UKVMA

GREEN: Fan engagement playbook focused on developing campaigns to influence sustainability-related fan behaviour

The Green Sports Alliance and the University of Colorado Boulder has released a Fan Engagement Playbook which provides a guide to developing marketing campaigns that influence fans to increase sustainability-related behaviour at home, work, and play. Justin Zeulner, Executive Director of the Green Sports Alliance said:

This playbook takes an important step in addressing the crucial role fans play in the sports greening movement. By leveraging the power and influence of sports, teams, leagues, and colleges are able to create engaging educational and behavior changing campaigns that fans bring home to implement. It’s a collective process that maximizes lasting sustainable impact across the sports spectrum.

Fan Engagement for Sustainability focuses on behaviors as a medium to harness fans’ loyalty to their sport or team to influence them to choose more sustainable actions in their own lives at home, work, and play. This playbook informs sports marketers, sustainability practitioners, and partners how to ideate, design, and manage fan engagement programs that utilize operational sustainability systems to maximize fan behavioral and business outcomes. Monica Rowand, Fan Engagement Program Manager, CU Boulder said:

This process started almost two years ago when CU Boulder hosted a Think Camp for an array of experts charged with defining a paradigm and developing an approach to leverage the power of sport to change fan behavior for sustainability. Fan engagement for sustainability will be an ever-evolving space, but the launch of this Playbook and the subsequent implementation of more behavior change campaigns, are important steps toward setting a new expectation in sports fandom: being a fan means being a green fan; and not just in the stadium; but at home, work, and play.

Included in the playbook are organizational capacity assessment tools, behaviour change identification resources, campaign development strategies coupled with messaging and delivery, and case studies highlighting successful programs at the professional, collegiate, and league levels.

To view and download the Fan Engagement Playbook, click here.

ACCESSIBLITY: Wembley offers new service for deaf and hard of hearing fans

Wembley Stadium connected by EE and The FA has engaged in a new partnership with market leaders SignVideo which will enhance the experience for deaf or hard of hearing fans that use British Sign Language (BSL) contacting the organisation.

As part of The FA’s continued determination to ensure that football is ‘For All’, hard of hearing BSL fans will now be able to liaise directly with The FA & Wembley’s customer service helpline and disabled booking line via a video link to a fully qualified SignVideo BSL Interpreter.

The BSL Interpreter will relay the conversation in real time to the Wembley Stadium or FA customer service agent.

This service is offered free to all fans who request it.

Fans can use this service to make enquiries and to purchase tickets for Wembley Stadium and FA events.

To access the service click here.

The FA says that it recognises that British Sign Language is most deaf people’s first language and is committed to making its events and services as accessible as possible to everyone.

Clip from video signing service promotional video

Deaf and hard of hearing fans accessing services at Wembley can request a video signing service.

FACILITY MANAGEMENT: Fan video upload dominates use of new MIMO and 5G services at football tournament in Russia

Ericsson and Russian telecommunications operator MTS has released the preliminary results of their ultra-fast broadband deployment (5G compatible) at several stadiums and locations at the global football tournament in Russia. Measurements made during the tournament show that Europe’s largest roll out of Massive MIMO enabled up to five-fold increases in data throughput in uplink, allowing fans to broadcast high quality video from smartphones during matches. In addition, data downloading speed and spectrum efficiency doubled, and network capacity went up more than four-fold.

This year’s tournament registered a 30 percent increase in traffic from social platforms as fans posted more content on social networks than in the 2014 games. In another shift in fan behavior, video streaming has dominated and led to traffic soaring by 2.5 times (compared to an average day on the MTS network). In contrast, the 2014 competition was a ‘selfie’ event with smartphone users sharing selfies and 60 percent of spectators downloading photos.

Prior to the competition, MTS deployed Massive MIMO with Ericsson Radio System AIR 6468. The technology was introduced in the LTE-TDD 2600 MHz band (B38) at more than 40 sites in seven out of the 11 tournament cities, including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Niznny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara. This increased network capacity around the stadiums, at railway stations, at airports, in fan zones, and recreation areas.

