Can Contactless Stadiums Help Football Transition Out Of Lockdown?

By Lee Jasper, Head of Products and Solutions at Johnson Controls

The Premier League is set to return to our screens on September 12th, with the Champions League following suit a few weeks later. Football fans across the globe are primed and ready to return to the terraces. But as was the case in the closing matches of the last tournaments, matches for the early stages of the competition will be missing a fundamental component – the crowd.

The German Bundesliga has already announced its intentions to welcome fans back for the September season, but this year’s Premier League will begin behind closed doors. Rising infection rates meant that previous plans to welcome back spectators in August had to be abandoned, and a return to stadiums is hoped-for from October 1st. But for this to come to fruition, facilities managers at stadia nationwide must demonstrate how they can facilitate games on a socially-distanced basis.

To this end, the stadia themselves could play a fundamental role in keeping fans, players and staff safe. The newest stadiums are already able to integrate with new systems to enable the rise of contactless facilities. But regular stadiums will also have to take measures to become ‘smarter.’ Limiting a potential spread of the virus within a stadium will involve a reliance on technology as an additional layer of protection to minimise the need for physical contact.

We’ve already seen instances of ‘contactless buildings’ achieved as office spaces reopened last month, but can ‘contactless stadiums’ help football transition out of lockdown?

Minimising Contact Between Fans

Beginning with its defining characteristic, football stadiums and other sporting venues are becoming ‘contactless’ in a bid to improve hygiene as we transition out of lockdown. Designed to ensure visitors have no need for physical contact during their time at a match, the aim of contactless stadiums is to protect staff, players and fans – this can be achieved through the removal of physical tokens like access control cards to eliminate contact with doors, scanners and buttons.

There are countless factors for stadium managers to consider. This includes simple solutions which we take for granted, such as automatic doors, as well as innovative takes on traditional methods – such as viricidal and gel-dispensing door handles. It also includes emerging technologies: here, facial recognition and biometrics come into play as a means of access control. Rather than relying on access cards, lanyards and buttons, visitors can gain access simply by waving their hand over touchless sensors. Through the application of biometrics, stadium managers can improve security and bring peace of mind to visitors by removing the need for contact with physical building infrastructure.

The increasing role of smart facilities in recent years means that many facilities, such as Tottenham Hotspurs’ newest stadium, are now ready-made to integrate with these new technologies. Coupled with the fact that many of these solutions are compatible with existing access control systems, this means there is no need to make considerable investments. Instead, the majority of cases will involve a simple retrofit, allowing stadium managers to ensure a frictionless access experience for match attendees.

Keeping The Crowds Safe

Contactless stadiums could play an integral role in limiting the spread of COVID-19 once football stadiums reopen their gates. However, it’s worth noting that their success is reliant on the stadium being free from the virus in the first place.

Building managers are therefore met with the considerable task of trying to keep facilities free of individuals who display potential symptoms. Here, body thermal detection technology can give security teams a first-line filter to identify those entering premises who may have an elevated body temperature. These systems act as a dual-technology, out-of-the-box extension of a standard CCTV camera. In practice, they are used to measure the temperature of a person and alert an operator if anyone with an elevated temperature enters a building.

Body thermal detection cameras are a useful tool to control the potential spread of the virus. However, it’s important to emphasise that they are not a silver bullet and cannot diagnose any medical conditions or illnesses. Rather, the technology helps to identify the people most likely to infect those around them – one small step in the many it will take to protect the public. Reports have suggested that grounds may only initially be between 30 and 50 percent full, and so we may see stadiums implement these systems to ensure social distancing at matches.

Controlling Match Attendees

Where queueing systems can be implemented at entrances to control the crowds, there are other, more efficient methods by which this can be achieved. To this end, stadium managers can turn to capacity control systems to manage the number of people on-site and reduce or limit contact between people. Similar to thermal detection cameras, the systems integrate with existing CCTV systems and use video analytics to count the number of people going in and out of a building – when a maximum occupancy level is reached, alerts can be sent and actioned for workers to respond appropriately.

Capacity control systems help stadia ensure social distancing measures are adhered to. What’s more, the systems employ a data-driven approach, meaning there is little room for error. This removes the reliance on security guards to count stadium entrants in or out and think on their feet. Here, technology will ease the pressure on workers at the football grounds enormously.

Safer Football Matches

While it remains to be seen how COVID-19 will ultimately impact the 2020/21 football seasons, contactless stadiums will help make match days safer, more hygienic experiences.

Each of these solutions is of great use in its own right to ensure matches can go ahead and fans can gain first-hand experience. However, when used in conjunction with one another, stadium managers will be safe in the knowledge that fans are attending the game under the safest circumstances possible. Together, they will help to tackle the ongoing challenge of limiting the spread of COVID-19 and help stadiums cope with the challenges posed by the ‘new normal.’