Peter Evans and Chris Markey spent an hour with Sports Business Journal on a recent live webinar talking through something venue security directors already feel every event night. Pushing harder on security tends to make the entry experience worse, and fan expectations aren’t getting any easier to meet.
Chris Markey spent thirty years in policing before joining Liverpool FC, where he’s been for nearly a decade. When Anfield moved to 100% searching ahead of Martyn’s Law requirements, fans were standing outside after kickoff. “We got to a situation where we were having people outside the stadium post kickoff, long queues, because we introduced another process into the ingress,” Chris said. “The biggest challenge is not impacting the event experience to the degree that it has a negative impact, but we’ve got to keep people safe.”
Peter framed it from the technology side. Walk-through metal detectors and hand wands were developed fifty years ago. “One wouldn’t apply fifty-year-old technology to solve a modern day problem,” he said. “And I think that’s one of the biggest challenges people are finding.” Fan expectations have only climbed in the time since, which means the pressure on security directors to deliver both is higher than it’s ever been.
It Takes Longer Than Most Venues Expect
Some of the most impactful anecdotes in the conversation came when Chris described what the early days of using Xtract One’s solutions at Anfield looked like. Fans walked up and waved their tickets at the SmartGateway – something it can’t process, yet. On one occasion the units hadn’t been configured correctly and alert volumes were running high before anyone identified why. Staff were learning alongside supporters. “Educating the supporters coming through the technology as to how it works and how effective it is,” Chris said, “will enhance that experience and people start to flow through it.”
Peter described the same pattern from the customer side. Madison Square Garden runs the Knicks, the Rangers, and concerts out of the same building. Rangers fans who return game after game were flowing through the system comfortably within a month. Concert attendees who visit once every few years, or maybe once in a lifetime, still need more staff on hand because they’ve never encountered the technology before. “It’s a combination of the technology plus the people plus the processes,” Peter said. MSG’s security team now staffs based on the event type and the expected crowd demographic, using insights provided by the Xtract One platform.
The throughput numbers Anfield eventually reached, 71 and then 74 and then 78 individuals per lane per minute at peak, came from training and from staff who understood what the system was telling them. “Once we got it going, we got up to 71 at one point,” Chris said. “That was all down to learning and training the staff.” The technology made those numbers possible. The people and the process made them real.
Nobody Has Just One Answer To This Ticketing Question
An audience question about whether ticket scanning should happen before or after security screening produced one of the more practical exchanges of the webinar. Chris described Anfield’s approach. Security screening happens first, offset about five meters from the turnstile, and then the ticket scans at the gate. “We believe you do your security screening well before you get to the turnstile,” he said. It keeps the security perimeter as far from the stadium as the space allows.
Peter laid out the counterargument. Some North American venues scan tickets first to create an orderly flow of verified individuals into the screening lane. The tradeoff is operational complexity if someone with a weapon has already had their ticket digitally validated and needs to leave the queue. He also described a European approach where a soft ticket check happens before screening and then a full scan at the turnstile afterward, sandwiching the security process between two verification points. “Really, the answer comes down to what’s right for the venue,” Peter said. “And often the same idea is that you run a whole series of trials for multiple events to continuously fine-tune until you know exactly what the optimized outcome is.”
The Staffing Conversation Is More Nuanced Than It Looks
When asked whether SmartGateway reduced Liverpool’s staffing numbers, Chris said, “It’s not necessarily made it more financially efficient,” he said, “but it’s made it operationally more efficient because I’ve been able to put more resources where I might need them without further investment or costs.” The stewards who previously managed screening during ingress also provided crowd management throughout the rest of the event. Reducing headcount at the gate would have undermined the operation in phases two and three.
Peter added context from other venues. Some have tracked increased concession revenue tied directly to faster entry, because more time inside the stadium means more time at the bar and the merchandise stand. One arena described a staffing ceiling of 250 people on any given night regardless of demand, and technology allowed them to serve their guests well within that constraint. “There could be different motivations for different venues,” Peter said. “Could it generate more revenue? Could it reduce operational costs? Could it just be a better guest experience? Each venue is a little unique.”
The full conversation covers emerging threats, venue design, what separates a technology vendor from a genuine security partner, and where the industry is heading over the next five years.