From screenings to fan zones: legal considerations for businesses during major sporting events

Major sporting events increasingly extend beyond the stadium itself, with fan zones becoming a central feature of the spectator experience. From city centres to licensed venues and temporary outdoor sites, these spaces offer significant commercial opportunities for businesses to engage with audiences, enhance brand visibility and drive revenue.

Fan zones have emerged as a prominent feature of major sporting events, offering fans the opportunity to gather in dedicated spaces to watch live broadcasts and participate in a shared experience outside of the stadium itself. Typically comprising large screens, temporary hospitality infrastructure, food and drink offerings and branded activations, they range from informal public viewing areas to highly organised, commercially driven events.

While public screenings have existed for decades, particularly around tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, large-scale curated fan zones have gained momentum in the past 10–15 years, reflecting growing demand for shared, experiential engagement and the increasing commercialisation of sport.

With global events such as the World Cup expected to generate significant interest beyond official venues, many businesses, venues and landowners will be considering how best to capitalise on this demand. In practice, this may range from enhanced in-venue screenings through to more structured, event-style offerings that begin to resemble fan zone environments. As activity increases in scale and visibility, so too does the legal complexity.

This article considers the key legal issues from the perspective of those delivering and operating these types of experiences, including venues, promoters, landowners and other commercial participants, and highlights how those involved can maximise opportunity while remaining within the applicable legal framework.

Branding and sponsorship considerations

For many businesses and venues, major sporting events present a clear commercial opportunity, whether by hosting screening events, increasing footfall or running themed promotions. However, those opportunities sit within a legal framework shaped primarily by intellectual property rights and restrictions on unauthorised association with the event.

A key concept in this context is ambush marketing, which broadly refers to a business seeking to benefit from the visibility of an event without holding official rights. In practice, the distinction is often straightforward: businesses are generally free to promote that they are screening matches or showing coverage of a tournament but should avoid creating any impression of an official connection.

For example, advertising that a venue will be showing World Cup matches or offering drinks promotions during games is unlikely to present an issue in itself. However, risk arises where marketing goes further, such as using protected logos or event branding, adopting official slogans or suggesting that the venue is an ‘official’ fan zone or partner. This can give rise to trademark infringement, passing off or allegations of misleading advertising.

The key for businesses is therefore how the event is presented in their marketing. References should remain descriptive and factual, rather than suggestive of affiliation or endorsement. Care should also be taken with visual branding, social media promotion and third-party advertising, where issues can arise inadvertently.

In short, while businesses are entitled to capitalise on the increased demand generated by major events, they must do so without crossing into unauthorised association. Getting that balance right is essential to avoiding legal risk while still making the most of the commercial opportunity.

Property implications: expanding operations for the big event

When a major sporting event arrives, businesses will seek to capitalise on increased footfall and demand. In order to take advantage of the additional commercial opportunities, there are various property implications that will need to be considered.

For example, where the business is operating from leasehold premises, the starting point is the lease itself. The ‘permitted use’ clause of a lease may restrict the tenant to a specified use or class of use. It may be that large-scale screenings or operating for extended hours during a tournament fall outside of the scope of the lease, meaning consent from the landlord will be required. Even where the primary use remains unchanged, ancillary activities (such as erecting a marquee in a beer garden, installing large screens or significantly increasing capacity) could constitute a breach of other lease covenants.

The lease will set out the tenant’s demise, and where a business wishes to go beyond this (for example, by taking over adjacent land, car parks or open spaces to create fan zones or outdoor screening areas), additional legal arrangements will need to be put in place to cater for temporary occupation.

A business may be granted a licence to occupy (as opposed to a lease), which offers greater flexibility for short-term, event-driven use. However, businesses should ensure the documentation accurately reflects the arrangement to avoid inadvertently creating security of tenure rights under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

Another important consideration is that a change in use of the land or the erection of a temporary structure could require planning permission. While it is the case that certain permitted development rights exist, where the proposed use exceeds these rights, a full planning application (or, in some cases, a temporary planning permission) will be needed. Businesses should factor in the lead time for such applications, which can be several weeks at a minimum, or longer if the proposal is contentious or requires consultation.

We’re seeing football clubs take a particular interest in this area to increase off-pitch revenues and support on-pitch performance. A topical example of this is Swansea City, which has recently submitted a planning application for a substantial fan zone capable of accommodating more than 1,700 supporters. The proposal includes a raised viewing gallery with self-pour beer taps, a stage, a large screen and bierkeller-style bench seating.

Proposals of this magnitude demonstrate that even established sporting venues must navigate the planning regime when seeking to expand their event-day offering beyond the existing built environment, and smaller businesses seeking to do likewise — albeit on a more modest scale — shouldn’t assume that their plans will fall beneath the regulatory radar.

Regulatory considerations

As a venue’s offering moves towards multifaceted fan experiences, a range of regulatory obligations come into sharper focus, and it becomes critical to identify where legal responsibility sits.

Health and safety is a primary concern, particularly where multiple contractors are engaged in the set-up and operation of temporary infrastructure such as staging, platforms, screens and crowd barriers. Each party involved, whether a venue operator, promoter, landowner or contractor, must understand the allocation of duties, including who has carried out risk assessments, who is responsible for monitoring compliance on-site and where accountability lies if something goes wrong. Failures can give rise to serious criminal liability, including offences under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and potential exposure to corporate manslaughter or gross negligence manslaughter where decisions or omissions lead to fatal outcomes.

Beyond health and safety, organisers must also consider their obligations under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2023 (commonly known as Martyn’s Law), which imposes requirements relating to crowd safety and counter-terrorism preparedness at qualifying premises and events. Adequate planning for medical emergencies, appropriate licensing and compliance with food safety and hygiene regulations will also be essential for any operation of this nature.

Conclusion

As major sporting events continue to attract widespread interest beyond official venues, businesses and venues are increasingly exploring ways to capitalise on the opportunity, whether through enhanced screening experiences or more structured, fan zone-style offerings.

While the commercial potential is clear, these activities remain subject to the legal frameworks that underpin major events. Issues relating to branding and promotion, property rights and regulatory compliance must all be considered when moving beyond standard day-to-day operations.

In particular, the more a venue’s offering grows in scale, visibility or commercialisation, the more likely it is to attract additional legal scrutiny. What begins as a routine screening of matches can, in practice, evolve into something that resembles a small-scale event, bringing with it a different set of legal considerations.

For businesses looking to deliver these experiences, the key is to approach planning in a structured way, ensuring that marketing remains compliant, premises can be used as intended and appropriate licences and safety measures are in place. Those who do so will be well placed to maximise the opportunity presented by major events while managing legal risk.