ABSTRACT
ILLUSTRATIVE CASE: PAST GAMES-TIME MISTAKES AT WEMBLEY STADIUM
Games-time event management issues are not a new occurrence. Moreover, what happens in past events has effects for the hosting of future events. For example, Hill (2004) describes the chaos associated with the 28 April 1923 Football Association Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The brand new stadium, coupled with the presence of a local team with great support acceding to the final, great access to local train stations where one would have seen 14 “special trains” coming with supporters of the opposing team, and great weather set the scene for the chaos that ensued. There were over 250,000 people (instead of the anticipated 126,000) who descended on Wembley Stadium. The tradition of offering most tickets up for sale at the turnstiles on game day, and the lack of control over crowd movement and entry into the stadium, created havoc. Some people had to climb over the gates – helped by police! – into the already full stadium so they would avoid being crushed to death from the huge crowd behind them outside the stadium. Turnstiles had to be reopened to help ease the crush of people outside, which only further filled the stadium to beyond capacity. It is more luck than proper event management processes that led to only six or seven people being seriously injured and no deaths being recorded. After the event, the Shortt Committee was tasked with making recommendations on how to conduct future major sports events, covering crowd control and facility layout (e.g. toilets, terrace size, seating), security, and ticketing procedures. These recommendations have been felt in British sports events ever since. Yet these recommendations did not prevent the crushing, asphyxiation, and ultimate death of 96 fans at a 1989 Football
OBJECTIVES
Association Cup semi-final in Sheffield, England (Van der Wagen and Carlos, 2005). We will see whether LOCOG has learned from the past when it uses Wembley Stadium as the host venue for football (soccer) matches.
