Examination Of Wembley And Camp Nou: Sporting Heritage Sites From Different Countries

Critically examine two different sites of sport heritage, preferably from two different countries. Sites can include museums, halls of fame, venue tours, for example.

You should link the theoretical concepts of history, heritage, and sporting legacy with their practical application and visitor experience. The strategy encourages you to read across these varied sources and is designed to enhance your skill and familiarity with a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of history, its public representation, preservation and dissemination.

Background information on the selected heritage

Sporting legacy can be understood from both the theoretical and the conceptual perspectives. This can be in the form of mega-events which happens to be on a regular basis and influence all those who are directly and indirectly linked to it. The direct linkages to it are the performers who usually take part in such events and try to popularize the events as well as their reputations. The indirect linkages to it are all the external factors that get influenced by it. Such factors include the political, social, economic, technological, environmental and the legal. In the light of what has been mentioned so far, this can be assumed that sustainability is a key to sporting legacy. Legacy is thus achievable if it takes care of the sustainable strategies.

This study is purposefully aimed at analyzing the two chosen sporting legacy which is popularly known as ‘Wembley’ and ‘Camp Nou’. Wembley is in London and is popularly known for Football. Wembley stadium hosts major football matches including the major matches of the national team. The stadium is temporarily home of the Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.Camp Nou, on the other hand, is based in Barcelona and a home club for FC Barcelona. The new Camp Nou had just been constructed to make it more attractive and competitive as well.

Wembley Stadium which had come into existence in 1923 was renovated and modified again to attain different objectives and the goals. The renovated stadium is specifically dedicated to the national team for their major matches. It is also temporarily dedicated to the premium league football club Tottenham Hotspur. The stadium is the largest in England and in the UK. It is also the second largest stadium in entire Europe. It can accommodate comfortably 90,000 football lovers; however, it holds a record for witnessing a record 98,000 occupancy in June 2017.

It is also home to many other concerts as well as Rugby league, Rugby union, Boxing and American football. However, the biggest attraction for this stadium is the hosting of matches of English Premium League. It is the home club for Tottenham Hotspur club. Premier League is much more popular as an event which influences not only the team players but also the audiences. This means that the stadium needs to perform well from the various perspectives of audiences like the facilities both inside & outside of the stadium and also its impact on the environment.

Theoretical aspects of sporting legacy

The new Camp Nou was reconstructed in the year 2016. This is particularly dedicated to the football club FC Barcelona. It has been reconstructed with a view to making it much more environmentally friendly by providing much more open spaces to it. The teams who are all engaged in restructuring the stadium have some targets with it. They want to make it a large stadium which can accommodate approximately around 105,000 spectators with modern services and the comforts. The New Camp Nou is seemingly integrated to the Barca Campus. They also want to make it accessible with the street all around the stadium. They had also aimed at providing an open space for the city. This means they are focused meeting with the environmental standards. This is not the least it is also built in a way that it offers a sustainable stadium which is green and smart. They have planned to leave sufficient space for open spaces, so that, the stadium receives energy from the Sun. Arrangements are also being planned for the water harvesting.

Sporting legacy can be attained through following the theories behind it. Theoretically, it can be understood that spotting events need to satisfy its stakeholders in order to attain a sustainable practice. A sporting event is managed and arranged with the help of various stakeholders in which different stakeholders a different set of roles and responsibilities to perform. An effective governance of such sporting event will then be a key to attain a maximized success. In the light of the discussion that has been held so far in this section, legacy can be understood as tangible/intangible, positive/negative, planned/unplanned structures which are there to remain for over a long span of time due to the hosting of the event.

In the light of the stakeholder theory, it can be stated that a sporting event is organized with collective efforts from each and every stakeholder that carry different roles and responsibilities with them like dialogue making, decision making and the implementing the thought process. They work together to attain the commonly shared goals and the objectives. The stakeholder theory further states that different stakeholders work together to create values. They work together to host an event; however, as according to the stakeholder theory, it never at all means of just arranging a sporting event. They get collaborated to create a valuable business which is only possible if they are good in service and are also carrying effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.

Analyzing the theoretical perspective in context to the chosen heritage

The CSR activities can play a significant role in influencing the social, economic and the environmental factors. Nevertheless, sporting legacy can be maintained and sustained by implementing environmentally friendly policies and offering the possible facilities to the spectators, so that, both the spectators and the participating team feel comfortable to participate in the event.

According to the stakeholder theory of management, this can be said that it is important for the Wembley Stadium that it takes care of the entire stakeholders and their respective responsibilities. According to the theory of stakeholder, every single stakeholder associated with the stadium needs to fulfill their responsibilities with utmost perfection, so that, it delivers planned and executable strategies. Moreover, this may also help in enhancing the audience engagement to the games. In other words, this can also be said that value creation is necessary for supporting the business as this will help the stakeholders financially and will also influence the various external environment of the local country. The modern-day people do not actually just visit a stadium but they also seek for the facilities and the ambiances in which they will be a part of during the matches. It is true that they throng to the stadium to support either their local or the national team. However, it is also undeniable that facilities and ambiances do have a very positive impact on the spectators.

