Arena also installed temporary grandstand seating at the other grounds visited by the touring Australian national team, namely 4,638 seats at Old Trafford, 3,645 at Edinburgh, 10,766 at the Rosebowl, 8,427 at Durham, 336 seats at Lords, 793 seats at Edgbaston, and a further 218 seats at The Brit Oval.
The Brit Oval's balcony, with its specially upholstered luxury seating, was designed to provide additional comfort in a spectacular environment for the club's VVIP guests. Arena Seating designed the facility in brushed aluminium and glass, using 70 seats based on Arena's Congress seat with weatherproof vinyl upholstery, individual arm rests and cup holders.
"We designed the bespoke viewing balcony from scratch," says Arena Seating sales director Dave Withey. "The challenge was to create a private, elegant viewing area with as much space and comfort as possible, while minimising the loss of seating caused by building over an existing stand."
The new balcony is the latest in a series of improvements that Arena Seating has helped introduce at the ground, allowing the Brit Oval to increase its capacity safely and improve the services it can offer to cricket fans.
"Over two years ago the ground's management asked us to use our imagination and expertise to find ways of increasing the capacity for major fixtures," says Withey. "Our experience allowed us to explore the potential of areas above and behind the existing OCS stand, and we designed a steel support system for a demountable grandstand of 436 seats. It was crucial that these seats did not affect the thoroughfare below so we designed them to fit into the back row of the permanent seating, allowing access and egress via the existing stands."
According to Withey, "The new balcony at the Brit Oval demonstrates that, as well as installing demountable grandstands of every description, Arena Seating offers bespoke design and build solutions with flexible and imaginative design."
(Jim Evans)
