Latest news with #fanexperience
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Should football fans be allowed to drink in the stands? Poll of the Week
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers. A review of a 40-year-old ban on football fans in England drinking alcohol in the stands at matches could be voted on by MPs today. A ban was put in place for English professional football in 1985, but that legislation could potentially be overturned following a proposal by the Conservative party. The review is among several amendments to the Football Governance Bill, over which MPs in the House of were holding a final debate on Tuesday. 'British football and the fan experience are unrecognisable from the widespread hooliganism of the 1980s,' Conservative shadow sports minister Louie French told City AM. 'The FA, National League, EFL and Premier League have all worked very hard to positively transform English football. 'But as football fans will know, we have this legacy ban which sees fans rushing to drink their beer both before kick-off and at half-time. This often leads to fans being delayed entering stadiums and overcrowding on concourses." The amendment will only be put to the House for a vote if tabled by a minister and selected for a vote by the Speaker. Meanwhile in Scotland, rules on alcohol in football stadiums are set to be relaxed as a pilot scheme is trialled at two upcoming Premier Sports Cup fixtures later this month, the Glasgow Times reports. Up to 66 supporters at Ayr United's home stadium at Somerset Park will be able to purchase up to five pints of beer (four before kick-off and one at half time) with a special £35 ticket. These tickets will be available at the team's matches against Arbroath on 19 July and Forfar Athletic on 22 July. In both England and Scotland, many supporters have expressed frustration that fans of other sports, such as rugby and fans elsewhere in Europe, are allowed to drink during matches. There is also an economic case for lifting the ban, which could give smaller clubs a much needed financial boost. However, charity Alcohol Focus Scotland has warned lifting the ban would send the wrong message. Its chief executive Alison Douglas said: 'Not only could making alcohol more available at matches increase risks to fan safety and public disorder, it would be a major step in the wrong direction when it comes to people's health." But what do you think? Has football changed enough to justify a ban being lifted? Or is it a recipie for disaster? Let us know in the polls below:Come back on Friday to read the results and analysis via the link below. Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
Zawya
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Zawya
Al-Nassr Club Company redefines fan engagement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Being at the forefront of Saudi Arabia's footballing ambitions, Al-Nassr Club Company, one of the leading football clubs in the Kingdom, is working with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to transform its stadium, training, medical, media, and fan facilities – and thereby the way fans engage with football. Key to this experience is a comprehensive end-to-end solution, built on HPE Aruba Networking, that establishes a coherent, performance-focused and secure network infrastructure. Throughout the past few years, Al-Nassr has become the most-followed team by football fans outside Saudi Arabia. Aware that not everyone who watches an Al-Nassr match will be able to travel to Saudi Arabia to attend games, and that more than 60 million fans follow their games, Al-Nassr wants to redefine the fan experience with more content, more behind-the-scenes footage, and greater access to star players. To drive digital content, Al-Nassr is creating a digital sports campus, creating a wireless-first environment engaging both fans within and outside the stadium. 'We always have a minimum of 300–400 people connecting to the network on quiet days, however the number jumps to more than 10,000 on match days,' said Faisal Khan, director of IT at Al-Nassr. 'Simultaneously, we are filming throughout the week, across all parts of the organization. The fan engagement and content we provide goes beyond the match-day experience and with HPE Aruba Networking we are now able to scale and allocate different bandwidth, manage access rights for different user groups, and troubleshoot connectivity issues easily, all from the office.' The solution deployed at the sports campus combines the capabilities of HPE Aruba Networking Central, HPE Aruba Networking CX switches, HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN, and HPE Aruba Networking Wi-Fi 7 wireless access points. This allows the club's IT team to closely manage the various fan engagement points, keep sensitive biometric data of players secure, and quickly provide connectivity to new parts of the campus. The club manages connectivity for 20 buildings, including warehousing and retail outlets, with more stores and branch offices expected as the club expands its operations. By using HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN, the club can use multiple connections to provide high availability and resilience, even in times of high use. This increases performance by link-binding and maximizing the use of available bandwidth, making it particularly valuable to the football club for critical applications, such as video live streaming matches. 'As Al-Nassr continues to realise and enhance its vision for fan engagement and data commercialization, it needs a robust and performance-focused networking infrastructure', said Jamil Ahmad, Country Business lead for Saudi Arabia at HPE Aruba Networking. 'By building a smart sports campus upon HPE Aruba Networking, Al-Nassr has unified and streamlined its networking operations, maximizing opportunities for content generation and simplifying the deployment of game-changing IoT. This includes the club's media streaming capabilities, that allow fans to not only watch video streams of games and player interviews from different parts of the world but also stream exclusive content on their smartphone within the stadium – creating a one-of-a-kind experience.'
