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FEATURE | ||
Back to Facility Manager
Contents |
Tape recorders whir, local and national TV cameras roll, your executive vice president has several dozen microphones shoved near his nose, and police, fire, city, county, and/or others are on site or en route. Meanwhile, your organization’s execs and managers scramble to get their arms around a situation that is fast becoming a PR and, perhaps, a public crisis. If you think crisis mode with the media happens somewhere else, look at the situations that follow in which three facility managers found themselves–and their venues.” General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, had booked the blockbuster band Guns ‘N Roses. Twelve thousand people began gathering and by mid-day, 2,000 to 3,000 fans were at each of the four entrances.
Inside the arena, Harvey Jones and his staff were growing more and more concerned. Though the promoters kept insisting that the event was going to take place, “We had no evidence that made us believe the band had left Los Angeles,” says Jones, vice president and general manager, arena operations. When the clock finally ticked down, there seemed to be no choice. The concert was canceled. The fans, with a reputation for violence, strenuously objected to the decision. “We had a full-scale riot on our hands,” said Jones. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage was done to the exterior of our facility.” The media reported and recorded it all.
In all three true scenarios, the facility personnel and the media were each doing their job, says Rich Singer, director of the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona, and IAAM Annual Conference Working with the Media workshop facilitator. “In the end, we have mutual goals. The media sell stories and we have stories to tell.” But when the big E(mergency) hits, “it helps to have a plan in place,” he says. The others agree. Jones says, “Every circumstance is unique. You need to identify the potential problems as quickly as possible. In our case, it would have helped to have had a clause in our license agreement regarding the time at which the band either showed up or we canceled.” One of the things they did exactly right, says Jones, was to call the police early on and apprise them of the situation. “They assigned a commander to be responsible and we were able to set up a command post in the building with communication links for the police.” In retrospect, what would he change? “We would have communicated better with our own staff, telling them earlier about what was going on. We would have communicated more clearly and earlier with the fans and we would have looked even more closely at the history of the band. We do that now when we are booking a concert.” Michael Marion says, “We had our chairman of the board standing up in front of TV cameras reading a news release by 6 p.m. That was good. We hired a public relations firm to help us reach the public and the mayor of the city had an independent contractor inspect the building after repairs and declare it safe. And we held a couple of hockey games in which we went out and sold tickets for $1 a head and held photo opportunities for local media with the city and county officials and board members sitting with their families in the upper bowl of the arena.” Did that work? Yep. The Elton John concert which was scheduled for later in the month went off without a hitch. Fort Wayne’s Randy Brown says, “It is all about relationships. If the appropriate person for an organization has spent time developing relationships with the media, there’s a trust that’s built in.
All good advice, says Singer. And long before an emergency, he says, it’s imperative to plan, plan, plan. Executives, public information officers, board members and other appropriate people need to determine:
Harvey Jones says, “Just communicate – with the media, your staff, the authorities. Get your media messages out as early as you can.” And at the end? Rich Singer says, “Determine what you want to say and stick to it. Don’t be fooled by global questions. If you tell the truth and deliver solid communication to all entities, you will serve your organization, the media, and the public well.”
Gay Elliot McFarland is a freelance writer in Houston, TX |
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© 2002-2005 International Association of Assembly Managers 635 Fritz Dr. Coppell, TX 75019 USA Phone: 972/906-7441 Fax: 972/906-7418 |
ALLTEL
Arena in Little Rock, Arkansas, had an 18,000- seat, sold-out exhibition
game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Washington Wizards scheduled for
October 12, 1999 at their sparkling new facility. “We’d had all the walk-throughs
and approvals done on the construction,” said Michael Marion, general
manager. About a month before opening, one of the raker beams (the
structural support that holds up the upper bowl of seating in an arena)
developed a crack. “We put in a temporary fix and were told everything was a
go for opening night. But in mid-afternoon on opening day, the chief
engineer came in and said, ‘I am worried that the raker beam could be a
safety concern.’” If there was even a hint that there was a safety issue,
the event had to be canceled, says Marion. But public trust was shattered. 
The
Shrine Circus, held at The Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne,
Indiana, had just wrapped up a successful engagement, says Randy Brown, the
facility’s general manager. As the circus personnel were packing up to
leave, an elephant stepped on one of the handlers and, as it turned out, the
man was fatally injured. A public relations RX was needed, and fast. 
“Within
an hour of the incident in which the animal handler was injured, the media,
fire, police and ambulance personnel were on the scene. Our assistant
general manager, Garnett Mills, coordinated with the circus and family
members. At the same time, we were meeting with the medical staff, our
staff, managing the site, and coordinating the media. As information was
available, I liaisoned with the media.” 