ESSMA-BASIS Smart & Sustainable Stadium Workshop: The Key Takeaways

The ESSMA-BASIS Smart & Sustainable Stadium Workshop was co-hosted by Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium on Day 1 and the Rugby Football Union (RFU’s) Twickenham Stadium on Day 2.

Both ESMMA and BASIS (British Association for Sustainable Sport) members attended the workshop with insights on topics ranging from energy efficiency & waste management to hospitality & innovative ticketing in smart stadiums and fan & sponsor management.

The key takeaways from the ESSMA-BASIS Smart & Sustainable Stadium Workshop were as follows:

• In terms of what makes a stadium SMART – Sustainability, Mobility, Accessibility, Resiliency, and Transport – sustainability should be top of the agenda
• Green transport should be promoted and incentivised. To encourage fans to use public transport, it needs to be easy, efficient, quick and regular. It can even be packaged with food & beverage to maximise sales
• Don’t build car parks on expensive stadia sites. It makes much more financial sense to utilise out-of-town Park and Ride solutions. Have retail, restaurants and the like on-site instead, and maximise both revenue generation and the fan experience
• Data is key. The only way to operate and make a stadium more efficient is to have the necessary data at your disposal
• Have a long-term vision; invest now and stay flexible
• Effective communications and close working relationships with all stakeholders is vital – from sponsors, suppliers, tenants and the local authorities to your fans and the local community. Being a good neighbour is an often under-spoken about element of sustainability
• Challenge your suppliers to influence the supply chain and to think ‘outside the box’ when it comes to innovating and delivering on your waste management and energy reduction goals
• Make sure that CSR and sustainability work together
• Monitoring and metering your energy usage is key to lowering consumption; carefully track consumption and submit budgets accordingly
• Understanding your fans (consumers) is vital when it comes to implementing different marketing strategies based on the specific fan group’s needs
• Make sure you have visibility on every penny spent in the stadium; with real-time data from every till, including spend per head, with headline reports sent to management every 15 minutes
• Keep pace with digital natives; they will be the major consumer group in 10 years’ time. The three pillars to achieving this are to: connect; communicate; and transact
• Evolve the stadium experience in the same way that shopping centres have, with way-finding, interactive digital displays, location-based messaging, Click & Collect, free Wi-Fi, etc.
• Battery storage is changing the role venues play in society and offers huge potential moving forward