In 2012 Busch Stadium received an honor. Their restrooms were deemed the cleanest in Major League Baseball by a website called—brace yourself—Urine Feces Everywhere. While that unfortunately-named website no longer exists, the title lives on forever thanks to internet perpetuity. But why not celebrate indefinitely? Keeping stadium restrooms clean takes effort. Do it poorly and fans will notice.
Impressive Statistics
Over 40,000 people cram into Busch Stadium on any given day during baseball season. Football stadiums hold even more. One of the largest, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, seats over 107,000 enthusiastic fans. That’s a lot of people cheering, eating, drinking and eventually using the restroom.
Game day isn’t the only reason to visit a stadium. Concerts, festivals and monster truck rallies draw in crowds between games and during the off season. Many stadiums increase revenues further by offering event space for tradeshows, conferences, corporate parties and even weddings. Unpleasant restrooms will really cut into this revenue stream.
Janitorial Staff—Your Utility Players
Restrooms aren’t the only area your maintenance staff must tackle. Crews usually begin sweeping seating areas before the game or event is over. Once fans leave, cleaning teams move through the sections, either blowing trash into large piles, or if the stadium has a recycling/composting policy, hand picking and sorting the leavings.
Once trash is removed, cleaning teams must tackle dirty, sticky seats and aisles. A light, easy-to-maneuver, spray-and-vac system works well here. The system washes and dries hard surfaces, removing spilled food, drinks and body fluids quickly.
Restrooms—A Post Game Plan
Players may leave their blood, sweat and tears on the field, but that’s nothing compared to the state of a post-game stadium restroom. Designers know that fans are hard on these spaces so they often specify robust building materials like concrete or tile flooring. These materials, however, come with their own challenges.
Concrete, while strong, is porous and tile grout can be very absorbent. This means that urine tends to soak in, even on surfaces that look clean. If your stadium restroom smells bad after cleaning, chemical air fresheners won’t help for long. Urine—or more specifically the bacteria that feed on it—is most likely the cause.
Using a standard mop and bucket will not fully remove the problem. In fact, as mops often harbor old soils and bacteria, they could make it worse by contaminating other parts of the facility. Keeping stadium restrooms clean means completely removing the urine and the foul-smelling bacteria it attracts. A No-Touch Cleaning system does just that with less work than the standard mop and bucket.
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Image source: Flickr
Amy Milshtein
Amy Milshtein covers design, facility management and business topics for a variety of trade publications and consumer magazines.
Her work has won several awards, most recently a regional silver Azbee Award of Excellence.
She lives in Portland, OR with her family and Clyde, a 15-lb tabby cat. Once an avid hiker, these days she finds herself on the less-challenging -but-still-exciting 'creaky knees' trails.