The vast, futuristic, multi-billion dollar stadiums which have staged group matches at the World Cup over in the United States during the past fortnight have been enjoyed by Scottish fans every bit as much as the on-field action.
The steepling stands, gigantic LED screens, cavernous air-conditioned concourses, retractable roofs and expansive tailgating areas at venues like the Boston Stadium, Dallas Stadium, Kansas City Stadium and Seattle Stadium have taken visiting supporters aback this month. Their architecture, scale and technology have been breathtaking.
The prospect of football clubs in this country developing arenas which can provide the same sort of opulent match day experience for spectators is, given the colossal sums of money which it would take, an unobtainable American dream.
Yet, the growing number of famous European sporting institutions which have been bought over by investors from the other side of the Atlantic in recent years has led to a rise in major ground redevelopments across the continent not to mention a substantial increase in their earning capacity.
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And a new report has warned that the Scottish game, whose domestic broadcasting deal has long been insignificant in comparison with those in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, could fall even further behind the rest of the continent financially unless the new trend is followed and there is a shift towards “365 day destinations”.
Inside the New Economy of a Stadium, the 10,000 word paper that has been produced by international commercial law firm Addleshaw Goddard in conjunction with elite organisations and industry experts around the world, examines every aspect of the modern phenomenon in forensic detail.
Alastair Cowan, the Glasgow-raised, Edinburgh-based real estate lawyer who is the head of the sports sector at Addleshaw Goddard, is convinced the Americanisation of both sports grounds and the match day experience is only going to continue in the years ahead.
“It’s very much a growing area,” he said. “It's big business and a huge generator of revenue. There are clear patterns in stadium development in the States which are coming to Europe. It’s been interesting to look at that from a Scottish perspective.
“It's not so prevalent north of the border at the moment, but south of the border you can see more clubs, more bodies, more institutions thinking about it. That has a lot to do with more American owners coming into English football.
“You can see processes from the States coming into United Kingdom and Europe with the arrival of wealthy American individuals and major private equity firms. They have invested hugely because they want returns.
“Numerous clubs in the Premiership and Championship down south now want to increase the size of their stadium. But they can only do that if they support it from a business perspective and improve what the fan is being offered. The two things go hand in hand. It's not just about the size of the development, it is the end product.
“It's the way football's going. Look at Spurs’ new stadium. In terms of the conferencing facilities, the event space, the whole match day experience, it's absolutely top notch. It is multi-purpose and gets used as often as possible. Even when there isn't a football match going on, there is still income coming in.”
The Bernabeu is another good example. Spanish behemoths Real Madrid spent a cool €1.347bn modernising their fabled ground between 2019 and 2024. However, the number of people the stadium can hold on match days has only increased from 83,136 to 85,000.
“The capacity is actually not very much different from what it was before,” said Cowan. “But the income from match days has gone up 40 odd per cent because the experience there is so much better.
“They have comfier seats, a better food and beverage offering, more spaces, facial recognition technology. They are now able to provide a better experience and maximise revenue and income from it.”
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Real are, with annual revenues which exceed €1bn, the highest-earning football club in the world by a distance. Still, Cowan is firmly of the view that clubs in this country have to seriously consider the long-term benefits of upgrading their stadiums as well as the areas around them.
He is convinced that doing so can, due to the passion which Scottish people have for their teams and the support they are likely to show any new development, be commercially viable if done correctly.
“The average Scottish football club has 20 to 30 home games a season,” he said. “So there are well over 300 days when their stadium is not being used. They could facilitate some development, maybe even incrementally, and maximise revenue and income through both match day experience and use of the stadium.
“There are probably four different uses for stadium now. There's been a clear shift towards multi-purpose, experience-led venues, to expanding premium hospitality and segmenting offerings for different audiences.
“Introduce hotels, conferencing and event spaces, design flexible areas which can host concerts, corporate events and community activities, develop wider stadium precincts with food and beverage, entertainment and retail.
“Obviously the individual circumstances of each club and each stadium will dictate what is most appropriate and how many of those boxes can be ticked.
“But if you look at Scotland on a per capita basis, the number of fans we have attending games is off the charts in comparison with other countries. The passion is absolutely there. So how do you tap in to that to diversify revenue streams?”
Michael Nicholson, the Celtic chief executive, told shareholders at the Scottish champions’ AGM back in 2022 that a feasibility study had put the cost of building a new South Stand at Parkhead at £100m and stressed the difficulty of the debt markets ruled out any expansion.
Cowan acknowledged that Scottish clubs would face major challenges upgrading their stadiums due to the size of their turnovers and agreed they should be mindful of overstretching themselves. At the same time, he pointed out there are numerous ways to make redevelopment financially viable.
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“Doing it in a manner that ensures the club is operating sustainably throughout is the imperative in all of this,” he said. “You have to work with the asset you have. A lot of it goes back to what the circumstances of the ground are, how much do you actually own and what you can do with it and where can funding or finance come from.
“That can be difficult. But there's a variety of different models. You've got debt financing, which is a lot more nuanced than it used to be. Barcelona, for instance, have sold off rights to future revenue streams to raise the money they need to redevelop the Nou Camp.
