Are Toilet Cubicles The Forgotten Part Of New Venues?

The recent surge in construction across the UK has had many elements, with housing leading the way, but some of the most exciting developments have been in the worlds of sport and entertainment.

While plans for Glasgow to host the Commonwealth Games for the second time in 12 years will not involve building anything new but reusing 2014 venues, other major sporting and entertainment venues have been rising up around the country, with more in the pipeline.

Facilities For A Crowd Of 100,000

The grandest project of all looks set to take place at Old Trafford, where Manchester United are edging nearer to a decision to replace their existing, ageing stadium with a spectacular new venue on adjacent land that may hold 100,000 fans.

There may be many reasons for replacing the existing Old Trafford rather than renovating it, with the quality of fan facilities often cited as being behind those of other, more modern venues, even though half the stadium has been constructed since the start of the 1990s.

Better facilities can mean many things, but more – and more pleasant and modern – toilets.  Wembley Stadium is a good example of this, being completely rebuilt in the 2000s and not only having more toilet facilities under the stands, but also extra features such as 147 accessible toilets, way ahead of most stadiums.

Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester, currently undergoing proposals to be replaced

Meeting Modern Expectations

Extra toilets for the disabled is just one example of how new sports venues can set aside space in ways not thought of in years gone by, which in Wembley’s case meant when the original stadium was built in the early 1920s. More facilities for women is another example, while modern toilets can have extra space for hot air hand dryers.

At the same time, the sheer number of toilet cubicle doors in a stadium is a basic consideration. More facilities mean people do not have long queues and therefore have extra free time before fixtures and during intervals.

Indeed, as new venues are built with many distinctive new features, such as Everton’s new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, members of the public will be very disappointed if the toilet facilities are not a cut above the old facilities, in Everton’s case at the very outdated Goodison Park that the club will vacate next May.

It is certainly not something that venue managers can take for granted. Architects may build plenty of space into the design for better toilet facilities, but opportunities to kit them out properly can be missed.

A Co-op Calamity

While Manchester United may be building a new stadium, across town is the Co-op Live arena, a venue that can hold both concerts and sports.

Construction of the venue was completed last year, but attempts to get the place up and running became an ongoing joke, with early events cancelled or blighted with teething troubles, including toilets being short of paper and functioning hand driers.

Fortunately, things have come together in time and a BBC feature on the venue in May this year noted that the toilet facilities have colour-coded walls (pink for ladies and blue for men), with song lyrics, which are no substitute for working hand driers and loo roll but show that much attention has been paid to them.

Indeed, the venue also has accessible toilets and even that most 21st century of things; gender-neutral toilets.

More Loo Space In Luton

It is not just in the north-west of England where new venues are set to emerge. Luton Town Football Club, which played last year in the Premier League, have just put in a planning application for their planned new stadium at Power Court in the town centre.

The club has planned for decades to move home, but such ambitions have been held up by the club’s financial woes and a slide into non-league football. Having recovered to reach the top flight, last year they had to spend heavily to bring their decrepit Kenilworth Road ground up to scratch.

Kenilworth Road is notoriously cramped and famously, the away fans enter via turnstiles next to houses and then climb stairs overlooking residential back gardens. When the club no longer has such poky facilities, it should be able to provide far better toilets as well as an upgrade on everything else.

The key for those in Luton (should planning permission go through), as well as at a new Old Trafford and in Bramley Moore Dock, is to ensure not only that these new venues are designed to accommodate the best new facilities, including toilets, but that they are kitted out and in working order. That way, they won’t get off on the wrong foot as the Co-op Live did.