What Bon Jovi taught me about the built environment

Posted on: 9 September, 2026

What Bon Jovi Taught Me About the Built Environment - Claire Hookham, Programme lead for MBA at the University of the Built Environment

By Claire Hookham

There are few things that make me forget that I am an Associate Professor of Management quite as effectively as standing in a stadium waiting for Bon Jovi to come on stage. This weekend, I found myself at Wembley Stadium doing exactly that.

Bon Jovi is, without question, my favourite band. On one level, I was there simply as a very happy fan. But as I looked around at the scale of the stadium, the thousands of people moving through it, the stage, lighting, sound, screens and security operation, the management academic in me inevitably started asking a different question:

How on earth do you actually make all of this happen? And that, perhaps surprisingly, is where a concert becomes a fascinating case study in the built environment, or perhaps more accurately, a built environment within a built environment.

A temporary built environment

Wembley Stadium is already an extraordinary piece of infrastructure. With a capacity of 90,000, it is the UK’s largest sports venue, supported by a vast network of facilities, services and transport connections. Yet for a major concert, the stadium becomes something else entirely.

A temporary built environment is constructed within the permanent one. The pitch becomes an event space. Temporary stages, barriers, walkways, production areas and hospitality spaces appear. Lighting rigs, giant screens and sound systems are installed. Backstage facilities are created, merchandise outlets emerge and security zones are established.

Then there is the infrastructure most of us barely notice:

People have to arrive.
They have to pass through security.
Tickets must be scanned.
Tens of thousands of people need food, water and toilets.
Staff need clear roles and responsibilities.
Emergency procedures need to be understood.
Transport networks must absorb the additional demand.
And several hours later, everyone has to get home safely.

Wembley notes that almost 40,000 people can pass through Wembley Park tube station on an event day, while the stadium contains 164 turnstiles, 2,618 toilets, 34 bars and 98 kitchens. Suddenly, a concert looks considerably less like a band playing songs and much more like a major programme of work.

The project management behind the performance

The audience experiences the final product. We see Jon Bon Jovi walk onto the stage. The lights go down, the screens come alive and the music starts. What we do not see is the planning that made the moment possible. Behind the performance sits a complex mix of procurement, budgeting, risk management, logistics, workforce planning, licensing, security, technology and customer experience management.

The concert promoter, venue operator, production company, tour management, musicians, crew, security teams, caterers, transport providers and countless other specialists all must work towards a common objective. The audience must believe everything is effortless.

That is one of the great paradoxes of project management. The better the project is delivered, the less visible the management becomes. Nobody attends a concert to admire the project plan. They come to enjoy the performance. The fact that they never think about the planning behind it is often the clearest sign that the planning has succeeded.

The business of a concert

It is also worth remembering that this is not simply an artistic endeavour. It is a business.

A major concert is a significant commercial operation, balancing multiple revenue streams against substantial production, staffing, security and infrastructure costs. The economics become particularly interesting when viewed through the lens of the built environment.

A stadium is not simply a building that hosts events. It is an asset that must be utilised effectively. Its value lies partly in its ability to accommodate different audiences and activities throughout the year. Wembley was designed to be far more than a football stadium, hosting sporting events, concerts and large-scale gatherings of many kinds.

That is a built-environment business model in action. Buildings and infrastructure do not exist in isolation. They operate within wider economic, social and organisational systems, creating value through the experiences and activities they enable.

And then there is the emotion

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Wembley, however, is that its value cannot be measured entirely in capacity, revenue or physical dimensions.

As I have written before, people form emotional connections with places. Wembley carries history. The original stadium hosted the 1966 World Cup Final, Olympic events, Live Aid and countless defining moments in British sporting and cultural life. Bon Jovi themselves was the final band to perform at the old Wembley before its demolition in 2000.

There is also a fascinating connection to the new stadium. Bon Jovi was originally scheduled to be the first artists to perform there in 2006, but construction delays forced the concerts to be relocated to Milton Keynes Bowl. Wembley eventually began its concert life with George Michael in 2007.

There is, therefore, something fitting about watching Bon Jovi perform at Wembley all these years later. Jon Bon Jovi himself has spoken about the significance of the venue. There is a particular magic in saying, “Good evening, Wembley”. And he is right, because Wembley is not simply a location; it is a brand, a memory and a collection of shared experiences. It forms part of the cultural identity of the UK. That is what makes the built environment so interesting. We construct physical spaces, but people construct meaning around them.

What does this have to do with an MBA?

Quite a lot, actually.

One of the things I find most exciting about leading the Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme at the University of the Built Environment is that management education does not have to be confined to boardrooms, spreadsheets or conventional business cases. The principles of management are everywhere.

A stadium concert is not just project management:

It is operations management.
It is financial management.
It is people management.
It is procurement and supply chain management.
It is marketing.
It is risk management.
It is stakeholder engagement.
It is strategy.
It is leadership.
It is customer experience.

Importantly for the University of the Built Environment, all of these disciplines are operating through and within the built environment.

Whether you are managing a property portfolio, delivering infrastructure or running an event for 90,000 people, the same management questions emerge:

What are we trying to achieve?
Who needs to be involved?
What resources do we need?
What could go wrong?
How do we manage risk?
How do we create value?

Standing in Wembley Stadium this weekend, surrounded by tens of thousands of people singing along to songs I have known for decades, I was reminded that the built environment is ultimately about much more than buildings.

A stadium may be steel, concrete, glass and seats. Add a stage, a production team, a band, 90,000 people and a shared emotional connection, and it becomes something else entirely.

That, to me, is one of the most fascinating things about management. We spend our working lives creating structures, systems and organisations. But the real measure of their success is what happens when people step inside them.