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VENUE DEVELOPMENT NEWS: Gateshead Quays entertainment arena game-changer

The grand vision for Gateshead Quays has been unveiled by Gateshead Council, development partners Ask Real Estate, PATRIZIA and architects HOK.

The ambitious image shows how the 3.84 hectare site will be transformed to incorporate a £250 million state-of-the-art, 12,500 seat entertainment arena, a convention and exhibition centre as well as hotels, bars, restaurants and extensive public realm.

Gateshead Quays, one of seven schemes officially backed by the Department for International Trade, has the potential to hold major music and cultural events, as well as conferences and exhibitions. It is anticipated to support over 1,140 jobs with well over half being newly created. Attracting an extra 296,000 visitors to the region it’s estimated to boost the regional economy by over £30 million annually in future years.

Rendering of Gateshead Quays site, with distinctive seamless pod of the entertainment arena

Gateshead Quays links the river with the town

The masterplan proposes that the development will connect the waterfront to the town centre and is the missing piece of the jigsaw creating a destination that will draw people across the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of the wider quays area including the 14 hectares at Baltic Quarter.

Cllr Martin Gannon, Gateshead Council Leader, has described the vision as “hugely exciting” and said:

Gateshead Quayside speaks for itself but there are still things to be done. What would you put between Norman Foster’s Sage Gateshead, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge? It needs to be as innovative and striking as the suite of visionary waterfront developments that have went before so together with our development partners and architects HOK, we have come up with this. It is one of the most exciting development opportunities in the UK today I think it’s absolutely the right thing to do in this location. This is a gamechanger not just for Gateshead but for the region.

Speaking on behalf of Ask and PATRIZIA Daniel Williams, Head of Development at PATRIZIA UK said:

Gateshead Quays is a great opportunity to work with Gateshead Council to create an exemplar development, one that fits ideally in our strategy of investing in significant mixed-use schemes in important regional centres.

We are really excited to be involved in delivering the first phase of this flexible masterplan that will have a hugely positive impact on this strategic site, creating another appealing destination for the area.

Gateshead Quays entertainment arena destination

Rendering of entertainment arena in setting of Gateshead Quays

A huge entertainment arena is the key destination at Gateshead Quays

John Rhodes, Director of sport and entertainment at HOK said:

With one the most amazing river sites in Europe the Quays project offers a unique opportunity to combine existing facilities such as the Sage Gateshead, in an exceptional new event and entertainment destination. We are delighted to be working with Ask, PATRIZIA and Gateshead Council on such an ambitious, and ground-breaking project.

Gateshead Council are continuing to work with their development partners with planning applications predicted to be submitted early in the new year.

Vision for HOK-Designed Gateshead Quays Development in England Unveiled

VENUE NEWS: Thornbury FC improves to meet Grade G of the FA National Ground Grading Criteria

Thornbury Town FC has officially opened its improved home ground. The club, who play in the Hellenic League Division One West at Step 6, has renovated various parts of their Mundy Playing Fields ground, to retain its Step 6 status and meet the requirements of Grade G of the FA National Ground Grading Criteria.

Football Stadia Improvement Fund cash has been used to make several improvements to the ground, including: installation of a new floodlight system, a new 50-seater stand, perimeter boundary fencing and hardstanding on three sides of the ground.

Thornbury Town FC currently operates 16 youth teams ranging from Under-7 through to Under-18, as well as an adult first team and reserve side, who will have exclusive access to the improved facilities at Munday Playing Fields. Andy Shutler, Chairman of Thornbury Town FC, said:

The facilities at Mundy Playing Fields have improved beyond all recognition, they are now something not only the club, but, the town can be proud of. None of which would have been possible without the grant from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund and the Premier League, for which we are extremely grateful.

The project was made possible by a £73,003 grant from the Premier League, which is delivered through the Football Stadia Improvement Fund – the sister organisation of the Football Foundation.

In 2001 Thornbury Town FC were awarded a £10,000 grant from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund towards pitch drainage works at Mundy Playing Fields.

Photo of Thornbury FC's new grandstand with local dignitaries sitting and mayor standing.

Thornbury FC’s new grandstand welcomes local dignitaries.

