half the time of the projected programmed works, utilising a demolition and rebuild strategy.
With extensive experience in the global sports venue management sector, Edward is a committed advocate for the SPS Stadia + Arenas system, consistently helping clients achieve their goals by leveraging the system’s unique benefits.
Edward, you’ve seen SPS evolve from concept to proven solution. What’s been the most significant turning point in its development?
My initial impression of SPS technology was that it could be applied to a wide range of applications. My involvement with SPS has primarily been in the stadium and arena markets since my early beginnings with this incredible product.
In the past, I believe architects, QSs, contractors, and structural engineers have been blinded to the benefits of SPS and were content to stay within their comfort zones with precast concrete.
With such a short build time, project costs are easily determined, ensuring a guaranteed price with no hidden extras, which saves a client a substantial amount of money and time.
David Glover and his team have guided SPS to a competitive position within the market, which gradually understanding the benefits of SPS in the following:
- Greater predictability of program and cost.
- Highly cost-effective to construct.
- Up to 50% faster than traditional building methods.
- More terraces can be installed in a shorter period of time, giving savings on Prelims
The SPS Stadia + Arenas system, as an alternative to precast concrete, with its significantly lower weight, enables the reduction of substructure costs.
This technology outstrips traditional systems, offering over six different benefits compared to the insufficient two provided by concrete and aluminium.
Regarding sustainability, more terraces, thirty per truck, can be delivered to the site for installation, thereby reducing the number of truck movements to the site – a win for client budgets and the environment.
Having worked across so many projects with us, is there one that best captures what SPS does differently compared to other construction materials?
A prime example that best captures the benefits of SPS is the successful installation of 8,000 seats of terracing in the NEC Arena, Birmingham, UK, now known as BP Pulse Live. It took twelve weeks to redevelop the arena, with the completion of the SPS installation within just eight weeks. Having had 9-10 million footfall traffic over the last 15 years, it still looks fantastic!
Balfour Beatty said after the construction of the Olympic Swimming pool in London, that SPS was one of the best products they had ever worked with.
With that in mind, I highly recommend that club owners and venue management investigate the benefits of SPS and the numerous cost savings it offers.
With decades of industry experience (we’re told it’s exactly 150 years!), John brings both expertise and levity to the Innovate Stadia team. His portfolio spans iconic events from Pope John Paul II’s record-breaking Dublin visit to the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics.
John, you’ve been instrumental in helping grow SPS into new regions and industries. Where do you see the next big opportunities emerging?
SPS is an incredibly special material. I’ve been designing and building sports venues for many years, and I can tell you that SPS has endless uses. The SPST team has applied it to applications ranging from maritime and offshore to pressure-test enclosures and launch pads, and every time we think we’ve exhausted its possibilities, someone who really understands its properties finds another breakthrough application.
But here’s the thing: it’s very difficult to show people how revolutionary it is. You can’t just hand someone a sample and expect them to see it. It isn’t in what it looks like, but in what it does under specific conditions, the problems it solves that people didn’t even know could be solved.
In the hands of engineers and designers who understand its properties, who know how to exploit its strengths, this material transforms entire market sectors.
People ask: “What is SPS comparable to?”
The answer is nothing.