Managing the Growing Needs of Safety & Security for Stadium Events

I don’t recall ever meeting a stadium management professional who thought that they had an easy job. Even if we are surrounded by talented people and have the support we need to do our job, managing the safety and security function for stadiums today is a complex and demanding proposition. But if we break it down and understand the challenges thoroughly, we can identify some strategies that can help us achieve success.

But before we look at our current challenges, let’s consider the “olden days.” And by that, I really only mean about 20 years ago. That’s not too long ago, but it takes us back to a time when stadium management was less complicated and less demanding than it is today. Back then, the stadium manager’s concern was largely on the building itself. The area of responsibility started at the gates and flowed through the building and onto the playing field. On event days, we made sure that the building was provisioned, the equipment readied, and we opened the gates and took tickets. Event days required minimal planning, few resources, and very little changed over time.

Fast forward to today. Modern stadiums at all levels—high school, college, minor league, and major league—have a range of amenities, a variety of spaces, and operations that have a lot of moving parts. Even older buildings enter the fray as multimillion dollar renovation projects add clubs, suites, outdoor event areas, and other elements. What was once a simple process of opening a building has now evolved into managing a complex site with multiple concurrent activities.

To understand and appreciate the complexities of modern stadium safety and security management, let’s consider three factors: the environment, resources, and processes. By examining each of these factors, we can better understand the scope and scale of the challenges we face and identify how we can manage the growing needs of safety and security for stadium events.

The Environment

Today’s stadium environment provides us with several challenges. Fan expectations—what our guests want and expect that we will deliver—continues to grow. Even though audiences get bigger, everyone expects a more personalized experience. Fans want Wi-Fi. Fans want healthy foods. Fans want to feel safe and secure, but they don’t want the hassles they experience when trying to board an airplane. Colleges must cater to the expectations of alumni who are paying increased “donation” fees for their season tickets. The political and economic landscape continues to place pressure on stadium managers. Stadium projects are enormous financial investments and require alliances to support them. And while there may be funds for construction or renovation, we often feel the financial squeeze when it comes to the ongoing costs of operating our new (or newer) venues. Physical constraints—not having enough space—is a common challenge. We are called upon to make room for this event, that sponsor activation, yet another hospitality function. Our public safety officials want a larger security perimeter. Trying to accommodate all of these demands can be paralyzing. And if that wasn’t enough, the threat stream keeps changing. Vehicle born improvised explosive devices are still a concern, but now we turn our attention to home-grown violent extremists and the threat that small arms and active shooters pose to our venues and events.

To cope with these environmental forces requires a collection of skills and expertise that likely none of us have. Today’s stadium manager needs to be part marketing specialist (to understand the customers and what they want, expect, and need), part political scientist (to understand and navigate the socio-political-economic forces), part architect (to know how to make it all fit), and part security analyst (to keep us all safe). A tall order. And we have only talked about the environment in which today’s stadium exists.

Resources

The “stuff” that we need to make today’s stadium run is larger in quantity, higher in complexity, and greater in diversity. Managing a stadium today requires more personnel than ever before. In just the realm of safety and security, we engage the services of security contractors, police, fire, rescue, bomb squad, federal agencies, traffic management, and some of us are even dealing with aircraft assets. The teams of people we must manage come from a variety of sources and bring a range of expertise. The amount of equipment we must acquire, deploy, and maintain is enormous. On event days, we are exploiting the capabilities of technology to make our operations more efficient and effective. Time and space become a resource that we need to consider. With complex operations come complex plans. Building complex plans takes time, and we need the space to run our larger, more complex event-day operations.

To meet the resources challenges, stadium managers take on the role of personnel manager (dealing with all of the people, roles, responsibilities), procurement specialist (creating and negotiating contracts for services, writing specifications for technical solutions, making significant purchase decisions), and logistics expert (being able to pull all of the resources together at the right time and place).

