Smooth ingress and a great supporter experience at 2024 UEFA Europa League final in Dublin due to Digital Twin Simulation by InControl

Large sports events such as the UEFA Europa League final are always highly anticipated. These events require thorough planning to ensure a safe and pleasant experience for the large crowds of supporters visiting the stadium.

For UEFA, an essential aspect of the preparation involves conducting accurate and realistic simulations of ingress, egress and full evacuation of the stadiums. For this, InControl and the crowd safety experts of CrowdProfessionals combine their expertise already for many years in delivering important studies.

InControl and CrowdProfessionals have played a pivotal role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of major UEFA finals through comprehensive ingress, egress, and evacuation studies. These studies are crucial for managing the large influx of spectators, facilitating smooth entry and exit processes, and preparing for emergencies that might require swift evacuation.

Therefore, InControl performed an ingress, egress, and evacuation study prior to the 2024 UEFA Europa League final. This study identified bottlenecks and tested various solutions. This output was assessed by CrowdProfessionals, and expert advice was delivered to UEFA, the Local Organizing Structure (LOS) and the local authorities to ensure smooth crowd flows.

Concretely, InControl’s simulation and the crowd safety experts of CrowdProfessionals provided insights and advice to prevent for unnecessary delays, congestion on access routes and late arrivals, as this would have led to disappointment and a lack of service for supporters and other target groups. The simulation highlighted foreseeable issues in advance and the expert advice proposed tailor-made adjustments to ensure a safe and smooth ingress process. At their turn, the LOS and authorities processed the output and advice and succeeded to deliver a smooth and professional operation in a welcoming environment.

Stephen Neill, Safety Advisor at UEFA , stated:

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that InControl’s simulation model and the advice from CrowdProfessionals led to the visual realisation of what was needed to be improved. It was, in my opinion, a crucial piece of evidence which led to the required operational change. InControl and CrowdProfessionals can take great pride in the pivotal role that they played in helping to achieve this success.”

The UEFA Europa League Final 2024 Dublin turned out to be a hugely successful event and a memorable final for all the right reasons, as also expressed in UEFA’s official release.