OUR TRUSTED PARTNERS.
ZGD Sports brings our hospitality, leisure, wellness, retail, workplace and media experience into football. We design spaces to welcome supporters, host guests, work, train and recover.
Interior design, architecture, furniture and fit-out services are available individually or as a combined package. From a lounge refresh or furniture upgrade to a complete refurbishment, we shape the brief around your budget, programme and operations. Based in Manchester and London, ZGD works with clients across the UK.
FOOTBALL CLUB &
SPORTS VENUE
INTERIOR DESIGN.
Every space needs a purpose and a workable business case. We start with the people using it, the income or operational value it could support, and what the existing building can accommodate. Our focus includes:
Hospitality & Non-Matchday Use
Lounges, bars, cafés and event spaces planned around guest experience, service and year-round use.
Gyms, Spa & Recovery
Training, changing and wellness interiors shaped around the operator’s brief and relevant performance specialists.
Club Retail & Merchandise
Shops, product displays and flexible retail environments that express the club’s identity and make buying straightforward.
Workplaces & Media Spaces
Offices, meeting rooms, interview areas and content studios supporting staff, partners and club communications.
Existing Venues & Community Spaces
Refurbishment, furniture upgrades and adaptable social areas planned around the building, budget and operating calendar.
OUR APPROACH TO
SPORTS VENUE DESIGN.
At Zero Gravity Design, we take a holistic approach, considering every detail from spatial planning to sensory engagement, ensuring that our designs enhance visitor experiences and meet operational needs.
Concept Development & Brand Integration
A club’s identity should shape its interiors, from the welcome at reception to the detail of a hospitality lounge or shop. We begin with your audience, operational priorities, investment range and the spaces available.
We then agree the appointment: interior design, architecture, furniture, fit-out or a combined package. That gives the team a clear brief, with responsibilities, budget and programme understood before the design develops.
Layout Planning & Visitor Flow Optimisation
We test layouts against arrival, queues, circulation, seating, service points and storage. A hospitality lounge must work for guests and staff; a club shop needs space for browsing, payment and replenishment.
For training and wellness settings, the plan considers privacy, changing, access and movement between activities. For spaces used beyond matchday, we examine how different users can enter, operate and leave without disrupting the rest of the venue.
Furniture & Fit-Out Coordination
Furniture is part of the operating plan: how many people a space serves, how it changes between uses, and how easily it can be maintained. We can design, specify and procure furniture, fixtures and equipment as a standalone appointment or within a wider scheme.
For fit-out commissions, we coordinate suppliers, trades and installation around the agreed design, budget and programme. Existing-building constraints, access, lead times, storage and handover are considered early, including phased work around the club’s operating calendar.
Lighting & Ambience Control
Lighting should support how a venue is used: a lively matchday lounge, a business event, a quiet recovery space or a club podcast recording. We plan flexible layers of light around those different needs.
For gyms, spas and wellness areas, we consider comfort, visibility, privacy and maintenance alongside atmosphere. Controls and fittings are coordinated with the project’s electrical and specialist teams.
Materials & Sustainability
A busy club interior needs finishes that stand up to repeated use, cleaning and change. We balance the visual brief with durability, maintenance requirements, replacement costs and the demands of each space.
Refurbishment starts with what can be retained and improved. We consider existing furniture and fittings, material provenance, repairability and responsible specification, with performance requirements checked by the relevant project specialists.
Sensory Design & Customer Engagement
Leisure design should engage all the senses. We consider:
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Acoustics: Soundproofing and optimised audio design for entertainment spaces
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Textures & Touch: Comfortable, high-quality materials that enhance the user experience
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Scents & Atmosphere: Signature scents and air quality enhancements for spas and relaxation spaces
Football Runs in the Family
Football is personal for ZGD founder Ashley Salmon, who spent time in Manchester United’s youth academy. His father, Ed Salmon, brings more than 30 years’ experience across football coaching and physical training to ZGD Sport. A former Bolton Wanderers apprentice and Royal Navy physical training instructor, Ed adds a practical understanding of how players, coaches and communities use training, changing and wellbeing spaces, alongside ZGD’s design expertise. Read Ed’s story on the Bolton Wanderers website.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Our football offer draws on real work across workplace, media, retail, fitness and wellness. These are transferable projects from ZGD’s wider portfolio, with each project’s role and status explained in its case study.
ARNE Workplace & Gym
ZGD developed the interior concept and spatial direction for ARNE’s Warrington headquarters. The HQ’s gym adds a useful fitness and wellbeing reference alongside its workplace, social and brand-led spaces. For clubs, it prompts a practical question: how can staff facilities, training and shared spaces work better together?
MEDIA CITY Content & Workplace
MediaCity brings together two useful strands of ZGD’s work: content and podcast environments, and workplaces that support collaboration. Our MediaCity content and podcast spaces feature in scenes with Wayne Rooney in Disney+’s The Real Rooneys. For football clubs, the same thinking can inform interview rooms, club-media studios, sponsor content and staff spaces. We consider how a room looks on camera alongside how people use it, with acoustics, lighting and technical requirements coordinated around the brief.
SOMA Fitness, Spa & Wellness
Our commissioned SOMA concept explores a gym and wellness environment in East London. It brings training, changing, recovery and social spaces into one coherent experience. For clubs considering a gym refresh, spa or recovery suite, the transferable thinking is in circulation, privacy, atmosphere and the relationship between active and quieter areas, developed around the operator and relevant specialists.
Retail & Hospitality-Led Leisure
The Couture Club offers a reference for brand-led retail and flexible merchandising. Our Echo and Groove Padel concepts explore the relationship between sport, social space, hospitality and repeat visits. For football, the opportunity extends from club shops and cafés to lounges and community spaces used beyond matchday. These are adjacent-sector projects: the lessons are transferable, while the football brief is developed with each club.
WHY ZGD FOR YOUR SPORTS VENUE?
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Cross-sector experience: hospitality, leisure, wellness, retail, workplace and media thinking applied to the club’s brief.
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Commercial priorities: design shaped around customer experience, staff needs, viable use and the available investment.
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Flexible appointments: interior design, architecture, furniture and fit-out, individually or as a combined package.
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Delivery awareness: practical coordination of materials, suppliers, trades, access and programme.
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A clear starting point: from an individual room or furniture refresh to a wider refurbishment, we agree the scope before work begins.
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR CLUB OR VENUE
Planning a hospitality lounge, club shop, workplace, gym, changing area or wellness suite? Tell us what the space needs to achieve, your budget and the dates it needs to work around.
We can help with interior design, architecture, furniture and fit-out, from an individual appointment to a coordinated refurbishment. Based in Manchester and London, we work across the UK.
Book a free consultation to discuss your club or sports venue.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
RELATED READING
START A PROJECT!
Have a building, a brief or an ambition for a new space? Let’s look at what it needs to do, where the investment will count and the right first step.
Call: 0161 758 0035
Email: info@zerogravitydesign.co.uk
Manchester
Colony, 76 King St, Manchester M2 4NH
London
Fora, Scott House, London SE1 7LY