Crisis Management: The Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC - Case Study Example

CRISIS MANAGEMENT The Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC 1. Introduction The Blackburn Rovers Football Stadium is in Ewood Park, Nuttal Street, Blackburn. It has three two tier stands (The Darwen End, The Jack Walker, The Blackburn End) and single tier stand named CIS. All three stands have a corporate facilities located in them and a Blues Café Bar located within the Blackburn End stand. It has a retail shop within the stadium complex but separate from the stands. The stadium The Blackburn Rovers Football is an all seater stadium that has a sitting capacity of 31,154. Matches taking place at this Stadium are mostly football. There were occasional football matches on weekdays but most of the games are scheduled on Saturdays. The stadium’s ticket office is open typically on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm and 9:00 am on match day or Saturday. 2. Legislative Controls A sports ground is any place where sports or other competitive activities take place in the open air, and where accommodation has been provided for spectators, consisting of artificial structures or of natural structures artificially modified for the purpose. Because of the Ibrox Park disaster, the Safety at Sports Grounds Act 1975 was passed. The Act requires all designate sports grounds with a capacity of over 10,000 people to be issued with safety certificates by the local authority. Provisions contained in the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sports Act 1987 considerably extended the Act. The Guide to Safety at Sports Ground or the ‘Green Guide’ issued jointly by the Home Office and the Scottish Home Office and Health Department advices this type of facilities on the construction and layout of grounds, including details of access and egress and ground capacity estimation, terracing, barriers, stands, etc. It is the duty of every local authority to enforce the Act and its regulations, and arrange for periodic inspection of designated sports grounds. Management of sports grounds must notify the local authority in advance any alteration to a sports ground that may affect safety (Clay and Bassett 1999, p.261). 3. Crisis Plan In 1989, ninety-six people were crushed to death at a football match in Hillsborough because of overcrowding and police failure to control the crowd (Moore and Lakha 2006, p.464). Crisis or emergency planning is undertaken at a point where it should be possible to assume that all proper measures have been taken to prevent and protect against hazards. The objectives of an emergency plan are to provide guidelines for purposeful action towards dealing efficiently with a facility emergency, ensuring the preparedness of all those involved, coordinating and developing cooperation with authorities and other emergency services, keeping employees, the community and the media informed (Kenneth 1996, p.64). The Crisis Plan for Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC was created primarily to comply with requirements set by the Safety at Sports Grounds Act 1975 and adhere to the Safety at Sports Grounds or ‘Green Guide’. The plan is the Club’s response to the foreseeable emergencies and will be use a starting point to respond to evolving emergencies. The plan covered minor and major emergencies such as emergency evacuation, bomb threat, response to fire calls, gas leak or failure, electrical supply failure, responses and evacuation procedures for postponed match and delayed kick-off (BRFAP 2006, p.1-14). The common mistake that many sport and recreation practitioners make is thinking that they will know exactly what to do when an emergency occurs (Spengler et. al. 2006, p.12). Athletic PLC acknowledge the fact that emergencies are hard to predict and it is not always possible to programme the exact responses needed to “ever-changing set of circumstances” BRFAP (2006, p.1). The club therefore identified potential emergencies and set an initial response to them, taking into account the roles of emergency services and other relevant agencies. “Crisis management or crisis communications plans offer guidance on how to proceed once crisis has occurred” (Stold 2006, p.169). A crisis management plan is similar to emergency plan in that it deals with handling of a potential loss that can threaten the solvency of the sport organization and tends to result in injury to a stakeholder (Miller 1997, p.269). Emergency plans should contain essential elements, which allow for uniform standard of application during the planning stage. These are communications and control system, personnel with specified responsibilities, communication of the emergency, facility emergency procedures, cooperation with outside services, and public relations (Kenneth 1996, p.66). “Emergency management requires coordination of a wide range of organizations and activities, public and private” (Wamsley 1993, p.14) since the costs of poor coordination and communication disproportionately increases human loses (Haddow et. al. 2007, p.144). In Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC, the contingency plan is intended to form the basis of the club’s response to foreseeable emergencies and may operate independently. However, the club recognizes the importance of coordination with outside emergency services, media, and local authority thus the plan included a command and control centre where a Police Commander would take total command in accordance with the agreement set out in the Club’s Statement of Intent (BRFAP 2006, p.2). In order to ensure that the emergency