Perennial Premier League contender Tottenham Hotspur is intent on making its new London stadium among the world’s most technologically advanced to improve in-game entertainment and keep fans as connected to the outside world as they want.
The football club announced this week that it has contracted with Hewlett Packard Enterprise on this endeavor, wiring the information technology company’s Aruba network into the venue at the start for maximum infrastructure support. The stadium, which will be London’s largest for any club with a capacity 61,559, is scheduled to open in 2018 and is expected to host concerts and two NFL games per season for a decade in addition to the Hotspur.
“In most stadiums around the world, a lack of reliable wi-fi means fans are essentially cut-off from the outside world for several hours,” Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman wrote in an essay on LinkedIn. “While that may sound like a welcome break to some, considering that a good part of current and future fans have never known a world without internet, venues are essentially asking them to step into the dark ages.”
Whitman listed some of the other advantages for the host club and fans, noting real-time updates on ticket and concession sales as well as the potential for on-field aids with health and performance monitoring. An HPE-produced video outlined a few other possibilities for broad bandwidth offerings, such as turn-by-turn navigation for fans to find their ticketed seats, the network capacity to permit 200 selfies to be shared per second, use of an app to order concessions and watch video replays.
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“Creating a technology infrastructure to support an enhanced visitor experience requires solutions that can meet the growing demands of visitors that come to our new stadium,” Sanjeev Katwa, Tottenham Hotspur’s head of technology, said in a release.