“That may be easier for them to do given the money they take in from television. It is a very different landscape in Spain to Scotland. But that doesn't mean there won't be a market for raising money that is securitised against future income streams in this country.
“The public-private partnership works brilliantly in other places because the more use you get from a stadium, the bigger the impact on the surrounding areas and the better the financial position for the local authorities as well.
“Dundee’s development at Camperdown is tied up in the planning process, Aberdeen have been in discussions for years with the local authority about moving to the beachfront. In both of those cases, I think there is an opportunity to do something in a public-private partnership because the overall development will benefit not just the club but the wider community.
“The other model, which actually may be more prevalent, is phased development, where the cost and risk are spread over time. Often it makes sense to phase it not just from a financial perspective but also to tie in with the football season.
“Every club will do it slightly differently depending on their circumstances, which is entirely natural and right. But those three methods, debt finance, public-private partnership and phased redevelopment, are on the horizon.”
The authors of Inside the New Economy of a Stadium found that more than 300 stadium renovation or newbuild projects got underway in 2025 and learned that Premier League clubs are set to increase their cumulative venue capacity by 14 per cent by the mid-2030s.
Cowan stated that directors, executives and owners of Scottish clubs are conscious of the strides forward which are being made on this front by their counterparts around Europe and expressed confidence they will make every effort to ensure they are not left behind in the years to come.
“Celtic have been probably been looking at their main stand at Parkhead,” he said. “Rangers are looking at redeveloping Ibrox. I think there is a likelihood of considerable stadium development in Scotland in the coming years.
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“I totally accept there's challenges to it. But if they don't do it, will the gap between Scotland and England, between Scotland and Europe, grow? The answer to that could well be yes.
“Now, we attend more football matches than anyone else. But will the next generation be the same? What are the dangers of not doing it? The gulf could widen even further than it is at the moment. There is a risk if clubs don't look at stadium redevelopment, but I think they are looking at it.
“The match day experience is better now than it was 10 years ago, certainly 20 years ago. That's not to say that improvements can’t be made. The income streams here are such that the challenges may be greater, but I think clubs are going to accept those challenges. I’m sure we'll see quite a few developments come to fruition in the next few years.
“There's an absolute grasp on the fact that stadiums are assets and assets can be income producing. But for that to happen you need to have as many revenue streams as possible. Clubs are becoming more alive to the diversification of those revenue streams. The hotel that Hearts built at Tynecastle is a perfect example of that.”
Cowan added, “Look at the way the SRU go about match days when the Scotland rugby team play now with retail, with food and beverage, with live music. Could football clubs learn from that? It depends on circumstances. Murrayfield has the space to accommodate all of that and not many others will.
“But it shows an absolute understanding about the need to increase the consumer benefits and experience to maximise the income and diversify the revenue streams. I've been to internationals at Murrayfield and it's a completely different experience. It's a far more positive experience.”
The “egg chasers” – as Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann memorably called them during his rant at Tom English on BBC Radio Scotland in the wake of the Scotland defeat at the hands of Brazil in midweek – do not have the same issues with hooliganism which football does.
But could treating football fans better inside stadiums result in an improvement in their behaviour? Does herding them like cattle lead directly to problems? Could giving them a more enjoyable experience result in fewer incidences of pyro, missile throwing and racist and sectarian chanting.
“There is a different demographic there,” said Cowan. “Rugby doesn't have crowd problems, football very much does. People's passion sometimes takes them unfortunate ways in football. But I certainly don't think better stadiums would hinder things. In fact, they could help it.”
Installing facial recognition devices at turnstiles has been floated as a potential solution to crowd unrest, as a way to identify troublemakers to conceal their identity by wearing balaclavas. Unlike many sceptics, Cowan does not believe it is the stuff of science fiction. He has seen how the new technology is being increasingly used around the globe.
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“It's going to become more common over time,” he said. “The benefits are clear. There is a faster and more seamless entry, there is reduced queuing and congestion and there is improved security.
“There are very important considerations too, not least privacy and data. Clubs need to get consent. But when the LA Clippers introduced facial recognition they expected one in three of their fans to agree to sign up to it. By the end of the first season, 75 per cent of them had. I wouldn't compare an average LA Clippers fan with an average Scottish football fan, but the principles are the same.
“As a firm, we have have advised on two clubs with large football stadiums in England on the use of facial recognition technology in a fan zone experience. Before, you scanned a credit card when you paid for something, but now you just go in take what you want to eat and drink and get charged on the way out. That was all done using facial recognition.”
That may be some way off in Scotland. But Cowan still feels clubs here need to take the steps which their counterparts in England and Europe have to avoid the financial gulf which already exists between them widening even further in the seasons to come.
“There are probably some stadiums here which aren’t fit for purpose in 2026,” he said. “Most Premiership clubs are probably capable of improving their match day experience in some shape or form. It is all about how they grasp the other opportunities which their assets afford them through diversification of their revenue streams.
“I don’t for a minute feel the clubs don’t know that. It is something that other countries have grasped earlier than Scotland has. But Scotland is now trying to catch up and hopefully they do.”
