SPORTS BIZ

FAN ENGAGEMENT FRIDAY: NEWS FROM AROUND THE GROUNDS 16/09/2022

A weekly recap of some of the interesting stories and developments from the educational to the random in the world of fan engagement/experience, stadium/venue news, fan behaviour and psychology, customer service plus much more. Enjoy.

FANS HQ 20: Free Fan Engagement Magazine

Telstra unveils Australian-first 5G innovation for AFL fans

Digitally connected San Francisco 49ers taps Avery Dennison retail technology

Touchdown! Verizon customers use 9.7TB of data at kickoff game at SoFi Stadium

Tech company’s outage leaves fans unable to download tickets

Dodgers: New Rule Change Will Affect Fan Experience At Dodger Stadium

The NFL’s most iconic theme music has roots in everything from Batman to ‘Star Wars’

Premier League clubs donate food from cancelled games to charity

NFL’s Decision To Shutter In-Stadium Sportsbooks On Game Days Is First Of Its Kind

What Are the Food Prices at SoFi Stadium? A Guide Ahead of Rams vs. Bills

New food and beverage offerings at Bank of America Stadium in 2022

“Tech now allows clubs, fans, and brands to tell a story even better than before.”

The most/least expensive beer prices at every NFL stadium: study

How MLB teams are targeting younger fans

How to… engage with your fanbase. Tom Leek, co-founder of the creative marketing agency NYX, tells M Magazine how to leverage digital tools and techniques to maximise your reach.

Passionate football fans ‘likely to be hostile to rival fans but also more kind’

Football fans face spiraling costs of tailgating

‘Lusail Stadium is a magical venue that will impress the entire world’

Falcons debut security screening technology before regular season opener

How the NFL Uses Digital Twins

The impact of India’s growing sports tourism market on football

‘Critical’: Epic new Gold Coast stadium fast-tracked

Spectacular and transformational: Rugby World Cup 2023 raising the bar with one year to go

Fifa introducing new Fan Festival for 2022 World Cup in Qatar

Justin Hemmes grilled over price of beer at new Sydney Football Stadium

“Alcohol will be available for fans in the 2022 World Cup stadiums” – Nasser Al Khater says Qatar focusing on fan experience

Arsenal to play three WSL games and all Champions League group stage matches at the Emirates Stadium

World Cup final stadium tested with first sellout crowd

PUSHING BOUNDARIES IN ‘SPORTAINMENT’

Steve Pangburn on elevating the business and fan experience of sports event concessions

FIFA Builds NFT Platform to Boost World Cup Fan Engagement

10 key customer service trends for 2022 and beyond

How the N.F.L. Stays So Popular, Despite Its Many Scandals

Network Upgrade Improves Fan Experience at Leeds United FC

Two fans removed from US Open quarterfinal match after haircut prank at Arthur Ashe Stadium

Qatar warns World Cup fans about sneaking alcohol into country

AFL fans lose out — broadcaster rights deal just another win for executives and players

Extreme and Minor League Baseball to Push the Boundaries of In-Stadium Technology with New Partnership

A Psychological Perspective on Merch Collecting, From Hobbyists to Obsessives

Aramark Sports + Entertainment announces self-checkout technology for 2022 NFL season

You can get $500 and 2 free tickets to an NFL game to review stadium food

EXCLUSIVE PILOT PROGRAM FOR SPORTS CLUBS “SPORT METAVERSE”

Lobster Mac and Cheese and a Muffuletta Are on the List of New Concessions at AT&T Stadium, Home of the Dallas Cowboys

Fan Experience – Pepsi launches the NFL season by offering a Tiny House in « Fan Cave » mode

How to harness the power of fan engagement

Smart sportswear: digital innovation in football fandom

Ticket-holders allowed to invite up to three people to Qatar as excitement grows for the 2022 World Cup

Telstra bringing the fun to NRL fans this finals series!

As the NFL season kicks off, advertisers draw from a new playbook

Tom Brady NFT experience will be an ‘unprecedented fan journey’: Autograph CEO

SpotOn Digital Payment Tech Installed at 37 NFL, NCAA Venues Ahead of Football Season

Lumen Field’s newest food offerings celebrate popular local restaurants

What’s in a name? How naming rights deals impact the professional sports venue landscape

Rising Customer Expectations Makes “Exceptional” the New Service Baseline

Opinion | In the battle for audience engagement, utilisation of technology is key

Utah Jazz Partner with Community, SMS Messaging Platform, to Directly Text with Fans at 801-938-3022

