Planning For Social Distancing: Lessons From Case Studies

The SGSA has teamed up with the English Football League (EFL) to assess the application of the SG02: Planning for Social Distancing at Sports Grounds guidance to football grounds.

The SGSA and EFL commissioned Movement Strategies, an expert consultancy on people movement and crowd dynamics, to look at calculating the safe capacity of venues using the methods included in the guidance. The project considered looked at a number of areas:

• Basic principles involved in social distancing at sports grounds
• Seated and standing capacity calculations
• Concourse capacity
• Entry and exit capacity calculations
• Zone Ex operations
• In-venue operations, including toilet facilities, food and beverage, hospitality, retail and accessibility

Two EFL grounds were chosen as case studies – Charlton Athletic FC’s Valley Stadium and Cambridge United FC’s Abbey Stadium. These were selected based on the age of the grounds and the mix of seating and terracing.

Martyn Henderson, Chief Executive of SGSA said: “This is a hugely valuable piece of work. We’re in unprecedented times and this study offers valuable insights that will help grounds anticipate and address the challenges involved.”

Download: Planning for social distancing: Lessons learned from EFL case studies