Why do so many soccer stadiums use racing seats for their team benches?

Question

Why do so many soccer stadiums use racing seats for their team benches? And which was the first stadium or club to use racing seats as benches?

Answer 1

It's part of what Philip said and part for another reason.

Club's want their players to feel comfy when they are not playing and you'll find a large majority of the seats have internal warming. However, one manager got rid of all the comfy seats, his reason, which makes sense to me is that the bench isn't a place where a player should want to be.

The other part of the reason and I guess this is more down to the type of seats they use is sponsorship and the money that comes with it. You'll find that a large majority of football clubs are sponsored by car company's. So you'll see that Man Utd will use Audi seats for example, in football they'll try to make money from anything.

Answer 2

The advantages of a nice comfy seat over a thin bit of plastic or a wooden plank are fairly obvious:

• Substitutes are more comfortable - this means they're not going to be coming on with their legs / whatever stiff from having to have been sat uncomfortably for an hour.
• Substitutes and support personnel are happier. This is clearly a good thing.

I think the real question is why wouldn't top-level clubs use racing seats? For any reasonably high-level professional club, the cost is marginal, so any benefit they give is a good thing.