Social Distancing In Sports Stadiums

We’re a nation of sports lovers, and due to the Coronavirus, we haven’t been able to go out and watch the football or rugby with our mates. With stadiums operating currently with no fans or crowds, live sport feels very different. But what will it look like when fans can start to go back to supporting their teams and creating that buzzing atmosphere?

We have analysed the capacity of 5 of the UK’s most popular sports stadiums including Wembley, Twickenham, Lord’s Cricket ground, Wimbledon and the Crucible theatre in order to find out the reduced capacity once social distancing measures are put in place.

So how does the reduction in capacity compare across sports? Take a look at the table below to find out:

With optimal social distancing measures of 1 meter in place, Wembley, Twickenham, Lord’s and Wimbledon will all be operating at 27% capacity, while Crucible theatre will be able to operate at 34% capacity.

We have worked with an illustrator, to show how this might look. The illustrations are based on the calculations above.

Use the slider to see the before and after pictures for each stadium.

Wembley Stadium

Capacity at Wembley would be reduced from 90,000 to 24,400 to allow for 1 metre social distancing, meaning 65,600 fans would have to give up their tickets at the next match.

Twickenham Stadium

Twickenham faces similar reductions from 82,000 to 22,300 to allow for social distancing between fans. This would mean 59,700 empty seats throughout the stadium.

Lord’s Cricket Ground

Lord’s Cricket Ground would decrease by 20,400 from 28,000 seats to just 7,600.

Wimbledon Centre Court

Tennis fans can expect to have a more intimate table tennis like setting with seat capacity being reduced from 14,979 to 4,000. That means 10,979 centre court tickets will be given up.

Crucible Theatre

A much smaller venue will get even smaller in capacity, Crucible Theatre with social distancing measures in place, will only allow for 340 supporters at the stadium, 640 less than the full capacity.

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