Preventing Own Goals In Stadium Management
By Using Risk Systems

From stadium management and day-to-day repairs through to compliance checks, there is a huge range of things that operational management teams need to keep on top of. With thousands of fans attending each game, this can be further exacerbated by facilities being broken during the excitement of a match day. This wide range of tasks leaves room for error, which in turn breeds risk to the stadium, fans, and management teams alike.

Here, Josh Mitchell, head of sales at Sypro talks about how these errors can be minimised through a risk manager system for stadiums.

The key to excellent facilities management is communication and one of the biggest challenges when it comes to managing tasks across large sites is keeping track of how far along the line processes are. For example, has the broken seat in block A been fixed? Are the floodlights working? And when are does the fertiliser supplier contract come to an end? It is not always easy to keep on top of everything through word of mouth, and traditional spreadsheets or emails can also foster more risks.

A demonstrable example of this is with floodlighting. When a stadiums floodlights fail, the club is liable for a fine unless it can be proven that something has been put in place to tackle the issue. A good management system can track all the communication and processes from the start, until the job is complete, and can ensure clubs are able to prove, through evidence, that things won’t fall through the net again.

Of course, the health and safety of fans is paramount, and is why it is crucial to ensure policies and procedures are up to date and that ongoing tasks are kept on top of. If an effective automated system is in place, it eliminates human error, which can arise through a breakdown in verbal communication for example.

Any effective management system will prioritise the ongoing and reactive tasks to make sure that all actions are carried out quickly and effectively. It also ensures that risks are dealt with efficiently and before fans are back in the stadium, preventing them from sitting on that cracked stadium seat that was forgotten, for instance.

On the ground, the pitch is of course one of the most important things for any stadium. Pitch-related duties – such as whether it has been treated – is vital to keep on top of. If the fertiliser supplier goes under or if the contract is nearing its end, these sorts of issues can be easily missed when relying on memory or a spreadsheet that you need to remember to look at every few months or years.

If you have a good and effective system in place, it can remind you months in advance that suppliers and contracts are ending and needs to be considered – allowing ample time for procurement processes that may be required. For example, the system can manage assets, such as the mowers, by providing a reminder in advance of when they need to be serviced, ensuring that they are working effectively and keeping the pitch in the best condition. Of course, no stadium wants a bad pitch, so it is important to ensure everything is up to date and there are no surprises at the 90^th minute.

But it is not just physical tasks that need to be kept track of – it is paperwork and processes too. There are a huge number of compliancy policies that need to be adhered to in order to pass all of the checks. A good management system ensures everything and everyone working at the stadium and at the training ground can efficiently operate while meeting all of the standards and is compliant.

Media attention also plays a huge role for any club, with pre- and post-match coverage and fans wanting more access to their favourite club and players than ever before. But this has its pros and cons – positive media is great for the club but if it is negative, it is all about limiting the damage done.

Negative media attention can come in many forms, one of which could be the player or another member of a team saying something in an interview that they shouldn’t have said. Of course, there are precautions such as conducting media training and fully briefing the team member with what they should and shouldn’t say, but when an interview is live, the words that leave the players or manager mouths can present reputational risk in certain situations.

In the instance of a negative story in the press, managing and controlling reputational risk is important. An effective risk system can log who has spoken to the press and monitor their social media channels as well with mitigation advice in place, making it easier to track down the root of the story.

Having a risk manager system in place can also be used to help manage bigger emergencies, for example, if a member of the team or a fan has a cardiac arrest. It is vital that if such an incident occurs, the associated defibrillators and other equipment are on hand, working and are audited to help as quickly and as efficiently as possible. If an effective system is not in place, a major incident could cause injury or worse.

Alongside this, many clubs use dated methods of logging and investigating both accidents and incidents, meaning they are unable to pull off a full report and run analytics against different parts of the ground and apply control measures to mitigate future incidents.

It is therefore also important for the system in place to be user-friendly, easy to access, and setting reminders for all of the important things to keep the stress away and ensure the health and safety of the fans is maintained. 

With technology developing more every day, there are methods which allow management systems to move away from word of mouth and traditional means with a spreadsheet per problem, to a centralised system where everything is in one easy-to-access place, with automation helping to prevent an own goal.