In this era of modern sports, conventional and traditionally designed stadiums no longer hold the aesthetic value in the eyes of the spectators. Moreover, they fail to comply with the enhanced safety regulations, need for pitch advertising, additional amenities like conference rooms, press cafeterias, halls of fame and ease of entry and parking for the enormous crowd. Considering the mentioned factors there has been a surge in the development of iconic sports stadiums that are not only visually appealing but also are very strong structures. Some of the prominent examples the development of complex Formula 1 circuits in Abu Dhabi and Singapore, Olympic stadiums in China like Bird?s nest and Baseball stadiums in United Sates. Such dramatic and exciting structures are increasingly becoming the symbol of cities and countries and do well to amplify a spectator?s experience. Considering the importance of branding in today?s world such structures are necessary to increase the brand value of the teams associated with them.
Owing to this trend, there has been a surge of opportunities in the field of project management in sports. Project management in sports is concerned with managing the entire life cycle of a sports project right from design, engineering, and procurement to production and completion. It also involves managing all the project stakeholders, controlling the project environment, scheduling and financials, project monitoring, project hand off and finally post production nuances. This paper highlights the importance of project management in sports by taking an example of an iconic sports structure, Allianz Arena in Munich. The first part of the paper discusses the concepts of project management in general. It discusses the essential elements of project management cycle and the steps required at each stage. It further highlights the features of project management in sports. The second part of the project discusses the case of Allianz arena in detail. Firstly, it talks about the history and the need of construction of a new stadium. Then it talks about the complex design and architecture and how it resolves the regulatory requirements and safety issues associated with the older Munich Olympic Stadium. The design complexities and the new developments have been discussed in detail. The concept of the design and the innovative seating arrangement gives an idea about the sophisticated project. Secondly, the project management of the Allianz Arena is discussed. It starts with the project stakeholders and their responsibilities. Then the timelines and the project scheduling are discussed in details. Finally, the project financials and the challenges associated with the project are discussed. The paper concludes by summarizing the findings of the case and how the project management helped in making it a success.