STADIUM DEVELOPMENT NEWS: Cambridge grant application, Hastings new plans, Grimsby city centre site proposed

Cambridge City is working with a consultant specialising in assisting with grant applications for sporting developments. The City’s stadium project manager Terry Dunn said:

These are very significant sums of money the club is looking to access, representing a fair proportion of the total cost of the stadium.

The grants are likely to cover a number of smaller items on the stadium build, rather than being used to fund the entire development.

Obviously a body awarding grants of the values we have been talking about will require multiple quotes for the work being carried out, and paperwork being supplied to them well in advance of those phases of the work being started.

Grimsby city centre stadium plan

Grimsby council leader Ray Oxby says it is his “political priority” to deliver a stadium on the former Freeman Street flats site to help boost city centre development. Plans for a stadium on Peaks Parkway have been put on hold while other options are looked at.

Hastings purpose-built stadium

Hastings United Football Club has announced a new stadium plan at the existing Tilekiln playing fields in Ingleside, St Leonards. The club’s previous deal with Keepmoat fell through earlier this year. The club said:

The option put forward to council officers by the club and its development partners is that the club is relocated on its own to a site which sits fully within the borough of Hastings on which a new purpose-built stadium with off-road parking would be constructed along with a second floodlit grass pitch and floodlit 3G pitch.

The spare pitch facilities would be made accessible to the community, as would social and function, fitness and leisure, sports therapy and meeting room facilities within the stadium.

The club feel that such a revised scheme, as detailed above, could be put in place and completed pretty quickly, and are keen for the council to agree to the proposed new route as soon as possible as the club is of the opinion the scheme ticks a lot of advantageous boxes for the council, club and community of Hastings in general.

To remain at The Pilot Field is no longer a sustainable or viable option in the medium to longer term with ongoing maintenance and repairs hindering the finances of the club and not allowing for the investment into the academy and first team to operate nor compete with clubs in the division.

FACILITY MANAGEMENT: Identity credentials control [ARTICLE]

Apart from public access, sports and entertainment venues need to offer some form of identity credentials for athletes and performers, VIPs and staff, on event and non-event days. It’s a major headache for some as different systems have grown up over time in different areas of the venue. Access control is defined as “the selective restriction of access to a place or other resource”. For an automatic access control system to function, it requires a means of identifying individuals to determine their access rights. The form of identification can be anything from a memorised password or PIN (personal identification number) to biometrics (measurement of a human characteristic).

AMER HAFIZ, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AT NORTECH CONTROL SYSTEMS, REVIEWS THE EVOLUTION OF IDENTITY CREDENTIALS IN ACCESS CONTROL

Since the early days when access was granted when an authorised PIN was entered into a keypad, access control systems have evolved to support many forms of ‘physical’ credentials. Generally referred to as “pass cards”, these credentials have taken many forms:

Barcodes – where an identity number is printed on the card in the form of a machine-readable series of variable width bars. Although more secure than a memorised number, a barcode can be easily copied or reproduced.

Magnetic Stripe – where a magnetic stripe on the card stores an identity number within a designated track. A special magnetic card reader is used to read the number from the track.

Proximity Card – where an electronic chip on the card holds the identity number and a built-in antenna enables a compatible proximity card reader to read the identity number using radio frequency technology. The card simply needs to be held within a few centimetres of the reader.

Smart Card – using a similar radio technology to that of proximity cards, smart cards can hold a variety of data within the chip. The data can be read and/or written to the card using compatible readers/writers depending upon the application. For access control applications, an identity number can be stored on the card and read by a compatible access control card reader.

Identity credentials summarised

In each of these technologies, it is necessary to issue a uniquely numbered card (or key fob) to each authorised person. The unique number on the card serves as their identity on the access control system. Without the card, they would not be able to gain access to the restricted areas. This makes it necessary for them to keep their identity cards with them whenever they need to move around the building or installation.

Recent technological advances have made the need to carry identity cards unnecessary. Two completely different approaches have been used.

Biometric readers -The first was the development of Biometric readers, where the recognition of unique human characteristics such as fingerprints or retina patterns are used for identification, precluding the need for identity cards. To support these systems, authorised users must ‘enrol’ on the system, where their biometric data is read and stored in a database. Whenever the user needs to access a restricted area, they must present themselves to a biometric reader at the access point (e.g. places their finger on a fingerprint reader). The data obtained is then compared to the database to find a match to determine their identity and check their access rights before granting entry. Although this provides a high level of security and avoids the need to issue credentials, the readers are very expensive and the process of looking up complex data with a large database can be slow and limiting.

