Introduction
Stutteri Ask Stadium in Belgium was originally built as a multifunctional venue for equestrian championships. The location includes 11 arenas, of which 3 are the main ones: Stutteri Ask Stadium, BB Horse Arena, and Jiske Bank Boxen. For guests’ convenience, the location includes two parking lots, shuttles, toilets, play areas for children, 3 fast-food restaurants, 8 sponsored lounges, and 2 VIP restaurants. Thanks to the presence of 8 training arenas, participants in equestrian sports championships can feel comfortable while preparing for the championship. Equally important, the complex has contracts with representatives of hospitality services, which allows participants to arrive at the scene in advance and have enough time to get used to the new place.
Original Purpose and Repurposing
The stadium was originally built as a multifunctional venue designed to host sporting and non-sporting events. The universal planning of the landscape and the location of the main arenas allows local and national events to be held here, not necessarily related to equestrian sports. The stadium is also suitable for concerts and music festivals, with excellent opportunities to distribute human flows during mass gatherings. It also hosts fashion shows and exhibitions of craftsmen, including products from local manufacturers.
Repurposing through Reconstruction
Despite the sand cover of the arenas associated with the original purpose of the stadium, it is well suited for official congresses and conferences. The creation of a wooden deck in place of the sand arena allows the construction of a stage and other structures that are better suited for official meetings. Excellent logistics, including existing contracts with shuttles and hotels, and a well-established catering system, create an additional advantage in the accommodation and transportation of guests. Therefore, after minor re-planning, the venue can host scientific conferences and is a convenient place for semi-official or official political meetings.
Examples of Similar Venues Success
An example of a successful venue repurposing is one of the latest Winter World Economic Forum 2020, which was located on the site of a ski resort. The tourist venues, including hotels, shuttles, and restaurants, were quickly and ideally repurposed for forum guests. The event organizers built additional temporary structures such as press tents, a large tent for press conferences, and tents for individual forum events. Therefore, the repurposing and original versatility of Stutteri Ask Stadium in Belgium is now more of a popular trend than an innovation. Noteworthy, the experience of similar successful events that used the repurposing of locations is enriching.
Ensuring Sustainability and Legacy Planning
Successful running of venues begins with the selection of roles and responsibilities and the preparation of a budget plan for the event. The budget plan is a practical implementation of the Conceptual Model in project management theory (Sousa et al., 2020). It includes many tasks that the customer may require, such as catering, transportation, accommodation for guests, stage installation, and recreation mini-events during a larger event. Equally important, the budget includes proposals for organizing communications with the press and the public and sponsorship programs. Then, following the approved plan, for which the customer allocates money, the organizers distribute responsibilities according to employees’ roles.
The sustainability of this location is easy to ensure since, during its construction, further repurposing was implied. The sports complex includes camping facilities, training arenas, five restaurants, and three main arenas, which can be adapted to almost any customer’s requirements. This helps to ensure sustainability, as most equestrian championships take place in August, while April, May, June, July, September, and October can be busy with events and bring profit to the management of the complex. Sources of income may include money from partnerships with sponsors, advertisements, and revenue from ticket sales.
Professional Skills and Organizational Structure
In an ideal state, the organization that owns the sports venue should have a large staff responsible for the various elements and stages of the overall process. In particular, the team may include an Operations Director, whom the Head of Capital Projects, Head of Procurement, and Head of Operations report. Then, the Head of Operation is responsible for running a team consisting of a Community Track Manager, Head of Technical Management and Facilities Assistant, and Senior Event Manager. Operations Director can also coordinate the work of the IT management team and the Head Groundperson with their assistants. Importantly, some tasks can be left for outsourcing, including HR, Legal, Ticketing, Hospitality, Catering, Retail, Merchandise, Tours and Museums, Conferences and Events, and Maintenance.
The Operations Director, Head of Business Development, and Head of Commercial report to the CEO. No less important, the organizational structure may feature a commercially focused team of CFO, CEO, Head of Business Development, Head of Commercial, Marketing and Communications Manager, and Partnership Development Manager. All these people unite to run the organization, and, specifically, set the vector for its commercial development. For example, the commercially-focused team may decide which organizations or events to partner with for maximum benefit, and how to attract sponsors to ensure successful public relations.
Event Management and Practical Skills
To understand how the process of organizing an event takes place, there is a need for a good example. Sporting events such as football matches do not differ much from events of a smaller scale in terms of the operation processes. For example, hosting the World Cups included planning human flows (managing spectators’ logistics), organizing cooperation with sponsors, conducting television and radio broadcasts, and covering the event in the press.
Global Events and Practical Skills
The global format of the event implies the need for better collaboration. Given a tenfold increase in the number of participants, if the management processes fail, the organizers immediately have big problems. For example, when organizing the Olympic Games, managers must coordinate the interaction of tens of thousands of volunteers (Cuskelly, 2019). The event takes place in a short period and in a very intense manner. It creates an extremely high demand for labor that led to the practice of attracting volunteers, which is also used by modern event organizers. Although the work of volunteers does not bring material benefits, sports games on a global scale usually attract tens of thousands of volunteers, which is one of the advantages of the format.
Professional Skills in Sport Event Management
Professional skills in sports event management should correlate with the purposes of the event. Usually, the venue owner performs the major part of the job related to the event organization, which however does not exclude outsourcing contractors such as catering, merchandising, and technical maintenance. A huge team of professionals works with the common goal of implementing the event plan. In this regard, each team member has a unique set of skills and performs a unique role.
Sports Events Management in Global Context
Globally, sports events are managed similarly, and coordinators in China, the US, and European countries use common management practices. The size of a sporting event can change the emphasis on operational processes. For example, the largest events will focus more on sponsorship programs, while maintaining fluency in human operability and developing their image. Smaller events will focus on marketing and developing partnerships and often create a unique product, including customized merchandise for guests and the organization of related entertainment and services such as accommodation, transportation, and excursions.
Global Sports Events and Post-Event Impacts
In general, sporting events differ little from other types of events such as music festivals or political, economic, and scientific conferences. Post-event impacts may include attracting investment to the local and national economy, short-term creation of new jobs with a subsequent drop in demand for labor, and improvement of the image of the venue holder. The construction of sports facilities is an important element of post-event impacts, and companies can ensure that such venues are sustainable and will generate revenue in the future.
Conclusion
Thus, the management practices and skills related to leading and maintaining the processes in global sports events were analyzed. The management of sports events requires the work of a professional team whose members have unique sets of skills. Together, these people can coordinate complex processes with attention to detail, as events are a complex service that takes place in real-time and requires the utmost attention of all participants in the work operations. Global sports events can have a strong positive impact on the locations where events are held, improving the image of cities and states and contributing to the revitalization of economic activity.
References
Cuskelly, G., Fredline, L., Kim, E., Barry, S., & Kappelides, P. (2021). Volunteer selection at a major sport event: A strategic Human Resource Management approach. Sport Management Review, 24(1), 116-133.
Herold, D. M., Breitbarth, T., Schulenkorf, N., & Kummer, S. (2019). Sport logistics research: Reviewing and line marking of a new field. The International Journal of Logistics Management.
Sousa, M. J., Lima, F., & Martins, J. R. (2020). Models for project management in 2016 Olympic Games. Models for project management in 2016 Olympic Games, 32-38.