Inter Miami CF Announce Fan of the Match Initiative with Socios.com

Fans can now buy concessions at Allegiant Stadium without paying at checkout

Goodbye soggy chips, hello fine dining at sports venues nationwide

Tropicana Field’s BallPark & Rec will expand into a two-story full-service restaurant

Bayern Munich fans protest match delays due to Queen Elizabeth II’s death

Collingwood fans face sky-high airfares in clamour to reach Sydney for AFL final

Celtic fans slammed over Queen banner as Rangers defy UEFA by playing national anthem

Flight gouging sees die-hard AFL fans priced out of finals

Live streaming scam dupes footy fans eager to watch regional finals matches online

World Cup 2022: Qatar opened its massive Lusail Stadium and the reviews were … not great

Miami Dolphins Hard Rock Stadium Fan Experience Recap 23/10/2016

Landing in a sunny and humid Miami at 7am after having caught an overnight flight from Los Angeles I hit the ground running by dropping my gear off at my airport hotel and arranging an Uber out to Hard Rock Stadium for my meeting with the Dolphins and the game against rivals Buffalo.

Driving into the stadium

Driving into the stadium

Driving into the stadium

Driving into the stadium

As luck would have it I was able to book an Uber at 9am out to the stadium using a game day code that only cost me $2.99USD and dropped me off hassle free in the designated Uber Tailgate section, which was a short walk across the road from the stadium. My driver Ralph was a knowledgeable chap from Jersey who had not dropped a passenger off at this new section before however even he remarked at how easy this was for both Uber driver and rider. The Uber Tailgate was a good first impression from a transportation perspective and featured a waiting area tent that had mobile charging stations, food and beverages as well as couches and customer service staff on hand to help with drop offs and pick ups.

Uber Tailgate

Uber Tailgate

Uber Tailgate

Uber Tailgate

I say my goodbyes to Ralph and cross the road into the stadium concourse where the tailgate is in full swing with the smell and sound of barbequed meats and beer cans cracking respectively. Standing directly underneath the eastern side of Hard Rock Stadium (formerly Sun Life Stadium up until this year) I look up to take in the new architectural feature of a venue wide shade canopy that now provides coverage to over 85% of the stadium and in turns adds to the fan experience by keeping fans comfortable in this humid and hot climate. While the 30-year-old stadium is dated in various parts inside the stadium, standing at a distance on a cloud free and crisp blue-sky day such as today enables every aspect of the new design to be perfectly illustrated in greater detail.

Tailgate start

Tailgate start

Walking into the offices of the Miami Dolphins for my meeting and it’s not hard to get a sense of the prestige about this place and team and how internationally renowned they are in the context of major sporting organisations. I laughed when even my non sports loving girlfriend knew who they were due due to the 1993 cinematic masterpiece Ace Ventura featuring Jim Carrey and the case of the stolen Miami Dolphin mascot.

Dolphins HQ

Dolphins HQ

At around 10am I meet with customer service manager Anthony Mozzicato who has recently taken on the role here at the Dolphins having previously left his mark working on world-renowned fan experiences at KC Royals and Sporting Kansas. Such is the hospitality and life long learning nature of so many American’s I’ve met on my stadium journey’s, Anthony has kindly let me shadow him and his team for the day and over the course of the next 7 hours I’m able to learn the in’s and out’s of the Dolphins fan experience which as you’ll read below is nothing short of outstanding.

With Anthony from the Dolphins

With Anthony from the Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

Pre-Game Brief

Pre-Game Brief

Starting with a walk around the stadium to the pre-game briefing with stadium usher’s and his staff it was impressive to see so many smiling happy motivated staff who are clearly so pumped to work at the stadium and do their best for fans on game day. Witnessing both the professional and fun side of the Dolphins culture, it was really impressive to see one of Anthony’s team revving up the team with a talk about their core values and motto ‘I promise to care, I promise know and I promise to connect’ while also seeing the staff get behind and buy into this message of making sure the fans come first and are looked after here. It was nice to see staff being rewarded with certificates and gifts for their hard work during the briefing that as we all know goes such a long way in creating loyalty amongst staff. This was also highlighted by the fact that I met with so many casual staff members who had been at the stadium for 20-30 years or more and told me that they felt like they were a part of the family.

Field Level

Field Level

It’s 11am and as we snake our way around the venue we stop at every concession stand, police officer, security person and usher so that Anthony can greet them with a personable ‘hello, how are you, I’m Anthony, tell me about yourself’ which showcased Anthony’s skills in customer service but also his emphasis on educating his staff about how they too should talk and greet fans on game day. Furthermore when it comes to the importance of first impressions, I couldn’t agree more with Anthony’s take on this as he politely calls out a couple of the crew for slouching in chairs, being on their mobiles or chewing gum while we walk throughout the diverse suites and stands of the stadium.

