ASSESSMENT OF CROWD CONTROL STRA TEGIES IN THE DESIGN OF NATIONAL STADIUM AT MINNA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Stadium crowd referred to the number of people corning together in cluster for sporting activities and other events in the stadium. The stadium crowd is usually associated with certain problems that include but not limited to problems of movement, ventilation, temperature, and crime, whereas this research is limited to the problem of circulation. The researcher reviewed past studies in which FIFA guide/recommendations and other similar areas of interest were made useful. The study aimed at providing football stadium that can allow safer crowd environment for sustainable spectatorship. A survey research was adopted. The study population comprised of 25 management staff, 20 technical staff, 20 security staff including police men, 1049 spectators for both the Uyo and Abuja stadia. The study utilised purposive sampling of the non-probability sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as the research instrument, in which 485 number was administered at the Uyo stadium, while 660 was administered at the Abuja stadium. A total of 1114 was possibly retrieved out of 1145. The researcher used research assistant to collect some ofthe data, and the entire data was then coded and organised for analysis using SPSS and Excel software, and were summarised in tables and charts for easy interpretations. The result indicated that the crowd management strategies used in most stadia were adequate except at the situation of full capacity evacuation. The result is shown in percentage for adequate, fair and inadequate scores for CCTV (17%, 15%, 9%), stadium entrance (86.9%, 7.3%, 5.8%), lighting (13%, 85%, 2%), signage (8.5%, 84.4%, 7.1%), peak period evacuation (18.6%, 7.6%, 73.8%), ticketing (11.9%, 74.6%, 13.5%), seating plan (48.4%, 40.1%, 11.5%), security personnel posting (42.2%, 40.3%, 17.5%), queuing and assembly of fans (64.4%, 35.6%, 0%), gate opening (77.6%, 13.6%, 8.8%). In conclusion, the evacuation at peak periods at stadia is usually inadequate. The concept of the research solution was made in three main ways; Improvement on the ingress/egress system, open circulation from upper levels ofthe sitting bowl to allow for easy evacuation, improving the emergency/vehicular access ways as improvement ofthe full capacity evacuation. and also awareness programs on the proper use of stadium facilities should be provided to all visitors as key recommendations of this research