Affordable Ground
Improvements
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Dave Withey: Affordable Ground Improvements
In the second of his regular columns, Arena Group’s sales and marketing director
for UK and Europe Dave Withey talks about how affordable ground improvements
can make a huge difference as football clubs climb through the divisions, and
why the company’s grandstands are increasingly appearing at Premier League
clubs’ training grounds.
“From Manchester United and Everton’s training grounds
all the way down to the Vanarama divisions we’ve worked
on installing temporary and semi-permanent
grandstands, a trend that has increased in
recent years. There was a time when
training grounds were training grounds
with marked pitches, maybe some
floodlights and changing rooms –
they didn’t need seats, even at
Premier League clubs.
Premier
League
and
Championship
clubs
are
increasingly investing more
because a lot of them are
competing in the UEFA Youth
Tournaments and are looking
to put additional spectator
seating into their training
grounds. Manchester United was
one of the first we worked with,
installing two stands for them, what
we call our Porter stands which are
prefabricated, modular, complete stands
which can be lifted up in their entirety and taken
around the ground by forklift.
The advantage for the club is that if there’s a big match or
if families want to come and watch the Under-23s play they
can sit in comfort on any of the different training pitches and
enjoy unrivalled sightlines from any point around the pitch.
We’ve also worked with Everton and Swansea City, and the
products we supplied to them were originally designed to
be cost-effective options for lower league and non-league
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clubs to upgrade their grounds as they climbed through the
divisions, but are ideal for training ground facilities.
These stands – we’ve now got around 27
variations in the range – were designed to
meet the standards and regulations these
football clubs will have to comply with,
with features such as integrated
wheelchair platforms. We also
have standing terracing which is
still permitted in the non-league
division seating regulations.
When working on the
original designs we bore in
mind that the stands have to
be cost-effective otherwise
a lot of clubs, who operate
on minimal budgets, can’t
afford them. We are stringent in
ensuring all our products conform
to all the relevant health and safety
guidelines and the Green Guide to
Safety at Sports Grounds – especially
as the clubs rise through the divisions and
require more and more seats.
We also made the stands aesthetically pleasing,
with extensive customisation options. We can put in whatever
colour or mix of coloured seats in that the club wants. We
can also put in the club’s initials in a different colour – as you
can do with a permanent stand – plus there is the option of
bespoke cladding.
We also build in space for advertising boards, which is key
for smaller football clubs who rely upon additional revenue