The Big Interview – Heath Harvey

Club Wembley Director Heath Harvey considers the best live experiences in sport – including that on offer at the national stadium…

The Sport Industry Awards 2013 will see the Best Live Experience category make its debut due to popular demand. What sets the best live experiences in sport apart from the others?

I think it’s when the event itself lives up to the sense of anticipation. At the NFL match at Wembley last October, spectators could make themselves comfortable in their seats for at least an hour before the game even kicks off whilst being thoroughly entertained by major acts on stage. The whole event is truly experiential. There is a real sense of anticipation in the lead up to the event, and when fans arrive the stadium the hype certainly lives up to it. NFL also have a fantastic tailgate party which 40,000 people attended at their last game at Wembley – I don’t think there are many people who leave an event like that who don’t say ‘that was five hours well spent.’ I think that’s a perfect example of true sponsor activation and an event that truly lives up to its billing. 

The other example is the UEFA Champions League Final in 2011, where Manchester United played Barcelona at Wembley. It was world-class games like that that the stadium was built for. We had some of the greatest players ever, playing to the very best of their ability in a world class setting. From a football perspective, that was one of the biggest highlights since we opened in 2007.

Could you ever see British sport embracing that rock culture that the NFL brings over?

I think we are becoming more and more like the USA over time and this is inevitable. In these difficult times, people want better value for money and it’s our challenge, as a world-class venue, to give people a reason to be in their seats early, rather than dining outside of the stadium and turning up five minutes before kickoff. If we learn from events like the NFL and get it right, I’d like to think that in a few years we might have 80,000 people already sitting in their seats enjoying pre-game entertainment an hour before a football match. The stadium is more than capable of delivering world class entertainment; we just need to provide fantastic content and the right atmosphere which will make it compelling for people to be in the bowl rather than outside it. 

How far away do you think we are from seeing Lady Gaga at half-time of the FA Cup Final?
The profile of other sports events sometimes makes it easier to stage additional entertainment. With American football we have a three-hour period with two breaks, whereas football doesn’t lend itself very easily to half time entertainment. 15 minutes is a comfort break and chance to use the facilities and get refreshments. I certainly don’t think we should be asking people to make a choice between a comfort break and Lady Gaga! 

Having said that, what The FA has done over recent years with pre-match entertainment is absolutely fantastic. The days when teams only used to sing the national anthem and then kick off are long gone. The FA has embraced pre-match and half time entertainment and it’s become very much part of FA Cup Final day. 

Have you noticed a change in how hospitality is viewed in the past five to ten years?

Yes. Hospitality has become so much more competitive and is now such an accepted part of an event’s revenue stream, which means there’s far more pressure on hospitality numbers. We have also seen a shift in preference, where customers are buying either the top-end product or the entry level hospitality and therefore the mid-tier product sometimes suffers. 

The Bribery Act has also had an influence. Although the government seem to have now clarified what it is intended to prevent, it certainly did worry potential customers for some time. The UK market is mature and very sophisticated; people want to see value without compromised quality. The old days of ‘beef or salmon’ and doubling the price of tickets just doesn’t work anymore, you have to work hard to justify your price and provide real added value. 

You mentioned the recession – did you find yourself having to adapt or evolve?

Not massively. Firstly, one of our best revenue years at Wembley Stadium was in 2009, which arguably was when the UK was at the bottom of the economic cycle. Our business is events driven with the strength of our calendar determining the strength of our business. Secondly, there is a section of society which is  prepared to pay a premium for good quality. When we look back to our 2009 event calendar, it is with great fondness because it was a terrific year financially in a very difficult market place. This year is The FA’s 150th anniversary with Wembley hosting England games against Brazil, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland as well as The UEFA Champions League Final. We also have a first-class music line up featuring The Killers, Roger Waters, Robbie Williams and Bruce Springsteen. It will be a hard year to beat, but that’s what we aim to achieve every year – how can we, on a microscale, make the next event better than the last and on a macroscale, make next year’s event calendar better than the one before? 

The Bribery Act has created a bit of confusion in the marketplace with people treading carefully before they buy; they need clarity and we have always positioned Club Wembley as a business tool. 60 per cent of our license holders are businesses and we sell the product to them on the basis that they can use the facilities to entertain existing clients, incentivise staff, they do consider seats at Wembley a business tool, not just an entertainment cost. It’s not a frivolous purchase, but something that can play a major part in providing value for a business. So, typically, at a mid-week game we will see a high corporate turnout in Club Wembley, which is evidence that our customers are using their seats strategically to drive their own businesses. 

Has the Wembley rebuild helped you?

Dramatically. The old stadium provided hospitality revenues of £2-3 million and Wembley is now generating many multiples of that. The old Olympic Gallery was described as ‘like watching football through a letter box’, the facilities were old and tired and the private box facilities were behind glass with no external seating for guests. The new stadium has completely revolutionised the potential to not just generate hospitality revenue but provide a world class hospitality product. 

Prawn sandwiches, empty red seats and out of touch blazers are amongst the hospitality stereotypes – how much of what you do is education?

We are obviously aware of the issue; we are all sports fans and football fans first and foremost. The challenge is that customers are looking to use the facilities and events as an effective business tool. If you are having a constructive business conversation with a client you might be prepared to miss the first five minutes of the second half of a game to finish the conversation, after all, it’s one of the reasons you attended in the first place, to engage with your customers. One of the many ways we are addressing the empty seat issue is by working with Cisco Systems, who are installing a visual communication system within the stadium; this will  relay messages to those enjoying hospitality informing them of imminent kick off.

As many Club Wembley members have bought their seats on long-term licence, they will come to the games they want to attend but perhaps not the less popular games so we are trying to make sure they find ways to use their tickets. One way is to increase ease of access on match days by giving our members the facility to give their tickets to friends or guests via the Club Wembley members’ website. This allows members to transfer their ticket for a game that they otherwise couldn’t go to and the recipient to print their ticket at home. We have a number of different plans in place at the moment to ensure we mitigate the red-seat issue and also help explain that business customers are fans as well, not the enemy. 

You can compare sports hospitality to the airline industry. Airlines provide economy, premium economy, business class and first class. People don’t have a problem with that because they understand that economy tickets are being subsidised by the premium seating. That’s very much the case in the sports world. You can buy a family ticket to an England game now for £60 and that’s possible partly due to the hospitality revenues generated at the stadium. I think those negative perceptions about the ‘prawn sandwich brigade’ are beginning to wane as people realise hospitality is not necessarily just for the elite, but has an integral place in sports business. 

Club Wembley is the premium membership programme, providing the ultimate way to enjoy world class hospitality and the finest sport and entertainment events at Wembley Stadium until 2018.

If you are interested in becoming a Club Wembley member in The FA’s 150th Anniversary year, please email Chris Jeffreys on chris.jeffreys@wembleystadium.com or call +44 (0)20 8795 9549