A major earthquake right before the start of the third game of
the 1989 World Series. Crumbling stadium infrastructure in
Toronto's SkyDome, in which three separate incidents since 1989
have resulted in the deaths of four construction workers. A 1995
snowball-throwing incident at Giants Stadium that knocked a San
Diego Chargers equipment manager unconscious.
Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks there were numerous
incidents (many of them deadly) that pointed to the necessity among
professional sports teams to better prepare themselves for crises.
Yet according to the Hessert Sports Crisis Survey, commissioned in
1998, only 56% of professional sports teams and 27% of collegiate
teams had a formal crisis plan in place. And despite the heightened
awareness since 9-11 of both unconventional (and conventional)
crises, most pro sports clubs haven't updated their crisis
plans.
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, one of the preeminent National
Hockey League (NHL) teams, want to get ahead of the crisis curve.
The team recently partnered with the New York- based PR agency
Peppercom to get a better grip on how to prepare for the
unknown.
Most sports teams have plans to evacuate a 15,000- or
20,000-seat arena. The bigger challenges, however, come well before
the need for an evacuation: Is there an offsite command center to
use for crisis management? How is the team communicating with the
public and the media? Who is dealing with the authorities/league
officials? Is this a crisis that will last two days -- or two
weeks? And what is the best way to minimize the damage?
Ed Moed, a partner in Peppercom, who spearheaded the Mighty
Ducks account, says many sports clubs need more practice in crisis
communications. "Sports teams know how to deal with the media on
business issues: This guy is unhappy with his contract; this player
is on drugs, this guy wants to be traded, but it doesn't mean
they're good at dealing with crises that will affect a lot of other
people." The Ducks "see this as ongoing, maybe quarter-to-quarter
type thing where they are always going to keep testing to make sure
they understand what they have to do [to respond to a crisis] and
change things that may not work."
Charles Harris, director of publicity, community development and
synergy for the Mighty Ducks, who joined the team in 2002, hired
Peppercom. Harris, who has also worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers
- and ran his own PR firm in Israel for seven and a half years -
returned to the states just one week before the 9-11 attacks.
"Soon after I came back [to the states] it was a different world
and I knew that teams and organizations had to do things
differently" in crisis preparedness, he says. Harris led the Ducks
during a crisis workshop using Peppercom's proprietary CrisisRx
program. (See sidebar.) The centerpiece of the workshop was a day
and a half crisis simulation in which an earthquake caused
structural damage to The Arrowhead Pond, the Ducks' home arena. The
scenario included a beam falling from the ceiling, killing two
players and injuring several others.
Throughout the scenario Peppercom reps role-played the parts of
reporters, upset sponsors, NHL officials, worried family/friends of
injured and missing players and fans, law enforcement officials and
hospitals administrators and employees. Even before the workshop,
the Ducks' created a resource book to prepare for crises, with
contacts from the authorities, media, hospitals, et al. Contacts
from the Department of Homeland Security, which didn't exist two
years ago, are also included. "In a [crisis] situation, there's
always going to be curves thrown at you, it's how you respond,"
Harris says.
He adds the most important element found in the workshop was the
need for an offsite center -- a hotel or restaurant -- should
something unexpected happen. "You need in your back pocket a site
where you can re-gather and strategize for something you had not
planned for," he says. "Any entertainment option, whether it's a
concert, lecture or sporting event needs to have some type of plan
in place to deal with unexpected events...What happens if there's a
power outage? It's not a major catastrophe, but how do you deal
with different things?"
Contacts: Ed Moed, 212.931.6116, [email protected]; Charles
Harris, 714.940.2903, [email protected]
Time to Prepare is Before It's Too Late
How would your company evacuate and communicate with employees
if your building was threatened with radioactive, biological or
chemical agents? What if a top executive was indicted on criminal
charges and hauled out of your office in handcuffs causing a media
circus and endless speculation? How would you react if a distraught
colleague walked into work with a gun and turned the entire office
into a hostage situation?
An actual crisis is not the time to try to figure out whom to
contact, how to control the media, notify customers, disseminate
information to your employees, and so forth. Being fully prepared
ahead of time can be the difference between keeping your business
up and running and going out of business.
Peppercom, a strategic communications firm, has developed
CrisisRx, a program that helps organizations prepare for a crisis
before one occurs. CARES is comprised of five key steps
representing the natural chronological progression of any crisis
situation. Each step builds off the one before it and asks the
senior executives vital questions, providing key metrics that
demonstrate how prepared they are for the particular crisis
situation. The five steps are:
Composure and Collection of information
Assessment of the current and future situation
Reaction and decisions made
Evaluation, monitoring, and deploying new decisions
Success - Were you successful?
Source: Ed Moed, Peppercom