The Jacksonville Jaguars Credentialing Solution Contributes To Enhanced Security For NFL Stadiums

WHO ARE THEY?

The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South Division. The team plays its home games at TIAA Bank Field.

In 2022-23 Season they finished top of the AFC South, with their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, being hailed as a catalyst for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ division winning turnaround season.

CREDENTIALING AT THE JAGUARS – WHERE TRANSFORMATION WAS NEEDED

Previous credentialing practices needed a refresh, in terms of process change and a technology platform to help deliver that. The Jaguars identified that they needed to assign the correct access zones and privileges by role (job function) – up until this this point they only had one “Official” credential for all full-time staff members and stadium partners.

“It is clear the Accredit Solutions team lives and breathes best practice stadium credentialing processes and their ongoing support and training has helped ensure the success of this project. Our credentialing practices have been totally transformed, we now have a process to be proud of – it is secure and is consuming less time, we could not have achieved this without Accredit Solutions.”
Bobby Lyle
Director of Facilities Security

The credential passes only had name, picture and affiliation on them, there was no designated access zoning or functional roles displayed clearly on the badge – for instance, a full-time catering manager had the same type of credential and all access privileges as a head of security. The Jaguars Security team wanted to rectify this and underpin this process by adopting a technology platform to help deliver the necessary change; the chosen technology needed to help bolster security, whilst bringing operational efficiencies and it should be easy to use.

“Accredit Solutions were already successfully deployed at other NFL Stadiums and at our English Premier League sister club, Fulham FC, everybody we spoke to was highly complementary of their solution”.
Bobby Lyle
Director of Facilities Security

SOME OF THE SPECIFIC NEEDS:

• The Jaguars needed the system and supplier to help them produce badges that could be clearly differentiated on game days, designs that were not confusing to the staff and those controlling access to specific locations/zones.

• The system needed to deliver all the security teams access needs and requirements, but it also needed to easy to use for other stakeholders, like the Public Relations (PR) team, who managed hundreds of credentials on a game-by-game basis.

• Many stakeholder teams, including the PR team, were managing the process via email – they needed a modernized method to streamline the process.

• Even once the data from those needing a credential was collected, the process was still very time consuming and required many hours of manual work, often falling on employees with no overall responsibility for credentials – this time sink needed to be removed.

• The Jaguars identified that everything needed for the process had to live on one unified platform – there were countless emails, spreadsheets and incorrect photos, misspelled names that were adding to the problems of the previous process.

• The system needed in-house printing capabilities – the Jaguars were unable to reprint on game days or at short notice before games.

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP TO DELIVER AN OPERATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGY PLAN TO TRANSFORM THE PROCESS

• The Jaguars identified Accredit Solutions as the best provider for them to deliver this transformation. Accredit Solutions, working together with the Jaguars Security, Technology and PR teams, identified key process requirements, and Accredit Solutions delivered the solution to implement this process change:

• The Jaguars desired an end-to-end process under one software system, where users were empowered but could be held accountable too. One that streamlined and empowered stadium partners through registration ownership, in-house approval/printing, ability to decline or “turn-off”, on the spot creation/printing.

• The security team needed the process and technology platform to flex new procedures, to fall in accordance with NFL, HLS, and industry standards.

• The stadium team had to establish access zones and spaces – not only for enhanced safety/security but to bring operational efficiencies for staff working at events.

• The security team needed to get “one version of the truth” and understand who is in the stadium at any given time, to protect the team, staff, and fans.

• They needed to generate credential passes that put security first with zone letters and symbols to clearly define who could go where.

• QR scanning was crucial – they wanted to add this to gain complete control of who was permitted into the stadium, as well as what areas they could enter. Scanning had to meet these requirements:

  • Ensure the security of restricted spaces such as locker rooms, field, bench, loading dock, broadcast areas, etc.

  • Restrict access only to the right pass holders to premium spaces such as clubs and suites.

  • The passes and system needed to integrate with their ticket scanners.

  • The system needed to allow for simple distribution at staff check-in.

• Removing the heavy lift in the application process was critical – the system needed to be able to delegate responsibility for this process across the key stakeholder groups, both internal and external to the Jaguars. Accredit’s Responsible Organization process was key to this – the Jaguars needed to include (and empower) stadium partners and stakeholders, in the registration process – the system needed to do this:

  • Reduce and eliminate all the emails and spreadsheets where possible – critically the process needed to be streamlined reduce people hours.

  • The system needed to make in-house printing easy but allow for accountability – not just for easy decentralized approvals but so costs and wastage could be cut too.

  • It was crucial to have the ability to request/approve a credential on game/event day and be able to print on-site and on-demand.

• The system needed to have the ability to turn-off credentials if not being used or no longer valid.

• The solution needed to be easy to set-up and use – a matter of weeks, not months.

• The chosen provider needed to offer tutorials and ongoing support to ensure a successful deployment.

• The solution needed to make it easy to get names and photos on “ALL” credentials.

• The provider needed to have an international team – as the technology needed to be used for games in London.

• The system also needed to accommodate events outside of NFL games – it needed to provide for large stadium events, concerts, and festivals etc. – all with the same benefits and fluid processes enjoyed whilst in user at NFL season games.

• Ultimately, the time needed for credentialing needed to be reduced – the process needed to be streamlined – the solution had to check these boxes and bring security benefits too.

THE RESULTS:

Bobby Lyle, Director of Facilities Security for the Jaguars knew from the very beginning that Accredit Solutions were the right choice for the Jaguars:

“Accredit Solutions were already successfully deployed at other NFL Stadiums and at our English Premier League sister club, Fulham FC, everybody we spoke to was highly complementary of their solution”.

Extra to the technology benefits Accredit Solutions brings to the clients, the Jaguars identified that Accredit Solutions’ significant experience with other large stadiums would be an asset to their transformational plans.

Bobby Lyle goes on to say:

“The Accredit team has been invaluable to us, not only with deploying the technology and integrating with our Alvarado scanning pedestals but also in providing support and training on how to get ultimate value from their platform, whilst matched to our new processes – it is clear the Accredit Solutions team lives and breathes best practice stadium credentialing processes and their ongoing support and training has helped ensure the success of this project. Our credentialing practices have been totally transformed, we now have a process to be proud of – it is secure and is consuming less time, we could not have achieved this without Accredit Solutions.”

Accredit Solutions was also proud to support the Jaguars at their 2022 London Game, at Wembley Stadium, another Accredit Solutions Client, where 86,215 fans attended, the highest ever recorded for an NFL game in the UK.