How Will Stadiums & Venues Prepare for the Future?

Stadiums and venues shut down when the pandemic surfaced, but eventually adapted and found solutions to keep sports and live events running Katherine Krohn, Vice President of Business Development for ASM Global, joined Game Changers Host Katie Steinberg to discuss what the future holds for stadiums and venues.

When COVID-19 first hit, the focus was crowd control; other technology was put on the backburner. “What I think the pause gave was really a lot of these rally savvy tech companies an opportunity to reinvent themselves and bring products to the table that maybe didn’t exist before,” said Krohn. This included touchless technology and the WaitTime app, which allows seeing how and where fans move within venues. Krohn projected that these rollouts will only continue.

According to Krohn, the sport technology sector will face speedbumps with technology rollouts. “I think it’s not an industry-specific challenge, I think it’s industry-wide. 5G really just reversed to fifth generation, meaning it’s all new technologies coming out.” She added, “It’s a significant overhaul in infrastructure that’s required.” For example, a hot new stadium with 4G LTE will struggle until they jump to 5G.

This brings to the table the importance of templates for venue technology success. Krohn explained the benefits: “The smaller arenas get to leverage what the T-Mobile arenas are doing today.” Additionally, “You know as a fan when you go to any ASM Global venue that you’re getting a similar experience that’s state of the art and engaged.”

Krohn provided insight into the future: “I think the stadium of the future incorporates all of those creature comforts of being at home, breaking that mold of ‘this is why you love that energy of the live event,’” Krohn explained.

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