This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 10, 2019 - June 16, 2019

A spaceship from a benevolent civilisation” is probably the most apposite description of Tottenham Hotspur’s stunning new stadium. For not only does it look fantastic, it is so unlike any other football ground we have ever seen that it might well have put down from a distant galaxy.

Indeed, Times writer David Aaronovitch added that he “half-expected a 15ft tall other worldly creature to walk down the ramp…” The stadium’s appearance — all curved glass and metal, and a bit Star Warsy — is one thing, but its arrival is another.

Yes, there was a delay but in the evolution of sporting arenas, six months was a blink of the eye when you have been waiting a couple of thousand years. When the modern Olympics began in 1896, they used the original marble stadium built in (AD) 144. Apart from the opening and closing ceremonies, it staged four of the nine events. It even had a role when Athens hosted again in … 2004.

There had been nothing to shout about since the ancient Greeks, apart from the Roman Coliseum. Not until the 20th century has there been anything else that was truly groundbreaking. In 1965, the Houston Astrodome became the world’s first domed stadium, but it was obsolete by the 1990s. It was not alone.

As cities jostled to become Olympic and Fifa World Cup hosts, countless arenas became white elephants. Ironically, Athens was among the worst culprits with its own extinct herd. How poignant that the only use the Olympic founding nation could find for several of its venues was to house the poor souls washed up on Greek shores during the immigrant crisis. The odd roof did not leak, the odd toilet still worked.

But the king of this species of expensive beasts was the Mane Garrincha stadium in Brasilia, weighing in at US$900 million and where Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany in the 2014 World Cup. It is now a bus station. Another in Manaus on the edge of the Amazon jungle cost US$600 million. Now empty, it is becoming a jungle itself. It was only used for four games.

But only now, it seems — as sport becomes even richer, fans more demanding and technology smarter — has there been a great leap forward in usage as well as design.

Tottenham does not have just one pitch but two, so, American football can be played without spoiling the surface. At the press of a button, the retractable playing surface can be split in three and rolled under the South stand in just 25 minutes.

Among features to make rival fans jealous are the closeness to the pitch, the steep and intimidating South Tier with 17,500 hard-core fans, the largest stadium screens and longest bar in Europe at 65m. There are 65 general admission food and drink outlets (including a satay stall!), an in-house bakery and you can get a pint of beer poured in five seconds from an in-house brewery.

There is a tunnel club where they get a peek at the players leaving the dressing rooms to walk on to the pitch. Vanguardia, the sound engineers who also work for rock band U2, helped with the acoustics and sky lounges offer views of the pitch on one side and of London on the other — an option if Spurs are playing badly. And it is cashless — cards are used for everything.

Spurs did not get any change from a reported £1 billion but now boast a 62,062-seater home on a north London high street. It is universally acclaimed as the best football stadium in the world.

If this is the future, the good news is that Malaysia, at least, had a glimpse of it and benefitted from the same visionary architects. Populous, who are the brains behind Spurs’ new home, also transformed a tired Bukit Jalil into the world-class KL Sports City in time for the SEA Games in 2017. And it was their man responsible for project activation and development, Ed Sanderson, that I caught up with in Kuala Lumpur.

Asked why there is a sea change in stadium construction and usage, he said: “I think it is more of an evolution really and has come about as sport professionalises. And as Asia catches up with professionalism — I call it an arms race between teams. As a team gets access to funding, they professionalise like Johor Darul Tazim (JDT). Someone in Malaysia is going to have to take a stab at catching JDT. They are operating in a different stratosphere to everyone else. In my opinion, they are the benchmark in Asia for professionalism and results and congratulations to them, credit where credit is due. It is great for Malaysia and the competitive landscape throughout wider Southeast Asia.”

I ask if a Spurs-type stadium would work in Asia.

