BEST NON-MATCH DAY USE OF VENUE 2019
Ashton Gate Stadium
Ashton Gate is a 27,000-seater stadium and home to Bristol City FC; Bristol Bears Rugby; Bristol Sport; Bristol Robins Community Foundation; Bristol Bears Community Foundation and the Bristol Sport Foundation.
Ashton Gate Stadium completed a £45m rebuild in September 2016 to transform it into a modern 365-day-a-year multi-purpose venue and the largest conference and events venue in the South West of England. This was Phase 1 of Stephen Lansdown’s vision to provide the city of Bristol with a stadium fit for the top-flight and economic regeneration to an area of the city that has been traditionally overlooked. In the last two years the rebuild of Ashton Gate has injected an additional £9m into the local economy.
From the moment the £45m rebuild began there was the ambition to bring an incredible concert line-up to the city and in 2019 that ambition was realised.
Four concerts in less than four weeks with four very different demographics, from Rod Stewart on May 22nd to the ultimate boy / girl bands in Take That and Spice Girls to West Country band Muse in the middle…
Carrow Road
Carrow Road, the home of Norwich City FC, is a self-sustainable venue with big aspirations. With in house catering delivered by the incredible Delia’s Canary Catering, the Club’s non-matchday business is ever growing and always looking for the next unique stadium event.
Mid 2018/19, Club Legend Grant Holt took a leap of faith.. training to become a Professional Wrestler. Training with the stars of the 2019 Summer blockbuster movie ‘Fighting With My Family’, staring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Global WWE Superstar and Norwich City local fan, Paige.
The Club partnered with the WaW (the Knight’s wrestling promotion) in hosting FIGHTMARE at Carrow Road.
FIGHTMARE took center stage at Carrow Road on June 2nd 2019, attracting 4,000 spectators, breaking the U.K attendance record for an independent stadium Pro Wrestling event. Grant Holt came out on top wrestling in the evening’s main event, alongside WWE Legend and Hall of Famer – Billy Gunn. Fans were also treated to seeing WWE Legend Mick Foley,.
The event celebrated cultures, characters and personalities from around the world – including featuring the world’s only LGBT tag-team, Queer World Order.
Emirates Stadium
The Emirates Stadium offers versatile and unique event solutions for an array of clients from all industries. The team works closely alongside clients with confidence of capturing every detail and requirement to ensure a truly memorable experience is created for guests. To provide a first-class facility, the Club continually undertakes renovations to maintain its sense of style and class. This has been evident with the renovations in Dial Square, Highbury and the new Avenell Club. Whilst delivering a great match day experience for our fans, the new refurbishments have presented a number of challenges as we move away from conventional corporate meetings. This meant the team had to look at ways to reposition our product and proactively sell the space. The vision was to utilise the spaces in new ways by expanding out of the corporate world into experience led events.
These new events solutions have enticed new and existing clients to try an alternative style of event with creative packages. This has been a huge financial success and subsequently our occupancy levels have flourished. We are very proud of our team’s achievement this year and winning this award would be the most amazing recognition for our work.
Etihad Stadium
The Premier League season goes to the final game of the season and Manchester City are playing away at Brighton – what was the most original way we could ensure our fans in Manchester and across the world could feel connected and potentially celebrate together. Our answer, fans first.
With the Etihad Stadium out of use, we transformed the external concourse of the stadium into two unique and separate event spaces on what was a historic day A 10,000-capacity fan zone with supporters at the heart of the experiences and fun, engaging activities for all ages to screen the final match of the season with a carnival style atmosphere.
Using the Colin Bell Stand glass atrium as a projection canvas we built a full stage with festival level production to host a winner’s party.
We flew the team back directly from Brighton to celebrate with our fans in Manchester The live broadcast connected our global fans who were intrinsically linked to the celebrations through the day.
A unique football experience for Manchester City fans around the world to celebrate together which saw approximately 20,000 fans in Manchester and hundreds of thousands around the world following online via the website
Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge has been delivering first class hospitality to fans for over 40 years. Steeped in history and with a longstanding sporting legacy, the stadium, located on London’s Fulham Road, offers its visitors a range of flexible event spaces with 25 function rooms, 60 syndicate rooms and the Great Hall, it is ideal for large exhibitions and conferences, attracting a diverse mix of national and international clients to the stadium and its impressive 11.5 acre site.
Flexibility, speed and service are key to Chelsea’s event operation. The team works tirelessly to ensure that the stadium and its leisure outlets are available to everyone, including local residents, businesses and visiting guests. With sales and marketing campaigns implemented throughout the year, to ensure the stadium is generating business and revenue across all of its outlets. The stadium and its expansive site, one of London’s most versatile venues and premier destinations for business and leisure, is often described as London’s only ‘under one roof’ venue.
Tynecastle Park
Tynecastle Park, the home of Heart of Midlothian, played host to the spectacular opening event of the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under Gustavo Dudamel, performed movie music from the golden age of Hollywood on a specially constructed Hollywood Bowl stage to an audience of 15,000 in the biggest free event of its kind in the International Festival’s history. With support from sponsors, Aberdeen Standard Investments and working with over 35 community organisations, Hearts ensured that over 3,000 people from who would not otherwise been able to attend, could enjoy the spectacle, providing free travel and family picnics. The Club used its significant outreach to ensure that this was the first ever orchestral concert for over 70% of attendees.
Hearts’ objective in redeveloping its famous stadium in 2017 was to strengthen its position as a hub for socio and economic good in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. As an an established force for good in the heart of Edinburgh, Hearts uses the power of sport and the draw of the Club to provide meaningful education, employability, mental and physical health, social inclusion, environmental and sport-related programmes. The success of the concert in including some of the capital’s most marginalised communities is a particular highlight in the Club’s expansive programme of work in 2019.
Villa Park
Villa Park home of Aston Villa Football was challenged with yearly budget growth for meetings & events following an uncertain position within the events industry with the club being relegated and the sale of shares in the club to two new owners.
Villa Park & catering partner Levy UK challenged the traditional style of meetings & events by a £1 million investment in the Trinity Stand, with a newly designed premium Directors Club. The team launched an innovate Mindful meetings package to be mindful to their guests and planet. It was also imperative to design new creative ways to utilise existing space to successfully over achieve the budget growth.