plan is comprehensive, applicable, and make use of time and effort efficiently, there must be logical stages that are visible and followed to ensure completeness. A plan should have a clearly defined response strategy (Morgan and Summers 2005, p.128). The plan therefore must establish an emergency committee and appoint a facility emergency controller. In Blackburn Rovers Football & Athletic PLC, this person in the Nominated Safety Officer that would be responsible for management and control of any emergency in conjunction with the Police Commander mentioned earlier (BRFAP 2006, p.2). A comprehensive plan must identify vital points, services, and vulnerable areas and expound means of protection and plan of action. It should also evaluate the requirements for emergency communications and provide suitable facilities. In line with these basic requirements, Blackburn Rovers identified and developed procedures for minor emergencies. For instance, the plan considered the possibility of chaos when a football match is postponed particularly when the decision was made after public admission to the stadium has commenced. Evacuation of spectators already inside the stadium when cancellation and postponement occurred will be treated as an emergency response and normal evacuation procedures will be followed. In addition, considering the importance of communication in emergencies, a reliable public address system will be use to broadcast information regarding safety, dispersal, ticket retention or refunds, and other customer care issues to all spectators both inside and outside the stadium (BRFAP 2006, p.2-13). The nominated Safety Officer, which is the lead officer in almost all aspects of the plan, will decide if the whole or part of the stadium will be evacuated in case of emergency. However, depending on availability and gravity of the risk, the Police Commander will direct such evacuation. When it is evident that a situation will intensify and a multi-agency response is inevitable, senior officers from various emergency officers will be called to the Command and Control Centre to direct the operation. The location, nature and severity of the emergency will dictate the means by which an evacuation is affected. The method and means by which an evacuation is carried out will be determined following a dynamic risk assessment by the safety officers, together with officers of the emergency services and will take into account all the circumstances and risks to public safety resulting from the incident (BRFAP 2006, p.2-13). The stadium obtains its electrical supply from United Utilities via high voltage cables to a transformer in the Darwen End Stand, which is then distributed to other stands. All stands have independent and automatic emergency lighting system in the event of power failure. However, the stadium floodlights in the Jack Walker Stand do no have emergency backup and only relies on immediate repair (BRFAP 2006, p.6). Floodlights are used to illuminate football fields and during an evening match, floodlight breakdown may cause panic and pandemonium. Floodlights breakdown can be interpreted as sabotage (Cox et. al. 2002, p.124) and a few incidents regarding such failure already occurred in the past. In 1979, 24 fans died following a stampede in the aftermath of floodlight failure at a match in Nigeria (Darby et. al. 2005, p.138). Twenty years later, in 1999, four men were convicted of conspiracy offences connected to floodlight failure at a home Premiership game of Charlton PC (Gardiner 2001, p.360). “Football is a game of continual crisis” (Chandler 1988, p.68). In football according to Nicholas (1998, p.164), some things are unpredictable, the scoring of goals, the ebb and flow of the game, refereeing decision and injuries since football match are governed by actuality. Occasionally, he added, there are more serious problems such as abandoned games because of a freak snowstorm or a floodlight failure. For instance, incidents such as floodlighting failure at Derby, West Ham and Wimbledon and the subsequent uproar to the Premier League that initiated the investigation of electrical supplies at all premier league grounds. Football is now a major business and events such as floodlight failures should not happen in the future (Thompson et. al. 1998, p.193). Floodlighting failure is an emergency that should be covered by a contingency plan. According to Watt (2003, p.148), spectators and bystanders at events have a right to expect fair treatment from event organizers, who in turn must ensure their safety especially in the event of any emergency such as an outbreak of fire or a failure of floodlighting. In 1997, Wimbledon football team for the second time that season had a power failure resulting in the floodlighting going down. There was no back-up generator. While it is not known that the reason why the lighting failed at this and other football grounds was the result of tampering probably to fix the match scores. If the football clubs had had back-up generators there would have been no reason for people to carry out these acts (Williams and Buswell 2003, p.25). The Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC contingency plan covers various emergencies, from bomb threat to minor emergencies arising from a postponed match and delayed kick-off. One interesting but questionable feature of this plan is centralization of authority, which is evidently, most of the time, are in the hands of the nominated Safety Officer and the Police Commander. Betting on centralization according to Boin et. al. (2005, p.54) can be a potential liability. This is because efficient protocols may turn