How can intelligent movement design inform stadium upgrades in Germany?
Movement around stadia is increasingly being considered a performance metric, rather than a compliance exercise. Ask any supporter what they remember from a matchday and the answer often has nothing to do with the goals.
It is about the experience 鈥� how the day felt; the ease of arrival; the anticipation as crowds gathered; the rhythm of queues, concourses and circulation; the departure, either smooth and seamless or frustrating and chaotic.
Yet, beneath that experience lies an intricate choreography of movement. In modern stadium design, movement has become the defining factor across three critical dimensions: safety, reputation and commercial performance. It is no longer sufficient to design for capacity alone. Stadiums must be integrated with the full journey, from regional transport networks to turnstiles, concourses and seats, and back again.
Germany鈥檚 stadiums are entering a pivotal moment. Much of the country鈥檚 current portfolio was substantially upgraded ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Two decades on, many of these venues are approaching the point where renewal, refurbishment or repositioning is critical. At the same time, expectations of stadiums have evolved. They are no longer single-use venues designed for peak matchday capacity. They are civic assets, expected to operate year-round, integrate with urban systems and deliver measurable social and commercial value.
This convergence creates a clear challenge. How can Germany modernise its stadiums in a way that responds to today鈥檚 demands, without over-investing in infrastructure that is underused for most of the year? A critical part of the answer lies in movement.
Intelligent movement design, spanning regional transport, last-mile connectivity, crowd dynamics and in-venue experience, is emerging as a defining factor in whether stadium renewal programmes succeed or fall short and play a key role in attracting a diverse demographic. It is here that design decisions directly influence safety, fan experience, operational resilience and long-term value.
From capacity to performance
Traditional stadium design has tended to prioritise capacity. The success of a venue was often measured by how many people it could hold and how safely it could empty. That baseline remains essential. But it is no longer sufficient.
As Jing Lu, a senior associate in 国产探花鈥檚 transport and mobility team, explains: 鈥淲e must really understand people鈥檚 behaviour and their experiences. They are not just numbers.鈥�
This shift reframes movement as a performance metric rather than a compliance exercise. It demands a deeper understanding of how people arrive, gather, circulate and leave, and how those patterns interact with the city around the stadium.
In Germany, this is particularly important, where some stadia are located outside city centres, served by dedicated transport networks, while others sit within dense, well-connected urban areas, where transport networks already operate close to capacity. Renewal programmes must therefore balance two competing pressures: accommodating intense, short-duration peaks on matchdays, while ensuring infrastructure remains efficient and relevant in everyday use. Public transport routes must be accessible and inclusive for a full range of users.
Designing the stadium as part of the city
Stadiums cannot be considered in isolation. Their success is inseparable from how effectively they connect to surrounding transport systems and public realm. On event days, tens of thousands of people arrive in compressed time windows, often via rail, tram and walking routes. The design challenge is not simply to move these people, but to do so in a way that is legible, safe and integrated with the city.
鈥淭here is now a big emphasis on the 鈥榣ast mile鈥� between the stadium and transport hubs,鈥� say Paul Townsend, Director of Analytics & Crowd Dynamics at 国产探花. 鈥淭here is often debate in different regions over whose responsibility this space is. In reality, it is always a collective of stakeholders but it is clear that this is an important aspect of both safety and experience.鈥�
There is now a big emphasis on the 鈥榣ast mile鈥� between the stadium and transport hubs.
Paul Townsend, Director of Analytics & Crowd Dynamics at 国产探花
This is one of the most complex aspects of stadium renewal in Germany, where responsibilities for transport, policing and public realm are often distributed across multiple authorities. Without early coordination, the risk is that the spaces outside the stadium boundary become points of friction, undermining the entire fan experience.
The current public discourse in Germany is beginning to reframe movement in and around stadia less from a 鈥渘ice-to-have鈥� fan experience issue to a test case for broader debates on climate鈥慺riendly mobility, fragmented governance, and the limits of existing public transport capacity.
