Emirates Stadium
The Emirates opened in 2006. 60,704 seats. Designed by Populous, the firm behind some of the most recognisable stadiums in world sport. The roof is held up by just eight cores, which is why the bowl looks like it's floating from inside. It cost £390 million to build, and it's been Arsenal's home for nearly two decades. On a Saturday afternoon, the place is loud enough that the players can't hear themselves think. The job we have is everything that happens before that.
We programme music across the hospitality estate. The Diamond Club, where Raymond Blanc curates the dining and the room feels closer to a Mayfair members club than a stadium suite. The Club Level, spanning the entire tier across both stands. The Woolwich Restaurant. The Champions Lounge. The Emirates Lounge. Executive boxes. Each of these spaces opens two and a half hours before kickoff and stays open for an hour after the final whistle. That's a four-hour window to get atmosphere right, in a building that has just been at full capacity for the most important ninety minutes of someone's week.
The challenge is the arc. Pre-match hospitality is about anticipation. People are eating, drinking, building the energy together before they walk out into the bowl. The music has to support that without ever pushing too hard, because the room itself will do plenty of pushing as kickoff approaches. Halftime is its own beast. People come out of their seats wired and need somewhere to land. Post-match, depending on the result, the energy could be euphoric or completely flat, and the soundtrack has to read it.
The Emirates also runs as a year-round venue beyond the football. Bruce Springsteen has played here. Coldplay. Robbie Williams. Conferences, corporate events, exhibitions, weddings. Every booking brings a different audience and a different brief. Our programming adapts accordingly, with bespoke schedules built for whatever the building is hosting that day. It's still the same room. The music makes sure it feels like a different one when it needs to.
