Back in the Game

Nick Sautner explains the return of spectator sport to Auckland’s Eden Park

After three long months of COVID-19 lockdown, it was with immense relief that we were able to reopen Eden Park’s doors on Sunday 14th June for an event that will go down in the history books - the day when New Zealand’s largest sporting venue welcomed back fans for the first round of Super Rugby Aotearoa.

I’m sure there are very few that would dispute COVID-19 has had a significant effect on the stadia and event industry. Eden Park’s event calendar went from fixtures every second weekend, to very suddenly an empty stadium for over more than 100 days.

Like many others, the termination of all match day activities at the stadium directly impacted our members and corporate suites, our partners, match day catering, ticketing revenue, corporate functions, and our tourism attractions. To put it simply, our revenue streams dried up completely overnight.

It would, in no way, be excessive to conclude that the stadia industry across the world was, and continues to be, in crisis. With zero revenue, our stadium was forced to take proactive measures including reducing staff salaries, reducing hours, and making several redundancies. Our team has always operated as a lean and agile organisation of fewer than 30 full-time staff, but COVID-19 forced us to be nimbler than ever.

There was an ongoing understanding within management that the retention of our key staff, and their unique skills, was vital to ensuring we were able to hit the ground running once events were able to recommence.

We communicated to staff our strategy for surviving, and thriving, post COVID-19. ‘Emerging Stronger’ became a mantra and we regularly spoke about creating our new normal that would be implemented across three overlapping stages. These consisted of: 1. The upcoming weeks - managing the current disruption and uncertainty due to the impact of the pandemic’s containment restrictions, with a focus on business continuity and resilience. 2. The upcoming months - Preparing for a ‘new normal’ period where we adopt new operating measures in light of ongoing health impacts and restrictions. This is likely to last at least six months and calls for a focus on innovation and productivity as well as employee and patron wellbeing. 3. The upcoming years - Planning for a post COVID-19 world with adjusted patron and stakeholder expectations, leveraging the innovations and the new operating measures developed through the pandemic.

All of these stages contribute to a Game Plan to enable Eden Park to survive and emerge stronger than ever.

The New Zealand Government introduced a countrywide COVID-19 alert system which saw varying restrictions implemented on daily life as the nation’s infection levels either increased or decreased. Throughout the lockdown, there were

Fans return to, and fi ll, Eden Park for the fi rst round of Super Rugby Aotearoa.

a number of conversations that took place centred around potential scenarios for a return to live sport.

We implemented a plan for our staff to divide into two groups in the ten days leading up to events. With such a lean team, the potential for a whole department to be unable to work could severely compromise the running of a match day. In the event that an individual has flu-like symptoms, it’s expected that they’ll undergo the COVID-19 test, likely return a negative result, and then need to be free from all symptoms for at least 48 hours prior to returning to work. Thus, there was a requirement for the division of teams, to ensure that we could still operate in the event that one member of a team needed to self-isolate.

When the restrictions on outside gatherings was announced as 500 patrons at Alert Level 2, Eden Park also mapped out a scenario where the stadium was segregated into blocks of 500 with designated entries and exits. We planned for 10 allocated gates, each able to seat 500 within its zone, and allowing us to host 5,000 fans within the seating bowl. Our preparations included methods for contact tracing of each group of 500 through both ticket allocation and technology, with measures providing restrictions on the contact points at the venue including security, customer service and catering.

Thankfully, these preparations became unnecessary due to the announcement of Alert Level 1 which enabled fans to return to stadia in New Zealand with no restrictions and life as we previously knew it could recommence. However, we see value in having these plans ready should they ever be needed again. Eden Park had just five days to prepare the stadium to welcome 43,000 fans. Our earlier decision to retain our skilled staff, made mid-lockdown with no events forecasted for some time, proved to have been a beneficial decision.

Across my tenure as Chief Executive at Eden Park, I’ve had a number of proud moments. I can say undoubtedly that welcoming rugby fans back for the resumption of Super Rugby Aotearoa following a global pandemic is right up there. My team, who had just been through a challenging and difficult three months, came together and worked tirelessly to deliver an event to remember.

There was an immense amount of hype around the game, and before the whistle had even blown for kick-off, we’d already seen a handful of memorable moments. The event was announced a sell-out the day prior, with approximately 43,000 fans pouring through the stadium’s doors to watch our home team, the Blues, take on Wellington’s Hurricanes. The last time we’d hosted a crowd this large would have been about 15 years ago. The fixture felt like a test match or a final, despite being the first fixture of the revised season.

As the players made their way onto the turf, a familiar rousing song played across the loud-speaker, and a Hercules plane flew overhead, heralding the return of live sport. There was a feeling in the air that this event, this uniting of 43,000, was more than just a sports event. We certainly create unforgettable experiences at Eden Park, and this was a celebration - an occasion to celebrate New Zealand’s achievement during this challenging moment in world history. Regardless of the result on the field, we were all the winners. In a moment that I won’t forget for a long time to come, the crowd rose to a standing applause for the ‘team of five million’ along with our essential workers. And then, just to make the occasion even sweeter, our home team secured the win on our hallowed turf.

As I write this, we’re all still riding the high from the reopening game. I feel a mixture of emotions: relief that there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for our struggling stadia industry; joy that we’re able to get back to what we do best, delivering live sport and entertainment; and above all, gratefulness, to work with such an incredible team who love Eden Park just as much as I do.

The journey to return to live sport hasn’t been easy, but New Zealand’s national stadium has been a much-loved venue for 117 years and home to some of the world’s most unforgettable moments of sporting history.

With a recent business confidence survey suggesting that six out of 10 people believed that rugby resuming at Eden Park is a sign of life returning to normal, I certainly hope this is true and that the venue will be home to many more memorable sporting and entertainment moments for at least another hundred years. Nick Sautner is Chief Executive of the Eden Park Trust.

Super Rugby Aotearoa, Eden Park, Blues v Hurricanes Sunday 14th June Final attendance: Approximately 43,000 Total staff in stadium: Approximately 3,000 which covers cleaning, catering, security, traffic management, medics, facilities, turf management, maintenance, and operational staff. Number of catering staff: 702 Number of food and beverage outlets: 67 Total beverages sold: 47,000 Total meals served: 17,500 Portions of chips served: More than 10,000 Corporate guest attendance: 3,500