Uwe Seeler Football Park
Football Park trusts in easyHotel
"I think the big favourite is Brazil, the outsider is Italy – and Germany will be the world champions." The quotes from Uwe Seeler, who recently passed away, are legendary. The Uwe Seeler Football Park in Malente, the famous elite school for coaches and teams, is closely associated with the exceptional but down-to-earth top scorer. Last year, Sebastian König, commercial manager at the football park, wanted to properly implement locking security as well. The football park switched to the electronic locking system "easy Hotel" from WILKA, which his specialist security retailer, Jörg Ehlers, had highly recommended. The system's advantages for the sports venue are obvious. After all, between 15 and 20 mechanical keys went missing every year in the past. The fact that security then falls by the wayside is fairly evident.
When visiting the sports venue, guests who are interested in sport immediately feel the spirit of the eponymous football legend and many other sporting greats with every fibre of their beings. The facilities run by the Schleswig-Holstein Football Association were constructed in 1952 and operated as the Verbandssportschule Malente from that time. Incidentally, "our Uwe" played in his first points match for the football club Hamburger SV at the age of 17 in 1953, thanks to special permission from the German Football Association.
Since the completion of the sports hall in 1961, athletes have been able to train under a roof in Malente. Thanks to the proverbial "spirit of Malente", the German national football team became world champions under coach Helmut Schön in 1974. Before the tournament, the team's eleven players had prepared for the matches at the sports school in Malente. Instead of promoting athleticism using resistance bands, team spirit was the key to success at the time.
Before the complete renovation of the sports school in 1996/97, the "spirit of Malente" worked its magic once again in 1990: Germany became world champions in Italy.
Alongside the legendary visits from the national team's eleven players, the sports school in Malente has created considerable sporting competence in Northern Germany. Over the last six decades, 2,900 coaches have acquired the German Football Association's B licence, and 1,050 youth coaches have acquired the C licence (as of 2012). Every year, approximately 350 holders of B and C licences are trained during two-day courses. The area of talent scouting and promotion is also being expanded continuously.
The decision in favour of a modern locking system
In 2009, the decision was made to thoroughly renovate the Verbandssportschule Malente and operate it according to a new concept. The initial reconstruction measures began in June 2011. Uwe Seeler's sponsorship was arranged in 2012. And the two legends who launched their careers in the 1950s were united on 11 April 2013: the Uwe Seeler Football Park was officially opened. Since the end of 2021, the football park's guests have been using the locking system "easy Hotel" for locking purposes.
"easy Hotel" is WILKA's locking system that was specially designed for hotels. It grants access to the individual hotel areas via electronic (digital) cylinders and readers. Only the locking cylinders for the guest rooms need to be replaced; the existing door fittings and locks remain in place. Guests receive electronic identification media at reception that allow them access not only to their guest rooms but also to other areas of the hotel as appropriate. In addition to the 32 guest rooms in Malente, these areas include the changing rooms, for example, or – if the person is authorised – the offices or seminar and meeting rooms. The facility features a total of 61 locking points. If the digital "room key" – in this case, the transponder – goes missing during a stay, a new one is created and the "old" authorisation expires.
"We were amazed at how convenient and simple the system is. Our specialist dealer really had not exaggerated. The five authorised parties on our premises can quickly programme the transponders. Guests also value the convenience the system offers them because they can go anywhere they are authorised to go," Sebastian König explains.
The commercial manager also considers the restricted access for external service providers to be a good thing. "The transponder for our baked goods supplier is programmed so that it has access only to the kitchen facilities, for example. Earlier the problem was always that we needed to issue keys or one of the managers had to be on site. Now everything is a lot pleasanter and easier as well," says König.
Professional competence in the trade
The easy-to-use WILKA programming software "easy-Hotel" assigns users to the individual cylinders via a locking plan matrix. Access is configured via computer on an individual basis, both spatially and temporally. In addition, every locking procedure can be logged for every door, complete with the date and time. The software can manage up to 1,500 cylinders.
Jörg Ehlers, a specialist security retailer, has been serving Uwe Seeler Football Park for years. He has been a specialist in the field of locking and security technology since 1986. In 2010 he struck out on his own with his own key service in Eutin. Together with his four employees, he has offered comprehensive service, from planning to installation, ever since. Jörg Ehlers planned the locking system at the football park from start to finish.
Ehlers reports having had only good experiences with WILKA during the past decades. That is why it was clear to him that he wanted the manufacturer from Velbert to be one of the most important locking system suppliers for his own company. In addition to his personal connection to the factory and the family company's charm, the retailer primarily values the "short service channels" in the event of any problems and the extremely short delivery times, which are often just two weeks at most, even in the field of electronics. "That is important for us because it is enough if I have a maximum of one or two electronic cylinders in stock for possible failures at the football park, for example. But luckily the cylinders work so perfectly that failures hardly ever occur," Jörg Ehlers says in summary.
