ESSMA Report: fans returning to stadiums
The final part of the ESSMA series on COVID-19 and its impact on the stadium industry zooms in on several aspects of this re-opening.
This edition presents you the adapted ticketing strategy of Brøndby IF and PSG, the enhanced digital strategy of RAFC and the story of Almere CIty hosting +1000 fans again for the first time.
How did COVID-19 impact the ticketing strategy at PSG?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, PSG only played 7 home matches with a maximum capacity of 5,000 fans. Knowing that during the 2018/19 season, there was a 99% attendance rate and €105 million revenue out of ticketing and hospitality, you can see that the impact on the club was enormous. As the French government decided credit notes were due for all sold tickets, PSG created a system on their ticketing platform which enabled fans to see the amount of credit they earned. Additionally, fans could decide what toe spend the credit on. Arnaud Delpech, Voice of Customer Office at PSG, explained this approach and the result on the digital event ESSMA Spotlight. Go to the livestream now
Even though fans know we don't sell any tickets at the moment, there are still 30,000 to 40,000 visitors each month consulting the COVID-19 guidelines on our ticketing website - Arnaud Delpech
With regard to the limited capacity in the stadium, season ticket holders of different categories received the opportunity to buy. A similar story was told by Brøndby Stadium, who was able to host up to 8,400 fans in summer 2020. Priority to buy tickets was equally given to season ticket holders. Find more on their experience, together with those of Arsenal FC, Almere City and Cricket Australia in our full report!
Royal Antwerp FC: taking advantage of COVID-19 to reinforce digital processes
COVID-19 has forced several stadiums and clubs to accelerate on their path towards digitalization. Royal Antwerp FC took a broad perspective to this challenge and introduced automatisation in several aspects. For instance, they had automatic FAQ implemented, iXpole lets our B2B clients digitally pick their hospitality packages and there now is B2B app to connect business clients to each other, so the COVID-19 period has been put to good use. Discover the full story in the report.
This 3rd report on the impact of COVID-19 concludes our series on the topic. The first two parts remain available on the Knowledge Platform. We do hope all our stadium managers can use their full capacity again to welcome back fans to the stands!