Your stadium’s value doesn’t end with the final whistle - it’s a high-potential asset, with spaces that can generate serious returns far beyond matchday.
If you’re an elite sports club sitting on under-used event spaces that could be working harder, now’s the time for a rethink.
Maximising square footage that often lies dormant in between fixtures is a smart, sustainable way to boost revenues - with interior transformations that create premium hospitality suites, private hire venues and branded zones offering year-round income that reduces your reliance on matchday alone and deepens your relationships with fans, sponsors and stakeholders.
In fact, we’d go so far as to say that - for clubs looking to grow commercially while reinforcing their brand - well-designed event spaces aren’t a bonus, they’re an essential part of your business infrastructure.
At DT Sports, the specialist sports and hospitality arm of Design Tonic, we believe in unlocking the full potential of a space - every day, not just on game day.
Our work with top sports clubs like Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Yorkshire County Cricket Club, as well as global sports and hospitality brands like Adidas, Heineken and Seat Unique, is focused on one single goal - designing and building events interiors that work harder, adapt faster and perform longer.
We know that smart interior design can turn quiet corners into commercial powerhouses, so here are some top tips from our experts to ensure every space in your stadium earns its place.
DT Sports by Design Tonic X Seat Unique Club at Co-op Arena, Manchester
Design for Flexibility: Aim for Spaces that work all Year Round
When you design an event space with intention, you’re creating a commercial asset - not a calendar gap.
The key? Multifunction and versatility.
Your private lounges don’t need to be sitting idle in between catering for event-day VIPs - in between, they could be hosting panel talks, product launches or business dinners with minimal reconfiguration.
Your media rooms don’t need to sit quiet between press conferences - equipped with the right tech and atmosphere, they’re ideal for corporate training sessions, workshops or internal team briefings.
And that underused function suite doesn’t just have to wait for matchday hospitality - designed right, it becomes the perfect backdrop for weddings, award nights or exclusive brand celebrations.
In design terms, this means choosing flexible layouts, with smart zoning and modular furniture.
It calls for layered lighting that can set, and change, the mood. And you should also consider AV integrations that can scale up or down, depending on an event.
Multifunction was the challenge set by Seat Unique, who approached us to design their flagship VIP lounge at the new Co-op Live Arena in Manchester.
They wanted a space that felt unmistakably theirs - and which also had the ability to flex effortlessly for different types of events, from hosting for main event global superstars to more intimate sponsor activations and private gatherings.
Our team delivered in our inimitable style, designing a rich, atmospheric space jam-packed with tactile materials, premium finishes and sculptural lighting.
Kitted out with sweeping coves and custom booth seating, the space offers the perfect blend of privacy and openness, keeping comfort and flow central.
And the brand alignment goes far beyond colour schemes and logos - it’s woven deep into the experience itself; elevated, exclusive and oh-so luxurious.
This is the gold standard for transforming under used event spaces; design them to be flexible from day one, and you future proof them to adapt to a wide range of uses with ease.
DT Sports by Design Tonic X Leeds United’s Eddie Gray Suite & Peacock Suite
Performance meets Prestige: Elevating Hospitality for Matchday and Beyond
Premium hospitality is a core pillar of commercial strategy, but if your suites are designed solely with matchday in mind? You’re missing an opportunity.
The best-performing spaces use elevated interior design to attract year-round bookings - for corporate events, private functions, exclusive hire and more.
Our long-standing partnership with Leeds United is perfect proof of what’s possible.
Transforming the Eddie Gray Suite, for example, allowed 3,500 square feet of prime venue to reach a new potential.
Channelling the high-end vibe of top city centre eateries, the space now features its own theatre-style kitchen complete with micro herb garden and dry-aged meat display, all paired with a dramatic palette, premium comfort and elegant fixtures and fittings.
The end result doesn’t just enhance the food offer on a matchday, it also makes the suite a standout location for private hire, chef’s tables and food-led events.
Similarly, with luxury and prestige in mind, the Peacock Suite, once 3 smaller corporate boxes, was transformed into a suite with a more flexible floor plan and panoramic pitch views, and is now the perfect place to support everything from sportsmen's dinners to media launches.