A persistent theme is that complex, multi鈥慳ctor governance makes integrated stadium mobility planning difficult, especially at the 鈥渓ast mile鈥� between the public transport network and the stadium forecourt. German regional transport associations (Verkehrsverb眉nde) are often highlighted as long鈥憇tanding coordination successes[1], but recent analyses stress that their effectiveness still hinges on clearly mandated coordinating entities and early stakeholder engagement across municipality, transport operator, and police. This resonates with the concern that if responsibilities for public realm, policing, and transport are left to bilateral negotiations, the interfaces outside the stadium boundary become institutional 鈥渇riction zones鈥� where no single actor owns the fan journey end鈥憈o鈥慹nd.
The opportunity, however, is significant. By treating movement as a shared system, rather than a series of disconnected responsibilities, stadium projects can unlock wider improvements to public realm, active travel and transport integration that benefit the city every day, not just on matchdays.
Applying behavioural insight to crowd movement
Over the past two decades, landmark stadium projects have helped redefine what is possible 鈥� from Nationalarenan in Sweden (known as Strawberry Arena since 2024) to Lord鈥檚 Cricket Ground; from Everton鈥檚 new Hill Dickinson Stadium to Education City Stadium in Qatar, constructed for the Fifa World Cup 2022 鈥� and our experts have been a key enabler of these journeys.
Stadiums are uniquely intense environments. Arrival, interval and egress phases compress vast numbers of people into highly synchronised patterns. Designing for these conditions requires more than rule-of-thumb capacity calculations. It requires a deep understanding of behaviour.
鈥淓verybody wants to leave a stadium within a short time period,鈥� notes Jinu Varughese, an Associate Director in the crowd dynamics team at 国产探花. 鈥淪o, the efficiency of both the public realm and the internal movement is critical.鈥�
Crowd movement is driven as much by human behaviour as by physical space. People naturally seek the shortest path or follow familiar routes, and can be influenced by those around them. They often need to dwell, pause to absorb wayfinding information or wait for other group members. Designing for such variation of behaviour reduces risk and creates safer, more intuitive spaces.
At Everton鈥檚 new stadium, this required counterintuitive design solutions that influence crowd flow patterns internally to the stadium to bring a positive impact on external crowd flows within the constrained site location.
For Germany鈥檚 existing venues, many of which were not designed with this level of behavioural analysis, renewal presents an opportunity to reconfigure circulation, improve permeability and rethink how people move through and around the stadium. Some of this can be achieved with operational interventions, but some aspects require a degree of redesign.
Using data to inform design and operations
Advances in digital modelling have transformed how movement is understood. Today, it is possible to simulate tens of thousands of individual journeys, testing how a stadium performs under a range of scenarios, from routine matchdays to emergency evacuations. This enables design teams to identify risks, optimise layouts and make evidence-based decisions early in the process.
But the opportunity does not end at design. Increasingly, stadiums are becoming live, responsive systems. Real-time data can feed into control rooms, allowing operators to monitor crowd distribution and adjust operations dynamically.
鈥淭his kind of live data is used in the control room to dynamically manage crowds around the stadium. It can also be used offline to better distribute crowds, reduce queues and increase revenue,鈥� Townsend explains.
For Germany, there is a clear opportunity to connect ticketing, mobility and crowd management systems. The experience of UEFA EURO 2024, where integrated ticketing supported high levels of public transport use, provides a strong precedent for how movement strategies can actively shape behaviour. For the tournament, 81% of spectators travelled by public transport, with a corresponding reduction in higher鈥慶arbon modes.[2] This illustrates how mobility strategies can actively shape behaviour, rather than simply accommodate it 鈥� aligning operational efficiency, fan experience and sustainability objectives.
Embedding inclusive movement from the outset
If movement helps to define the stadium experience, it must work for everyone. Historically, accessibility has often been treated as a compliance issue, focused on meeting minimum standards. Today, the ambition should be far greater: to create environments that are intuitive, inclusive and equitable from the outset.
