Crisis Management of Blackburn Rovers Football And Athletic Plc - Case Study Example

BLACKBURN ROVERS FOOTBALL AND ATHLETIC PLC: EWOOD PARK BLACKBURN CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………pg 1 LEGISLATIVE CONTROLS………………………………………………..…..pg 1-3 CRISIS PLAN…………………………………………………………………....pg 3-9 COMMAND AND CONTROL POSTPONED MATCH DELAYED KICK-OFF ABADONMENT OF MATCH EMERGENCY EVACUATION OF THE STADIUM BOMB THREAT/SUSPECT ITEM PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM GAS LEACK FAILURE FAILURE OF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY TURNSTILE COUNTING SYSTEM CCTV SYSTEM RADIO SYSTEM FAILURE ELECTRONIC DOOR SECURING SYSTEM ELECTRONIC SCOREBOARD/JUMBOTRON FAILURE OTHER METHODS CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………… pg 9-11 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..pg 12 INTRODUCTION Ewood Park is a football stadium although it has a multi-sports facility. It is located in Blackburn, Lancashire and has been hosting Blackburn Rovers club since 1890. The stadium was officially opened in 1882 and has a capacity of 31,154. The stadium has four sections which are Darwen End, Riverside Stand-it stands on the banks of R. Darwen-Blackburn End and the Jack Walker Stand named after a former club owner, Jack Walker. Ewood Park stadium is as big as 115 yards. It is worth noting that this stadium hold several sporting activities such as swimming and athletics in addition to indoor games. Further than this, it is a site of a club shop and a blue café. It has executive boxes which can be used for various meetings and conferences and can accommodate about 1000 delegates. It also has got big screens in the corner of the stadium which can be used for presentations. The management team has an intention of extending the stadium to hold a capacity of 40,000 fans. The stadium is usually quite busy throughout the years hosting various local and international sporting activities. On average, the level of attendance has been increasing tremendously over the last three years due to the high rate of events taking place in this stadium. LEGISLATIVE CONTROLS Ewood Park has complied with a number of legislations especially those related to safety of all the people in the stadium from the sportsmen to the fans and staff. Some of the legislation includes; safety of Sports Grounds Act of 1975, Safety of Sports grounds Regulation of 1987 the football Spectators Act of 1988, Environmental and Safety Information Act of 1988 among others. Some of these legislations intend to control the use of venues, an issue that hamper the management of the venue. For example, an authority could charge an applicant the cost of work reasonably involved in the processing of an application for issue, replacement of cancellation of a certificate. CRISIS PLAN In all aspects of the operations, the club regards each individual’s safety using the Ewood Park Stadium to be of great essence be it the sportsmen, the spectators or the stadium staff. The club’s safety policies are usually outlined in the company’s General Safety policy Statement and Safety Policy for Spectator Safety. In relation to this, the crisis plan is normally intended to from the basis of the club’s response especially to foreseeable emergencies but is not proscriptive and further should be used as a starting point from which all other related responses to evolving emergency situations commence. In addition to this, this plan is considered to be the club’s pre- planned response to any foreseeable emergencies or catastrophes and may operate independently and not considered in isolation but rather it should interrelate as stipulated with the contingency plans of the emergency services as well as the local authority where applicable. Bearing in mind that emergency and catastrophic situations by their nature are difficult to predict and is not always possible to pre-determine the exact responses that may be required to various set of circumstances. Nonetheless, it is possible to actually identify the possible or potential emergencies or related situations in advance of an emergency occurring and plan an effective response to them. It is for this case that the intention of this plan is basically to identify potential emergencies and consequently set out the club’s initial response to these issues, while taking into account the involvement of emergency services including any other relevant agency to be carried out by the emergency response team. Under this section, there are various methods that the club has set with an aim of preventing, controlling or even handling various emergencies that may occur in the stadium. This crisis management plan will categorise these methods in various ways. Command and Control The club has nominated a safety officer who will be responsible for the management as well as the control of an emergency situation and where possibly, this will be done in presence of the police commander who due to his status will take full charge of the situation as stipulated in the statement of intent. The statement agues that the police commander may take full control of all safety as well as public order aspects of the club. With the intention of preserving life and protecting the stadium’s property, the police officer should make a decision and thereafter will notify the ground safety officer of that decision. During this time, the police and the stadium’s staff should work hand in hand under the command of the police commander. However, it is worth noting that both the police and the rest of the response team ought to be clear in heart and dedicated to rescue the lives of every individual (Heath, R,. 