Menu
People and Pop Culture

Plugged In: Simon Smith, Wembley Stadium

As associate director of stadium services for Wembley Stadium, Simon Smith is responsible for daily operations and event production, merchandise, e-commerce, stadium tours, and capital expenditures at the famed London venue. It’s a position he’s held for 2 1/2 years and has seen him work with the NFL on its annual staging of games at the venue. Previously, he managed the Palm Islands development off the UAE coast and oversaw the building of a new training facility for EPL club Tottenham Hotspur. He’s also president of the Association of Professional Venue Management, a trade group representing European facilities.

While you will never see me padding up and getting on the pitch, I am a fan of what the NFL brings as a sport, entertainment and an event to Europe. I love it.

Photo by: WEMBLEY STADIUM
On Wembley Stadium’s future as an NFL venue: I can see a franchise relocating here in five to 10 years. There are a few names in the hat, but the [Jacksonville] Jaguars are clearly the favorites. If I fast-forwarded 20 years, I think there will probably be two or three franchises internationally around the globe.

On stadium upgrades to meet the NFL’s needs: We did a detailed study with a U.K. sports architect and presented it to the NFL [in 2013] for how to remodel for an increased number of games: creating fan zones and giving them a better viewing experience in the lower tiers, and putting some corporate lounges around the east end to bring the spectator experience in line with a typical NFL stadium. For the NFL International Series, because of the sight lines, the first 11 rows [of the stadium’s lower bowl] are covered with team logos. Ideally, we would retract the seats back to row 12; it would give us sight lines across the player benches, but who pays for it has been the killer question.

On Wembley’s version of the Black Hole when the Oakland Raiders visited last year: Our [crowd-management] stewards didn’t quite know what to make of these guys. If you flipped it over to soccer mode, these guys [could potentially] be hooligans: Will they be trouble? But it was all good-humored and turned out great. The more of those moments that we have, the more it builds up a following … and the better it is for the NFL in general. Of course, if you have some more Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, that helps. It’s the one security duty that everybody [on the Wembley staff] volunteers for.

— Don Muret

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/09/28/People-and-Pop-Culture/Plugged-In.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/09/28/People-and-Pop-Culture/Plugged-In.aspx

CLOSE