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WPC are working with Football Safety Officers to cut costs and improve fan retention

Ground Manager Update

October 29, 2011

From the very beginning Ground Manager was a product designed by and for the Ground Safety Officer and Match Day Staff.  Every match-day the product contributes to providing a safe atmosphere. Banned offenders often still attend games and the need to be able to look at previous week's photographs in order to be able to properly identify such offenders was raised as an issue. This facility is now available within Ground Manager and would be very difficult to manage without the system in place.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club have been using Ground Manager for over five years now.  John Rutherford, Stadium Operations Manager at Sheffield Wednesday, and the chairman of the Football Safety Officers Association, has been utilising the risk assessment facilities within the system to challenge police categorisation of matches. This has brought about some key financial savings for Sheffield Wednesday FC.  

Part way through the season (2010-11) Ground Manager helped Sheffield Wednesday FC save money in the following matches:

* Brighton & Hove Albion-£5,000 saved on policing costs.

* Chesterfield-£6,000 saved on policing costs.


I have been using Ground Manager for five years and I can say that in each year I have successfully used the match risk assessment tool to challenge Police categorisation of matches and I have been able to get match categories changed or police staffing at the stadium and on the footprint reduced, resulting in significant cost savings for the Club.

John Rutherford, Stadium Operations Manager at Sheffield Wednesday FC


Nottingham Forest Football Club also praise the system and believe that over the time they have been using Ground Manager there has been an improvement in behaviour amongst fans. This in turn has attracted more fans to the ground and provided a more family friendly atmosphere.

Ground manager has enabled us to identify repeat offenders and our view is that for every fan who is now subject to a ban we probably get another 10 good people coming back.

Alan Bexon - Safety Officer (Safety & Security), Nottingham Forest

 

For more information about Ground Manager or to request a demonstration please contact Jon Gahagan on 0117 908 1484 or at j.gahagan@wpcsoft.com