Most venues have a regular cleaning programme for non-event days. Match days are a different job. The crowd arrives in waves, everyone wants a clean seat and a stocked toilet at the same moment, and there's no option to close an area and come back later.
The daily programme vs. the match-day programme
A venue with an established daily cleaning service has a big advantage: the team already knows the site, the storage points, the waste compound and the venue staff.
At Harrup Park in Mackay, New Era provides ongoing daily cleaning across the club facilities. For Mackay's first men's Test, Australia v Bangladesh, that local operation was scaled up to support Cricket Australia and Harrup Park through the whole event (read the full story).
Before gates open
- Walk the venue with the venue manager and agree priorities
- Clean and stock every amenity block
- Clean grandstands, seating and spectator areas
- Prepare player, official and media areas
- Line and position bins across concourses and food areas
- Team on station before the first spectators arrive
During play: live servicing
Staffing that follows the crowd. Spectator numbers change through the day, so staffing should too. At the Mackay Test, between 16 and 22 New Era cleaners were on site at any one time, with numbers adjusted around spectator movements, peak periods and the venue's requirements, supported by dedicated supervision.
Areas covered on a typical match day:
- Grandstands and spectator areas, including seating beside the boundary during play
- Public toilets and amenities, on a constant rotation
- Player and official facilities
- Media and operational support areas
- Surrounding venue presentation areas
- Bin servicing and waste collection
Working around the game. Cleaners in spectator areas have to work quietly and safely around people watching play, without blocking views or walkways. Players' and officials' areas need to be serviced at set times agreed with the event team.
Waste on match day
Waste can't wait until the crowd goes home. Overflowing bins in a busy concourse quickly become a safety issue and a bad look for the venue.
At the Mackay Test, waste servicing ran continuously alongside cleaning: teams collected waste across the serviced areas, relined bins and moved collected waste to the venue's designated waste compound throughout the day. Running both from one team meant supervisors could see presentation, amenities and waste in one view.
After play: the reset
- Final clear of all bins
- Full clean of stands, concourses and amenities
- Prepare the venue for the next day's play, or the full post-event clean on the final day
The Mackay Test finished on day two, and the team moved straight into the post-event clean and venue reset.
What venue managers should look for in a stadium cleaning contractor
- A local team that knows the venue, ideally the same people who do the daily clean
- A staffing plan that scales with crowd peaks, not a flat headcount
- Named supervisors and one contact for the event manager
- Cleaning and waste run together, so nothing falls between two contractors
- Experience working around live play, players and officials
- Proper safety systems. New Era is CM3 certified and carries $20 million public liability insurance
We provide event cleaning in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth.
Frequently asked questions
- How many cleaners does a stadium need on match day?
- It depends on crowd size, the number of amenity blocks and food outlets, and the venue layout. A good plan builds staffing around peaks. As one example, the Mackay Test ran with 16 to 22 cleaners on site at any one time.
- Can the same company do daily cleaning and event cleaning?
- Yes, and it often works best that way. A team that already services the venue every day knows the site and the venue staff, and can scale up for major events without starting from scratch.
- What's included in stadium cleaning?
- Typically grandstands and seating, concourses, toilets and amenities, food court areas, player and official facilities, media areas, corporate areas, and bin servicing and waste transfer to the compound.
New Era supports stadiums and major venues with daily cleaning and event-day services across Australia. See our stadium and major venue services or talk to our team.