Crisis Management of Football Stadium at Blackburn - Case Study Example

Crisis Management Introduction The football stadium at Blackburn, Lancashire, England or the Ewood Park as it is originally known, was built and opened in April, 1882. Blackburn Rovers Football Club is the tenant of this stadium having moved from Leamington Road during the summer of 1890. Incidentally, Ewood Park is also the oldest home to a Premier League Club. Though stadiums like Anfield (home to Liverpool FC) and Stamford Bridge (home to Chelsea FC) were constructed earlier, in the year 1884 and 1877 respectively, matches were not played till 1892 and 1905 respectively. The Stadium has hosted three matches in the Women’s Euro 2000 competition and also has been host to a lot of U21 matches including one in 2004 between England and Wales. Greyhound Racing, Athletics and Football are the events that take place in the stadium with football being the predominant event. The stadium has a seating capacity of 31,367 although as per latest unconfirmed information it is likely to be increased to about 40,000. The entire stadium was bought at a cost of 2500 pounds in the year 1893 by the Blackburn Rovers FC. The stadium encloses two popular stands, Riverside Stand and Jack Walker Stand each named after the location it is situated in and after a famous personality respectively and two other ends namely the Darwen End and the Blackburn End also named after the direction of their location. For example the Jack Walker stand is named after the illustrious industrialist and noted club supporter, Jack Walker. Built in 1903 the Darwen End got a roof at a total construction cost of 1680 pounds and can hold spectator strength of up to 12,000. Corporate facilities like media / conferencing and dressing rooms are located in the Jack Walker Stand. The Walkersteel Blackburn End Stand constructed in the early 1990s has a seating capacity of 8000 supporters providing safety and comfort to U16s and their families. It also accommodates the boardroom, home supporters ticket office and “Blues” café bar. The Fraser Eagle or Riverside Stand along the banks of the River Darwen can hold 7000 spectators and also accommodates a giant TV screen showing live matches, other features and events taking place in the stadium. The fourth stand namely the WEC Group Darwen End Stand with a capacity to hold 8000 spectators and houses the away supporters in a two tier stand exactly like the Blackburn End. Legislative Controls Football clubs in UK which are professional have a duty under the Government’s safety and health legislative controls to carry out risk assessment of events and activities. One of the main requirements under this legislative control is the duty bound assessment of the player’s safety introduced by the impact of ground layout. A Ground-Player Safety score (GPS) has been evolved which is defined by a base factor which in turn is arrived at from the position of the perimeter fencing when contrasted with the pitch, and is degraded when potential hazards arise from advertising boards, cameramen and Television equipment which are lined up along the continuum from the playing area. Almost all Football Clubs including the English and Scottish professional ones carry out this form of assessment. Acceptable scores were found only at 42% of English and 71% of Scottish clubs. However in all others, barring a few, the ground layout was modified suitably both to get acceptable GPS scores and as well as minimize risk to players’ safety. This legislative control helps in using the venue and its facilities in a controlled fashion without endangering the safety of players, their families, match officials or spectators, should any unforeseen disaster occur leading to a crisis situation. Due to this legislation the management is restricted to the use of venue and its facilities especially on the perimeter around the pitch as indicated above so as to protect and uphold the safety of all the players and visiting spectators. The Crisis Plan The plan to manage any crisis resulting from the provision of safety to the spectators at the venue, especially after taking into account the recommendations of the Taylors report, tabled after the Hillsborough stadium disaster in the year 1989, is first to ensure that all ticketed spectators have seats as opposed to a relatively few but large enough by themselves being obliged to stand. Both the English Football League and the Scottish Football League had agreed in common that the top two divisions in the English system should necessarily comply with the laid out recommendations. Though the report did state that standing is not inherently unsafe but still the government decided not to have standing at all. There was also a separate Stand Up Sit Down group campaigning against this regulation and requested that standing be allowed for some supporters even if they had a seat to sit. Certain other recommendations of the Taylors report addressing in part the crisis plan for the venue included the sale of alcohol within the stadium, turnstiles, fences, crush barriers, pricing of tickets and other stadium items and facilities such as scoreboards, public address systems, CCTVs, flood lights, power supply, electrical generators, communication through the multi-channel radio system, first aid facilities, medical attention, transportation of sick and affected by ambulances, handling the media like TV, newspapers etc and general co-ordination with the local authority, club stewards at the venue, fire personnel in the event of a fire break-out and the emergency services personnel, should a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear disaster hit the venue and impact the ongoing event. Let us consider each aspect of the crisis plan mentioned above, in detail, so as to expose the possible chinks in the armor and look at ways and means of evolving a more robust crisis management plan which can withstand the uncertain rigors of any disaster or emergency hitting the venue resulting in a difficult to manage crisis situation. The crisis plan mentioned above and to be discussed in detail below basically addresses the requirement of identifying and empowering the key persons manning the elements of control towards effectively managing the developing crisis and seeing it off through appropriate measures of either its prevention, mitigation or complete elimination depending on the existence of scope to enforcing such a lasting solution. In order for the crisis plan to work there