Shaping the Fan Experience
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For Ashton Design, this year
has been one long road trip.
They’ve bounced back and forth from the 100th anniversary
renovation of Fenway Park in Boston, to the Red Sox’s strikingly
modern spring training facility in Florida, back to their hometown
of Baltimore to refresh the timeless look of Camden Yards for its
20th anniversary, and to Florida again to design the Orioles’
offseason home.
The previous generation of stadiums focused on luxury suites as
big revenue generators, concentrating on the corporate client versus
the everyday fan. The watchword today is “fan
experience”‒ wider concourses, thoughtful attention to
fan comfort, amenities to get fans to the park early and keep them
onsite. Teams are removing whole sections of seats for rooftop bars
with city views, bringing street vendors and local restaurants into
the venue, partnering with local businesses to activate the
neighborhoods around the ballpark. Historic ballparks like Fenway are
12-month operations, with daily tours and year-round event calendars.
The Ashton team has been able to help sports franchises understand
that graphic designers can be full partners in shaping the fan
experience. Noting that a successful stadium brand forges a unified
look and makes fans feel that this is “our house,” they say
that the key is not to plaster lots of logos but to “uncover
a park’s unique vernacular and create a foundation style that is
applied to everything from ADA signage to the scoreboard, and interior
design of restaurants to the sculptures honoring Hall of Famers outside
of the stadium.”
As Fenway Park reached its century mark this year, Ashton Design
also took the opportunity to produce a limited edition book that
chronicles its role in the historic revitalization of the ballpark.
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