The Yorkshire firms building the world’s most famous sports stadia
From the invention of cricket, football and rugby, to the foundation of the world’s first professional football club to a legion of sporting legends we have produced, Great Britain has been at the centre of international sport for 150 years.
The likes of football are a far cry from their initial iteration and are now international spectaculars, attracting a global audience of billions.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAnd with that audience has come the transformation of sports ground from drab affairs, where the biggest luxury was a corrugated iron roof, to breathtaking feats of modern engineering excellence.
Over the last few years, engineering firms from Yorkshire have been at the absolute heart of designing and constructing some of the most famed stadia on the planet, spanning the likes of the All England Tennis Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, Wembley Stadium and the grounds inhabited by some of the most successful and best known sporting clubs in the world.
Sheffield expertise
One such firm is Sheffield’s SCX.
Its list of projects reads like a veritable who’s who of the best known grounds in sport, having worked on Royal Ascot, Wembley, retractable roofs for both Centre and Number One Court at Wimbledon and, most recently, Tottenham Hotspur’s state-of-the-art White Hart Lane.
The work at the North London ground alone is a world first in terms of what it delivers.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIts systems mean the 62,000 seat stadium’s grass surface can be rolled back to reveal a bespoke NFL pitch below.
It means the stadium can also be used for music concerts in addition to hosting matches between NFL and Premier League teams, two of the most popular leagues in the world.
Andy Whitworth, the firm’s Special Projects managing director, traces the arch of the firm’s involvement in the world of stadia back to its first commission in the sporting world.
“We started on Wimbledon Centre Court about 13 years ago and it was on the back of a project
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Adthat we did for Ascot Racecourse where we developed a unique turf crossing that is still in use today.
“On the back of the huge success of Centre Court that instantly give us recognition within the stadia world as having a capability within this market. It opened many doors and lots of opportunities.
“Once you have achieved that sort of level of iconic client, it sets you apart from the competition.”
Natural progression
Mr Whitworth said the transition into what is a lucrative but ultimately niche market was a natural progression from the work it had been doing in overhead cranes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdDespite the complexity of the work and the highly competitive tender process, he said the firm was confident that it had the team and skills to deliver.
“If you look at our special projects they have increased in value and complexity.
“We have virtually the same team as when we started.
“It is one of our ket USPs. You can’t deliver these iconic projects without the support. They are the backbone of our business and Sheffield and South Yorkshire is where we tap our engineers from.”
Founder and chairman Simon Eastwood also attributes the success to the region’s engineering prowess.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“Sheffield and the North generally has been very good for us,” he said.
“When we discuss what we did with Tottenham, and Wimbledon I think it would have been nigh on impossible for a southern company to have actually tackled such a project such as those just because they don’t have the engineering background and support that we have in this part of the world.”
Next phase
SCX has no plans to rest on its laurels. It has worked in Qatar and Brazil on a number of projects and is currently talking about work for six or seven stadia around the world, projects it described as “really exciting”.
Mr Eastwood said that he hoped the fact that a Yorkshire company had delivered such world leading engineering projects would inspire and encourage more young people to take up the profession, lamenting that it is not seen as a top career option for schoolchildren.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“If we had more engineers than the north would do better,” he said.
“Working for us is very interesting. The pay is good. And you can take this knowledge anywhere in the world and get a job within a couple of days.
“You just can’t say that with most jobs.”
Steel infrastructure
SCX does not stand alone in the pantheon of Yorkshire engineering firms delivering grand sports projects.
Severfield, Britain’s biggest constructional steelwork contractor, has worked on nearly every major stadium development in the UK over the past few decades, with the notable exception of Wembley.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHowever the Thirsk-based Severfield is more than happy that it didn’t win the steel contract for Wembley Stadium, which opened in 2007 after years of delays, cost increases and accusations that the steelwork “was not fit for purpose”.
It was a lesson that other contractors learned and again Tottenham Hotspur FC turned its eyes northwards when it turned to Severfield for the steelworks at its new stadium.
Severfield’s chief executive Alan Dunsmore described the Spurs work as “extraordinary”.
“It’s a great success. Spurs played the last game at the end of the 2016/17 season and started demolishing the stadium the following week,” he said.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“Most people thought it would be a two year build, but it was done in a one year programme.”
Mr Dunsmore said that stadium steelwork is extremely complicated and massive structures have to be built with specifications to within a fraction of a millimeter.
“We are specialists in these complex projects,” he said.
“We have the heavy engineering design expertise that is unique to stadiums. They make full use of our expertise and it’s become a real sweet spot for us.”
The stadium for Spurs was one of the most complex projects Severfield has ever undertaken.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“It was very, very complicated. The engineering involved in the Spurs stadium was mind-blowing,” said Mr Dunsmore.
“All the steel for these stadiums was manufactured in Yorkshire and Lancashire. That gives us a real sense of pride. They are really great to be involved with.”
Severfield provided the steelwork for the main 2012 Olympic Stadium in London, the Arsenal Emirates Stadium and the expansion of Liverpool FC’s main stand.
New era for Headingley
The work done on sporting stadia from Yorkshire firms was seen far closer to home this year with the dramatic development of the Emerald Headingley Stadium.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe £44m project to develop the rugby ground’s South and North stands, as well as the substantial redevelopment of the cricket ground, has created more than 10,000 new seats, as well as brand new top-of-the-line corporate and banqueting facilities.
The work on the rugby ground alone is the most extensive since it opened in 1890 while the work on the cricket ground will gain an international audience of millions owing to its hosting four games in 2019 Cricket World Cup and an Ashes Test later in the year - the first time the latter has happened in a decade.
For a Yorkshire institution such as Headingley it was perhaps fitting that Yorkshire engineers should carry out the work.
Caddick Construction carried out the building work for both stands while the design work was done by Leeds’s DLA Design.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIt is the only place in the UK that can stage world class rugby and cricket matches on the same site.
It also boasts a 36 bedroom hotel, public cafe and corporate spaces - which away from sporting events is attracting business and events use such as wedding receptions and funerals.
For Gary Hetherington, chief executive of Leeds Rhinos, its completion is the culmination of a three year journey that has been a joint venture between the Rugby League outfit, Yorkshire Cricket Club and Leeds City Council.