Stadium: No two events are the same

ISJ hears from Steve McCabe, CEO, Stadium Traffic Holdings, which comprises event services by Stadium, training by Intuitus Learn and facility management services through Stadium FM.

Can you tell us more about your background?

I had the best possible learning experience because I started my career at the former Ricoh Arena – now the Coventry Building Society Arena – in Coventry, UK which is an award-winning events, conference, music and sport venue.

I joined in the finance department and was promoted to the management team during my eight years there, becoming a fully qualified ACCA chartered accountant and gaining fantastic experience at a multi-faceted venue.

I left after the venue hosted football at London 2012 to join Stadium as Finance Director because I wanted to move to the ‘other side’ to gain experience of providing event security services at venues.

In 2020, I worked as a home services franchisor being responsible for 46 different business and then became Chief Finance Officer for healthcare services provider Coventry and Rugby GP Alliance.

Throughout this time, I kept in contact with Stadium Founder and Executive Chairman, David McAtamney, and I have re-joined the company as CEO to oversee the management of all three strands of the business.

We are an events-driven business but there is a huge amount of training involved which is a massive part of the company and all three elements.

What leadership qualities do you believe are essential for navigating the dynamic environment of event security?

The main leadership quality is understanding the environment because event security is fast paced.

Sometimes a ‘soft touch’ is required and other times more urgent action is needed to deal with violent situations.

It is also important not to forget customer service and understanding that each event has different requirements.

I have the experience to know that no two events are the same, which goes back to when I was at the Arena when we could be hosting a conference, football match and events in the casino on the same day.

Understanding the dynamics and carrying out a thorough risk assessment means we can identify which events need a limited security presence and which need more detailed measures.

Event security is broad. There are some businesses in the industry who employ six people and then others like ourselves with around 1,100 people.

Every year, our business is looking after millions of visitors at a wide range of events.

As well as personnel, you have to consider hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) measures, which is a huge part of security, to add physical barriers for potential vehicle attacks.

Security is not just guards, it can be traffic management through to customer service.

What are the challenges and opportunities in event security today and how do you see Stadium addressing them?

We’re three years after COVID-19 and the industry globally is coming back to full service, especially the Middle East, and in particular Saudi Arabia, which has huge ambitions to attract more sporting and music events to the Kingdom, hence the building of new stadiums and cities.

There are going to be events attended by people living in the Middle East as well as an international audience and we have to understand the different cultures as we organise these events.

We have to put in place traffic management plans and HVM systems as well as delivering people to and from stadiums in a safe and efficient manner.

The fun experience for people attending is really important but there are huge cultural differences between Europe and the Middle East.

When you go to a football match in the UK, you have a ticket for a specific seat but in the Middle East you have a stadium entrance ticket which means there needs to be education of overseas visitors to reduce the risk of security problems occurring.

One of the biggest challenges which I don’t think will ever change is being able to recruit and retain the right staff to deliver a wide range of events.

We need to keep engaging with our staff and investing heavily in our training.

We find members of staff and provide high quality training and then keeping them in the industry is a challenge because event security is not a full time job.

I think it is important to understand the needs of the staff that we employ.

It’s important to be open and honest with your employees because this isn’t an industry that is suitable for everybody.

Some of the events are not the prettiest to work at but on the flip side, you have an opportunity to be part of delivering some of the world’s biggest spectacles.

We trained 8,500 Qataris for the 2022 World Cup over a five year period and we had amazing results. As well as delivering event security, we trained 34 Qataris to Level 4 Safety Officers.

It was an incredible period of time and what we achieved was one of the safest and best attended World Cups. It is great to have transferred knowledge because it is important to retain expertise in the region.

How do you stay abreast of the latest threats and trends in the industry?

We attend security briefings at Whitehall; we are continuously working with governing bodies to stay up to date and we use this intelligence in the training of our staff.

To keep abreast of potential threats, we are constantly reviewing the HVM measures that we employ because one of the biggest threats in Europe is using vehicles to kill people and, to date, that has not gone away.

Potentially, this kind of attack could be transferred to the Middle East where there are currently different threat levels with the Houthis in Yemen which means it is a completely different dynamic.

Each country has different threat levels and you have to cover all angles by working closely with relevant authorities to minimise risk – it is important to have your ear to the ground so that you have all the necessary information to make informed decisions.

What are your goals and priorities for Stadium in terms of enhancing event security and expanding your presence in the industry?

We are continuing our overseas expansion which includes active work in the Middle East on the back of launching a new event management and safety academy in Saudi Arabia.

We want to be more involved in the sports industry in Saudi Arabia and we’re trying to align with the standards we set in the UK because we want to protect events to the same high standards.

We have worked in South Korea for a number of years on crowd safety which has been successful.

This has involved working with the Ministry of Sport because there have been a few disasters in South Korea because of crowd security including the Halloween crush in Seoul in 2022.

A number of senior officers came over to the UK as a learning experience to tap into our expertise about what we have done differently to manage crowds.

Our priority is to continue with our in-depth approach to enhancing event security because although the day itself is important, it’s the planning, knowledge and training that takes place in the preceding months and sometimes years which is vital.

That’s where we believe we can add value so that events run smoothly.