Virtual credentials – The second alternative is to use Smartphone-based ‘virtual credentials’ to replace physical cards and fobs. A virtual credential is a unique identity code that can be securely sent from a cloud-based server to an App on the user’s smartphone. Several virtual credentials can be stored on the smartphone for different access applications. A smartphone with its virtual credential can be used to gain access to restricted areas, making it unnecessary for the user to carry cards or fobs. As most people now carry their smartphones everywhere they go, they are far less likely to lose their credentials or forget to keep them handy.

The app can present the credentials to readers using one of the smartphones built-in communication technologies such as low power blue tooth, NFC or QR Code. The technology used would depend on the capabilities of the reader and the type of smartphone being used.

If Bluetooth is used, it can offer a further benefit as it can be used at distances of up to 15 metres from the reader, effectively replacing long-range, hands-free reader technologies.

Where might credentials go next?

In the short to medium term, identity cards will continue to be used, with contactless smartcard gradually replacing older technology proximity cards. Virtual credentials on mobile devices will become far more widespread. The ever-increasing levels of security being required will most likely lead to a wider use of facial recognition as the main biometric credential. With advances in Bluetooth technology providing increased bandwidth, more information can be quickly retrieved from smart devices, making the combination of high-security biometrics and smartphone apps a real possibility for controlling access.

Further information is available from Nortech on 01633 485533 or by emailing sales@nortechcontrol.com or by visiting the company’s website at www.nortechcontrol.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amer Hafiz has been with Nortech Control Systems Ltd for seven years, and for the last three years as Technical Director. He has over 20 years’ experience in the electronics industry with companies such as Sony and Panasonic, and has a First class honours degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (University of Cardiff).

Amer Hafiz

JOBS: SGA inspector role – apply by November 11th

The Sports Grounds Safety Authority is recruiting for an SGA inspector on the basis of a two year, fixed term role. Full details on how to apply here.

Starting salary: £ 45,987

Location: Based at home

Closing Date: 11 November 2018

Interview dates: TBC

Working Arrangement: Full/part time

The role requires significant travel, weekend and evening work, mainly within the UK but may also include overseas travel.

ATHLETIC EQUIPMENT: LED lit sports hall surface

FaulknerBrowns Architects has completed the first phase of its work on a pioneering new sports centre for the University of Oxford, which features the UK’s first LED lit, glass sports hall surface.

The innovative playing surface allows the marking lines for a variety of sports to be switched on individually via a touch screen, making it much easier to identify the boundaries of the court or pitch. The surface, produced by ASB Glassfloor, can cycle between markings for badminton, basketball, futsal, handball, korfball, netball and volleyball, in a range of combinations.

Photo of badminton being played on LED lit sports hall surface

The Acer Nethercott Sports Hall four court sports hall features an illuminated glass floor with underlighting, a ‘smart floor’ which means the centre can simply choose the relevant lines and court layout to suit the sport at the touch of a button. Photo courtesy FaulknerBrowns Architects.

The Acer Nethercott Sports Centre is a new addition to the university’s iconic Iffley Road Sports Complex, the scene of another ground-breaking first, which took place back in 1954 – the breaking of the four-minute mile by Roger Bannister. The centre represents phase one of our major redevelopment masterplan for the complex.

STADIUM DEVELOPMENT: Gloucester, Galway Sportsground, Casement

Gloucester City have revealed scaled down plans for the new stadium at Meadow Park in a bid to return to Gloucester for the 2019-20 season. The team has been playing at Evesham since floods drove the club out in 2007.

The stadium will be able to hold a little over 3,000 fans but with the potential to be built on and reach the 4,000 capacity in the original plans. Instead of a 1,000 seater stand, there will be two stands of 250 covered seats either side of the clubhouse.

Gloucester plans for a new stadium

The club have also made a provision of an enlarged T-End – a covered standing terrace for over 800 fans. Gloucester chairman Rod Jenner said:

The original plan for the £4million build, whilst it would have been a brilliant facility was overly ambitious.

We’re in the process of putting our funding application together now and will look to have that submitted as soon as possible.

