Venues are in use virtually every day between the multitude of games, events, concerts, meetings, practices, film shoots and everything else we can squeeze in. With this much activity, how do venue managers keep the high standards, cleanliness and presentability of the venue day in and day out? How does the grass stay green even with an abundance of wear and compaction? How do we teach our staff to continue to engage guests at the high level we expect even after working several events in a row? As a former teacher once taught me, “proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.” It’s those 6 P’s that enable me to keep my venues in top form and is an easy mantra for both new and veteran stadium managers alike. We work in an industry where unpredictability is the norm – unexpected things will happen every event (and every day!). The 6 P’s allow us, our venues, and our staff to deal with the unexpected much easier.
Preparation and planning is key to the success of our game day staff. Something simple like planning ahead and making sure to have fresh staff at the tail end of a weekend full of events or long home series goes a long way towards ensuring our staff is maintaining the customer service and safety standards that we expect. Giving them the proper tools day in and day out (whether it be briefing notes, working radios, proper training, etc.) is also part of the necessary preparation to ensure success. If we aren't preparing our staff to succeed, they are susceptible to poor performance which none of us can afford in the customer service world we live in.
Facility management also requires the 6 P’s. If you know your field is about to have several months of heavy usage, planning ahead and identifying off days (or even off-hours!) for field work will help ensure you can keep the grass green, oxygenated and ready to perform. Not planning this field work potentially leads to the “poor performance” part of the 6 P’s - play-ability issues which could affect the teams win/loss record or even safety issues as a player could catch their cleat wrong or a ball could bounce unexpectedly. Additionally, capital project planning and yearly maintenance plans in all of our venues help us prevent poor performance by being prepared for major projects or major maintenance issues that could affect the performance of the venue itself. Being un-prepared from a facility maintenance or performance standpoint could lead to major safety concerns and liability issues.
Every day in our venue is important. Non-event days are often a time for guest tours or “drop-in’s” by high ranking officials, donors, and executives. We don’t have the luxury of telling those guests or high-ranking folks that the ballpark is less presentable or our staff is less friendly just because it’s an off day. Proper planning and preparation allow us to make every day the most important day of the year and it allows our staff to ensure that every guest feels like the most important guest regardless of the day they visit our venue.
While this is a relatively simple concept, it’s important to occasionally take a step back from our busy day-to-day, re-focus on the little things and remember to look ahead.