Creating optimal acoustics in a soccer stadium involves making the venue small and intimate, using materials like wood and metal to enhance reverberations, and incorporating multiple reflecting surfaces on the stadium walls.
Imagine attending a football match only to discover that the stadium is completely silent. Where’s the excitement in that? If you wanted peace, you would have stayed home and watched the game on TV. That’s precisely why stadiums are meant to be loud, to the extent that your ears start ringing after the match! Noise-making devices like horns, vuvuzelas (a type of African horn), trumpets, and drums contribute to the collective voice of the fans.
Vuvuzelas at the 2010 South Africa World Cup (Image source: Wikimedia.commons.org)
The combined sound that fills the stadium is what we refer to as the ‘stadium atmosphere’. A vibrant atmosphere in a sports stadium can have a significant impact on both the players on the field and the spectators in the stands. However, creating the acoustics to achieve that electrifying, magical crowd feeling is no easy task.
The top football stadiums in the world, like Barcelona FC’s Nou Camp, Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu, Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena, and many others, have specially designed acoustics to maximize the sound and energy from the crowd.
The oval shape of Nou Camp effectively contains the crowd noise. (Image Source: wikimedia.commons.org)
An enthusiastic crowd helps boost the home team’s performance and intimidate the away team.
How Does an Architect Maximize Crowd Support?
Creating an atmosphere is not just about creating noise. Modern stadiums now incorporate design features that enhance fan support by capturing and amplifying crowd noise. While a larger crowd does produce more noise to some extent, maximizing the decibel levels requires keeping the stadium size as small as possible and using reflecting surfaces to redirect the noise back to the crowd. Since sound loses energy as it travels, the key is to keep the venue small and intimate.
Most European football stadiums have partial roofs that help reflect the sound waves back to the crowd.
Another way to amplify the sound is by using materials like wood and metal, which increase reverberation and enhance the crowd noise. The hollow nature of wood allows the sound to reverberate throughout the structure, enabling fans at one end to hear those at the opposite side.
The new Al Bayt stadium being built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is designed with acoustics in mind. It is based on a unique tent-inspired model that contains the noise and chants of the fans in a controlled manner. The architectural team focuses on projecting and testing the decibel levels of sound in the stadium to ensure it is not too harsh for the people inside.
In essence, the key to achieving an optimal noise level without relying solely on the fans is to equip the stadium walls with plenty of reflecting surfaces. These surfaces should be made of materials that provide optimal sound reflection, as well as strength and durability.