Processes

If we are expected to provide for safe and secure stadium events, then we must master the processes that permeate everything that we do. Planning is a significant activity for contemporary stadium safety and security. Our plans must be clear, accurate, tested, examined, and updated. Communication—both in terms of how we share information to our skill in speaking to others to our superiors and sometimes to the media—is something that we must pay close attention to and handle with great skill. Our procedures—the methods by which we consistently take action so that we can better achieve the outcome we want—need to be well-conceived, accurately documented, competently taught, and consistently evaluated. And lastly, our operations must be managed with confidence and expertise that facilitates the most effective and efficient use of our resources.

Our process-related challenges require stadium managers to be a planner (making, evaluating, revising our plans), a speaker and writer (someone who can effectively communicate in person and in writing), a technician (who can methodically craft procedures for others to follow), and a commander (providing leadership for the operation).

A Spectrum of Roles

So let’s tie this all together. The challenges of the environment, resources, and processes that affect stadium safety and security management today require the skill of a: marketing specialist, political scientist, architect, security analyst, personnel manager, procurement specialist, logistics expert, planner, speaker and writer, technician, and commander. But being all of these things is not really possible or practical. So how do we manage the growing safety and security needs of stadium events? There are three areas that are critical. They are relationships, professional growth, and execution.

Relationships

The management of safety and security for today’s stadium requires a team of people, each with their own training and expertise and each of them making a meaningful contribution to the successful delivery of the event. To be successful, we must focus our skills on building relationships. We need to forge the professional friendships and cultivate an atmosphere or respect, trust, and cooperation that brings everyone together so that we can achieve success. We need to inspire an ethic where everyone is working toward the common goal and that our job is to help others do their job. What are you doing today to build the relationships with the people you need to help make your stadium the safest and secure that it can be? Can you do more? We all can. So we should commit ourselves to building those relationships so that we can have the strongest team possible.

Professional Growth

When I conduct performance evaluations with my staff, I ask them the question, “What are you doing or able to do today that you could not do a year ago?” The question speaks to growth. I expect my staff to make progress—to grow their knowledge, skills, and abilities—on an ongoing basis. Each year, we set targets for their professional growth and we work to ensure we hit those targets. We are fortunate to have access to several great professional development opportunities. In just a few days, the Academy for Venue Safety & Security will be held in Dallas. This two-year program is a great way for all venue managers to learn how to make their facilities more safe and secure. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has a variety of Internet-based training on topics that speak to our industry. So how have you grown in the last year? How will you grow in the year to come? Take some time and create a plan for your professional growth.

Execution

We can have all the best plans, policies, procedures, training, and resources in the world, but none of these will make a difference if we do not consistently execute. How do we ensure a safe and secure stadium event? We follow through on our plans, procedures, etc. with tenacious execution. We don’t assume that everyone knows what to do and when to do it. We make sure that things are getting done at the right time, in the right place ,and in the right way. I think of execution as being the DNA of the operation. I’ll explain with an example.

Let’s say that for your stadium you use hand-held metal detectors to screen guests as they enter. To ensure that the security staff screens guests as they were instructed, you conduct a screening drill at the gates just prior to opening. The drill consists of each security staff member demonstrating how he/she would use the metal detector to screen a guest. The supervisor checks each staff person as part of the drill. If the staff member does it correctly, the supervisor offers praise and recognition. If the staff member falters, then the supervisor corrects the staff person and tests him/her again until the proper technique is demonstrated. This drill ensures that each staff member knows how to conduct a proper screening. And because this drill is part of your pre-gates procedures, it has become a habit. It’s this habit that helps you execute the screenings consistently and to the established standard. The drill, now habit, is part of your operation’s DNA. It’s part of who you are and what you do.

What is in your operation’s DNA that helps you execute? What do you consistently do well? Where do you need to improve your operation? What strategies can you employ so that you can consistently execute to an established standard?

Managing the safety and security for stadiums today is a much bigger, more complex, and higher-stakes job than it was 20 years ago. To be successful, we must marshal the skills and expertise of a wide range of professions. We need to build relationships. We need to grow our own capabilities through professional development activities. And we need to examine our operations and find ways that we can consistently execute. Managing the safety and security for stadiums today will continue to pose new challenges but if we remain focused on relationships, growth, and execution, we can achieve success.

Be well.

(Image: Alan O’Rourke/Creative Commons)