Which Layout Makes Sense?
Designing A Multi-Field Facility
It’s a balancing act. Designing a multi-field sports facility involves meeting the needs and expectations of various stakeholders — athletes and coaches, tournament operators, facility owners, and families and fans. To serve everyone successfully, your facility design must strike a balance.
■ Athletes & Coaches. The primary focus for athletes and coaches is to ensure a safe and high-performance playing surface. This involves meticulous field orientation, accounting for factors like sun angles. Additionally, they require preparation facilities such as bullpens, batting cages, and practice infields. Strength and conditioning areas are crucial, along with proximity to parking for easy equipment movement.
■ Tournament Operators. They need a reliable playing surface, especially during and after inclement weather. Efficient flow of teams through the complex — from warm-up to post-game — is essential. Outdoor team meeting spaces and an operations center for tournament management are also key considerations. It’s also important to provide locations for tournament swag sales, which is vital for generating additional revenue.
■ Facility Owners. Whether artificial or natural, facility owners need a reliable playing field surface to minimize downtime. They often focus on maximizing income during events through extensive concessions operations and on-site attractions that keep teams and fans on-site between games. Properly sized maintenance facilities and hard surfaces for efficient traffic flow and spectator positioning are also significant considerations.
■ Families & Fans. Ensuring the safety of families and fans is paramount for any facility. That includes protection from balls leaving the playing field. Fan comfort is also crucial with considerations for shade, sightlines and restroom accessibility. Providing options for children, such as playgrounds, is essential, as is having a variety of concessions and minimizing the distance from parking lots to fields.
Approaches to design Multi-field complexes are commonly designed either in a wagon-wheel pattern or a park-like setting.
- The Wagon-Wheel Pattern: This design (above) is efficient in terms of land use, lighting and netting but can often feel cramped. It maximizes space and efficiency, but may lack character.
- A Park-Like Setting: This design (shown on previous page) provides more breathing room and allows designers to meet the diverse needs of different interest groups. Fields are more spread out, offering a comfortable and safe experience for all.
The spectrum of design Your design choice depends on the purpose of the facility. Are you catering to the community or aiming for a profitable sports tourism destination? Player-centric layouts optimize the playing experience, while spectator-centric layouts prioritize convenience and the fan experience. Owner-centric layouts cater to maximizing the number of games and generating revenue.
- Player-Centric: Optimizes field orientation, team space, and player experience. However, it may lack efficiency and proximity to amenities for spectators.
- Spectator-Centric: Focuses on spectator convenience, safety, and comfort, but it might compromise player experience and field orientation.
- Owner-Centric: A typical tournament venue layout, maximizing the number of games and revenue. It may not provide the best game experience for players and relies heavily on team fees.
Arriving at the right balance Designing a multi-field facility is about finding the right balance between the needs of athletes, spectators, and owners. The choice of design approach should align with the intended user base and the facility’s purpose. Ultimately, the success of the sports complex depends on how well it addresses the unique requirements of each stakeholder group while ensuring safety, efficiency and revenue generation.
