Consider two sports facilities. Both are built to the same budget. Both open on the same day. Both serve the same market. But one was designed with a fully developed operating model — defining user experience, staffing structure, technology requirements, revenue streams and maintenance systems before a single architectural decision was made. The other followed the conventional sequence: design, build, then figure out operations.
Three years after opening, the results are dramatically different. The first facility operates at 75% utilization with strong revenue performance and a stable management team. The second has retrofitted its technology three times, lost two management teams, and is operating at 45% utilization while pursuing a restructuring program.
What an Operating Model Actually Contains
An operating model for a sports venue is not a business plan or a feasibility study. It is a precise operational specification that translates the venue's purpose into daily operating reality. It answers specific questions that architectural design cannot answer on its own.
Operating model components
- User typology: Exactly who will use the facility, in what volumes, at what times, for what activities
- Staffing model: Number of staff, roles, shifts, training requirements and zone responsibilities
- Technology stack: Every digital system required — booking, access control, payment, membership, analytics
- Revenue architecture: All revenue streams, pricing models, membership tiers and commercial adjacencies
- Maintenance regime: Preventive maintenance schedules, contractor requirements and response time standards
- Event operating procedures: Step-by-step procedures for competitions, private events and peak-load management
- Governance structure: Who owns what decisions, how performance is measured, and how issues escalate
How the Operating Model Shapes Construction
Every component of the operating model has physical implications. Staffing models determine zone layout and service counter positions. Technology requirements determine the conduit and power infrastructure that must be embedded in walls and floors during construction. Maintenance regimes determine access requirements that must be designed into mechanical systems from the start.
If the operating model is developed after construction decisions are locked, every gap between the operating requirement and the physical reality becomes a cost. These retrofit costs are often multiples of what they would have cost to build correctly from the outset — and some operational deficiencies simply cannot be cost-effectively corrected after construction.
The GMS Sequence
GMS mandates require the operating model to be substantially complete before architectural design is finalized. This is not a preferred approach or a recommended practice — it is a structural requirement of the GMS execution methodology. The operating model is the brief from which construction decisions are made, not an output that follows from them.
“An architect cannot design a great sports venue without knowing how it will be staffed, what technology it will run, who its primary users are, and how it will generate revenue. These are operational questions — and they must come before design questions.”
GMS develops operating models as the foundation of sports infrastructure mandates. If you are planning a new facility or restructuring an existing one, contact the GMS team to discuss operating model development before your design process begins.
Discuss this topic with GMS
Every GMS article is drawn from live execution work. If this topic is relevant to a project you are developing, evaluating or restructuring — start a conversation. We respond within 48 hours.
Start a conversation