out to be time consuming. Channels of centralization may lead to powerless or incapable agencies, bypassing and effectively neutralizing those that are actually capable of making a difference. There is a danger of reducing the level of competence since the person in authority is not necessarily the most competent person to deal with a crisis. A crisis plan normally has three stages- pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. However, another noticeable deficiency in the Blackburn Rovers’ contingency planning is the absence of post-crisis recovery plan. Post-crisis is a period of recovery and assessment and a point where unique opportunities may be created or additional negative effects occur. It is very important and should not be taken for granted because the goal of any crisis management is the resolution, return to normal operations, and repair of any damage (Ray 1999, p.19). 4. Conclusion and Recommendations The Safety at Sports Grounds Act 1975, Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sports Act 1987, and the Green Guide was the result of continuing disasters occurring at sports grounds. Crisis or emergency planning provides clear guidelines in handling facility emergencies efficiently. It helps management ensure that all those involved are prepared and well informed. The Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC prepared a crisis plan to comply with the requirements of the above safety legislations. The plan covers both minor and major emergencies such as bomb threat, fires, utilities failure, and other foreseeable emergencies. The management of Blackburn Rovers Football recognizes the actuality that it is not always possible to predict the exact response to an emergency thus they always respect the value of potential hazard identification and the roles of emergency services and pertinent agencies during a crisis. However, although management evidently made numerous efforts isolating possible emergencies, it did not take into account three important things. One is the importance of a back-up system for floodlights. The club should realize that most of the games happen in the evening when floodlights are most needed. Second is the danger of too much centralization of authority in a critical situation. Third is the absence of post-crisis recovery plan or formal arrangements for the transfer of all or any part of the club’s business to a pre-determined alternative site in the event of an incident. Floodlights breakdown can be very devastating particularly at the height of a match. Spectators may think negatively and interpret the sudden breakdown as sabotage or game fixing. Reported incidents in the past will tell us that floodlights breakdown caused panic and lost of lives. Floodlighting failures caused subsequent uproar thus, it should be consider by any contingency plan. Centralization of authority to a lone Safety Officer on the other hand makes it nearly impossible to think that one man is capable of making the right decision to all forms of crisis. For instance, the nominated is responsible for the management and control of an emergency such as postponed match, delayed kick-off, abandonment of match, emergency evacuation, bomb and biological threat, failures of public address systems, gas leak, etc. Let us notice that the participation of a Police Commander in the plan mostly depend on his availability and most of the time, except for fire calls, which the Fire Steward is responsible, the Safety Officer is in charge to make decisions and to direct all responses. Moreover, the responsibility to determine the severity of the crisis the decision to deploy a multi-agency response is on the Safety Officer. The problem with this arrangement is the strong possibility of misjudgement or miscalculation on the part of the Safety Officer on the possible consequences of escalating crisis at hand. As stated earlier, “the person in authority is not necessarily the most competent person to deal with a crisis”. Contingency or emergency plan should at least deal with pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis since crisis management is all about resolution and returning to normal operations. An emergency plan that does not have a formalized post-crisis arrangement is incomplete and inadequate. The Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic PLC contingency plan is therefore not enough to handle future crisis and thus requires further development. In view of deficiencies observed, this paper recommend that the Blackburn Rovers Football management reconsider the structure and content of their contingency plan since it is evidently inconsistent and deficient of several very important features. They should conduct further study particularly on the consequence of floodlight failure and consider the benefit of installing a back-up generator. They should also reconsider the role of the Safety Officer in the crisis plan since relying too much on centralization may be more damaging than the crisis itself. Since the existing plan already thought about the significance of outside emergency services and participation of relevant agencies during a crisis, there is no harm in letting them participate in crisis assessment and decision-making. Finally, management of Blackburn Rovers Football Athletic PLC should start their post-crisis planning because such plan will determine their future. In crisis management, it is definitely not enough for an organization to simply prevail over the crisis, as restoring the damage and getting back to normal operation are similarly important. 5. 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