Miscellaneous

The third annual ESSMA Summit took place at the newly built Parc Olympique Lyonnais from the 16th to the 18th of January. Organised by the European Stadium & Safety Management Association (ESSMA), the three-day event saw the participation of over 350 delegates, a 20% increase from last year's Summit in Bilbao.

For three days, the venue, home of ECA Member Club Olympique Lyonnais, hosted not only many ECA Member Clubs representatives, but also professionals from the stadium industry and representatives from other clubs, leagues and national associations, as well as experts from a range of other sports.

This year again, the European Club Association was actively involved in the organisation of the event as official partner, alongside the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) and the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS). The main purpose of the Summit was to allow experts from the stadium business to gather and exchange best practices on the latest trends in the industry, notably including fan entertainment, safety & security, management & commercial exploitation as well as pitch management.

The first day was entirely dedicated to a Stadium Development Seminar, with keynote speeches from stadium experts notably representing FC Bayern München, Feyenoord Rotterdam, FK Austria Wien and HNK Rijeka as well as the Italian Serie B. To end the day, an in-depth tour of the Parc Olympique Lyonnais was organised for all participants.

The second day was opened by the welcome words of Olympique Lyonnais Chairman and ECA Executive Board Member Jean-Michel Aulas, following which a detailed presentation by UEFA on the EURO 2016 & 2020 tournaments was given.

The day was completed by presentations from representatives of Olympique Lyonnais, Coca-Cola, US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (USA) as well as a panel discussion on stadium development in France.

As for the third and last day, twelve different workshops divided in four main categories such as Fan Entertainment, Stadium Management, Safety Management and Pitch Management, were organised. ECA Member Clubs actively contributed to the success of these workshops, notably thanks to the presentations of Arsenal FC, Olympique Lyonnais, Malmö FF, Ferencvárosi TC, as well as the Allianz Stadion in Vienna and the Amsterdam ArenA. A final visit of the Olympique Lyonnais training centre concluded the successful ESSMA Summit 2017.

The next edition of the ESSMA Summit will be held at the iconic Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Rep. of Ireland, in January 2018. More information can be found on the ESSMA official website.