HOMECOMING
CASE STUDY #178
Fans and Players Return Safely to Competitive Sports
Challenge
When the spread of Covid-19 resulted in global business and event shutdowns, one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States confronted a range of negative impacts. Arenas were empty. Fans were stuck at home. And with a devastating decline in ticket sales, annual revenue for the year was projected to fall short of the year’s original targets by hundreds of millions of dollars. As 2021 approached and health experts' understanding of the virus improved, athletes and fans were eager to return to their annual tournament.
One of the organization’s most senior leaders asked The Baghera Group to create a strategic, multi-layered COVID-19 medical operations plan to deliver a safe fan environment that would allow them to hold their prestigious annual sporting event.
Action
The Baghera Group collaborated with senior leaders on creating the strategy and planning for all COVID-19 medical operations. We then provided management and oversight for all COVID-19 protocols and functioned as the operational point-of-contact for education and guidance to event participants regarding vaccination and testing status, isolation and quarantine protocols, as well as contact-tracing investigations. We designed a custom user interface that provided information and tracking capabilities for testing compliance, results, and attestations, and oversaw the results tracking of daily COVID-19 tests, which numbered more than 28,000 over the course of several weeks.
We collaborated intensively with participant delegates and event vendors ensuring seamless support and compliance of the overall health and safety plan. We also helped create consent and waiver forms and define the submission, compliance, and review protocols accompanying them – a layered set of procedures that subsequently required coordinating with three county health departments to secure their respective approvals.
To ensure that necessary COVID-19 protocols effectively integrated with venue security plans without disruption and degradation of effectiveness, we worked with client security providers to ensure the execution of equally important tasks, and formalized notification protocols allowing real-time awareness on potential issues across multiple verticals.
Impact
The event was immensely successful – from both an entertainment and a financial perspective. Individuals who tested positive were identified, isolated, and investigated overnight to reduce potential spread and security protocols were continuously updated to align with changing COVID-19 guidance and conditions. Client leadership praised the work of The Baghera Group saying, “we couldn't have pulled off this off without you and the immense expertise and guidance that you provided."