As Ben Channon, Head of Inclusive Environments at 国产探花, says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 all well and good saying we can meet the compliance, we can get people into the stadium in a safe way 鈥� all that鈥檚 important, of course. But we can go so much further than compliance 鈥� for a lot of stadia, inclusive design can become a key part of the fan experience and it can become a unique selling point that sets a stadium apart. It鈥檚 about how we can go beyond guidance to create a positive shared experience for everybody.鈥�
Inclusive design considers not just physical access, but cognitive and sensory experience. Wayfinding, acoustics, lighting and spatial clarity all influence how comfortably different users can navigate a space.
We must really understand people鈥檚 behaviour and their experiences. They are not just numbers.
Jing Lu, a senior associate in 国产探花鈥檚 transport and mobility team
Tom Kirby, a senior consultant in the Inclusive Environments team, highlights the complexity of this challenge: 鈥淚n a stadium context, you鈥檙e working on a much larger scale [than other building projects], which increases of the number of potential people with different kinds of impairments, mobility constraints or ways of processing sensory information.鈥�
Simple interventions can have profound impacts. Sensory rooms, at Everton and Tottenham, for example, have enabled some families with neurodivergent children to attend matches together for the first time. These specially designed boxes allow some separation from the intensity of the crowd, which can support people with hypersensitive considerations. The rooms also include spaces to retreat if the stadium becomes overwhelming.
鈥淚t creates a calmer environment,鈥� Kirby explains. 鈥淭here are really positive stories as a result of these interventions. There have been parents in tears because they never thought it would be possible to take their child to a match and this space has allowed it to happen.鈥�
Crucially, inclusive design benefits everyone. Clear wayfinding, intuitive layouts and well-designed seating improve the experience for all users, not just those with specific needs.
For Germany, where fan culture is deeply embedded and community ownership models are common, inclusive design is not just a technical requirement. It is central to ensuring stadiums remain open, welcoming and relevant to all. It is also a key guiding principle anchored in the sustainability guidelines for the DFL e.V. (Deutsche Fu脽ball Liga e.V.), covering sustainability in all its dimensions 鈥� ecological, economic and social. With the rise of women鈥檚 football and increasing number of concerts, the demographics of stadium attendees are shifting and an inclusive approach to design can cater to these wider users.
Supporting regeneration and year-round use
Stadium renewal in Germany is not only about matchday performance and fan experience. It is also about long-term economic and social value. Modern venues are increasingly designed as 365-day destinations, hosting a wide range of events beyond sport. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium provides a compelling example, generating substantial local economic value while attracting diverse audiences throughout the year.
Since opening in 2019, Tottenham has attracted more than 1.6 million visitors annually and contributed 鈧�398m (拢344m) in gross value added to the local economy[3].
Fan mobility and crowd strategies are fundamental to enabling this flexibility. Different events bring different crowd profiles, arrival patterns and transport demands. Designing infrastructure that can accommodate this variation is essential to making multi-use venues viable.
As Jing Lu puts it, stadiums 鈥渟hould be treated as assets that bring more value to the city鈥�.
She adds: 鈥淔or that to happen, they have to work efficiently when it comes to the movement of people and the connection to transport networks. They should not be isolated. A stadium should serve the city and the communities around it.鈥�
For German cities, this aligns closely with any potential regeneration objectives. Well-integrated stadiums can support local businesses, activate public spaces and strengthen connections between neighbourhoods.
German clubs have been wrestling with the same questions[4], albeit within a more fragmented governance landscape. In Munich, for example, Allianz Arena was planned around direct underground rail access and generous pedestrian routes from Fr枚ttmaning station, with match tickets doubling as local transport passes to spread arrivals and reduce car dependency.
