If stadiums were ever single-purpose venues, those days are long gone! Today’s stadium is a melting pot for sporting events, concerts, conferences, private events, and more. Add to that the multiple stakeholders, such as stadium owners, clubs, and sports federations, who all have different interests not to mention the expectations of fans, sponsors, and partners.
The modern stadium is indeed a versatile and diverse environment that has to meet the goals and expectations of a lot of different people, but it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds.
A solid dynamic mapping platform is a powerful tool that can help you satisfy fan expectations, boost sales, and improve operations and security.
In this blog post, we dig into the fan experience and show you three ways you can make fans roar and revenue soar with indoor maps.
#1 In-seat ordering
Fans may come for the game, but food and beverages are an important part of the experience. Globally, fans rank food and beverage as the most important element of the fan experience ahead of entertainment, technology, and amenities. Food and beverage are only surpassed by safety and the overall environment, which comes as no surprise considering the security incidents that make headlines all too frequently.
While food and beverage are key components of the experience, fans seem to believe that the area leaves much to be desired. In fact, fans would devote 43 percent of the budget to improving food and beverage delivery if they had control over the budget prepared to be spent on improving the fan experience.
What frustrates fans the most is the speed of service. On average, 36 percent of fans, who infrequently or never make purchases, blamed speed of service for their reluctance to buy food, but it gets worse. Forty-two percent of US fans said they have given up buying food or beverages in the past 12 months because lines were excessive. The same goes for 47 percent of international fans with Brazil (more than 60 percent) and Germany (50 percent) as the high flyers.
If you’re wondering how indoor mapping can help you solve these challenges, here is the answer: by combining indoor mapping with a food ordering system, you can offer fans a smooth delivery service. Thanks to the indoor navigation feature, staff will never get lost bringing out food and fans will not miss important highlights waiting in line at a food vendor.
By integrating an indoor map with your queue management system, you allow fans to see wait times. This way, they can get an overview of the estimated wait times at the different food vendors and choose to order from the one with the shortest wait time, if they prefer.
#2 Guide visitors to the shop with the shortest queue and offer discounts along the journey
Speaking of wait times, there is nothing worse than buying tickets for a game you really want to see, but then ending up missing crucial plays, because you had to wait 15 minutes in line at a food vendor.
With the combination of a queue management system and an indoor mapping platform, you can also show fans the estimated wait time on the map in your stadium app. This means that fans can easily see how long it would take them to buy a drink and if the queue is too long at the nearest vendor, they have the exact route to all vendors right there in the palm of their hand.
If you combine your indoor map solution with an indoor positioning system, you can see how people move in your stadium. This allows you to optimize your stadium layout and thereby reducing wait time. For instance, you might find out that loads of fans gather in front of one food outlet and struggle to get back to their seat in time for the second half, while another food truck is practically deserted.
The combination also allows you to offer fans discounts along their journey in your venue, which can really boost your sales. The decision to purchase food and beverage is often based on impulse. In fact, a whopping 64 percent of fans say they make food and beverage purchases “on impulse”. So, offering fans location-based discounts can potentially make sales skyrocket.
#3 Ticket upgrades and easy parking
Another powerful combination is the combination of indoor navigation and an e-ticketing system.
Imagine offering fans the possibility to get a real map view of your venue, allowing them to see the pitch from different angles and upgrading to an available seat that gives them a better view. With a virtual map of your arena, this is possible.
With this solution, you can also give season ticket holders who cannot make it to the game the opportunity to sell their tickets, thereby giving both them and non-season ticket holders a better experience of your venue.
Likewise, indoor maps can be interfaced with your parking space management system, so you can offer fans to find and reserve a parking space near their seat even before they leave their house. With turn-by-turn navigation directly from their front door to the parking space followed by their seat, you reduce stress and chaos and encourage fans to use your parking spaces.
If you want to know more about indoor mapping for stadiums, click on the buttons below to explore MapsIndoors or read our blog, "Why Is Game Attendance Declining When Fans Are Becoming Super Fans?".
March 8, 2019