Between Eamonn (McGurk, owner), Alex (Petheram, director) and myself we have all the resources required to deliver that ground and to do it within the timescale will require excellence of execution.

For the National League we’ve got to show how we can get 4,000 capacity and we can develop the far side of the pitch so we’ve thought about how he grow in the future.

Galway Sportsground stadium redevelopment

Connacht has announced that it will redevelop at a cost of about 30m euros and will increase capacity to 12,000 (from 8,000). The site will also house the Irish province’s new high performance training centre. Greyhound racing will continue. New features will include an all-weather playing surface, which will also be made available to soccer and Gaelic games should the demand arise.

Connacht CEO Willie Ruane said:

A key pillar of the vision for Connacht Rugby is to deliver facilities that match our ambition.

The arrangement we have reached with the Irish Greyhound Board [Sportsground co-tenants] paves the way for the delivery of modern, fit-for-purpose facilities to sustain The Sportsground as the home of club and professional rugby in the province.

Finance will be a combination of private investors and public funds – including the government’s Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund, which was established as part of the Project Ireland 2040 review of capital spending projects.

Casement Park

Amongst political wrangling, the future of Casement Park remains unclear. Department for Communities permanent secretary Leo O’Reilly has said the project was one of two “not being progressed in the absence of ministers”. Casement Park was originally expected to cost £77m but Stormont officials say the GAA has told them more public funding is needed. Revised plans for a 34,000 seater stadium were submitted last year.

Meanwhile, the Safety Technical Group (STG) has unanimously backed spectator safety procedures in the redevelopment plan for Casement Park. The group, comprising all the main emergency services and set up to scrutinise plans to redevelop stadia in Northern Ireland, has verified steps taken by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) to ensure the proposed 34,000-plus capacity stadium could be evacuated safely, with emergency vehicles able to get appropriate access.

SPORT SURFACES: Weathering the storm with effective drainage

As latest figures show UK rainfall at record highs and set to increase, the Great British weather is increasingly having a devastating impact on the nation’s favourite sports – with flooding disrupting international cricket tournaments, football pitches left too waterlogged to play, and golfing greens facing widespread disease.

Unsurprisingly, contractors are now under greater pressure to future-proof sports pitches and ensure spectators can enjoy watching sports all year round, which has spurred a new generation of sports construction materials offering enhanced drainage characteristics – the likes of which have never been seen before.

Here, Tom Wise, General Manager at Garside Sands division of Aggregate Industries examines how the latest innovations in infill sands can help synthetic sport pitches stay high and dry whatever the weather.

For many years the famous unpredictable British weather and inadequate facilities have meant that many sports have suffered. But whether it is the global TV revenues of showpiece sporting events at risk, or the weekly income which local sports clubs up and down the country rely so heavily on, unplayable surfaces are causing a serious issue.

UK average rainfall is increasing, playing havoc with sports pitches at all levels of competition. Research from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs shows that between 1998 and 2013, total annual rainfall for the UK surpassed 1,200mm six times. The same only happened once in the 18 years leading up to that period.

This trend shows no sign of changing, and nor is it restricted to the winter months. Last summer we had 32.8% more rainfall than the average summer figure, making it the 11th wettest summer on record for the UK and the fifth wettest on record in Scotland, according to the Met Office.

In some areas, of course, the issue is even more damaging. The Lake District, Western Scotland and North Wales are amongst the areas that experience the highest rainfall in the UK, due to their location and topography, with warm moist westerly winds driving rainfall from Atlantic weather systems. One recent study suggests certain areas of the UK experience rainfall at 300% of the national average, yet pitch design and infill materials do not reflect the variations.

The impact of rainfall

With sports clubs and venues across the length of the UK at the mercy of the elements more than ever, wet weather is increasingly having a detrimental impact on the performance qualities of synthetic sports surfaces. The result is unacceptable disruption to spectators and athletes alike.

In some cases, we have seen surfaces which were installed as little as 5 years ago rendered outdated and sometimes unplayable due to changing environmental trends, made worse by poor maintenance.

For club operators and greenkeepers, it has never been more important to specify the right sports construction materials and undertake the correct maintenance procedures in order to protect their investment.

Manufacturers have responded with continued innovation of sports construction materials including future-proof drainage solutions to ensure longevity and maximum return on investment.