CBC
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
What you need to know ahead of Bluesfest 2025
News Duration 3:05 CBC's Nkele Martin has all the details on how to get there, what time the gates open and what fans can and cannot bring into the festival.
Fast Company
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
The smart venue revolution: Where architecture meets intelligence
The live entertainment industry is undergoing a seismic transformation. Music halls, stadiums, and immersive performance spaces are being reimagined as dynamic ecosystems, where architecture and digital infrastructure work together to elevate the fan experience. Post-pandemic, audiences have returned with higher expectations for comfort, connection, and convenience. Smart venues can deliver on these. For owners and venue operators, the shift is a chance to future-proof their investment and set a new standard for live entertainment. DESIGNING FOR VERSATILITY The most valuable venues are no longer defined by a single function. Instead, they're designed for maximal versatility of programming content, capable of concerts, shows, and even sporting events within the same week. Modular seating, movable walls, and dynamic infrastructure support rapid reconfigurations without sacrificing performance or acoustics. Take the Sphere in Las Vegas, for which our company, Populous, was the architect of record. With its 360-degree visual environment and adaptive, spatialized sound system, it represents a quantum leap forward for the entertainment industry. From concert spectacles to the UFC, NHL Draft, CES showcases, and the recently announced Wizard of Oz at Sphere, the Sphere highlights what a modern venue can be. Rather than simply hosting performances, the venue becomes a dynamic part of the narrative, amplifying the content and setting a new standard for experiential entertainment. Another compelling example is The Shed in New York City. This cultural hub features a telescoping shell structure that allows the venue to expand and contract depending on the performance needs—be it a fashion show or live concert. It embodies a new architectural language with a foundation of flexibility. This type of flexibility boosts programming diversity and maximizes revenue potential, enabling a single venue to host more events per year, attract a wider audience, and support hybrid formats that blend physical and digital experiences. In an environment where adaptability equals profitability, smart design is a differentiator. USING SMART INFRASTRUCTURE That same emphasis on versatility extends to a venue's intelligent operations. Previously, the traditional approach to crowd management focused on control and containment, while today's smart venues emphasize flow and freedom. With real-time data from ticketing, mobile apps, and in-venue sensors, operators now have a detailed picture of how people enter and move. This information powers systems to adjust staffing operations, direct guests to less congested areas, and trigger digital signage to streamline foot traffic. The intelligence goes deeper than what the fans see. IoT-enabled systems throughout a building can collect data on energy usage, crowd density, temperature, and more to enable venues to react dynamically to conditions in real time. MAINTAINING THE VENUE IN A POCKET Today, fans don't just bring their phones to the venue—the venue is brought to their phones as the primary gateway to the live experience. Mobile-first design has transformed audiences' engagement with live events, from parking and seat upgrades to food orders and fan rewards. For guests, the venue experience starts on their mobile device before the event. For operators, it's a digital interface that deepens engagement and opens new revenue streams. Fans can view exclusive content and access loyalty perks tied to their activity in real time. This simplifies logistics while empowering venues to build a direct relationship with each attendee. By tracking preferences, purchase behavior, and movement patterns, operators can personalize offers and better understand what drives fan satisfaction. It's a win for efficiency, too. By encouraging fans to preorder food or merchandise, venues reduce pressure on staff and shorten wait times. When fans arrive at today's stadiums, they expect to remain fully connected—sharing, engaging, and interacting in real time. At the new Highmark Stadium, future home of the Buffalo Bills, that expectation is met with unprecedented technological depth. Designed by our team as lead architect and architect of record, the venue is a model for modern connectivity and immersive A/V experiences. Verizon's distributed antenna system (DAS) will provide 5G Ultra-Wideband coverage across every corner of the stadium and surrounding campus, enabling fast, uninterrupted access for fans and operations alike. This infrastructure supports real-time access to premium programming, content sharing and immersive experiences—turning spectators into participants and the live event into a