Article I've written about the project I implemented for Corinthians back in 2000/2001

1. Summary of the article:
“Corinthians no Pacaembu - Revolucionando a Experiência do Torcedor”
The article describes the efforts undertaken by the department I created at the Corinthians
football club to transform the experience of the average Corinthians supporter attending the
club’s games at Pacaembu Stadium.
“Corinthians at Pacaembu: Transforming the Spectator Experience
by Roberto Siviero, Corinthians Manager of Stadium Operations
Based on researches which indicate the unsafe perception and the general disorganization
as the major factors for the declining in attendance rates, Corinthians developed the “Timão1
Experience Project”, based on the English Premier League and the American Sport
Leagues lessons, which motto is “Transforming the Spectator Experience”.
A New way of working
A dedicated game-day department was created comprising a full-time ticketing office,
something new for Brazilian clubs, and a game operations team which responsibility is to
organize all aspects of the Corinthians home games. This combination has helped increase
the level of service for the average Corinthians supporter.
Shrinking Pacaembu
The next decision to improve spectator service and game atmosphere was to shrink
Pacaembu’s 35.000 capacity. That was done shutting down one bleacher section behind the
north goal and creating a separate section at mid-field, which already had seats but was
traditionally sold together with the bleachers behind the south goal. These changes helped
increase the atmosphere of games concentrating the crowd, but also increased safety by
decreasing from 16.000 to 10.000 the flow of spectators at the 16 turnstiles of the main gate.
Ticket Selling: a new model
The ticket sellers represent often the first contact Corinthians supporters have arriving at the
Stadium. Since first impressions are very important, good service at the ticket office is
essential. Corinthians has changed the whole team of the ticket office, created a “Manual of
Ticket Operations”, trained and made its employees easily identifiable with uniforms. Now
our ticket sellers and crowd monitors are much more concern into servicing our spectators,
from managing the lines through fencing and stewarding to providing a much better level of
information at the booths and even in the ticket itself.
Re-instating reserved seating
Due to lack of personnel, care and organization, there was no practice of reserved seating
at Pacaembu. Corinthians committed to change that, re-numbering 6.200 seats and creating
a voucher to provide the spectator with an assigned seat and a map of Pacaembu. We also
installed new and better way finding signage and introduced stewarding inside the seating
bowl, at the stairs, to indicate the seats and monitor the crowd. In a survey with 200
interviews we had a 75% rate of approval, which tells us that we are in the right direction.
Aligning with the World
The main purpose of the “Timão Experience” project is to level our operations to the service
encountered in European and American events. We know it is an audacious goal, but
seeing the re-emergence of British Football teaches us that only with better infrastructure
and operations at Stadiums we can create a safer and better environment for our
supporters. Gradually achieving that will definitely help the increase in the attendance rates
and spectator satisfaction.”
“Timão” is Corinthians’ club nickname.
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