March 1997 – N°23 – Report – ENGLISH
| The stands continue to rise skywards, and soon the only thing lacking will be the spectators… |
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The Stade de France |
Majestic and imposing, the 10 stadiums that are to host the 64 matches of the 16th World Cup will be a real show-case for the organisational skills behind the event, in the eyes of its 2.5 million spectators and the 37 billion expected in cumulative television audiences. It is therefore one of the chief concerns of the CFO’s Competition Facilities Department to monitor the building progress in each stadium, keep an eye on the improvements being carried out and ensure that the specifications drawn up by FIFA and the CFO are being correctly followed.
But the Facilities Department’s job goes far beyond the playing field and sports facilities. All the stage-hands are beavering away like mad behind the scenes! Setting up computer terminals and press centres, providing, installing and running equipment, supplying and maintaining power sources – the list of tasks is endless, and every element is essential to the needs of the teams, media, World Cup partners, and indeed everyone concerned with the event.
And there is also the matter of what goes on beyond the immediate vicinity of each stadium, particularly the planning and setting up of complementary infrastructures nearby, along the lines of the accreditation centres, together with the design and installation of the signage panels and decorative banners in the FRANCE 98 colours that will be appearing in airports, railway stations, car parks, etc., etc…
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Imagineering… |
| The Competition Facilities Department has a task before it whose richness lies in its very variety. The department’s permanent team of 28 consists of people from many different professions: architects, civil engineers, logistics and signage experts and supply specialists, to name but a few. |
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The Stade de France |
They all have to rise to the same challenge. Since the CFO will only gain access to the stadiums around a month before the World Cup opens, provision must be made for every imaginable requirement, down to the very last detail, in order for the whole operation to run without a hitch. To speed up the development of a programme base of architectural plans and location of infrastructures at the venues, sophisticated tools like databases and (see inset) Computer-Aided Design (CAD) are being used. If government means planning, organisation means anticipating!
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Conversation with Jean-Claude Florence, head of Equipment and Facilities at the CFO |
To direct and bring together all the various tasks that fall to the Competition Facilities Department, it needs a real maestro. Aside from the constraints of a tight schedule and the temporary nature of all the facilities to be set up, from 10 June 1998 onwards the main concern is that the score should be note-perfect. The World Cup demands discipline and precision, and cannot afford any improvisation. The man wielding the baton is Jean-Claude Florence.
What exactly is your role in the stadium renovation programme?
We ensure that the official specifications are being correctly carried out. All the stadiums have to be up to “World Cup standard,” in accordance with FIFA regulations. This is why, for instance, all places in the stands will now be seated, for obvious security reasons.
The venue directors and those in charge of facilities, who were among the first CFO staff delegated on-site, also make sure that the building schedule is being scrupulously observed. But the CFO is making no financial contribution to the refurbishment: this is being funded by local authorities and the State.
In geographical terms, what area does your responsibility cover?
Our sphere of action lies within the “CFO perimeter.” This is an area comprising the stadiums, and their immediate vicinity, which in turn encompasses the additional installations that we will be needing: the hospitality villages for entertaining guests and World Cup partners, business areas, press and accreditation centres, parking space and so on.
What does laying out the temporary installations involve?
The idea of “impermanence” is important, because all the installations we are in charge of are temporary. For me, coming from the building sector, it’s a totally different concept. Once the renovation work is finished, we’ll be gaining access to the stadiums about a month before the competition starts. That’s when our task of giving them the “World Cup look” will really start. In contractual terms, the work is being shared among the cities and the CFO.
The CFO is responsible for design and implementation. Nothing can be left to chance, nothing can be left out, from the players’ dressing rooms to the press stands. For the latter, for instance, the requirements are pretty stringent. Depending on the match, we have to make provision for between 125 and 150 commentary boxes, for both radio and television.
Each box has to be partitioned off in Plexiglas, and must have three seats side by side, a wide table, a telephone, two TV monitors, three electric points, and so forth. In certain venues we also have to set up temporary structures. If, for instance, a stadium cannot accommodate a press centre in a suitable place, a comfortable marquee with proper facilities for the media representatives will have to be put up.
Your inventory work obviously has to be very meticulous. How do you go about it?
At this stage, various technological tools are enabling us to set up and manage the “base programmes.” One of the main difficulties when it comes to precise inventory planning is to keep abreast of constantly changing requirements. The answer to this was to create a database inventorying the areas necessary at each venue for the different CFO sections (communication, marketing, accreditation etc.) and noting down opposite the solutions for these requirements (areas and locations available). Each venue breaks down into about 400 different areas!
When an area is inventoried and allotted a function, we assign it an “equipment” folder from the “equipment database” as well as a folder detailing the refurbishment to be carried out in this area. By combining all the documents – database, venue and installation plans – we have an overall view of the programme for all the venues.
Once each area has been inventoried, what next?
Using the plans available, we begin checking “in the field” in order to avoid any nasty surprises later on! Venue by venue, we make sure that each locale conforms to our needs in terms of space, number and positioning of electrical and telephone sockets, and so on.
When is the operational phase to install the “World Cup look” due to begin?
The time available to install everything will be extremely short: around a month. Even though most of the equipment will be rented, it won’t be possible to have all our orders delivered directly to the venues. Before the final installation phase therefore, we will be stocking, assembling, testing and maintaining fixtures and equipment in our warehouses right up until day one.
You see why every day between now and 10 June 1998 is important! Organising an event as gigantic as the World Cup means taking every single little detail into account, and being able to spot the spanner in the works before it falls in!