I’m introduced to the staff at the Guest Experiences Headquarters booth on the top level and talk to them about their signs ‘How May I Help You’ and their first game badges and certificates as well as the work they do to help fans with any concerns or queries during the game. The first game badges and certificates are such a creative and cheap fan engagement idea that any stadium can do and I’d love to see more Australian teams give this a go.

Fan Focused

Fan Focused

Designated Driver

Designated Driver

First game badges and certificates

First game badges and certificates

Fan Help Area

Fan Help Area

Showcasing his creativity from his time at Sporting KC and SKC, Anthony highlights some of the latest football themed colourful paint jobs that have gone up around the venue’s walls that have been painted by local artists. This was a clever idea to both combine the talents of the local community as well as make a dull space vibrant and I look forward to seeing how this and the other ideas his team and him have to further upgrade the stadium before the Super Bowl in 2020.

Local artists work is featured around the stadium

Local artists work is featured around the stadium

With kick off an hour away I leave Anthony and hit the fan zone to soak up the fan engagement activations around the outside of the stadium concourse which was interesting in that any fan would have been able to participate in this as opposed to many other NFL stadium’s which I’ve visited whereby the fan zone is located after security. The fan zone was a hive of activity and colour and featured a host of the usual suspects activations as well as some other cool things.

Dolphins Beer

Dolphins Beer

Starting at a photo booth I have a picture taken with various Dolphins props and then turn around to see a young girl handing out free beef sandwich samples from a sauce sponsor. I venture into the Bud Light Tiny House Party where colourful icy cold teal cans of Dolphins branded Bud Light’s are available for $2. This sure beats the usual prices in US stadiums so I smash two back and ask if I have to stay in the tiny house or if I can keep walking around the fan zone to which the girl replies ‘Yes of course, just don’t go into the stadium with it’. Oh America, you and your liquor licensing RSA laws are indeed interesting compared to Australia where merely having a beer outside a stadium will result in a fine or refusal of entry at the very least. The Bud Light trailer house also had a cool big can, which represented a good photo opportunity. I would secretly love one of these in the backyard.

Dolphins Photo Ops

Dolphins Photo Ops

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Tiny House Party

Dolphins Beer $2

Dolphins Beer $2

I check out the ‘Locker Room’ where you can lift up super lightweight weights and have pics taken and then I have a go at the ‘Push The Truck’ Ford activation whereby you get to push a huge Ford Ute which comically for the people that did it after me nearly drove straight into the other Ford car which was being used for a virtual reality bit of fun that involved fans pretending to kick a football into a TV in the boot of the car.

Locker Room

Locker Room

IMG_0800

VR kicking comp

VR kicking comp

Push the truck

Push the truck

Locker Room

Locker Room

The ‘Dolphins Makeover’ allowed fans to have their faces painted in game day colours while the ‘Size Me Up’ wall enabled fans to see how they rack up against the players. The photo opportunities were endless and included area’s where fans could get their pictures taken with a pair of giant gloves, a cheerleader wall and a cut out of a life size player as well as a big ‘F_NS’ letter wall where fans could stand in place of the ‘I’ to complete the word. Making my way further into the fan zone I think about having a go at the fitness themed fan engagement ‘Tunnel Run’ and ‘Dolphins Combine’ but decide to avoid giving these a crack after having only just sampled a heart attack inducing Arepa and two beers. It was great to see kids and parents enjoying these activations that let them tackle the bags and catch a pass to make a TD on a cushioned landing try line.

Dolphins Makeover

Dolphins Makeover

Dolphins Makeover

Dolphins Makeover

Dolphins Photo Ops

Dolphins Photo Ops

Size Me Up

Size Me Up

Tunnel Run

Tunnel Run

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Photo Ops

Locker Room

Locker Room

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins Combine

Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

While plenty of these sponsor led activation stations had iPad sign up’s that let fans walk away with heaps of freebies like sunglasses, flags (on all 60,000+ seats), pins, badges, stickers, t-shirts, drinks and wipes it always amazes me that these are not better under cover as filling in the forms is difficult with the glare on the screens and I nearly gave up and saw others do the same. I’m glad I persevered and signed up though to a few sponsor things so I could participate in the activities like this one where you put a round disc into a board and it hovers down to the bottom zig zagging along the way and landing on the name of a prize which you walk away with. Anyone know what this game is called?

