Christopher BarrettOn the eve of the culmination of 18 months of planning, Wembley Stadium director Chris Bryant provided an insight into the “phenomenal collaboration” that has resulted in major activations in and around the venue, and further afield across London, as it hosts the UEFA Champions League Final.
The stadium was a hive of activity this week, as it transitioned from staging the FA Cup Final to the Champions League showdown, with the expanded team clearly working flat out.
Bryant says it is the biggest Champions League Final celebration ever staged, with the hugely complex operation involving a vast array of suppliers and partners including Wasserman Live, LS Events, DCMS, GLA, the FA, Metropolitan Police and Brent Council to name but a few. The event professionals are being aided by more than 600 volunteers, and bolstered further by the GLA’s 300 Team London Ambassadors.
At Wembley the event is involving far more than just the stadium, with many areas used for parking and broadcast facilities, while Wembley Arena has been transformed into a hospitality centre, Box Park into a catering facility for staff and Brent Civic Centre housing accreditation.
Aside from the match itself, the event involves a four-day festival across five sites. Among the highlights is the UEFA Champions League legends 5-aside tournament at Somerset House involving veterans such as Patrick Vieira, Roberto Carlos and Luís Figo.
There are also two fan meeting points, with Borussia Dortmund in Hyde Park at a 20,000-capacity site and Real Madrid at a 13,600-cap area on Victoria Embankment.
Prior to kick off, Wembley stadium will host a Pepsi-sponsored concert, presented by Live Nation, involving a performance by Lenny Kravitz.
Bryant says a huge amount of planning has gone into orchestrating the movement of fans and ensuring the experience is a positive one: “A lot of work, between us, the GLA and the Metropolitan Police, has gone into how we look after the fans and learn the lessons from the UEFA Euro 2020 final. For us that’s all about having clear fan communications and visible information throughout the journey, and a good experience when they get here. Brent Council has a public space protection order around the stadium that prevents alcohol being consumed, and that’s been hugely successful.”
Security
In December 2021, Baroness Casey published an independent review into the significant levels of public disorder before and during the Euro final on 11 July 2021. Following the recommendations, the stadium has been subject to a £5m investment programme to enhance security facilities.
On the day of the Champions League Final there will be the largest stewarding deployment in Wembley Stadium’s history, with more than 2,500 on site, coupled with a “very significant” police presence inside and outside the venue. The stadium’s doors will open four hours before the match, rather than the usual two, and roads will be closed from 8am.
The investment in increased security provision at the stadium include additional CCTV facilities and a new control room specifically focused on Zone Ex. “We’ve got more cameras and more resources to look at activity in and outside the stadium, including the local pubs,” says Bryant.
The money has also been spent on increasing the strength of all the venue’s doors complete with an additional locking system, new gates, fencing around the stadium, and an increased number of body cameras for stewards.
Says Bryant, “It’s fantastic that the FA made that funding available, and only right that we took all the steps that we could from the learnings following the Euro final. We wanted to make sure that those investments are a benefit to us in delivery of all events. So, it has benefits in terms of how we operate 24/7, and we’re in a stronger place because of it.”