Sports, in particular the NFL, has received a lot more attention over the past few years. Whilst it is arguably the most popular sport in the USA, it somehow has still managed to garner even more support over the past years. There are many reasons for this – better marketing of teams, the merging of famous celebrity and NFL athlete friendships and more affluent sponsorships. There is also something a bit more tech-based that has led to the increase of attention for the NFL and that is the rise of smart stadiums. Although they have not been implemented in all stadiums, the few that have been upgraded have created a far more enjoyable experience for spectators of the sport.
What You Should Expect From Smart Stadiums
If you haven’t heard of smart stadiums, no problem, because you are about to learn everything you need to know now.
Smart stadiums are exactly what you might think they are. They’re stadiums but that thinks with or for you, which means that they have a lot of technology embedded in them. When you visit a smart stadium, you can expect to be ‘wowed’ but the ease of use and helpful nature of the stadium itself. It is almost as if the stadium comes to life and becomes your own personal butler – that is most likely the most apt description.
When entering the smart stadium’s parking lot, you will already encounter the first helpful benefit. There is usually an app linked with the smart stadium that allows you to see where there are free parking bays, which is massively helpful as you surely know that most of your time is spent trying to find a parking spot. The next big thing that you will notice is that you can connect your phone to the game, which sets you updates of the roster for the day, plus offers interesting statistics on the players as the game changes. If you have any interest in sports betting or any form of betting, then you can find some of the best ranked NJ online casino no deposit bonuses and make smart bets based on the information you just learned on the smart stadium app.
Beyond that, there are also more fun things you can do, such as order drinks and food straight to your chair. Your seat will automatically be saved to your profile when you log in to the restaurant section, so all you have to do is place an order and wait comfortably in your chair for the servers to bring it to you. That way you save time from waiting in a queue and you don’t have to miss any parts of the game. Truly a winning situation!
Why Were Smart Stadiums Created?
Now that you know a little bit more about smart stadiums, you might be wondering why they were created in the first place and the answer for that is two-fold.
The first reason was to combat the issue of people no longer coming to watch live games. There was a big problem when it came to stadium games, and not just for football but for all sports, as people were no longer looking to visit stadium games as the experience they could forge for themselves at home was almost just as good as seeing the game live. With the rise in tech and being able to buy the biggest television sets and surround sound audio, there were more positives in staying home than queueing for a live game. Therefore, stadium owners needed to think about a way to get their fans back in their stadium seats and the only way they thought of being able to do this was to bring the tech that people loved and adored at home, straight to the stadium.
This leads to the second point, the fact that being technologically competitive is something that even live stadiums need to be. Gone are the days of being able to rely on tradition or sporting charm, now, spectators want to be able to enjoy a game but without losing the tech that they so love. Therefore, stadiums need to up the ante and incorporate helpful technology into the parking section, analytics section of the game and being able to order food straight to your seat. Some might say that this is a sign that people have become more lazy whilst others might say that bringing tech into stadiums is great regardless. Just think of all the play-backs you can now watch because of the high-level camera software that records every single play.
The Future of Smart Stadiums
A lot of change has come to live games through smart stadium technology. Spectators can engage in games in a completely new and modern way. This has created a system in which the athletes benefit but so do the spectators. So much good has come from smart stadiums, enough to outweigh the bad that some people say it brings. With the rise of other tech, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR), smart stadiums are bound to experience even more change as the years go on. Who knows, maybe the next Super Bowl will be so technologically packed that people will be able to learn the dance moves of the artists beforehand from pre-recordings so they might partake in the moment – only time will tell.
