WEMBLEY BOWS OUT FOR 2020

Wembley Stadium bowed out for 2020 on Wednesday 18^th November, as England produced a convincing 4-0 win over Iceland in the Nations League, but for the stadiums 13 year history, it was a first for many things in a year filled with uncertainty and ambiguity.

The year started off with high hopes, a sold out Carabao Cup final between Aston Villa and Manchester City with the Sky Blues emerging victorious. This was a day that we would normally look back on as “just another Wembley event”, it went by with no issues. We were at the stadium in our “normal” capacity, checking tickets, guiding new and old fans to their seats, managing incidents and all awe struck by the sound of 90,000 fans cheering their team on. Now we look back upon this game as the only spectator event that took place at Wembley Stadium in 2020.

After the first lockdown, Wembley have paid host to 15 sporting events, all with no fans to witness their teams triumph under the famous arch or commiserate what could have been. From the likes of FA Cup Finals, England Internationals to Play Off Finals, all were played with an eerie silence, and just the sound of coaches barking orders from the touchline.

During this time, we have been fortunate enough to be one of a select few companies to help assist the National Stadium with their Behind Closed Doors fixtures amongst the COVID-19 pandemic. Our roles have changed but our spirit and drive never diminished, we used to welcome thousands of fans into seats, now it is a few hundred from media and select club personnel. Our roles over this time included:

• Accreditation Management
• One Way System Guidance
• Media and Club Hospitality
• Security Checks
• COVID-19 Mitigation

But even with the change in scenery, we always strived to perform to our high expectations. After this year of unusual events, one Senior Wembley Official had this to say “Just a big thank you to the team from us, Dan and Shelby (company reps over this time) were great and very supportive so please do pass on our thanks.”

With a long term contract secured earlier in the year, we look forward to working at Wembley for many years to come. There are many stories around the reintroduction of fans to sporting events, as well as promise of a vaccine in the near future. We hope this will mean our return for 2021 will include fans for us to all look after and share the experience of being at Wembley Stadium.