And elsewhere in the English leagues, we took the same multifunctional approach at Nottingham Forest with four unique suites designed and built at the City Ground, each one tailored to a specific matchday audience but designed with non-matchday usability in mind
Again, these are no one-hit hospitality rooms - they are layered, branded spaces that can pivot seamlessly from luxury fan experience to high-end corporate use as needed, hosting fans today, sponsors tomorrow and private clients the day after.
DT Sports by Design Tonic X YCCC’s The Long Room
Respect the Heritage, Reimagine the Function
One of the biggest challenges with under-used event spaces is legacy: rooms that were once prestigious but no longer meet the expectations of modern guests or sponsors.
These spaces can come with constraints: listed features, traditional layouts or club expectations around preservation - but they’re by no means beyond transformation.
Rather than rip out and start over? The best solution is often to refine and reframe - creating a considered design that preserves the character of the space while reinventing its commercial value.
Take our renovation of the historic Long Room at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, an under-utilised event space with plenty of prestige but a lack of purpose.
With a total refurbishment, we were able to create a highly desirable banqueting suite that retained the elegance and gravitas of the original design while introducing modern flexibility and functionality - respecting the legacy and detailing that made it unique, while quietly embedding the essentials for contemporary use; from comfort in textiles and acoustics to flexible seating arrangements and intelligent lighting design that can shift the tone from matchday moods to celebration vibes.
Done right, heritage spaces can become some of the most commercially powerful rooms in your stadium - you just need to add scalable functionality to the story and substance.
From Passive to Profitable: Turning Downtime into Revenues
As anyone holding the purse strings at an elite club knows, the overheads don’t disappear when the crowds go home - and every day your event spaces go unused is a missed opportunity to build both revenues and brand engagement.
But how can you turn downtime into real cash for your club?
Let’s look at our upcoming work with West Bromwich Albion FC, where DT Sports has been appointed to design a new premium VIP suite called The Millichip.
More than just a hospitality space, it’s being created as a dual-purpose venue, with every detail planned to support non-matchday revenue streams - from the tech infrastructure and lighting to materials that balance practicality with polish.
We’ve already touched on some of the midweek opportunities available through your event rooms - from brand activations to private dining - but there’s plenty more potential.
Depending on how your space is designed, it could also be promoted for:
- Conferences
- Presentations
- Product or brand launches
- Corporate away days
- Press events
- Internal club meetings and functions
The goal? To create versatile, bookable spaces that minimise downtime and maximise commercial return.
DT Sports by Design Tonic X Seat Unique Club at Co-op Arena, Manchester
Branded, Bookable and Built for Experience
Whether you're a football club, an elite sports venue or a live entertainment arena, today’s guests and sponsors expect more than a great seat - they want an exceptional experience.
And you? You want that exceptional experience to feel unmistakably yours.
From your perspective, an experience in one of your event spaces should do more than impress in the moment - it should strengthen brand loyalty, spark positive conversations and deepen relationships with your club and brand that translate into future bookings, repeat business and broader spend.
This is why transforming your under-used event spaces should start with brand storytelling and audience insight - who’s using the space? What impression do you want them to leave with?
How can you build emotional resonance - through touchpoints and textures; lighting and layout?
That’s why, in the Seat Unique VIP Lounge, we didn’t just overlay the branding - it was embedded into everything right from the off.
It lives in the tone of the materials, the luxury of the fittings and the beautiful balance between privacy and openness - as well as the more obvious visual elements, like the palette and the logos.
The end result is that the space doesn’t just feel high-end - it feels like stepping into the Seat Unique universe, and it’s a universe guests will want to return to time and time again.
The truth is that, when your under-utilised events space is bookable, brand-aligned and built to deliver moments that matter, it works harder for your guests - and it pays off even more for you.
Love to learn how we can unlock the potential of your under-used event rooms, turning them into out-of-this-world spaces that generate real commercial results?
We’d love to chat - get in touch with the team today.