In addition, MTS built a telecommunications infrastructure in Luzhniki in Moscow and Rostov Arena in Rostov-on-Don, and gave other telecom operators access. MTS also carried out large-scale works aimed to build and expand the capacity of the network at all other stadiums where matches were held.

Andrei Ushatsky, Vice President, Technology and IT, MTS, says:

The extensive preparation of our network and the introduction of Ericsson’s 5G solutions for the football tournament have clearly paid off, allowing MTS to successfully handle the overload and provide high-quality communication services to tens of thousands of our subscribers. High-speed mobile internet makes football fans more engaged as they can instantly share the most spectacular and exciting moments with others. Indeed, we found that during some matches uplink exceeded downlink, clearly showing that our customers preferred uploading photos and videos on social networks, streaming games and sharing content in messengers than watching video or surfing the Internet.

Ericsson predicts that data traffic in the 2022 competition will be driven by VR and AR technologies.

Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President, Head of Europe and Latin America, Ericsson, says:

5G will provide operators with opportunities to create new services, enabling subscribers to not just watch games, but also see them through the participants’ eyes. By 2020, games will bring fans even more vivid emotions because of 5G development, which will provide ultra-high data speed rates and low latency, and a spread of wearables, virtual reality and tactile feedback. We believe that by 2020, 5G networks and wearables evolution will bring customized services. Fans will be able to track favorite athletes in real time via wearables on data such as: physical conditions, statistics of their success and failures from game to game, and even watch a match though the players’ eyes.

Ericsson AIR 6468 is the industry’s first New Radio (NR)-capable radio designed for compatibility with the 5G New Radio standard while also supporting LTE. It features 64 transmit and 64 receive antennas enabling it to support our 5G plug-ins for both Massive MIMO and Multi-User MIMO.

The media briefing ended with a demonstration of 5G test network possibilities featuring the cyber-sporting game Assetto Corsa: e-sports fans arranged a tournament on two gaming stations connected via Ericsson 5G Testbed on the 28 GHz band. The minimum latency between end devices was 4 milliseconds, which is at least five times less than in LTE networks.

MTS and Ericsson have conducted tests of 5G technologies as part of their strategic partnership, and within the framework of the agreement signed in December 2015 on cooperation in the development and implementation of 5G in Russia.

VENUE NEWS: New stadium tour features at Stamford Bridge

In what Chelsea is calling “the most significant change to the stadium tour in over two decades”, every tour visitor will receive a multi-media device which means fans can read information about the various sections of the tour and watch a selection of videos, including one which details the history of the club right from its formation in 1905 up until the current day.

The 360 videos provide fans with the opportunity to experience exactly what it’s like on a matchday at Stamford Bridge in three different areas of the stadium – the home dressing room, players’ tunnel and the Shed End upper tier.

The hand-held device also includes a shirt-cam feature which, when held up to a specific player’s shirt, shows videos and photos of the man in question in action, including some of their most memorable goals.

Photo of handheld device for stadium tour visitors in front of Chelsea player shirts in changing room

Stamford Bridge is providing stadium tour visitors with a handheld device for the first time

FOOD AND BEVERAGE: Derby Festival food operation employs 120 chefs

This year Jockey Club Catering’s operations at the Investec Derby Festival, at Epsom Racecourse, employed a team of 120 chefs to help prepare the show-stopping menus that focus on seasonal and regional ingredients, delivering over 6,000 fine-dining hospitality lunches, as well as 3,500 freshly prepared best of British afternoon teas. Jockey Club Catering hired a team of food and drink colleagues, recruited from the local area and who were given over 5,000 hours of training to help deliver the experience to 125,000 race-goers.

In the Grandstand Enclosure, the team created a street-food market offering all the favourites, from traditional fish & chips to a hog roast, or a Cornish pasty, all made using top quality ingredients.

New for 2018 was an elegant MOET Champagne Terrace, which has two racing-level bars and unbeatable views over the final furlong from the viewing terrace above.

The Hyperion Lawn, at the Parade Ring, has a new Rum Runner airstream, offering an array of bespoke drinks created by expert mixologists, to the backdrop of celebrity DJ sets including Vogue Williams and Jo Whiley.

