Wembley National Stadium hosts over 40 major events a year that include international and domestic football, concerts hosting world renowned artists as well as global sporting events, including boxing and NFL games. With a capacity of 90,000 seated spectators it is the largest venue in the UK and second largest in Europe.
Description of operations
The business as usual operations for resident and commuter demand as well as low attendance events, tourism and shoppers is largely absorbed through the automated parking management system on site which is operated by EP Customer Service and operational personnel. This 24/7 team of 12 FT permanent staff has a dedicated onsite supervisory and management team that is integrated into the landowner operations as well as other stakeholder needs around the footprint.
With a combined portfolio of over 200 events per year between the various venues and destinations, EP Team provides a scalable and adaptive event solution that provides logistics, stewarding, security, traffic and parking management services.
This team can range from a single parking marshal to provide access and customer support to a team of up to 150 staff that deliver a number of unique and important roles across the footprint, simultaneously operating the build, ingress, egress, decommission for each event, often with multiple crossovers that need a strategic and operational focus to meet its needs.
As part of the build / derig lifecycle to each event, EP Team provides a separate dedicated team that provide logistical support in converting open public dwell areas into manageable areas ready for high footfall, ingress and egress phases. These activities include vehicle staging, manoeuvring, decanting using forklifts, pallet trucks and logistics vehicles to prepare and pre lay temporary signage, barriers, fencing, fan zones, toilets and HVM measures.
In order to manage the high volumes of vehicles (up to 3,000 at peak on a major event day) accessing the site on major event days (and special events at the Ovo Arena Wembley such as the National Television Awards) EP provide the Traffic Management team and resources to prepare, implement, remove the necessary measures to mitigate traffic and provide a space for crowds to approach and leave the footprint safely. This includes Chapter 12A/B operations of lane closures on the A406 as well as more localised 12D operations in closing roads and creating one way systems as required by the agreed traffic and transport plan for each event.
Additional services are provided on this footprint that include:
- Crowd Stewarding and Security Services – Managing ingress and egress of over 90,000 per event.
- Bag Drop reservation services – Management of over 1,000 personal belongings per event.
- Signage Manufacture, Delivery and Installation / Removal – Managing over 500 signs per event.
Success outcomes / achievements
- Continued contract renewals and requests to accept additional responsibility and new contracts from both The FA and Wembley Park (Quintain).
- Development and implementation of new booking system that has reduced customer queries, client administration time and interface with multiple stakeholders.
- Adapted and mobilised new operations on behalf of The FA for ‘England on the road’ fixtures nationwide, provide park and ride as well as shuttle management services.
- Relocation of National Express operations from Victoria Station to Wembley Park for a 24 hour operation during the Queens funeral (Sept 2022) to maintain BAU operations from midnight to midnight for existing ticket holders – handling over 200 bus arrival / departure movements as timetabled.
- With rail strikes isolating Club Wembley guests in particular geographical locations, EP provided personnel to meet and greet customers at particular locations, present welcome hampers for their coach journey along with software solutions to enable registration and point of communication with customers to ensure they maintained the best possible experience.