In addition to the stated facts, this can also be said that players do also seek for the facilities. They actually have the different set of parameters on which they make the judgment regarding their favorite destination for playing the games. The perspective does also support that sporting events need to be organized in places that are equipped with high-end facilities for the spectators and also for the players.

On top of all, it is also the responsibilities of the stakeholders that they take care of the environmental values by closely monitoring the entire stadium. Spectators should be instructed before entering the stadium about the things which are prohibited in and around the stadium. This will help the management to keep the stadium protected from any unsocial activities. Moreover, this is necessary to contribute to better causes in regards to the environmental sustainability.

• The Football Association
• Sport England
• Department of Culture, Media, and Sport
• The London Development Agency

Camp Nou is popularly known as the home ground for FC Barcelona. It is being reconstructed in 2016 to provide a much better experience to spectators and also to have a better business which is necessary for a healthy relationship between the different stakeholders. Based on the stakeholder theory of management, it appears to be important that every single stakeholder is satisfied. This is only possible when the stadium is able to deliver the expected objectives.

Stakeholders for the Wembley Stadium are as follows

The renovation project is done to enhance the stadium capacity, so that, a large population can come inside the stadium and witness the historical moments which have always remained an integral part of the Camp Nou. The stadium has witnessed the production of one of the greatest player of all time ‘Messi’. It is the place that has seen many great moments from one of the best of all time. It does support a fact that the place has remained a favorite destination for both the players and the spectators.

The stakeholder theory of management and the triple bottom line approach are the two theories that govern the formation of a sustained business practice. The stakeholder management theory states that a project needs to produce the positive results, so that, all the stakeholders like the stadium committees, the administration department, the UEFA and the local government are satisfied from it. Additionally, they will feel connected to each other and will share the common goals or else there will be ample of challenges in numerous forms like the financial shortage or a strategic management.

The visitor experience is very important when it comes to sporting legacy. They will only encourage the games time and time again with their footfalls to the stadium. This is for such reason; Wembley has made a notable change to providing an ecstatic experience to customers. The change is brought with an extensive use of technology that the stadium has received through collaboration with Nock that provides creative solutions. Visitors from the local areas and also from the various other parts will now be able to get an exclusive experience of the visit. Apart from getting a 2D card, they will also get the technology in the form of an app using which the visitors can actually get to know a much about the stadium by moving around it with the help of 360-degree video.

The viewer experience at the Camp Nou will be nothing less than an overwhelming experience. Spectators here in the stadium will not only get an opportunity to see their favorite stars but will also be able to know a much about the Barcelona history. In the museum, visitors will get an opportunity to relieve the experience of an ecstatic history of the FC Barcelona. There in the museum visitors will find Messi Space, Trophy Gallery, and European Cups.

 This section of the study analyzes both Wembley and Camp Nou on the basis of sustained business practices.

Visitor experience

Wembley-

The stadium has its own sustainability related issues. One of the issues is related to the sound system that on occasions have urged fans to react negatively. This becomes evident from a fact that many fans were left disappointed when Adele had performed in June in 2017. Approximately around 100,000 people had then thronged to the stadium to enjoy the night; however, they could not due to a poor sound system. It made fans disappointed to a level where they even demanded a refund of the money. Another incident is related to the project handling technique which is related to construction related works. It is very difficult to analyze the time duration required for the completion of an important project and also the required estimated costs which will be needed for the project. However, there have been instances of such issues also that the management team had been blamed to have wrongly progressed towards the bidding project. They without even notifying the possibility of variation in the estimated cost and the time duration required have urged others for bidding. This may be troublesome for those who take the project. They might find variations in the quoted prices and the actual cost.

Camp Nou-

The new Camp Nou is being reconstructed in 2016; however, it has several issues which might retard its progress to sustainability. The reconstruction has been done to enhance the occupancy and reaching it around 105,000 spectators. However, the extension might be tested as the management has an upfront challenge to include modern comforts and the services. There is required a protection on the pitch to keep it productive and attractive as well. The management will also be tested in regards to the connectivity of the different parts of the stadium with the street all around the stadium. One of the biggest challenges that the management has, is to make it a sustainable project. Sustainability can be attained by leaving sufficient space for the green purpose. Water harvesting is also required to keep the pitch livelier and also the surrounding areas.

Conclusion:

To conclude, sporting legacy is a much broader concept that depends on a lot of factors like the stadium experience to visitors, historic values, associated local clubs, strategic management and much more. Sustainability is required for a sporting heritage to become and to remain a sporting legacy. The management and the stakeholders need to work for attaining a sustained business which could help stakeholders be connected to each other and keep on piling the story of success. Additionally, the management should also take care of the challenges that may come upfront in any form such as the challenging situations during the construction process. Wembley which is one of the sporting heritages selected for this study has been a home ground for Tottenham Hotspurs. It is historic itself; however, it faces some serious issue like the sound system in the stadium is not of good quality and has been complaining about the same in the recent past. They are trying to light up the visitor experience which is evident in their move to introduce an app using which the visitors will be able to have an in-depth visiting of the place. On the other hand, Camp Nou also has series of challenges which is mainly related to the objectives that had been set before reconstructing the stadium. The stadium is historic and quite viewable as well for its masterpiece work in the form of the museum and the master act of Messi playing in this ground.

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