Games

Games

Miami Dolphins Giveaways

Miami Dolphins Giveaways

One down side I’ve found on my US stadium travels with these activations is that in order to walk away with freebies you often need to be a US citizen as you need to have a US address to submit the online forms or survey’s. In a way it’s absolutely fair because naturally a sponsor like South Florida Ford is not at all wanting to tap into getting all the data from a Melbourne Toyota Landcruiser owner like myself. However you can get around this by just using your hotel or using the address of a famous US landmark that can be easily remembered.

Later on Anthony shows me The Tap Room which if you can believe this features over 50 Florida and Miami based beers from local independent breweries. I settle on an Islamorada ‘Sandbar Sunday’ and we keep walking. The concession stands offered diverse gourmet stadium food options such as wings, garlic waffle fries and sushi to locally inspired fare like arepa’s and all looked fresh although I truly think more US stadiums are going to start going the way of the MCG and Mercedes Benz Stadium in reducing stadium food prices as like any major US sports stadium the prices for food here are really quite outrageous. If you’re one of those people back home who complains about the price of beer ($7-8AUD for a schooner) then spare a thought for our American sports friends who are paying anywhere from $9-15USD for beer and the same goes for the food. One thing though to consider is that over here the quality and diversity of craft beer and food is very high and Hard Rock Stadium was no exception with some yummy stuff on sale.

Tap Room

Tap Room

Tap Room

Tap Room

Tap Room

Tap Room

Local food is a focus

Local food is a focus

Taking up my seat for the game and I can feel the heat from the very cool flame lit tunnel that is going off every time a player is introduced to the crowd. The in-game digital fan engagement was very good from the Dolphins and far out was these fans loud, possibly even louder then when I was at the 49ers and Levi’s Stadium last year. From the ‘Oblivious Cam’ to dance cam, lip sync cam, honouring service men and women, ARMY chopper fly over, seat upgrades there was plenty going on during the breaks in play for fans to get involved with.

Pre game at HR Stadium

Pre game at HR Stadium

This view!

This view!

Oblivious Cam

Oblivious Cam

The only negative on the day was when I made my way back to the Uber Tailgate to grab a ride back to the airport. I think this was an issue that is well and truly out of the team and stadium’s control but this was a debacle due to the nature of the road set up and traffic post event. The idea is that when you get back to the Uber Tailgate you load in your ride on the app and then you wait by a car space number i.e. 1, 2, 3 all the way through to about 20 or so and then call or text the driver to tell them what space you’re in and what you’re wearing so they can identify you easily.

However the problem was that all of the Uber’s were stuck in traffic in one congested line going back a fair way from the stadium pick up zone meaning they could not get in and out easily enough to pick up their rider. This was leading to frustration from the riders, drivers and staff as many of the riders could not even get out into a car space (i.e. car space 15) because fans were shoulder to shoulder trying to get through a small entrance to the car space numbers.

I gave up and called my driver to say I was going to walk and find him and after about a 20 min walk I found my driver Neil and his AC cranking Kia. What I found interesting was when I went up to one of the three Uber staffers to ask what direction to go in to find my driver I was told ‘oh no don’t do that as we have senior Uber reps here today, they won’t like that’ to which I replied you’ve got to be kidding if you think this is a good customer experience. However in no way did this put a dampener on the day for me as this was still an 11/10 fan experience. I can imagine though that this kind of hassle would be the last thing a fan would want to have to deal with after a game or worse a game day loss! I also wonder how the Uber Tailgate set up is going at the other US stadiums who have installed this in 2016.

One more thing I will add with this is that when I agreed to the UberX set price of $21.94USD for my trip I was annoyed to find that I had then been charged over $30USD but to Uber’s credit they refunded this and apologized saying it was an error. Thing is that same thing has happened to me before and I wonder if it has to other’s as well who use Uber around the world.

There’s way more to say and showcase about how exceptional the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium fan experience was and how much better it’s going to get under Anthony’s reign in the lead up to Super Bowl LIV however I’ll let the pictures below do the talking and leave it with you to make sure you check it out if you find yourself in Miami.

The Miami Dolphins focus on providing unrivalled customer service to fans by vowing to care, know and connect along with their creative fan engagement activations, gourmet food and craft beer options and the Uber Tailgate (drop off only in my experience!) all highlight what a truly marvellous fan experience this is that is up there with the best in the world. With the Dolphins taking the W over the Bills both the fans and myself left stoked at what was an epic day in Miami. Eternally grateful and privileged to Anthony, his team and the Dolphins organisation for allowing me to drop by and learn about their world-class fan experience.

 

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