How Indoor Mapping Helps Ensure Social Distancing at Your Stadium

They’re designed to keep us together, but soon they may be forced to keep us apart.

I’m talking about stadiums. 

Although football - and other sports - is starting to return after the COVID-19 pandemic, the days of large stadium crowds still seem a long way off. 

Right now football is being played for closed doors in Europe, but several clubs and stadiums around the world are planning for a 20/21 season with social distancing and reduced capacity. Revenue from ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise is important for the survival of both clubs and venues, but will the costs of running a low capacity stadium outmatch the revenue?

Depending on the distance between seats and rows at your venue, your capacity may be down to just 16% once you’ve removed seats to ensure the recommended distance. For a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 this means only 8,000 seats will be left. It also means that ticket revenue will be down from $5,100,000 to $816,000 in the US (average ticket price $102) and from €3,850,000 to €616,000 in Europe (average ticket price €77), not to mention the lost profit from concessions and merchandise.

Looking at these numbers it’s clear that stadiums need a cost-effective way of quickly adapting their layout to meet new regulations, so costs are kept down and revenue is maximized as much as possible.

Indoor mapping - a cost-saving way to update your layout

One way of ensuring social distancing between fans is to remove seats. However, while this type of renovation may not be expensive, it’s time consuming and doesn’t allow you to quickly update layouts as regulations change.

With a digital indoor mapping platform you can easily block seats, update your layout, and test different setups whenever you want too. MapsIndoors Lite is an indoor mapping platform that consists of an interactive map of your venue and a content management system (CMS). In the CMS you can easily edit, manage, and control your map. Changes to your layout will be visible as soon as you update your map, allowing you to quickly adjust your layout as often as you need to.

The live and interactive map provides fans with a clear overview of your spaces and indoor navigation. To help you ensure the recommended distance between fans at all times, MapsIndoors Lite supports profile-based routing. With profile-based routing you can decide and control who has access to the different parts of your stadium. For instance, fans seated in “block A” have access to areas that are restricted to fans in “block B” and vice versa. If fans seated in “block A” search for a point of interest (POI) in “block B”, they will be told that they don't have access to the POI. This helps you spread out people flow and ensure that fans don’t gather in front of the same food outlet.

Boost sales while ensuring social distancing

Speaking of food, you can use MapsIndoors Lite as it is or you can integrate it with a great number of third-party systems, such as a mobile in-seat ordering system. By allowing fans to buy food and beverages without leaving their seat, you reduce the risk of overcrowded areas and fans standing too close in line. In-seat ordering also has the potential to boost your sales. According to a report by Oracle, 45% of fans have given up on buying food and beverages due to long lines. Another 37% (on average) don’t buy food or drinks because they don’t want to miss the game. However, the same report shows that an overwhelming majority (70% in China, 62% in the US, 55% in Germany and France, and 52% in the UK) of fans would “probably use” or “definitely use” in-seat ordering if it was available, indicating that an in-seat ordering system could be a fruitful investment for your concession sales.

MapsIndoors Lite also integrates with your parking lot management system and your ticketing system. This way, fans can choose their preferred seats from the comfort of their couch and book a nearby parking space. 

MapsIndoors Lite is ready within 7 working days and requires no on-site visits or physical contact with MapsPeople. If you want to know more about the platform, reach out to the salesperson in your region.