The scale of the event saw Jockey Club Catering serve (an estimated):

500kg of British beef sourced from Surrey Farm
1,200 best of British cheese boards
4,000 handmade race horse shaped biscuits to be served with afternoon tea
2,500 handmade macaroons
New 40-metre long bar, Lookout Bar, serving a selection of drinks

Nick Campbell, Managing Director at Jockey Club Catering, commented:

The Epsom Investec Derby Festival is one of the highlights in the UK’s sporting calendar. We have sourced the best local suppliers and talent at Epsom Racecourse to make sure we deliver an exceptional culinary offering that makes a visit to Epsom a great day out for all our guests.

STADIUM TECHNOLOGY: 5G opportunity at Villa Park

Villa Park could enjoy 5G if a forward-thinking plan is rubber-stamped by the Government later this year. Aston Villa have teamed up with Aston University, Birmingham University and the University of Surrey’s 5G innovation centre.

The Government have committed an initial pot of £29m to create five test sites to put 5G in place – Villa’s consortium is eager to be one of them.

If the bid is accepted – creating a pot of £10m – the consortium would then be bound together legally before deploying the necessary technology to reach phase 2 of the project – which opens up the potential for £40m extra funding.

Luke Organ, the club’s Chief Commercial Officer, told the Villa web site:

If we win this bid, the overall objective, in line with Dr Tony Xia’s ‘Connected Cities’ strategy, is to displace the need for Wi-Fi and bring in 5G across Villa Park.

We then don’t have the infrastructure issues than an older facility like Villa Park gives us and we’d be at the forefront of technology once again – something we are very passionate about.

A bonus could see Aston Villa owning the 5G ‘standard’ – which would see royalty opportunities in the future.

The club awaits a decision from the Government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

ACCESSIBILITY: Turf Moor developing facilities for disabled fans in line with Accessible Stadium Guide

Burnley FC is beginning work on elevated, covered viewing platforms and new toilet facilities to bring the stadium in line with Accessible Stadium Guide regulations. The club is working to a deadline of August 2018.

The multi-million-pound building projects are in two corners of the stadium, between the Jimmy McIlroy stand and both the James Hargreaves and Bob Lord stands, and involve the relocation of the big screen. Later, a dedicated, indoor ticket office waiting area will then be constructed to complement the existing building and replace the temporary canopy.

Drawing of Turfmoor corner with platforms for disabled supporters,

Turfmoor corner with platforms for disabled supporters, in line with the Accessible Stadium Guide

FOOD AND BEVERAGE: Hospitality fan experience report

Research conducted by Oracle Hospitality makes it clear what fans want: speed and reliability. Forty-five percent of fans around the world have abandoned lines at events because the wait was too long. The opportunity to increase spend per head on food and beverage is pretty clear from the data Oracle has gathered. Oracle Hospitality’s response has been to move its suite of software into the Cloud and it claims that it, the Simphony Cloud platform, can reduce waiting time by combining high-performance cloud POS delivered on integrated hardware for kiosks and mobility.

Table showing potential increase in hospitality spend per visit

Data from Oracle’s report suggests that venues can still increase spend per visit by decreasing wait times at food and beverage outlets.

Oracle Hospitality’s flexible Gift & Loyalty solution integrates with the POS to support fan recognition and personalization. An integrated back office suite offers cloud solutions designed to minimize costs, waste, and theft while delivering extensive reporting capabilities.

Oracle Hospitality also provides stadiums with tools to optimize event-day operations from beginning to end through Simphony Venue Management, which can track inventory and food costs, and Simphony Suites Management, which can help streamline production of advance food orders, pantries and the timed distribution of orders to event suites.

