LAST May, Andy Harkin was watching Millwall batter Blackburn Rovers. He opened his phone and bought train tickets to London.
For several years, his firm – Harkin Associates – has helped Championship clubs ready their stadiums for the Premier League.
One potential client was Millwall, who for much of the 2022/2023 season had been in the promotion hunt. At half-time, the London side were 3-1 up at home and cruising towards the play-offs.
“Millwall needed to hold on and we would have been having a meeting about a multi-million pound contract to upgrade their facilities – but they somehow conceded three goals and it was all over for another year,” recalled Andy.
And when he says multi-million-pound contracts, he’s not wrong.
“When Middlesbrough were last promoted in 2016, the club had been up-and-down over the years but the work needed to upgrade the media facilities still cost several million pounds,” recalled Andy.
Having launched in 1988 by Andy’s father, the Middlesbrough-based design and architecture firm has carved out a niche as a go-to firm when it comes to ensuring grounds meet the Premier League’s rigorous criteria for competing in the top-flight.
The firm has also been responsible for designing a string of well-known buildings across Teesside, from schools to shops – such as the award-winning Psyche, in Middlesbrough.
Much of the work is linked to the media facilities. For example, in the Championship, clubs only need to accommodate around a dozen TV cameras – a figure that balloons past 40 following promotion.
“Clubs require an auditorium with minimum 70 seats, as well as 25 workspaces for journalists to work and get their match reports out, plus Premier League sides need five off-the tunnel interview rooms along with two TV studios,” added Andy.
“And the turnaround time can be really small – in Boro’s case, they needed a lot of work doing in just 13 weeks – so clubs turn to us because we’ve done it so much, we now have a blueprint to work off and they know they’ll be ready for kick-off come August.”
In Middlesbrough’s case, two new broadcasting studios had to be installed along with an external staircase for access.
Besides the creation of an XXL press room, social spaces and player entrances had to also be installed at the Riverside – while outside, a dedicated space had to be created for Sky and BT Sport’s vehicles.
And it also meant major structural modifications were needed for the cameras, along with new floodlights.
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