When it comes to Sport event management, perhaps one of the biggest challenges is the part where every event organizer must manage the crowd during the event. For example, take a look at the summer Olympic games in 2004. The task of managing crowd gets even more challenging during the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony of one of the biggest sport event in the world.
A large number of personnels from the event organizers are placed in the stadium to help spectators of every nationality find their assigned seats as well as give the general information and features of the stadium they must know. Even a tiny bit of information such as where the emergency exit must also be informed, in the case of an emergency and they must be evacuated.
So why do such large crowds must be given more attention and carefully managed? You would think that Sport event management only covers the sport event itself, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The answer to the question is hidden in plain sight. Yes, the larger the crowds, the bigger the risks. Where there is a massive gathering of people, the odds of any unwanted dangerous occurrence accelerate at the same speed. And we cannot forget the fact that communication is typically slower in the setting of large crowd; with slower communication, we can expect even slower action.
Determining the control procedures to help protect guests from unforeseeable incidents and risks is, indeed, the key to success here. For this purpose, every event organizers must be well-aware of every type of threats that may or may not come their way.
From determining possible threats of aggression to possible scenarios, the work seems endless. But if there is one thing that we can be absolutely sure is the fact that managing crowd has always been an issue from 776 BC, and it must be given as much attention when it comes to Sport event management.
