Football grounds increasingly host non-sporting events such as concerts, and Manchester United’s planned new stadium will be no different. This means different challenges for designers and constructors, explains Wojciech Markowski.
Nonetheless, it may be difficult to achieve a satisfactory level of structural response for the entire grandstand without significant structural modifications, which may lead to uneconomical designs. In these cases, crowd management and planning, supported with relevant risk assessments, may be implemented provided that the structural safety is not compromised.
However, in the case of tall, large capacity arenas, achieving this is usually not feasible or associated with inefficient structural design. A lower frequency limit may be considered, which has been a case for several large stadia in the UK. The Route 2 method can also be used provided that suitable crowd motion properties can be reliably established. However, as fully synchronised crowd action reduces for larger groups of people, a risk evaluation may also be included in the assessment.
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