Turning Hospitality Into Year-Round Experiences & Revenues: The Riverside Model

As the Premier League season reaches its climax, Lead Consultant Elliott Charles considers the award-winning success of Fulham’s Riverside Stand in transforming the stadium infrastructure into a year-round commercial engine at the heart of the local community.

Known as The Riverside on Fulham FC matchdays and as Fulham Pier when operating every other day, the venue beams brightly beside the River Thames. The award-winning riverside stand has become the capital’s shining example of what sporting venues can be in 2026 and beyond.

Fulham have created a multi-dimensional product suite designed to challenge traditional matchday expectations through the introduction of premium hospitality experiences, whilst Fulham Pier serves the local community and finds ways to unlock new revenue streams on non-matchdays. Its recent success winning the Hospitality & Experience Award at the Sport Industry Awards 2026 – in addition to earlier victories at the Sport Business Awards, London Venue & Catering Awards, and Stadium Design Summit – is not just recognition for the club’s ambition to innovate, but also validation of a new and industry-leading commercial model.

Over a 13-year partnership, Two Circles has supported Fulham in shaping The Riverside through a deep understanding of fans, informing how matchday products are designed, priced and positioned to maximise revenue, value and engagement. The club provides no better case study in a flywheel of experiences targeting audience growth and, consequently, revenues.

Creating a range of products that challenge the preconceptions of a football fan’s experience.

At the core of The Riverside’s success is a deliberately constructed suite of hospitality products that actively challenge preconceptions and redefine what fans expect from a football matchday experience. Fulham’s tiered premium product, from Matchday Plus through to The Brasserie, is designed to serve distinct audiences, price thresholds and experiences. The result is closer to a private members’ club than a traditional stadium, with five-star hospitality, premium dining by Michelin chefs, and elevated seating experiences that extend well beyond the 90 minutes on the pitch.

The bottom floor of The Riverside is available to others in the ground and the public 20 minutes after the full-time whistle. With live music and bars open, Fulham have also ensured that dwell time at the stadium is extended, driving incremental revenue, all while maximizing the club’s USP overlooking a (sometimes) sun kissed River Thames.

Beyond Fulham’s ambition for The Riverside to deliver a high-end premium experience, data has been instrumental in shaping the realities of a matchday experience, with attendee feedback driving tangible improvements. Insights into half-time congestion informed operational changes, while queue time challenges in Matchday Plus were mitigated through additional staffing and enhanced signposting.

Crucially,  exceptional riverside experiences aren’t confined to matchdays alone. As Fulham Pier, spaces are opened to the public post-match and into the week – hosting community groups such as running and chess clubs, events from comedy and cabaret nights to kids crafts and roller disco, and a full wellness schedule including yoga, Pilates and breathwork, in addition to its dining experiences. Fulham Pier transforms the stand into a destination beyond matchday. This shift from matchday revenue to regular year-round engagement, drives increased dwell time, repeat visits and ultimately greater lifetime value from both local and visiting audiences.

Tapping into new and existing audiences, local and global, with an infrastructure at the heart of the community.

This model is particularly effective in capturing demand from Fulham’s affluent local market. The members club Lighthouse Social, serves up Soho House-like luxury and community, while Brasserie Constance provides accessible and exceptional dining alike, it all showcases how sport infrastructure can take tastes traditionally served elsewhere and deliver for them themselves. Tapping into that audience is also seen in their ability to upsell into football hospitality – the creation of a new product has grown the club’s connection to a new audience that is ripe to be upsold hospitality through its relationship with the club.

This model enables Fulham to serve multiple audiences simultaneously, whether that be affluent residents seeking premium leisure experiences, corporate clients leveraging the Premier League’s cultural currency to entertain clients, reward employees and build new business. By designing products specifically for each segment, the club has expanded its addressable market while maintaining the authenticity of the matchday atmosphere.

Contrastingly, there is increasing demand from international football fans flocking to one of the most visited cities globally for once-in-a-lifetime experiences, watching the world’s most popular and watched league. Fulham’s rich history with the US has proven particularly rewarding commercially. Witha significant percentage of the Riverside’s individual match purchasers coming from outside the UK, Fulham has evidenced how it’s possible to tap into a transient market and help them fall in love with your history and heritage whilst delivering innovative, cutting edge experiences.

Likewise, the demand from high-net-worth visitors is evident in sales across Fulham’s Brasserie and Gourmet products. The balance of tapping into this demand on the club’s doorstep, and the scarce inventory available, ensures that any unique English football atmosphere isn’t diluted.

Converting the Premier League’s demand and its audiences into long-term incremental revenue.

Underpinning this strategy is a disciplined approach to inventory and pricing. Limited capacity across premium tiers, such as the Gourmet with roughly 20 covers available for purchase across individual matchdays, creates natural scarcity, enabling stronger yield and accelerating demand across the wider product mix. Season-ticket holders make up approximately two-thirds of the home crowd at Craven Cottage and with general admission access restricted to members, Fulham can upsell into entry-level hospitality while maintaining consistently high occupancy.

That demand is also seen in both seasonal and individual match inventory. Seasonal covers help to drive long-term value from customers, generating roughly 4x the revenue from MBM sales across a season, while also increasing the chance of scarcity messaging to accelerate sales across individual matches. Alongside setting price points reflective of the opposition, this ensures that match-by-match demand is converted into optimal commercial return whilst delivering world-class experiences.

Audience understanding has proven central to conversion of this demand. Seasonal hospitality renewals for next season are set to exceed original forecasts by more than 10% driven by propensity-led targeting. Crucially, insight into what motivates the purchasers of different products has refined the proposition for each – whilst The Dugout sells on atmosphere, the Sky Deck is attractive for its food offering compared to The Originals on its strength as a space and opportunity for hosting.

While on-pitch performance remains outside the commercial and marketing teams’ control, The Riverside demonstrates how clubs can take ownership of revenue growth through strategic product design, evolution of matchday experiences, and serving new and existing audiences. In doing so, Fulham has not only redefined the matchday experience but built a scalable model for long-term, incremental revenue that others across sport are already looking to for inspiration.