The global convention for the sports industry, which was held in Manchester earlier this month, highlighted the £45m development of Ashton Gate and discussed the journey of transforming it into a 27,000-seater, state-of-the-art, multi-sport venue with first-class facilities to include hospitality, conference and catering.
Martin Griffiths and Mark Kelly discussed the development process with a commercial perspective, allowing them to prioritise revenue generation through a variety of streams whilst still delivering the best experience for sports fans.
Martin Griffiths has been able to use his hotel construction and management background to prioritise the commercial aspect of the Ashton Gate project, ensuring the venue’s commercial viability all year round.
Martin talked of the importance of putting fans first and ensuring fans received a great experience through hardware and state-of-the-art software to provide an effective digital environment.
The ability for the redeveloped stadium to provide a variety of regular revenue generation opportunities was vital.
A number of improvements were made, such as an increase in capacity to 27,000, hospitality and conference rooms, a Sports Bar and a coffee shop all aimed at extending the potential revenue to be brought in.
Mark Kelly, managing director, shared his experiences of running a new stadium from the operational side. Providing insight into the hard work behind the scenes and the difficulties that come with such a high-level redevelopment, ranging from logistics to fan requests and improved employment rate within the BS3 area.
The experience of Ashton Gate’s redevelopment hopes to influence other clubs looking into the prospect of improving their stadia in future. The successful rebuild of Ashton Gate hopes to give other clubs significant insight into how to approach new multi-use stadia projects like ours.
