Sports Logistics & Event Planning - Essay Example

Sports Logistics & Event Planning A Visit to Chelsea Football Stadium (Stamford Bridge, London) The following paper discusses about the various logistics issues which crop up while planning a visit to one of the most famous clubs of English Premier League Football Championship. It discusses the issues while considering the backdrop of a visit to the stadium for the students studying in High Wycombe Primary School, which is situated in Buckinghamshire. One pertinent point to look into the matter is that age group of the students who are visiting the stadium is 5-12. This implies that there needs to be group of volunteers like teachers and other people associated with the school who should accompany these students in order to take care of their safety. The main aspect of the whole visit is to get an opportunity to meet the players of the club and have tour of the whole stadium and its training facilities. It also underlines the need to interact with academy coaches associated with the stadium. So let's discuss the whole issue in parts so as to get a better understanding of the whole scenario. Aim & Objective of the Trip The main objective of the whole trip is ensure that every student of age group between 5 and 12 years of High Wycombe Primary School, Buckinghamshire has toured the stadium of Chelsea Football Club which is located at Stamford Bridge, London. Apart from this secondary objective which needs to be achieved is the interaction process between students and players and academy coaches. The aim of such a trip is that students needs to understand the importance of sport like football and students need to understand the values of integrity, sportsmanship, determination, pride and know about the qualities like discipline, perservenace and hard work and these all, to be imbibed in students of such young age, need to meet the people who have such qualities and interaction with football players of one of the best clubs in the whole world is the apt choice. The Trip People going to the Trip: Apart from the students, it is always important and also necessary to send guardians to take care of the students and the best way of the sending few people to accompany the students is to bring along the teachers and other officials related to the school. In this way there could be a great interaction with players as teachers could help out the students while interaction with players. Another thing is that safety of the whole group is ensured when there is someone accompanying them. Now that we are considering the trip, we also need to look at financial aspect of the whole thing. Since we have mentioned that this trip is intended for the students of the school, one way of generating a part of funds is the use of the school donation money or the school deposits reserve. This way school can be a part of the whole affair and the trip would seem as an official visit of the school to the club and in way garner more respect and hence the hospitality levels of the whole trip attains new levels. Funds generated in such a manner would also illustrate the levels of interaction with the education and sports bodies of the country. Another part of the funds can be generated by using a small amount of fee which is to be collected by the school authorities form the students who are taking part in the whole trip. Thus the concept of social responsibility of the individual towards the society also comes into picture wherein it is the responsibility of the students who are visiting the club to donate to the club for the development of the club in any manner. In this way funds of the trip can be generated to for the successful trip of the club. Now that we have discussed the methods and areas from where we can generate the funds, we need to look at the cost issue of whole trip so as to get an in depth idea about it. The following rates of the tours give us an idea about the cost of the trip. It is decided by the authorities of the club that along with tour of the club and related academies, visitors also are allowed to visit the museum of memorabilia. The tours are organized every day for the benefit of the visitors. However the timings are different for weekdays and weekends. Weekdays the tours start at 11am, 1pm and 3 pm and on weekends it starts at 12pm and 2pm. One point to be noted is that tours to the stadium and museum are not available on match days-that is the days on which football matches occur. The rates of the tour are as follows: Adults 10; children 6; senior 6 Museum and tour: Adults 13; children 7; senior 7 Museum: Adults 10; children 3; senior 3.Thus these rates gives us an idea about the whole cost of the trip. Apart from these rates we also need to take care of other expenses like transport expenses and food expenses. Since we are visiting the school as part of school trip these expenses can by funded by the school itself. As the trip consists of many students usage of public transport like tube or bus could be viable option. Another option is consider private transport in which case the expenses could be bit higher than the usual one. Food expenses also need to be considered. Any food item bought in bulk would lower the expenses costs significantly. These issues need to be taken care of while considering the financial aspects of the trip. Now let's talk about the various activities which student can expect while being in the tour. One of the best things which students will get is real live interaction with their favorite players. In this case being sponsored by the school, the access to players also becomes much easier. Another thing which students can expect is the chance to understand the game by being associated with academies of the club which help students and sports enthusiasts the nuances of the game. Thus students get to understand the finer aspects of the game from the best people in the business. Also student get to know about the history of the club and various traditions associated with the club. It also allows students to visit the club museum which gives them the feeling of integrity and pride towards one's own club. These could possibly be few things which a student can expect when he gets the tour of the stadium. Other things can come into picture once the student visits the stadium. In any case the need of emergency could be a possibility and in such a scenario Chelsea football club has an advantage of being situated in London. The metropolitan service runs throughout the city and it can be contacted. Apart from it Chelsea police station is also quite nearby and it can also be contacted. Other emergency services like hospitals are also nearby to the stadium and so in any case of emergency there is no real problem. If any student wishes to contact someone, he can always be guarded by the teachers and other school authorities for their protection. It is to be understood that student from the trip expects to meet their role models and favorite football players. This can be achieved by the interaction process. Another thing which student expects is learning of the game, understanding the nuances of game. This can be achieved by proper usage of the academies of club. In such a case wherein the needs and expectations of students are taken care of then the trip can be called as a successful trip since the main product of the whole trip is the students and their needs are given as the highest priority. Fig: Layout of the Stadium (source: www.footballgroundguide.co.uk) Fig: Mathew Harding Stand (source: www.footballgroundguide.co.uk) Environmental Analysis The last point in understanding the planning of the event is PEST analysis. Political London- Center of the whole country Chelsea Football Club- Thriving economy Economical London- Commercial Hub of Europe Chelsea Football Club - One of the biggest clubs in Europe Lot of visitors for the club being in the city Social London -Diverse city with multicultural backgrounds Chelsea- present in the diverse area of the city Easier accessibility to stadium Technological Chelsea Football Club- one of most technologically advanced club in the world London - biggest city and hub of financial and technological companies Chelsea -fastest growing area in the city Such an analysis gives us a complete understanding of the whole situation. From it we can understand that the trip could prove to be a beneficial one not only to the students of the school but also the authorities of the football club and in turn the country which invented the modern version of the sport. Thus in this way we have discussed all the aspects which deal with planning of trip and we have analyzed the whole trip in parts manner so as to get the complete picture of the event planning. References: 1. Anthony King (1999) The End of the Terraces: The Transformation of English Football in the 1990s.London: Leichester University Press. 2. Jack Plunkett (2006) Sport Industry Almanac. London: Plunkett Research Press 3. Richard Cox (2003) British Sport: A bibliography. Manchester: Routledge 4. Grant Jarvie (2006) Sport Culture & Society. London: Routledge Read More