The crowd stewarding and event security contractor Showsec reports it’s completed its own equivalent of football’s ‘double’. It played an off-field role in the celebrations for each of the 2014-15 season’s winners. The contract firm mounted a major operation for the victory parade to mark Arsenal’s FA Cup win (pictured outside the Emirates Stadium in N5), six days after they had featured prominently in Chelsea’s Premier League party ten miles across London.
Thousands of jubilant fans lined the streets of the capital to hail their heroes after a season in which the London rivals shared all the domestic honours – the Premier League and Capital One Cup going to Chelsea, the FA Cup and Community Shield to Arsenal.
In the case of Chelsea’s celebration, Showsec were engaged again by innovision, the production company with whom they have worked to deliver a number of high-profile occasions, the most recent being the third stage of the Tour de France’s Grand Depart.
Whereas with Arsenal’s second successive FA Cup triumph and a record 12th in all, they worked with the north London club to activate a crowd management and security operation within hours of the famous trophy being presented at Wembley Stadium after a 4-0 thumping of Aston Villa.
The strength of the team fielded on both occasions (Showsec’s, we are talking about) under Regional Manager Steve Reynolds, Head of Security for the two parades, for Reynolds highlighted the way key members stepped up to the challenge. He said: “This was the second successive year that we have had the privilege of being involved in these celebrations for the two major winners of domestic honours in English football and we can also draw on experience of many other such occasions in recent times. But the fact that they both fell within a six day period of each other and also coincided with a busy start to our festival season this year required us to utilise the strength of the management infrastructure we have been developing through our training programmes.
“Therefore, it was most satisfying to see members of that team step up to the challenge and provide strong leadership to deliver the project, even when significant challenges were presented to them. This really demonstrates the calibre of people we have working for us.”
While Dayo Adelugba, Showsec’s Area Manager for West London, operated in key roles alongside Reynolds on both occasions, Operations Executives Michael Asimonye (Chelsea) and Harry Thorn (Arsenal) were given the responsibility of acting as the Project Managers and there was influential support from many other members of that set-up.
Adelugba said: “It required an outstanding team effort for both parades, from all the planning and preparation to delivery by every member on the ground. The Chelsea parade gave us the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with innovision, who we have worked with on a number of major projects in London, while we operated in partnership with Arsenal and their stewarding team once again for their celebration. Both operations also involved close liaison with a number of other agencies in developing a strategy for crowd management, road closures and the creation of an environment which made it an enjoyable experience for the fans, while also being sensitive to the local community.”