New products

Oracle Hospitality also continues to release significant new products and services to support ongoing customer innovation and fan engagement, including:

The launch of the Oracle MICROS 720 tablets – durable and rugged mobile POS engineered for hospitality and large venue environments;
The launch and integration of Oracle Hospitality Data Science Cloud Services – on-demand data mining services that give operators access to the latest machine-learning tools to help improve forecasting and deliver up- and cross-selling insights directly on the POS terminals;
Powerful new reporting capabilities with Oracle Hospitality Reporting and Analytics 9.0 – operators can take advantage of an extended reporting platform, from KPIs via dashboards on mobile devices to comprehensive pivot tables and drill-down analysis. Reporting and Analytics offers the power of Oracle Business Intelligence at no charge for users of Simphony Premium;
The launch of Oracle Hospitality Simphony Cloud 2.9 – extending the core functionality of the Simphony food and beverage management platform with new events management enhanced functionality that is optimized for the sports and entertainment industry.

Dan Bell, Vice President, Sports & Entertainment, Oracle Hospitality said:

Oracle Hospitality’s proven track record and commitment to the sports and entertainment marketplace is evident by our progress in product innovation.

Oracle is investing millions in R&D and support to enable venue operators to deliver the service that fans want and expect. Our food and beverage platform scales to support the largest sporting and entertainment venues and offers the ability to conduct iterative innovation through cloud deployment to improve the overall fan experience.

Oracle Hospitality Fan Experience Report

www.Oracle.com/Hospitality

ACCESSIBILITY: Celtic reviewing wheelchair and other disabled facilities

The Celtic supporters and shareholders group, the Celtic Trust called for an “urgent and comprehensive” review saying that fans using a wheelchair or who are visually impaired are positioned at pitch level for games and, no matter how bad the weather, there is “no shelter”. The Trust said the stadium lacks lifts, making access to seats “difficult” for fans who are not fit due to advancing age or illness.

Proposed road closures by police – for security – are set to make life even more difficult for disabled spectators.

The board said:

The club is committed to continuing to improve facilities and is happy to undertake a review with the CDSA, report to the CDSA on progress and to schedule a programme of improvements to be carried out in the close season of 2018.

Wheelchair users need space to manoeuvre in public buildings like stadiums

BRICKS AND MORTAR: Architecture firm ROSSETTI’s new arena design turns the upper deck into the front row

The Romans had it right—until now. From one of the world’s most innovative sports and entertainment architecture firms, which has worked on projects like Arthur Ashe Stadium and Daytona International Speedway, comes a revolutionary concept that turns thousands of years of arena design convention inside-out: The Inverted Bowl by ROSSETTI.

“Traditionally, upper bowl seats provide a subpar experience because they are so far removed from the action,” said Matt Rossetti, president of ROSSETTI and creator of The Inverted Bowl. “With The Inverted Bowl by ROSSETTI, we transform live entertainment by providing unsurpassed views and experiences to every fan in attendance in every seat of the arena.”

The inverted bowl design brings fans down from the Gods.

Instead of sloping away, The Inverted Bowl by ROSSETTI leans in with thrilling balcony seating that catapults viewers closer to the action for unparalleled, broadcast quality views that are as much as 50 percent closer, turning the worst seats in the house into the best viewing areas. The design also eliminates single-use circulation concourses that are isolated from the bowl by creating animated and vibrant balconied seating and social spaces. The four balconies will feature diverse entertainment, such as full wall digital media screens and creative food and beverage options that promote social interactions and engagement. With a focus on high-tech engagement throughout the arena, the opportunities for interactive fan touchpoints are unlimited. The result is a live entertainment experience unlike any other: A concept that immerses fans in the action and quite literally transforms venue design.

“The upper bowl of any entertainment venue has been associated with negative ROI because each row away from the event surface results in a less engaged viewing experience while progressively costing more to build. The few premium amenities in the upper concourse generate less revenue. It doesn’t add up for spectators or for owners,” said Rossetti. “This design gives sports and entertainment venues a long-overdue transformation and creates something that not only brings fans closer to the action and offers a more continuous, immersive experience, but also reduces the overall footprint of the arena, makes it less costly to build and increases revenue projections. The Inverted Bowl will change how arenas are designed for decades to come.”
ROSSETTI, which has a strong history of architectural innovation, conducted more than seven years of design and feasibility research on The Inverted Bowl—a design that has never been done before—including vetting by structural engineering firm, Entuitive, and several construction firms. The firms have formally studied the concept for initial costing, life cycle costs and constructability.