should be absolute control over the number of spectators entering the stadium. This would entail that only genuinely ticketed spectators enter the stadium and all other illicit sponsorships of entry to the stadium including forged tickets be completely scanned and filtered out. The turnstiles which allow spectators direct entry into the stadium is to be manned by a club steward who can not only take care of the automated operation of the turnstile but also step in to action in the case of failure of automatic turnstile operation or to catch hold of an unruly spectator who is trying to sidestep the turnstile by jumping over it to gain unlawful entry into the stadium and prevent him from such entries. Adequate back up mechanism should have been set in place for the failure of turnstiles whether utilizing the mechanical or electrical form it since it generates valuable inputs for the stadium control room towards monitoring and controlling the filling of seats in the stadium section wise. The sale of alcohol within the stadium has to be curbed following earlier occurrences elsewhere of incidents where bottles were thrown on to the playing field disrupting the proceedings of the event due to intolerant nature of a biased section of the watching crowd. This led to a major disaster earlier with ensuing police shoot out to quell the fury of the bottle throwing mob. This happened in the match at the Accra Sports stadium in Ghana during a football match between the local Accra Hearts of Oak SC and the Asante Kotoko team. Evacuation Plan If an overcrowded section of the crowd has to be either laterally displaced or evacuated permanently from the stadium due to the disruption of match leading to the dicey situation of either its abandonment or a postponement then a lot of factors pertaining to the items in stadium are to be controlled and put in action to manage the developing crisis situation. Firstly, the stewards nearer to the spectators in the stand have to be messaged minimally on the steps being initiated by the controlling authority of the crisis management team and the action to be taken under the developing circumstances. This could involve anywhere from getting ready to help move the crowd from one part of the stadium to another or from one tier to the immediate lower tier or in the case of a fire break-out help evacuate the crowd moving them towards emergency fire exits. In the situation of an emergency such as a bomb threat the steward has to be informed to watch the area around the suspicious item, if identified by the caller of bomb threat, and then without letting the crowd panic evacuate them from the area if signaled to do so. The Public address system in the stadium, the giant scoreboards and the communication through multi-channel radio system should all work in tandem to convey relevant instructions, warnings and responses to respective stewards and authorities situated across the stadium serving not only the watching spectators but also the players, the referees, other match officials, the players’ families, administrative staff, special invitees to the match, the dug out, the players tunnel, changing rooms, toilets etc. Feedback on the status of evacuation including full or partial evacuation has to be transmitted to the control room and finally the headcount of attending support staff and stewards has to be relayed to the supervisors for declaring the stadium and the spectators as safe and of having successfully negotiated the developed crisis / emergency situation. Also depending on the seriousness and nature of the crisis which could involve putting at risk public safety, the total intervention of the local authority and its direct control and takeover of the crisis / emergency management may be deemed necessary. In this case the club stewards and the club supervisors have to act on the behest and control of local authorities co-operating with them by enacting their orders and commands to bring the crisis under control and successfully see it through. Necessary agreements to this effect may be entered into mutually between the club and the local authority prior to commencement of the event. Other issues related to evacuation plan Any business issues arising out of the crisis such as refund of tickets due to abandonment of match or replacement tickets to be awarded in the case of postponement of matches have to be properly addressed and informed well in time to the affected spectators to avoid further deepening of the crisis. The needs of special category of spectators who are not ambulant or who are not prepared for responding in an effective way to crisis situation have to be taken care of by the reporting steward after identifying areas in the stadium which are populated by such category of spectators and visitors. Movement of people who are either injured or fallen mentally sick due to the emerging crisis situation have to be provided first aid by the medical representative on duty at the venue and then based upon the requirement the patient may be moved to a hospital by calling the 999 emergency services. Ambulances could also be stationed at the venue premises for attending to any player / referee emergency needs and moving them to hospitals in case of immediate medical attention. Resolving emergency crisis If the crisis escalates to one of biological, chemical, radiological or nuclear in nature then issues of contamination and the process of decontaminating the contaminated are to be addressed within the locales of the stadium to avoid it afflicting other parts of the region. Also during times of a crisis like this the need for constant touch and communication with the dear and near ones of the affected persons have to be addressed by making available special telephone numbers for contact to apprise them of up to date information on the safety and status of the crisis affected persons. Public Relations The stadium authorities should carry out everything under their ambit to reassure both the affected and the close ones of the affected that their interests are being well protected and taken care of with a view to continuing the business interests of the venue even long after the crisis has been resolved. Not to be ignored are the prying eyes of the media who are ever ready and enthusiastic to cover news of such crisis. So the crisis plan should regulate the availability of the correct news to the media so that the incident is reported in the right manner and is not misquoted which might affect the interests of