In Focus: Stadium - Securing The Match Day Experience
When a fan attends a football match, the only thing they should be focusing on is enjoying the game and their team getting a good result. But there’s always work going on in the background to ensure the safety of all spectators – and if it goes unnoticed then it has been done well.
One of the leading providers of these kinds of security services for football matches is Coventry firm Stadium, who have been looking after football fans attending games across the UK since 2009 when it signed its first contract with Burnley.
Ten years later, Stadium now provides security and event management services to a quarter of all Premier League football clubs, including Wolverhampton Wanderers and Champions League winners Liverpool.
Stadium does much more than simply provide stewards for football matches. Its services include traffic management to make sure roads are not gridlocked and run safely and smoothly on match day, SIA security to keep fans safe as they enter the ground, and hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) barriers to protect large crowds of fans from the threat of vehicle-ramming attacks. Not only that, Stadium provides high-quality training to safety officers at football clubs, with bespoke courses available depending on what the club requires.
Stadium can also supply its own safety officers to matches if needed. But Stadium does not want supporters to notice its work. The firm would much rather every fan forgot about the security on the day and remembered the game instead.
Stadium’s owner and managing director David McAtamney said: “The best kind of security is the kind that does its job calmly and efficiently in the background, so that fans almost don’t realise we’re even there.
“Our job is first and foremost to keep fans safe, but it’s also to ensure the fans have a great experience on the day. We don’t want spectators to waste time by queuing to get into ground or waiting in their car for ages trying to get away from the ground. “And the skills we’ve honed keeping people safe and happy at football matches have now been transferred to all sorts of large events.
“We visit event sites in advance, assess the security needs of the client, and then help deliver a safe and successful event on the day. “But we’ll always have a soft spot for football – there’s nothing we love more than enabling fans to have an exciting yet safe time cheering on the teams they support.”
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