personalized stream of digital engagement. EMBRACING THE ADVENT OF THE DIGITAL TWIN At the core of the smart venue revolution is the rise of digital twin technology—an advanced, real-time simulation of a venue's physical environment. Far beyond a behind-the-scenes operations tool, the digital twin serves as both a brain and a bridge: optimizing performance while enabling immersive pre-opening experiences. For operators, it's a live, data-rich dashboard that monitors and predicts everything from energy use to crowd flow, allowing them to test, adapt, and perfect systems before the first ticket is scanned. For designers and clients, it's a visualization powerhouse—offering the ability to walk through and fine-tune the venue virtually, long before construction is complete. FIRST STEPS FOR VENUES Turning a traditional venue into a smart, adaptive ecosystem doesn't require an all-or-nothing approach. Leaders can start with incremental investments that compound over time. Here are five actionable steps: 1. Conduct a digital infrastructure audit. Assess existing technology systems—from Wi-Fi capacity to sensor networks—and identify gaps that inhibit data flow and operational flexibility. 2. Prioritize versatile architecture. Start small with pilot features such as retractable seating or modular stages. These improve functionality and act as test beds for broader flexibility investments. 3. Consolidate every moment of the guest journey into a single mobile interface. Focus on unifying ticketing, food ordering, merchandise, parking, and loyalty rewards into one frictionless experience. It's the fastest path to both deeper engagement and operational efficiency. 4. Establish a cross-functional innovation team. Bring together operations, IT, guest experience, and design teams to break silos and align on how to evolve the venue experience holistically. 5. Prototype with a digital twin. Even before major capital improvements, use digital twin technology to simulate proposed upgrades and run scenario testing. It's a lower-risk way to explore high-impact changes. These steps are designed to meet leaders where they are—whether they're retrofitting a legacy stadium or breaking ground on the next big idea. USING THE VENUE AS AN OPERATING SYSTEM Intelligent infrastructure, mobile-first engagement, and flexible design venues are behaving more like operating systems than brick-and-mortar buildings. Every touchpoint is connected. Every experience is optimized. And every event becomes an opportunity to build deeper relationships. As expectations grow and technology evolves, the venues that thrive will be those that invest not just in physical space but in systems. Those that can adapt and scale will set the standard for live entertainment.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sabrina Carpenter May Ban Phone Use in Her Concert
Music artists and performers always wish their fans to have the best experience while attending concerts. From handing out bracelets and glow-in-the-dark bands to power-packed performances, the singers ensure the audience witnesses a night they will never forget. For the same reason, Sabrina Carpenter is reportedly considering banning phones at her concerts. Although aware that her decision might not sit well with her fans, Carpenter is willing to take a chance. Sabrina Carpenter's concerts are known for their bold yet exhilarating performances. In order to create the best experience for her fans at her shows, the Grammy winner is open to the idea of banning phones at her concerts. While talking about her wish, the singer shared her experience of watching 'Silk Sonic in Vegas.' The artist told Rolling Stone that they 'locked' her phone during the gig, but she has no complaints as she 'never had a better experience at a concert.' Due to this move, Carpenter felt like being 'back in the Seventies,' where 'Everyone's singing, dancing, looking at each other and laughing. It really, really just felt so beautiful.' That is why the 26-year-old singer is now thinking of banning phones at her concert too, despite knowing the fans might not be happy with her decision. 'This will honestly p–s off my fans, but absolutely,' Carpenter told the outlet. The artist also admitted that she has 'grown up in the age of people having iPhones at shows,' which is why 'It unfortunately feels super normal' to have phones at the concert. She simply 'can't blame people for wanting to have memories.' However, the 'Manchild' singer did insist that it's not right to focus on her face all the time. 'But depending on how long I want to be touring, and what age I am, girl, take those phones away. You cannot zoom in on my face,' adding, 'Right now, my skin is soft and supple. It's fine. Do not zoom in on me when I'm 80 years old up there.' If Carpenter implements this rule, she won't be the first singer to do so. Pop icons like Bob Dylan, Madonna, and Adele have prohibited phones during their gigs in the past. The post Sabrina Carpenter May Ban Phone Use in Her Concert appeared first on Reality Tea.
