How to run a Stadium Event 101
0By Hamish Girvan
On Friday the Wellington Regional Stadium (a way better name that was part of the Tournament conditions) hosted its 9th and final FIFA Women’s World Cup game. This is the experience of a fan who attended and was one of over 231,000 Wellingtonians who attended the matches here.
Firstly when tickets went on sale in October 2022 the thinking was let’s see the current champions in the USA team as the group fixture vs the Netherlands was highlighted as one of “the” games of the group stages. Also a quarter final of a World Cup is also something special to attend.
The pricing – $30 for a group game and $50 for a quarter final was insanely cheap for any FIFA event. The 1pm kickoffs were also attractive. Thinking of a “rainy night in Thorndon in August” as not being that appealing was why daytime fixtures tickets were procured. There was a passing thought of buying tickets to the Football Ferns match as well however at the time the lack of goals and style of play was seen as something that was unappealing to this football fan.
Subsequent months into 2023 and a real lack of marketing of the event in Wellington led to a rare and odd Government plea to please buy tickets. Hey there is a cost of living crisis to consider but let’s not go there.
Leading up to the match the messaging to download the app to access tickets was clear and the ability to transfer tickets to other guests with the app was seamless. Some of the commentary about it being painful and troublesome was ill informed and is part of New Zealanders’ objection to new technology – especially if it’s the only option. Most EPL games in the UK require a phone app only to gain admittance and have done for a number of years.
Part of the conditions of hosting a FIFA Tournament is to make public transport free and accessible for ticket holders. Massive brickbats go to the ongoing strugglers who are Metlink. Not understanding that lots of people will use public transport if it’s free, they still proceeded to not really add extra train or bus capacity to the number attending. And not understanding knock out parts of the round have extra time so there could be another 45 mins of game time shows a lack of big event thinking and planning. “Wellington used to have a good public transport system……..”
The USA v Netherlands match was the first match attended. The get there an hour before kick off was adhered to and the ease of getting in (and searched for those with bags) was completely different to usual lage sporting events attended at the stadium in the past. Different as it was quick and hassle free.Different because of upgraded turnstiles and the ease of flashing your phone into the reader. Never ever go back to paper tickets again please.
The first thing when walking to the cauldron that is the concourse were the helpful volunteers. The first thing I heard was “Don’t worry, that’s not a concessions queue – it’s a merchandise queue”. Amazing the number of fans who were after caps and t-shirts..
There were no queues (well if you call 4-5 people a queue) for food or drinks. Why was this so different to the shambles it has been walking to your seat wading through queues of Super Rugby fans after their favourite craft beer ?
For a start all the outlets were open – people will buy things if it’s made easy. First piece of advice – open up all the doors – more will buy if it’s easy to, and this will cover the cost of people who resource them.
The other advice is Keep it Simple – two types of beer, 2 types of RTD and a limited choice of wine – all of reasonable quality. Having lots of choices slows things down and there were never any audible complaints heard. Also no cash – hooray – finally it’s realised that in 2023 cashless venues are a thing. Again internationally this has been the norm for years. It speeds things up. And the food quality was standard stadium kai – all delivered seamlessly.
As for the two games attended from a footballing viewpoint – they were world class (of course) and the addition of lots of international fans and expats literally coloured the stadium.
I would doubt in this writer’s lifetime another FIFA World Cup tournament will come to New Zealand again (maybe Australia) but if it ever does make the most of it. FIFA don’t show New Zealand how to run and manage major events that often. And as for Stadium events let’s take the good things out of this and adapt to how the experts do it. Please. And as for the tournament itself – it was Beyond Greatness.
https://twitter.com/AnaheraAmy/status/1689877258734088192?s=20
Follow Hamish on Twitter