David Cryer: Designing Stadiums for the Modern Fan

From major stadium redevelopments to dedicated women’s sport facilities, David Cryer is helping shape the environments where modern sport is experienced.

As a Project Architect at AFL Architects, David works across some of the UK’s most ambitious sports infrastructure projects, including developments linked to Everton FC, Birmingham City FC and Oxford United FC. Blending technical coordination with fan-focused thinking, his role sits at the intersection of architecture, sport, business and experience design.

In this Industry Insider Q&A, David reflects on how he found his place in sports architecture, why stadiums must now function far beyond matchday, and the changing expectations around fan experience and women’s sport facilities in the UK.

Tell us about yourself, what do you do in your current role and what roles have you done previously?

I am a qualified Architect working for AFL Architects in the sports and leisure sector, predominantly designing stadiums, stadium upgrades, and training grounds for professional sports teams. In my current role as Project Architect, I help sports clubs of all levels bring their aspirations to life. My most recent work includes projects for Birmingham City FC, Oxford United FC, Everton FC, and several county cricket clubs.

Before joining AFL Architects, I gained experience across a range of sectors including commercial, residential, and healthcare. If I’m honest, I never felt Architecture would be my long-term career until I entered the sports world. I’m sports-mad, so working in and with the sports industry immediately felt like the right fit.

What three words would you use to describe your role?

Diverse: Over the last 6 months alone, I have been part of multiple design teams across a range of sports. My work has spanned everything from aspirational concepts for 60,000-seat stadiums, to technical design guidance for dedicated women’s sport facilities, to on-site snagging of the hospitality lounges at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Complex: As the Architect, you are expected (and relied upon) to understand how almost everything on a project works, as you are ultimately responsible for coordinating the design. This is made even more challenging by the sheer number of stakeholders and opinions involved in projects of this scale. As you can imagine, what is requested by a player or manager isn’t always signed off by those in charge of a project.

Custodial: Yes, I used ChatGPT to help with this one: “give me a word I can use to describe having a sense of pride and ownership.” You genuinely become invested in the clubs you work with and as a result I now have several clubs added to my “My Teams” tab on LiveScore. I fully appreciate what it feels like to be a fan, and I keep that front-of-mind when designing any scheme.

“Normal” isn’t a thing in sport so what does an “average” week look like for you? 

An average week typically involves working across two or three projects, often all at different stages along the timeline of a project. Although we each have our specialisms, no one at AFL is tied to a single project stage. As a result, a typical week might include a site visit as part of our quality assurance work, a midweek match, a feasibility study for a potential new project, or preparing a competition submission for a new architectural tender.

The only real constant is the 5pm Friday deadline.

How did you end up where you are right now? When did you know you wanted to work in sport

I guess I always wanted to work in sport, it has just evolved from aspirations to be the next David Beckham, to finding another way to bring my other skillsets into the world of sport.

Put simply, I am in Architecture, because I was good at art and maths at school. I am in Sports Architecture because I struggled to find motivation or success in the other architecture sectors.

I knew on my first day in the office that I was better suited to this role than anything I’d done previously.

What is your number one focus when it comes to your work?

My number one focus is designing stadiums that genuinely put the user, and especially the fan, at the heart of every decision. Being a lover of live sport gives me a real understanding of how players, fans, and staff experience a venue, and that insight only deepens when you’re at games; watching how people move, behave, and interact with a full stadium.

While it’s important that a scheme makes financial sense for the client or club, what matters most to me is creating meaningful, intuitive experiences. Once you’ve seen how a stadium truly operates, every design choice becomes clearer, and if you’re always aiming for what’s best for the fan, you can stand behind your work with confidence.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?

That stadiums need to function 365 days a year. Professional sports clubs are very expensive to build and maintain, and they simply can’t rely on 90 minutes of action every other week to stay viable. Successful venues create additional revenue streams; whether that’s through major additions like hotels and conference facilities or smaller, but equally valuable, steps like enhancing pre- and post-match entertainment to keep fans on site longer. Ultimately, a stadium has to become a “sticky” destination, not just a matchday venue.

What are you excited about in your industry at the moment?

I’m excited about a lot in this sector, but the biggest thing for me is the current surge of investment and the shift in mindset around stadium design in the UK. Clubs at all levels are putting serious money into their stadiums and overall fan experience, which is pushing everyone else to raise their game. And it’s not just about bigger structures or more seats, it’s about genuine architectural ambition. We’re now seeing bold; statement designs from some of the biggest firms in the world.

Watching Hill Dickinson come to life on site was a privilege, it’s a wonderful stadium as well as a beautiful piece of architecture. But the plans for Birmingham City and Manchester United are a step up again. The designs are bold and, understandably, split opinion, but the intent behind them is what stands out. These clubs aren’t choosing the most economical route to deliver a 60–100k stadium; they’re choosing to make a statement.

And yes, it means more competition for us, but I think we should welcome the big players in architecture entering this space. They bring a completely different design perspective and are helping push boundaries for our clients and fans alike.

Another thing driving excitement is the momentum behind the women’s game and the opportunities it’s creating. There’s now a real expectation that sportswomen should have facilities designed specifically for them and their fan bases. With AFL having written the new guidance, we’re in a great position to help clubs get this right. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this side of the company, and the industry, goes next.

If you could change one thing about your Industry, what would you change?

Design periods – The time we actually get to develop a concept and shape a detailed design is only a tiny fraction of the overall project timeline. In an ideal world, we’d have far more space to be creative and arrive at the perfect solution for the client and their team or fan base.

Most of us get into architecture because we love design, yet the reality is that a large portion of our time ends up being spent on coordination, scheduling, and budgeting.

Sport is a hectic industry, what do you do to switch off?

Being honest, I don’t really switch off. I’ve got two young kids who make sure of that. And on the rare occasions I do get the chance to sit down and watch some sport, I’m a Manchester United fan and an England cricket fan, so any hope of “relaxing” usually turns into stress pretty quickly.

If you were to give a piece of advice to someone wanting to do your role, what would you say?

Start building a relevant knowledge base and network. As I mentioned earlier, get yourself to grounds and watch live sport, seeing stadiums in action is invaluable. Alongside that, be intentional with your networking. Don’t just accept every LinkedIn request; follow and engage with people in the industry, the sector, and in the roles you aspire to. It’s one of the best ways to understand emerging trends and stay up to date with what’s happening in real time.

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