In Dortmund and Frankfurt, clubs and transport associations have tied season and matchday tickets to regional public transport networks and laid on climate鈥憂eutral trams, cycle parking and Park & Ride offers, explicitly using mobility packages to manage diverse fan profiles while nudging behaviour away from private cars. Yet even these often鈥慶ited success stories highlight how crucial early coordination between clubs, cities, police and regional transport associations is to avoid bottlenecks in the public realm immediately outside the stadium boundary.
A decisive planning constraint
The expansion of Stadion An der Alten F枚rsterei is planned to begin this summer. The project to transform the home of FC Union Berlin illustrates how mobility strategy can become a decisive planning constraint rather than a supporting consideration.
The proposed expansion has been contingent on resolving long-standing traffic and access challenges, with authorities requiring a viable, integrated traffic concept before granting approval. As a result, capacity has been provisionally capped at approximately 34,500 鈥� well below the intended 40,500 鈥� until these issues are demonstrably addressed[5]. Crucially, the joint Senate鈥揢nion statement formalises this position by requiring sign-off not only from transport authorities but also from mobility, climate protection, and environment ministries.
This elevates last-mile connectivity, modal shift, and low-carbon access from operational concerns to core design criteria, embedding them as co-equal priorities alongside architectural and commercial ambitions.
A coordinated, multidisciplinary response
Delivering intelligent movement design requires coordination across disciplines. Transport planning, crowd dynamics, public realm design, digital systems and inclusive environments are all interdependent. Decisions in one area have consequences across the entire system.
This is where early engagement is critical. Embedding movement thinking at the start of a project allows teams to shape fundamental decisions about layout, capacity and operations, avoiding costly retrofits later.
Germany鈥檚 stadiums face a complex but well-defined opportunity. Many venues are of a similar age, face comparable challenges and some sit within strong urban contexts. At the same time, each project must respond to local governance, fan culture and spatial constraints.
鈥淭here are no two projects that are identical,鈥� as Jing Lu notes. 鈥淵ou need to fit to the case in front of you. When looking to upgrade a stadium sited on the city鈥檚 outskirts, it is critical to ensure we are unlocking existing infrastructure capacities, and promoting last mile active mobility connections to the existing public transport system. In a more dense urban environment the key considerations are focused on effectively distributing traffic flows across multiple entrances to minimise impact on the surrounding traffic network.
“We can mitigate against impact on the surrounding city through coordinated pedestrian and traffic management, as well as promoting active mobility and public transport integration. Promoting a multi-modal shift from a car-oriented mentality is vital. Multi-modal mobility hubs should be fully integrated with a stadium project to deliver destination mobility facilities to all users. Improving the arrival journey transforms the experiences of the venue for users.鈥�
A clear direction for Germany鈥檚 next generation of stadiums
The success of Germany鈥檚 stadiums will not be determined by architecture alone. It will depend on how effectively each venue enables the movement of people, from the regional network to the stadium seat and back again.
When movement works, it is almost invisible. Journeys feel intuitive, environments feel comfortable and the experience is defined by anticipation rather than friction. When it fails, it defines the day.
Intelligent movement design offers a way to reconcile competing demands: safety and experience, peak capacity and everyday efficiency, stadium performance and urban integration, inclusivity and accessibility. It provides a framework through which Germany can modernise its stadiums not just as venues, but as connected, inclusive and high-performing parts of the city.
The opportunity is clear. The challenge now is to approach movement not as a compliance issue, but as a driver of social value in the next generation of German stadiums.
This article is part of a series. Read the first part here: How can stadiums be catalysts for social value and urban regeneration in Germany?
[1] https://ralphbu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/buehler-et-al-verkehrsverbund.pdf
[2] , UEFA (2024)
[3] An analysis of Tottenham Hotspur’s socio-economic contribution to the local area, EY, December 2023
[4] https://www.sportpositiveleagues.com/news-article/what-are-sustainable-ways-of-travelling-to-german-bundesliga-games/
[5] https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2025/10/13/union-berlin-stadium-expansion-greenlighted-capacity-capped-34500/
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