“I think we are not far from it being realistic in Asia,” he says. “The economics don’t quite stack up yet. Our big thing is making sure that whoever we are working with, there has been a detailed assessment of needs, trends and opportunities. That it delivers a great experience and there’s a really solid financial outcome. Spending so much money on a stadium in Asia now may not be a sound commercial decision for teams in the region, but there are alternative stadium developments being rolled out the world over that the Asia market should consider — for example the rollout of Major League Soccer stadiums in the US for 25,000 to 40,000 fans or the recently designed Banwest Stadium in Western Sydney, which opened last month.

“At Bukit Jalil, we did a big renovation for the SEA Games. We did not change the structure but we did a lot with it. New front house facilities, hospitality and corporate facilities — there weren’t any there apart from a royal box previously. Many government-owned venues across the world are asking the same question as Bukit Jalil did: How do these sorts of facilities become self-sustaining?

“Now, there are 20 boxes with various seating configurations. It is one of the improvements you can make without a bulldozer. And one of the things we think Malaysian football should be, generally, holistically, looking at. Consideration should be given to how do we leverage 40 dates a year and create new business opportunities out of those venues.

“Hospitality was a big focus at Bukit Jalil. Event functions also. When they are looking to bring international teams here, they know they have got modern facilities that can generate revenue returns over and above selling 50,000 seats. At Axiata Arena, the MRCB-led project saw the introduction of new corporate facilities that were used almost every day during the SEA Games. And they continue to get demand from music events, boxing and e-sports.

“Being global, Populous sees things internationally and we try to ensure our market understanding, our market intelligence, are at the forefront of the industry. For example, through all of our past projects and research we know the trend is towards larger social spaces where people can share the experience rather than be confined to a seat. At Tottenham and Bukit Jalil, there is access to that.

“Tottenham is unique. It has so many corporate and premium options that provide guests with a range of experiences they can choose from.

“At Populous we are seeing the introduction of social spaces as an existing trend and we want to provide something unique. So, at our stadiums in the US, such as Marlin’s Park, we put a swimming pool in the concourse. At baseball grounds, they play in the summer and it can get hot.

“Being specialist sports and entertainment designers, it is our job to create unique and effective solutions that fit the desires of both today’s and tomorrow’s event-going consumers. What we know from our 35 years in the business is that atmosphere is huge. We know the reason nearly half the people go to stadiums is the atmosphere and to socialise.

“So, the venues are all thinking: What can we provide you with that you cannot get access to in your home watching TV? So, these elements are being incorporated into stadiums, for example, what can you experience at a venue that your screen at home can’t provide? You only have to look at the reasons people often do not go: transport and cost. So we give them a range of different experiences.”

After explaining why an athletics track can add disproportionately to the cost of a stadium by making it so much bigger, Sanderson gives an illustration of how the general admission seats can be turned into the places to be — thanks to pods in the gods.

“Normally,” he says, “the most affordable seats are the most expensive to build. The higher you go, the costlier it becomes. So, what we did at TMobile arena in Las Vegas was put in a unique experience that you can market at a premium price and improve your range of hospitality offerings. We built these pods right in the roof of the arena and gave them a really incredible offering in a unique bar. Now everyone wants to be seen there.”

Smarter, more flexible stadiums that can host a range of events and experiences are starting to spring up and they don’t have to be huge. Populous have completed the design for the recently opened Bankwest stadium in Western Sydney that will give a “Spurs-type experience” but on a smaller scale, 35,000 seats.

Even smaller, the new Banc [sic] of California stadium in Los Angeles claims to offer “a fan experience worthy of the world’s entertainment capital”. And, also in Los Angeles, the LA Rams (gridiron) will soon open a new home that is costing US$2.6 billion. The Rams owner is none other than Stan Kroenke, who also owns Arsenal.

Perhaps Malaysia should have something similar as research suggests the fans deserve it. Malaysia came in at sixth place in “interest in football” in a recent AC Neilson survey of 200 countries. If a stadium is built to become sustainable, then the cost will not be out of this world — even if its appearance might be.

Bob Holmes is a longtime sports writer specialising in football

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.