salvaging the post crisis business interests out of the events conducted at the venue thereafter. Level of Crisis addressed by the plan The level of crisis addressed by the plan outlined is on the face of it, a minor one, considering an isolated case of overcrowding which might result in spectators standing in the venue due to their outnumbering the limited seating capacity. This could possibly result in the obstruction of a continuous pleasant witnessing of the event, here an absorbing game of football, due to heavy noise pollution and jostling of the excessive crowd. There could be an ensuing melee amongst supporters itself if proper viewing pleasure is denied or it could spill out on to the ground due to growing impatience of the massive build up of the spectators in one part of the sports stadium. However this isolated case of overcrowding initiated by standing spectators can escalate to a major crisis of a large scale stampede or shoot out at the venue, should an aggravation of the seated crowd result in the standing and sitting crowd wanting to start warring and vying with each other towards witnessing the event. Managing such a major crisis or emergency and in the process evolving a suitable adequate response strategy free of any lacunae in the crisis or emergency management system had been the purported objective and subject matter of this case study. Conclusion The most important aspect of any crisis management is to identify the potential source of crisis and learn about it before one can deal with it. This involves detail analysis of the impending organizational risks though it is very much agreeable that it is not possible to conceive every possible risk that could materialize. But a reasonable study of category of potential risks and its mitigation can lead to the confidence and poise of the operating administration to deal effectively any crisis of that nature and order. This could be in the form of observing and learning from crisis which has happened in history and the steps that were taken to manage the crisis or the post crisis recommendations that were made to avert the recurrence of such crisis in the future. Crisis - Preventive / Corrective Measures Means have to be explored to prevent the occurrence of a crisis wherever possible. Also adequate training to a properly selected team of personnel has to be imparted and simulation exercises as possible strategic responses to potential crisis situations have to be conducted periodically. This is to both determine and bolster the preparedness for any eventual crisis management exercise that might have to be undertaken in future. Also required is effectiveness in public relations especially with the media on what kind of messages could be shared with them during crisis situation so that events and happenings are reported in the right manner so as to protect the business continuity of the organization in a post-crisis situation. Planning is very essential in managing a crisis. The output of the plan should be the driving force for an effective response strategy for averting or managing the developed crisis situation. Complete and effective planning in terms of resources available, the deployment and delivering capacity of the resources, the alternative source of resources for deployment in case of a contingency situation arising all have to be planned out and remedial measures instituted to take care of the resulting situation surrounding the anticipated crisis. The plan has to be tested thoroughly for its effectiveness by forming a team and the results recorded and documented for later reference and correction. Also the plan has to be kept up to date and revised as per changing scenarios and parameters involved. One must be alert and heed to warning signals which could give clear advance notice of potential crisis situations. Ignoring these precise warnings is many times the cause of a minor problem culminating in major disasters resulting in damage to precious life and property. While in the middle of a crisis situation it is important to act quickly and decisively without any minimal delay. Give importance to people first and then rely on your personal training, values and instincts to guide you to take the right decisions. The Public and the media have to be communicated clearly on the developing crisis situation without any ambiguity considering the lasting impressions left behind in their mind while in possible panic during such crisis situations. One has to keep gathering facts continuously and relentlessly keep communicating the progress of the situation to the affected people as well as the media to keep things in proper perspective and under control. And when finally the crisis is in fact over, then, declare to all sections involved that the crisis is fully blown over and behind them so that business can continue without any let or hindrance due to skepticism in people’s minds. In fact for dealing with the crisis management an effective checklist outlining the various steps required to deal with a developed or anticipated crisis situation has to be drawn out and followed meticulously revising it for being current and up to date. Summing up an effective crisis management relies on identification, planning, preparing, training, communication and relating to the public and media of the potential crisis which is anticipated or developed irrespective of whether it is minor or major in nature. References Crisis Management, 2004, Harvard Business School, Harvard Business Press, ISBN 1591394376, 9781591394372. Fire Service Inspectorate, 2002, Fire Service Operations: incident command (Fire Service Manual 2), London, Stationery Office Books. Gustin, J.F., 2007, Disaster and Recovery Planning: A guide for Facility Managers; 4th ed., Lilbum (Georgia), Fairmont Press Inc. Haddow, G.D., Bullock, J, 2007, Introduction to Emergency Management 3rd ed., London, Butterworth Heinemann. Heath, R., 1996, Crisis Management for managers and executives, Financial Times / Prentice Hall. Ewood Park, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, , Viewed on February 4, 2009. Moore, T., Lakha, R., (eds) 2006, Tolley’s Handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management: Principles and Practice, 3rd ed., London, Butterworth-Heinemann. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2003, Our fire and rescue service, Cm 5806, London, Stationery Office Books. Taylor Report, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, , Viewed on January 20, 2009. Read More