When it comes to the digital transformation of sports properties, the ability to future-proof their physical and digital assets requires both a keen eye for what the consumer-fan wants from their sporting experience today and how that trend is likely to evolve with the spectator’s expectations in the years to come.
This dilemma is particularly relevant to the development of stadia infrastructure and how venue operators decide on the user experiences (UX) they should be embedding into the stadium’s fabric, while also considering the ways new technologies will eventually serve future generations of supporters, and not only the contemporary fan.
The evolving smart stadium is changing how sports properties engage their fans in and around major events. For example, the Los Angeles Rams National Football League (NFL) franchise recently announced it is collaborating with Genius Sports to provide fans with augmented, data-driven in-game highlights and brand activations inside SoFi Stadium.
Meanwhile, the opening of the neighboring US$2 billion Intuit Dome, home to the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Los Angeles Clippers, has made headlines for the arena’s giant wraparound screen called the Halo Board, while attendees will also be able to use facial-recognition technology to access their tickets and make in-stadia purchases via the official Intuit Dome mobile app.
Given the “always-on” nature of modern sports consumption, rights holders are developing year-round digital content strategies designed to engage and retain audiences outside its main events too. By way of example, Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur’s home venue, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, is diversifying its fan experiences beyond its gamedays, including stadium skywalks and an official F1 karting experience in partnership with Formula 1.
Elsewhere, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the official Olympics mobile app offered a wide array of experience inside and outside its arenas, including access to immersive and interactive content at specific inner-city landmarks using augmented reality (AR), helping to highlight the last time Paris hosted the Games in 1924 and generate excitement around the event’s heritage.
As organizations build out their direct-to-consumer (D2C) inventories to meet fan interests and demands beyond the gameday, it’s vital that whatever new technologies are integrated into their ecosystem serve the entire “fan journey” and is informed by real-time consumer trends and unique fan behaviors. This is relevant in whatever market an organization is upgrading its stadium experience and requires access to a robust customer data lake which taps multiple fan verticals.
Whereas traditional, single-use stadia are being upgraded to include experiences based on feedback from existing fans, stadium operators in burgeoning sports markets which don’t necessarily have the established infrastructure are likewise challenged with building stadia without a core audience to base them on; yet – at the same time – they are granted with a unique opportunity to develop a stadium from scratch, one that isn’t impeded by legacy systems and can be made to be scalable from their outset to accommodate future trends.
“It’s about adapting the needs of the fans, and, in each case, it is going to be different,” explains Tayomara Gama, Regional Sport Lead for Europe in the global architect firm Gensler. “It’s about understanding the demographics of your audience to cater for these adaptations,” she continues. “In order to future-proof your assets – whether they are physical infrastructure or the digital fan ecosystem – it’s vital therefore that you are engaging in the research on what fan engagement may look like in the future.
“Whether that is in five, ten, or even 20 years, when it comes to making significant upgrades within a stadium development, these trends should be incorporated in terms of design. At Gensler, it’s really about collecting and evaluating the data that is going to help the client understand their demographics, what experiences they want, the reasons why they attend the venue, plus the opportunities and challenges they might face in the future based on the decisions they make today.”
FUTURE-PROOFING STADIUM EXPERIENCES HELPS GENERATE NEW COMMERCIAL ACTIVATIONS
There are multiple ways in which technology integration is enhancing the stadium experience and operational efficiency. These include opportunities to reduce a venue’s carbon footprint and help operators meet their sustainability goals, while also providing a hub for local business and infrastructure support.
According to US software company Intuit, by partnering with the LA Clippers and taking naming rights for the franchise’s new Intuit Dome, the project won’t only deliver technology-enabled fan experiences during gamedays, but also aims to drive “economic prosperity and benefits” for local businesses and surrounding communities.
Furthermore, the digitalization of sporting arenas is changing the way rights holders communicate with their fans and stakeholders, according to Omar Zerrad, N3XT Sports Senior Digital Transformation Consultant, who says that, as “rights holders integrate data-based solutions into their gameday operations”, this process is “informing how traditional venues modernize their digital infrastructure and how new stadiums are being built from scratch”.
“This presents teams, leagues, and event organizers scope to reframe how the sporting arena is perceived and its purpose beyond sport,” Omar continues. “In the modern day of stadium development – and redevelopment – the sports arena serves communities in far more ways than it used to, providing stakeholders with a platform to innovate and bring digital solutions to mainstream audiences.”
For example, Gensler is supporting technology-led activations which heighten “brand expression” inside stadia, including the integration of sponsorship and stakeholder features which “amplify the live game experience in a lasting way”.
Speaking on the subject, Demetra Thornton, Co-Managing Director of Gensler’s Raleigh-Durham office, in North Carolina, says that “aligned brand partnerships, especially with local companies, can offer elevated fan experiences that drive awareness and affinity for both organizations”. Adding: “As venues become more sophisticated, sponsors are deepening relationships with fans through unparalleled VIP experiences.”
For example, while teams and sponsors are extending their gameday experience with interactive activations that bring fans closer to the game and to the team brands, Demetra outlines how venues such as London’s O2 Arena leverage “competitive socializing” through interactive, social-gaming concepts which have been designed to incentivize fans to extend their stay before and after the main event.
Meanwhile, venues are “activating real-time wayfinding through smart applications”, Demetra continues, “supporting easier entry, crowd control, and incentivized purchases, while also sharing valuable fan data back to the team”.
WHAT’S N3XT?
In order to develop and integrate in-stadia fan experiences, built to last, rights holders and stadium operators are establishing technological frameworks designed to furnish their venues with D2C experiences that captivate fans alongside a scalable CRM solution which captures real-time fan data and informs the stadium’s ongoing digital upgrades.
As a result, with a robust database which measures fan behavior during live events, whatever their market demographic, sports properties are better placed to adapt their D2C offerings to improve the in-venue fan experience, drive efficiencies in and around gameday, while laying the foundations for future monetizable upgrades to their physical and digital assets in the years to come.
Outlined in our recently published Fan Engagement & Commercialization Guide 2024, N3XT Sports presents The Fan-Monetization Data Feedback Loop, which demonstrates how learnings from monetizable D2C experiences via a scalable CRM capability inform the implementation of an organization’s future digital content solutions.
For example, using data feedback, sports organizations are: (1) leveraging their freemium video content to drive audience acquisition, as well as customer conversions, via social media and digital marketing; (2) personalizing their sponsorship and rights-holder partnerships to the organization’s ticketing and ecommerce strategies; and (3) augmenting the stadium experience by bringing fans closer to in-stadia commercial partnerships via mobile.
Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement data and digital transformation strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve your organization, or to access our workshops and webinars, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.