Importance of infills

One area of innovation has been silica infill sands, which serve a number of purposes including weighing down the surface, preventing rippling, increasing fire resistance, protecting the backing and, of course, drainage, by acting as a filter to regulate the flow of water through to the subgrade.

Leading manufacturers are dedicating huge time and investment within their laboratories to develop future-proof infills which can support with the ongoing threat of flooding. ProPitch Elite, for example, is a new generation of infill sand from Aggregate Industries’ Garside Sands and Levenseat division which offers superior drainage performance, specifically designed for sports pitches at risk of flooding.

Drainage innovations

The secret to this new generation is the inclusion of larger rounded particles to provide superior void space for enhanced drainage. Traditionally, market leading silica infills like the 2EW sand from Garside and Levenseat Sands offer a nominal effective particle size of between 0.25mm and 0.39mm. Whilst this remains suitable in most areas, ProPitch Elite signals a new approach for areas of extreme rainfall with nominal effective particle size of between 04mm to 0.8mm

Through continuous product development and rigorous testing, manufacturers are bringing to market products to support operators to overcome the challenge of increasingly wet winters (and summers too) – withstanding the new norm of average rainfall, protecting their investment and maintaining all-important revenue from sports pitches. In fact, ProPitch Elite is proven to drain 25% faster than the best silica sand on the market, 2EW and 116% better than the most popular competitor sands.

Drainage is vital for the upkeep of synthetic turf pitches.

Looking forwards

From 3G synthetic sports pitches for football and hockey, to tennis courts and bowling greens, the continued innovation of silica infills will help to future-proof artificial playing surfaces in line with changing weather patterns – but only if forward thinking contractors are switched on to the benefits.

Working closely with manufacturers, the onus is now on contractors to understand the issue, educate the customer and deliver added value. For once, we must be encouraged to talk about the weather.

For further information, please call Garside Sands 01525 237911 or email Garside.sands@aggregate.com.

VENUE NEWS: Footballer saved at Bedworth United by using defibrillator

The stadium manager and two members of a Walking Football team playing at Bedworth United helped save the life of a player struck by a heart attack while on the field. They started administering CPR and then they shouted for the defibrillator.

Russ Watkin, a director at the club, explained to The Coventry Evening Telegraph:

They managed to get his heart started again and found a pulse and then the paramedics arrived.

I would recommend anyone undertake the CPR training and the British Heart Foundation training too. I know that defibrillators can be expensive, but this just goes to show how important they are.

A defibrillator is a vital piece of stadium kit.

World Workplace event in Amsterdam March 2019

The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and its alliance partner Facility Management Netherlands (FMN) have announced that the Kromhouthal in Amsterdam will be the venue of Facility for Future and IFMA’s World Workplace Europe Conference and Expo, 20-22 March 2019. IFMA and FMN are joining forces with the Facility for Future annual conference for a unique combination of these two events. FMN is the Dutch professional association for the facility sector while IFMA represents the global facility community.

IFMA, which has organized the well-attended World Workplace in America and Asia for years, brought this concept to Europe two years ago. Amsterdam in 2019 follows successful shows in Stockholm and Barcelona. At the same time, FMN hosted a successful Facility for Future in 2017 and is organizing this event in a new format.

Lara Paemen, director of IFMA Europe, praised the spirit of collaboration:

IFMA members from Europe and around the world get the opportunity to see interesting examples of professional facility management in a beautiful ambiance and setting.

FMN chair Natalie Hofman:

The arrival of World Workplace Europe 2019 to Amsterdam is a unique opportunity to link the international context of our field to national relevance.

During an information meeting earlier this summer, FMN and IFMA presented plans to a broader group of interested industry parties. The reactions were very positive and promising. The partners for Facility for Future — Sodexo, ISS, Hutten and BAM FM — responded positively to the intention to combine both events.

About World Workplace Europe

World Workplace is the original all-encompassing learning and networking event on facilities and how to manage them. There’s program value for FM professionals at every point of their careers and across all types of facilities. World Workplace Europe is the gold standard for discovering new ideas and technology from around the world impacting the European FM industry. After previous editions in Stockholm and Barcelona, we again welcome European and international participants to Amsterdam. In addition to two days of fascinating sessions, workshops and networking, we conclude the event with facility tours where attendees will see behind the scenes of some special projects in Amsterdam.