Case: Safesight at 1. FSV Mainz 05

Since 2019, Bundesliga club 1. FSV Mainz 05 adopted Safesight to take their safety game to the next level. Their OPEL ARENA is a multi-purposed stadium with a capacity well over 30.000. It’s the stadium of football club Mainz 05, but the stadium hosts home matches of the German National team as well.

Stephan Bandholz has been working for 1. FSV Mainz for over ten years. As Deputy Director of Organization and Head of Security, he knows exactly how complex safety can be: “Stewards, Ticketing, Hospitality, our technical department, office staff. There are so many departments involved in organizing events in the OPEL ARENA. And every department contributes to safety. But how do you know if everything is going according to plan? That’s we’re Safesight comes in. We can keep track of all safety aspects on match days thanks to the platform.”

Always up to date

He continues: “Safesight allows all disciplines to work together in a single application that’s easy to use. We can make sure staff members on key positions always have up-to-date information available in the app. Not just match information, but also special attention points, maps of the stadium, contacts, crisis organization and so on. Staff need to accept their responsibilities and tasks in the app before they start their shifts, so everyone knows what’s expected of them at any moment: Whether they’re preparing for opening, working their shift or in case of an incident.

Check in: who’s working where?

At the start of the collaboration in 2019, Mainz 05 asked Safesight to develop a check-in-functionality to register all stewarding staff in attendance. Stephan: “Thanks to this functionality, we’re able to make sure all crucial positions in our stadium are taken by the right staff members before we open. A dashboard in the command room shows the different sectors of our stadium, making it easy to see whether we’re compliant with the mandatory number of employees present at a location.”

Personal task lists: risk & task management

The platform allows management and the control room to send instructions or information directly to personal task lists of staff members. “Staff members get the instructions on their phone, in the Safesight app”, Stephan says. “Ad hoc tasks, like an extra cleaning of the toilets, but also regular checks following safety plans and regulations, like checking the emergency exits. These regular tasks and checks are automatically sent to the right people in our organization at pre-set times.”

“Thanks to Safesight, all our disciplines work together in a single, easy-to-use application. We know for certain employees have the right information, we have a real-time overview of the tasks that are still open and thanks to the logbook we know exactly what’s happening in and around our stadium. And with the check-in functionality we know whether everybody is in the right position before we open.”
Stephan Bandholz, Deputy Director of Organization / Head of Security

Centralized dashboards provide an accurate overview of the people who have completed their tasks – and the people who haven’t. If somebody or a whole team lags behind, this is visible in real-time. Management can take immediate action: which sectors aren’t ready for opening yet? Which areas need more attention? And have all escape routes and emergency exits been checked?

Cloud-based log

All reports are collected in a cloud-based logbook. Stephan: “Everything is collected in the log. Things like damages and complaints, but also incidents or calamities. If necessary, the control room can share these reports with event stakeholders in the blink of an eye.”

“Employees with the right authorization can access the log through their app. This way, all authorized stakeholders know exactly what’s going on in and around the stadium – at any time wherever they are. They’re also able to create notifications themselves. If they want, they can even upload a photo.” The command room has eyes and ears everywhere, so to speak. And because all non-urgent matters are recorded in the log, employees only use the radio network for things that needs immediate attention”.

Collect management information

“Safesight provides us with a complete overview of everything that’s happening in and around our stadium”, Stephan continues. Since we’re working with uniform incident codes and locations, the platform functions as an important tool for collecting management information too. That’s valuable data, which we actively use to draw lessons from: how often were the emergency exits not free? How many complaints did we receive? Were there any calamities? And how many? It helps us to keep improving our organization. Time and time again.”