1998). Postponement after Spectators Admitted to Stadium Postponement after spectators have been admitted in the stadium ought not to occur since it would kill the morale of the fans. However, incase of emergency, which would require immediate evacuation, then this decision is worth it. For this decision to take place there will be consultation between the safety officers, the present police officers, the referee as well as the club officers. In this decision making, the referee has the final say as he/she is the final arbiter. At this time, there ought to be a public address announcements informing and requesting the members of the public who may either be in the stadium or outside to be patient as they await instructions from the officers. The messages should be displayed on the scoreboard while at the same time the jumbotron informs the fans in the stadium about the situation. When evacuation decision is reached at, then a safety officer will initiate a Code Green evacuation process with public address announcements advising the fans to leave the stadium in a calm and orderly way through normal exit routes. The club officials should come up with ways of compensating the spectators who had bought the tickets. This may be done through refunds or replacements of the tickets. This may be done through public address announcements or through the club’s web-site. While the spectators evacuate, the stewards should offer advice to them concerning the ticketing information. The team leaders as well as the supervisors should coordinate to ensure that the stadium is empty and the exits are safe. Delayed kick-off Delayed kick-off is usually present in many sporting activities due to various issues. In the crisis management plan of Ewood Park, the decision to delay the kick-off of any sporting activity is based on the risk to the public safety and if present the police commander in conjunction with the club’s safety officer is responsible for making such kind of decisions. It worth noting tat there are certain procedures for notifying all the stakeholders. They include notifying the involved clubs/teams, the reason for delayed kick-off, new kick-off time as well as the chain of communication from the decision makers to the junior most officers in the stadium. Abandonment of the Match Incidences may happen one way or another may not affect the field of play directly but still has a serious impact to an extent that the game may be halted. In this kind of decision, several actions must be taken; in case of the presence of the police officers, then the police commander should inform the police officer on duty in the player Tunnel to inform the fourth Official of the necessity to halt the game, he then enter the field of play to inform the referee on the decision made. In case the police officers are not within the stadium, the safety officer should inform the senior stewards to inform the Fourth Officer tom tell the referee to halt the match or in absence of the Fourth official, he enter the field and inform the referee to suspend the game. Emergency Evacuation of the Stadium In response to major catastrophic incidences, the location, nature in addition to severity of an emergency will most likely be appropriate to evacuate either part or the whole stadium. This decision may be reached by the police or the safety officials on grounds of public safety. In case of emergency the multi-agency response officer should inform the control room immediately. The senior officials of the ambulance will be present including among others, radio officials, fire service men who will be called through the 999 system by control room officials. It is worth noting that the evacuation could result from emergency emanating from both inside the stadium as well as from external incidences such as chemicals affected by the direction of the wind and could cause harm to those inside the stadium. In cases where the control room fails, the match day operation will transfer to the security office in the Blackburn End Stand which is basically a limited area for CCTV monitoring and would be of great assistance in facilitating any evacuation necessities. However, the emergency services team has the capacity to initiate its own arrangements. Bomb Threats/Suspect items/ C.B.R.N. Issues The safety officer must be informed at once in case there is any report concerning explosive devices which have been placed in or near the stadium. This information must not be taken for granted and should be relayed to all the channels of communication. However this communication should not cause any panic to the public thus the use of internal emergency telephone would be the most preferred means of communication. The officer in charge of safety should be communicated to instantly incase of a suspect. Suspected items should not be moved or touched. Some incidences may require specialised and trained officers for instance in case of chemicals, radiological and biological devices which may have adverse effect to the general public. Nevertheless, there would be chances of hooligan fans that may have the intention of disrupting the match and this should also be taken into consideration when making decisions. Response to Fire Calls Ewood Park has an installation of an automatic fire alarm system which initiates all the evacuation processes when it is activated especially in affected stand. The system automatically opens the exit doors and over the public address system, it announces safety information. The system’s control panel is normally located in the security office found at the Blackburn End Stand, in addition to Control Room located at Darwen end Stand. The safety system is also found at the reception areas located at the Blackburn End Stand as well as the Jack Walker Stand. It is of great importance to note that this automatic system should be controlled manually to prevent the security of the stadium from opening the exit doors in an uncontrolled manner. (Heath, R. 1998) Public Address System The safety officer or the police if present must be informed in case