Atlético-MG officially opened the MRV Arena, its new home, last Sunday (27th), beating Santos by 2-0. Bruno Muzzi, who commented on these situations in the FDP98program of 98 live.
Bruno Muzzi has always made a point of making it clear that Atlético will still make a lot of mistakes before managing to operate the MRV Arena perfectly. In the opening game, the Atlético CEO celebrated that there was an evolution in relation to the last event, despite the flaws.
– In my opinion, the event had a very big leap in the quality of the Game of Legends for this event. We went from 20 to 30 thousand people. There were several positive aspects, so I was pleased with the jump in quality. But, just as we had many qualities, we also had many new defects.
The first entry into the field for an official game at the MRV Arena!@trivela pic.twitter.com/4zu4zu50rZ
—Alecsander Heinrick (@alecshms) August 27, 2023
The wifi issue at the MRV Arena
Self-titled “the most technological arena in Latin America”, Arena MRV has always promised to have one of the best internet connections ever seen in stadiums, with coverage for everyone present. However, in the opening game, there was a bug that caused the wifi to drop out for everyone. This error was only discovered at the time of the event, as explained by Bruno Muzzi.
– A controller, which is what connects all the access points (there are almost 600 installed), has 16 lanes, and as the access points connect, they fill up those lanes. One just filled up, and it wasn’t set to autobalance. Then she crashed and threw the entire wifi on the floor. And we couldn’t figure out what it was. Cisco, which is an American supplier company, entered the loop and managed to discover the error.
Muzzi explained that there was no internet drop, as the transmission cabins, which have it through cables, were working. The downfall was the wifi. This situation was resolved shortly before the ball rolled, and there was a definite improvement from 4:30 pm, as mentioned by the CEO.
After a lot of cost and almost 2 hours out of the air, the press internet is back up and running at the MRV Arena.
For « the most technological stadium in Latin America », as Arena MRV calls itself, this cannot happen. Bars also had problems for the life of tokens.
—Alecsander Heinrick (@alecshms) August 27, 2023
Repeated issue at stadium
The main problem that Atlético faced in its last test event at the MRV Arena, “Lendas do Galo”, was the lack of food. At a certain point in the event, food and drinks ended up in the stadium bars, leaving fans in the lurch. For the official debut, the stadium operation moved to avoid this, but the problem happened again.
Bruno Muzzi took over the problems, but understands that there was an evolution: “I think we responded better, but we had a lot of problems”. These problems, according to the CEO, were:
- Totem off the air and purchase machines unable to sell due to lack of internet: “The purchase totem, when the internet went down, stopped. We are already solving the internet problem, but we will also leave a backup for (the totem) to work. It is also possible for you to bring a momentary 4G antenna to be able to work in the machines. So we are going to think about this solution so that if there is a lack of Wi-Fi, we can control it”
- Sector imbalance: “We had a problem that we thought there might be, but we didn’t think there might be in this game, because, at the intersection of the ramps, we had people moving from one sector to the other. There was a strong imbalance in the supply of bars. That bar, which I had planned according to our public load, had more people than I expected”.
- Lack of beer: “There was a lack of beer, but they were super punctual. From the other event (Lendas do Galo) to this one (official premiere), we had more than 40 coolers that we didn’t have at the other one. The beer was cold.”
Muzzi cites a “very serious” error at the official premiere
Because it is very technological, Arena MRV encourages fans to use their cell phones a lot. For this reason, Atlético created the so-called “Super App do Galo”, which intends to have everything the fan needs when he goes to the stadium. But Muzzi explained that there were serious problems, which will be resolved:
– One point that I thought was very serious: the issue of buying tickets and the SuperApp. We have a Super App, which our strategy is for more and more people to access the stadium using the Super App. We have Galo na Veia, which is where you buy the ticket and, by the way, the purchase itself it was very fluid, we sold it in 40 minutes. So buying the ticket was easy. We have NewC, the ‘label’, which you have to register, which is a Danish company that we brought new now. And we also have Futebol Card, who bought chairs and cabins. When you go shopping, everything has to talk. Then we had a lot of problems with these bases talking, a lot of problems, because there are four different applications. We have to unify this.
All in the Rooster’s Super App!
Check out the tutorial and learn how to buy tickets for the game against Santos. The Super App also allows you to access the stadium and buy at the bars: https://t.co/ljH7FcJy1A
Arena MRV, the most technological in Latin America! #GaloPaixãoNacional pic.twitter.com/JZTwabZynv
— Athletic (@Atletico) August 24, 2023
Even with the problems, Muzzi explained that the app brought positive points. There are already more than 53,000 downloads of the application. At the debut of the MRV Arena, 21,000 people accessed the stadium using the app, a number well above, for example, the game with the highest attendance of Galo at Mineirão, against Palmeiras, which had 3,000 people entering the stadium using their cell phones.
– It was painful, it was very bad, it was suffering. We had other options. But we “let it burn” a little. Why? Because we want this to happen (use of technology by fans). Now, we have 20 days to make the Galo ID, which when you download the app, you unify everything. I don’t know if it will be enough for Botafogo, but this is the next step.
Other negative points at the debut of the MRV Arena
- Lawn: as he had mentioned before, Muzzi returned to talk about switching to synthetic grass, as natural grass suffers from a lack of light, especially now in winter. Currently, half of the field is in perfect condition and the other half is starting to deteriorate, precisely because of the lack of sun;
- Blind spot: admitted that the view of the lawn could be compromised in some areas, mainly with people standing at certain points, but praised the architecture and said he was “calm” about this issue;
- Stadium sound was fine with music but voiceover was low
- There were thefts in the Arena before the premiere, such as bathroom siphons and cables
Positive points in feeding the MRV Arena
Despite some mistakes, as Muzzi mentioned, there were evolutions. He explained that there were no problems, for example, in filling the cabins, which has “one of the most complex operations”, since each one has a different type of buffet. But he highlights: « We didn’t have these problems, but I think it lacks a little more whimsy, in general ».
In order to better serve the fans, Muzzi mentioned that food options were reduced. The CEO mentioned that there was, for example, no problem with the pizzas sold, but assumed that the tropeiro, the stadium’s main dish, was missing at the end.
The most positive point in terms of food was that Arena MRV more than doubled its expected sales. According to Muzzi, planning foresaw BRL 600,000 in sales and, even with the problems, they managed to get BRL 1.3 million in that regard.
Other positives
Bruno Muzzi also spoke of the main successes that Arena MRV had in its official debut: “If I had to talk about the positive points, I would highlight two: entry/exit and access to the stadium. Food had a very good evolution, but with several problems still. Accessibility was highly praised. The bathrooms were very positive as well.”
When will Arena MRV operate with excellence?
About being able to operate the Arena MRV practically perfectly, Bruno Muzzi set a deadline: “I always emphasize that it took us three years to build, and we are starting to operate the stadium now. I don’t think the MRV Arena will be ready, from the point of view of operational excellence, in less than a year”.
Muzzi explained that there is no point in bringing in an outside company that already operates other stadiums, as “nobody knows the structure of the Arena better” than they do. In addition, he pointed out that the MRV Arena is different from the Mineirão, which underwent renovations, that is, it was a stadium that already had its operation and not something completely new, which requires starting from zero in terms of operation.