From Game Day to Every Day: The Stadium-Adjacent Retail Experience

Stepping into a stadium on game day is an electrifying experience. Fans flood in, full of excitement, and the air is filled with a buzz of energy and anticipation. Even outside the stadium walls, the streets are filled with vibrancy and activity. Yet, as the final whistle blows and fans dissipate, the stadium grows quiet and, often, so does the neighborhood in which it lives until the next big event. But the best stadium districts remain active and bustling on game day and every day.

Sports venues shouldn’t function as isolated fortresses; they should serve as extensions of their surrounding cities and neighborhoods — an anchor to draw in visitors and locals alike. A strategically designed stadium-adjacent shopping and lifestyle district can activate the space and move the venue from a fortress to a living room, both on event days and non-event days.

But designing a successful retail experience doesn’t simply involve placing stores and restaurants next to the stadium. It’s essential to harness consumer and market insights to craft an experience, and the right mix of uses, to entice locals to visit the stadium district for shopping, dining and a place to live or work. In our experience, there are five important things to keep in mind when envisioning stadium-adjacent retail experiences: 

1. The shopping district should feel complete even when the stadium is not in use.
   The retail space should be designed to stand successfully on its own, fully independent of the stadium. To do this, designers need to maximize the foot traffic the stadium brings and use it to their advantage, while also considering times when the stadium is not in use. Think of malls before the rise of online shopping. Shoppers would park on one side, entering the mall and passing smaller shops on their way to the large department stores. Along the way, they’d be enticed by storefront displays, food court offerings, and shops they hadn’t planned to visit.
   
   Modern stadiums can adopt the same strategy. By lining the path to the stadium with well-curated retail options, consumers are encouraged to stay, shop, eat and explore beyond their original destination. Anchoring beyond the stadium is essential for the district’s functionality. While the stadium serves as the anchor on game days, the shopping district becomes the anchor and should stand out as a destination every other day. 

2. Stadium retail needs to build familiarity, knowledge, and trust.
   A common misconception, or perhaps the historic norm for suburban venues, is that driving to a stadium means sitting in hours of traffic. By creating positive shopping experiences, stadium retail can foster familiarity, knowledge and trust with the public. Establishing a strong brand identity for the retail district — separate from its stadium connection — allows it to function as a standalone destination.
   
   One challenge is accommodating visitors and residents on game day who are not attending the event. To make this work, it’s essential to carefully design the parking and traffic flow, ensuring that the district is still accessible while fans find parking for the event. The stadium and retail district should operate independently, yet mutually benefit one another.

3. Shopping districts must be cohesive to attract customers.
   A successful shopping district is one that is cohesive and collaborative. With input from various stakeholders — stadium operators, sports teams, retail tenants and the local community — designing a unified space can be challenging, often leading to conflicting requirements for successful operations. However, quality design should be responsive to everyone’s needs while achieving common goals. It falls to the designer to carefully listen, balance different perspectives and ultimately make decisions that enhance the overall user experience.

4. Mapping the customer experience is essential to successful development.
   

   

   Crafting the retail journey is about mapping the experience for everyone who enters the space — whether they are fans, visitors, guests or customers. Understanding the preferences and needs of those who walk through the district is crucial. Is it luxury stores? Family-oriented shops? Public amenities? Standout food and beverage options? Designers must fully grasp who will use these spaces daily. While the stadium serves as the anchor on game days, the shopping district becomes the anchor every other day. 

5. Intentional pathways create a holistic guest experience.
   The customer experience begins the moment a car, bus or train passes by the stadium. Creating a clear and engaging path from the moment someone arrives at their destination is crucial. Designers must consider what patrons will see, hear and experience. Do they hear live music from a nearby bar? Smell perfume from a shop? See children playing in public spaces? These are important considerations when designing stadium retail. It’s not just about placing a shop next to a stadium — it’s about creating a holistic experience for guests.

Successful mixed-use developments must have standalone appeal, the right mix of offerings and a deep understanding of what draws people to visit. Added value comes from combining these elements in a way that creates a cohesive, blended experience that ties everything together.

As the Global Retail Practice Group Director for Arcadis’ Architecture + Urbanism division, Matt Billerbeck is an industry-leading expert in all things retail design. He understands the consumer-driven experience and curates environments that break the boundaries of retail, activating the ground plane and optimizing the way people move through the space. His portfolio of work represents all corners of the globe and a spectrum of retail-driven product types, including retail stores, department stores, shopping centers, master planning, and mixed-use developments.