of either partial or full failure of the address system. The stadium electrician should be deployed immediately to reverse the situation. However the stadium has loudhailers located in the Darwen End Stand and the security office located at Blackburn End Stand for use in case the public address fails. Gas Leak/ Failure In case of leakage of the gas, the engineer on duty should confirm the issue and then close the valves that supply the gas. In case the gas has build up substantially, then the officer in charge of safety or the police present should find logistics of evacuating everybody in the stadium. Turnstile Counting System Monitoring of turnstile system is done by two programmed computers; isys and the Skidata. If either of the two fails, then the other should continue to operate normally. CCTV System This system is normally used to monitor whatever goes on both within the stadium or outside the stadium. Incase any part or the whole system fails to operate, the safety officer or the police should be informed immediately. Failure of the Electricity Supply The stadium is supplied with electricity by the United Utilities where power is distributed in the stadium using independent circuits. In case of failure of the floodlights to function properly, the safety officials and the police should come up with a good decision in consultation with the match officers. (Gustin, j.F., 2007) Failure of Radio System Ewood park stadium has a radio system with five channels each with a specific task. In case of failure of the radio system, the safety officer or the police commander with consultation with the match officer should make a valid decision. Electronic door Securing System The stadium has several exit doors which are monitored by a computerised system located in the control room or from Blackburn End Security Office. The doors are well equipped with barratries in case of power failure. Other measures of crisis management plan Ewood Park has a management plan that caters for such issues as medical arrangements, forged tickets and entry by non-ticket holders, pitch incursion, in addition to damages to structures and failure by the electronic scoreboard or Jumbotron system. Conclusion Ewood Park stadium was officially opened in 1882 and has a capacity of 31,154 and host Blackburn rovers Football club. The stadium has four sections which are Darwen End, Riverside Stand-it stands on the banks of R. Darwen-Blackburn End and the Jack Walker Stand named after a former club owner, Jack Walker. Ewood Park stadium is as big as 115 yards. The stadium has facilities for other sporting activities such as swimming, athletics and several indoor games. It is worth noting that this stadium host various sporting activities that may include indoor games as well as other related activities, for instance it is a site of a club shop and a blue café. It has executive boxes which can be used for various meetings and conferences and can accommodate about 1000 delegates. It also has got big screens in the corner of the stadium which can be used for presentations. In this case then the stadium is prone to having many emergencies that may be related to nature or human accidents or even technical failure by machines. (Moore, t and Lakha, R., 9eds) 2006) To this effect the stadium has come up with a good crisis management plan that would at least prevent or prepare the emergency team for future incidences. The plan consists of several methods of curbing emergencies although most of them ought to be enhanced. They include among others command and control officer, issues related to postponement of matches, delayed kick-offs, abandonment of matches, evacuations due to emergencies, how to respond to fire calls, how to address the public without causing panic and fear in case of emergency, dealing with technical failures such as public address system, electronic scoreboard, turnstile counting system, gas leakage, in addition to other issues such as medical arrangements, management of the media, pitch incursion, forged tickets and damaged structures. (Fire Service Inspectorate 2002) No matter how good this plan seem to be, it is cannot be said to be comprehensive. It actually overlooks most of the issues that happen unexpectedly during incidences of emergencies. The plan fails to address the way the emergency team should handle issues such as protecting the spectators and the general public without bearing in mind that they themselves are human beings as well and need to be protected. The plan has overlooked the issue of environment. For example, how to deal with the plastic bags brought in by spectators while carrying snacks. These bags cause environmental hazards. The club and stadium officers ought to embrace technology and install better technological devices and equipments and updated computer programmes. There is the need for the management of the stadium to come up with better ways of ensuring that the light system is in order since this is a petty issue. The tack shops, canteens and hotels should be moved out of the stadium to reduce chances of emergencies such as fires or gas leakage. These are just but a few of the outright observations that one can deduce from the Ewood Park Stadium. Bibliography 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 Manager, 4th Ed, Lilburn; Farmont Press inc. Haddow, G.D., and Bullock, J., (2007) Introduction to Emergency Management 3rd ed, London, Butterworth Heinemann Heath, R,. (1998), Crisis Management for Managers and executives, Financial Times / Prentice Hall. Moore, t and Lakha, R., 9eds) (2006), Tolly’s handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management: principles and Practice, 3rd ed, London, Heinemann Butterworth Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2003) Our fire and rescue service. Cm 5808. London, Stationery Office Books. Web-sites; Read More