Miscellaneous
The European Club Association and many of its member clubs joined the ESSMA Stadium Summit 2015 organised by the European Stadium & Safety Management Association (ESSMA) at the Allianz Arena in Munich on the 27th and 28th of January. ECA was actively involved in the event as official partner alongside the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) and the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS).
The successful two-day event was attended by more than 220 participants from across Europe. These included professionals from the stadium industry as well as representatives from clubs, leagues and national associations. The main purpose of the Summit was to allow experts from the stadium business to meet their peers and exchange thoughts and ideas with regards to the latest trends and developments in the industry.
The programme on the first day included keynote speeches from experts representing the Allianz Arena and the AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys), whilst the second event day offered nine different in-depth workshops on trending stadium topics, such as stadium connectivity or financing. Many of these workshops included presentations of case studies by ECA Member Clubs, such as Celtic FC, FC Spartak Moskva, KAA Gent, Valencia CF, Olympique de Marseille, Bayer 04 Leverkusen or Ferencvárosi TC.
The event programme also foresaw practical stadium tours at the Allianz Arena and the SGL Arena in Augsburg as well as a visit to the training centre of reigning Bundesliga champions FC Bayern München.
Commenting on the ESSMA-ECA partnership, ECA General Secretary Michele Centenaro said:
"We were happy to support the first ESSMA Summit. The event proved to be a great success with lots of interesting presentations and discussions among the participants. The idea of bringing together stadium experts to discuss and share best practice is important to further develop the stadium industry. The ESSMA Summit provided clubs, alongside other stakeholders, a great platform to learn about the newest trends in football stadiums."