Hull SMC (Hull City & Hull FC)

Intro

Hull SMC, home of Hull City Football Club and Rugby League side Hull FC deployed TEAMcard Access at their 24,711 all-seater stadium in 2012 with the goal of streamlining match day operations and processes for both clubs at this unique multi-use venue.

Since then, Hull SMC and TEAMcard have worked closely with one-another to continually develop and deliver a modern access system that meets the ever-changing needs of a multi-use stadium.

Pete Curry, Event Safety and Security Manager at Hull SMC has shared his experience working with the TEAMcard system during his time at the venue.

The Challenge

When TEAMcard was installed at Hull it was during a period of real success for the football club with sell-out crowds weekly during the club's successful promotion campaign to the Premier League.

The previous access system, in place since the stadium was completed, posed challenges for the venue that meant fans access was often delayed on particularly busy match days.

The venue had an ambition to work with an organisation who would provide a solution to the challenges it was facing, as well as deliver a system that would continue to evolve, meeting the growing expectations of both football and rugby fans who attend the venue on a regular basis.

The Solution

At a time where attendances were at an all-time high, Hull selected TEAMcard Access, an advanced access control system designed specifically for sports stadia and major sporting event operations.

TEAMcard’s access system was implemented across the stadiums automated turnstiles, delivering a faster and more intuitive entry experience for fans

“The stadium had never been so full and TEAMcard played a massive part with regards to getting people into the stadium more easily”

Detailed Data

A big part of the venue’s ambition was to better understand what was happening on a match day, and to have the ability to analyse detailed data in real time to address challenges quickly, as well as in post-event reports to deliver greater insights and identify areas for improvement.
“When there are challenges with fan entry, often due to an influx of fans arriving to the stadium late, TEAMcard allows me to clearly interrogate the system to understand where and why bottlenecks are taking place”

“The system its intuitive and very user friendly. The data available and the filters make it really easy to drill down and find individual fans quickly which is a feature we use often”

On access to the required data and system interfaces on a match day, Pete commented

“On a match day the ability to deploy handheld scanners to areas without fixed turnstiles is great. We can manage all of the readers on our phones when we are moving around the stadium on match days”

Notifications

The team at Hull have also recently began taking advantage of TEAMcard’s advanced notification engine, allowing members of their team to subscribe to live notification about core aspects of the access system, delivered directly to their WhatsApp number, Teams channel or email inbox.  

“The notification engine is a great bit of kit and we use it for every matc hday. We set up notifications for our turnstiles to ensure we know about any issues quickly and can sort them out.”

“We also have notifications set up to let us know when supporters on a club ban attempt to enter the stadium. We aren't always able to hold the passes until the ban is over, so this helps us keep track of whether banned passes are still being tried at the turnstiles”

Car Parking

Amongst other key applications across the club, Pete and his team plan on using features advanced features within TEAMcard’s technology stack to improve their match day car parking operation.

“Right now, the car park management is a real challenge. It's very manual and can cause real problems, particularly on busier fixtures”

“We are looking forward to exploring others of the solution that we feel we can use to better manage out car park on match days”

Custom Dashboards‍

Hull are also utilising more of the custom data viewing functionality within the TEAMcard system, building custom dashboards for live match day data.

“Our stadium map and the size of the away allocation can often change depending on the number of away tickets sold. The custom views allow us to see a true real-time number for both home and away attendance clearly and quickly”

“As a dual-purpose venue, we can have custom dashboards, layouts and views for both the football and rugby fixtures, all in the same system”

Automated Pre-event Checks

On match days, the ticketing team at Hull also use the TEAMcard digital pre-event checks which when followed, ensure their venue is fully prepared for a live event and thousands of fans.

“I know the team in the ticket office see huge advantage from elements like the automated pre-event checks that save them a lot of time when setting up and testing the stadium on match days”

Custom F7 Screens

In addition to the back-office system, Hull have also seen big advantages from their upgraded F7 fixed units across the MKM stadium.

“Throughout the football season the clear messaging on the reader screens has made it really easy for us to communicate with fans and direct them accordingly, without the need for a steward stepping in each time”

“We also use the screens to customise the entry experience for away fans, adding the away team logo on the away gate turnstiles which always goes down well”

Support

When challenges to arise, Pete and the team at Hull have been really impressed by the service provided by the TEAMcard Client Services team.

“Issue resolution has never been a problem. We have been using the support portal for any questions or issues, communication is always fast and clear, and any problems are almost always solved really quickly”

“The ongoing training for the full team has also been really valuable. We have had additional sessions with the client services team as refreshers and training on new features which has been a great help”

The Result

Pete concluded by saying

“In summary all I can say is that TEAMcard is delivering us a system that is really good all round. Its intuitive and easy to use, any problems, not that there are many, are solved quickly and the team here are really pleased with the way it all comes together”