Rungrado May Day Stadium, North Korea, has a capacity of 150,000 people, and occupies over 200,000 square metres.
A Case Study.
- How do the variables ‘facility planning’ and ‘physical evidence’ apply to the different sections of this case study?
Facility planning refers to the need to create long-term, prospective and perspective plans about the requirements and usage for a particular facility, in this particular case study, the sport stadium. In terms of sport stadia, many modern day stadium constructors are unable to foresee the use of a stadium for just a single sport as a financially viable enterprise or endeavour. As a result, many new stadiums are being built with a multipurpose-full future usage plan in mind. Examples of functions which are increasingly being included in stadiums to expand their roles include restaurants, office spaces, night clubs, television studios and health and fitness centres.
Due to the majority of the sport product being intangible, the importance of the place of sport is enhanced as it is the majority of physical evidence which can be used to compare the quality of the product to other similar sport products. The physical evidence of product should support the quality characteristics, which can be boosted through the design of the sport facility itself, or through the promotion of the sport facility.
An example of the way a sport facilities design can add to the quality of the sport product is through the use of up-to-date interactive technology, such as instant replay scoreboards, banners, and statues of sporting heroes.
An example of how the promotion of the sport facility can add to the quality of the sport product is through the associated experience of being at the venue for any particular event. This can include promoting photographs of past events, the services provided by the organisation, and the explanations of different product offerings.
- How do the variables ‘people’ and ‘process’ apply to the different sections of this case study?
Four of the five ways which people use to distinguish the quality of a service product are fully dependent on the level of training, abilities and skills of the human resources performing tasks outside the match. In terms of stadium management, this refers to the level of efficiency and effectiveness at which the service of watching a sports match is provided. That is, how quickly the food and beverage attendants are able to deliver food to a corporate box, for example.
The process refers to the ways in which the product is actually distributed to the customer for purchase and consumption. These processes occur between two functions; the marketing function, and the sport servuction model. Traditionally, the marketing function comprised purely the marketing department, whose role was to develop, communicate and executing marketing plans. However, in an increasingly service based industry such as sport, the marketing function has been described as ‘including all resources and activities which have a direct or even indirect impact on the establishment, maintenance, and strengthening of customer relationships, irrespective of where in the organisation they are’. This therefore concludes that all members of the organisation, including stadium staff – for example food and beverage attendants, security members etc. – are identified as ‘part-time marketers’. This would be particularly appropriate in corporate seats, where a high quality service product is expected. The sport servuction model identifies the difference in those functions which are physically evident in the process of delivering the product, compared to those functions which are not physically evident in this process. The facility design, contact people and players are the physical evidence of the product, whilst the preparation of those delivery systems and the actual services provided for the customer are invisible to the consumer.
- Can you think of other standards that may replace ‘cost per seat’ as a better way to calculate facility construction costs? Justify your answer.
Using the calculation of ‘cost per seat’ to measure the costs of a stadium’s construction is very efficient and effective as it allows the cost to be expressed in terms of what it will mean is available to each patron of the stadium, should it be completely sold out. However, this value could be expressed more precisely to match the realistic attendance expectations of the venue, particularly for venues where the functions don’t vary too considerably. For example, the costs could be calculated based on average attendances of previous seasons (provided the prior venue was of similar capacity). This value would then represent more accurately the money which is being spent on helping to improve and/or ensure a positive experience for each expected attendant to a match. This calculation method would, however, be ineffective if previous attendance numbers weren’t indicative of future expected attendances, or if the venue serves multiple functions such as office space, night club and restaurant.
Sarah Francis 