Turning Complexity into Clarity for One of the USA’s Premier Venues
With nearly 75,000 seats, Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, is home to the Carolina Panthers of the NFL and Charlotte FC of MLS. Like many modern multipurpose venues, the stadium hosts a wide range of events—from NFL games and MLS matches to concerts and community programs. Each event type presents unique operational challenges, particularly when it comes to crowd flow, emergency planning, and maximizing safety without compromising guest experience.
To meet those demands, the stadium operations team turned to TruVenue, a cutting-edge simulation platform powered by InControl, to simulate and optimize event-day logistics. The result: a smarter, safer, and more flexible approach to operations.
The Challenge: Planning for Diverse Scenarios in a Dynamic Environment
Bank of America Stadium must manage:
- Large, varied attendance patterns (sports vs. concerts)
- Field-level seating during concert events, complicating ingress/egress/evacuation plans
- Changing public health guidance (e.g., socially distanced queuing during COVID-19)
- Emergency readiness, including shelter-in-place and evacuation scenarios
With tens of thousands of people moving through the venue and its surrounding infrastructure, small inefficiencies or untested plans can have serious consequences.
Venue leadership needed a way to understand, test, and improve their procedures both in advance and in real time.
The Solution: A Digital Twin Powered by TruVenue
To address these challenges, InControl developed a comprehensive digital twin of the stadium and adjacent area using TruVenue. This digital environment became a fully interactive testing ground where the stadium team could simulate:
- Normal ingress operations for sports and entertainment
- Socially distanced queuing strategies during the pandemic
- Shelter-in-place protocols, including field-level crowd containment
- Emergency evacuation under multiple scenarios and constraints
Deliverables Included:
- Digital Twin of the full venue and surrounding area
- Simulations of ingress and queuing under various conditions
- Optimized shelter-in-place plans, including location strategies
- Evacuation plan validation, including timing by section and exit point
- Quantitative estimates of time required to shelter or evacuate all occupants
- Identification of bottlenecks and critical chokepoints
- Guidance on safe capacity thresholds
Temporary reconfiguration modeling (e.g., COVID vaccination center layout)
The Results: Improved Planning, Safer Operations, and Real-Time Readiness
The insights gained from TruVenue simulations gave stadium operations a new level of confidence and control. For every scenario, planned or unexpected, the team could now quantify:
- How long it would take to move fans to safety
- Where congestion would occur
- What staff interventions would have the most impact
“
“These models clearly assisted us in determining safe capacities, clear planning, and training.”
Scott Paul, Former Vice President, Stadium Operations, Carolina Panthers
By visualizing and quantifying operational choices before event day, the team was able to:
- Eliminate trial-and-error from emergency planning
- Train staff on validated procedures
- Reduce risk while maintaining smooth fan experiences
Lessons for the Industry
This project demonstrated the broad potential of simulation technology in large venues—not just for emergencies, but for everyday operations and long-term resilience.
Bank of America Stadium’s use of TruVenue illustrates how simulation can:
- Improve public safety
- Enable operational precision
- Support public health adaptations
- Prepare venues for an increasingly dynamic future
Whether you’re preparing for game day, managing post-pandemic crowd behavior, or transforming your venue for a non-sporting event, TruVenue empowers venue teams to act proactively and intelligently.
About TruVenue
TruVenue is a powerful simulation and digital twin platform developed by InControl Simulation Solutions. Designed for stadiums, arenas, campuses, and large-scale events, it provides venue operators with a virtual environment to test plans, evaluate risks, and optimize outcomes, before, during, and after live events.
For more information, visit the TruVenue page or visit us at booth 53 at the NCS4 Annual Conference in San Antonio.
