Principality Stadium training

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Kirsten at the Principality Stadium

Making one of the UK's biggest stadiums more stammer-friendly.

Summary

In 2025, STAMMA worked with the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to train hospitality managers, retail managers, stewards and call handlers in supporting visitors and callers who stammer. With a capacity of over 74,000 people, that's likely to benefit a lot of people who stammer at every event! 

One of the changes the stadium has implemented has been to improve their telephony 'flows' so that callers buying tickets or phoning with enquiries have the opportunity to flag if talking isn't always easy. 

Background 

The Principality Stadium is one of the largest event venues in the UK, hosting world-class sport and live music, with a capacity of over 74,000 for sell-out events. But that's not all the stadium is known for. Owned by the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), the leadership and staff are on a mission to make the Principality Stadium the most inclusive stadium so that all visitors, supporters and fans can feel truly welcome.

STAMMA trustee Oliver Wills works for the WRU and is a member of their inclusion network. Oliver pushed for the collaboration, which led to several months of planning meetings to tailor the training to each department so that it was relevant for their specific interactions with visitors and supporters. He also pushed to discuss changes to the telephony flows and how we could evaluate the impact of these changes.

Outcome

In November 2025, STAMMA delivered in-person training to four staff teams at the stadium, followed by an online training session for the stadium's contact centre staff in December. The training was very well-received, with attendees enthusiastically asking questions, as well as commenting on how useful it had been to see people who stammer as presenters and training facilitators. 

The new telephony flows were switched on during December, with callers now getting the following option at the start of the call:

"If you're happy to continue to the call, please press 1, but if talking isn't easy for you and you'd like our call handler to give you a bit more time during the call, press 2."

Callers who stammer now have the opportunity early in the call to press a button to let the person taking the call know that talking isn't always easy. That way, call handlers know to allow more time and flexibility during conversations, and particularly during things like ID procedures, when you might need to say your own name or specific words.

Watch the video below, with STAMMA's Service Lead Kirsten Howells explaining more:

What's next?

Our training for stadium tour guides is scheduled for the first quarter of 2026. We'll be continuing to work with the Stadium and the Welsh Rugby Union to measure the impact of these changes and of the training. We'll be measuring what percentage of customers choose to 'press 2' to indicate that talking isn't easy for them, as well as measuring how patient call handlers are. 

Plus, there are plans to extend that stammer-friendly environment throughout the WRU. We'll be creating a training video for local and regional clubhouses and a guide for coaches so that they create stammer-friendly environments within training sessions and on the pitch. 

Read more from Kirsten in her blog post 'Helping Principality Stadium become stammer friendly'. 

Help to support our work so that we can create more space for people who stammer. Donate now or find out how you can fundraise for STAMMA.