Built in 1814, Lord’s is the largest cricket ground in the UK and one of the most famous grounds in the world. It welcomes thousands of visitors to international matches every year, with cricket fans flocking to experience its unique architectural character and sporting heritage.  But this 200-year history comes at a price. Sporting venues have increasingly become major drivers of economic growth, with the quality of the fan experience paramount. Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)—the owner of Lord’s—embarked on the Lord’s Cricket Ground redevelopment to modernize and update the premises to ensure it continued to provide spectators with the world-class experience they had come to expect.

MCC embarked on the Lord’s Cricket Ground project, a 15-year, multi-million-pound redevelopment program, with plans for improved accessibility, increased capacity, and an enhanced visitor experience. This was critical in ensuring that Lord’s would continue to provide fans with access to world-class facilities while also maintaining the Ground’s reputation for architectural excellence. Arcadis has worked with MCC since 2017 and played an integral role in helping to bring its vision to life—an example of how social infrastructure can enhance community well-being through better-designed public spaces and facilities.  

Our involvement began with the redevelopment of the new Compton and Edrich stands. To meet current standards, MCC wanted to provide two new public seating stands, equipped with lifts and accessible seating, incorporating food, beverage, and washroom facilities, and featuring dramatically improved sightlines. Standing at three tiers in height, the new arrangement would increase capacity by an additional 2,600 seats and include two new debenture hospitality restaurants, which can be used to generate revenue outside of the cricket season.  

Acting as cost managers for MCC, we worked closely with the design team from the outset to help inform quality levels and areas of design priority. We also implemented a procurement strategy that ensured a quality contractor was selected who could work collaboratively alongside MCC during the cricket season. We aimed to create a cost management process that provided realistic and robust cost estimates at every stage of the design process. With a masterplan of this scale and scope, it was important there should be ‘no surprises’ that could potentially have a negative impact on both budget and timescales.

We achieved this by aligning the brief, budget, and scope from the outset. Fortunately, our stadia sector expertise meant we could bring reliable benchmark data and insights from numerous other projects around the world, all of which helped to inform our planning and ensured we could make the most accurate recommendations. Our approach was centered around optimizing viability, positively influencing design, and adapting procurement to beat the market. We developed an overarching master cost plan with input from across the project team, with comprehensive modeling to test the best spatial and seating arrangements and look at different program and phasing plans to compare efficiency and the benefits of each.