The sports stadium of the future "faces a dilemma: its technological wizardry will be so distracting it will have to work harder to keep fans focused on the action," according to Malcolm Moore of the FINANCIAL TIMES. For decades, solid concrete and steel stadiums have "deadened WiFi and mobile phone signals, resulting in a straightforward match day for fans." Cisco Head of Sports & Entertainment Chris White said, "It was not long ago that you would leave your phone at home when you went to the game." But teams are realizing the marketing potential of connecting to their customers and that younger fans "will not pay high prices to go to live events if they cannot brag about it on social media." White: "Forward-thinking stadium owners know they need to reach the younger generation and that generation wants to be connected all the time." Currently only a handful of stadiums in the U.K. have WiFi. The U.S. is "leading the way" and MLB announced last year that all its stadiums "would be connected." Microsoft Sports Business Development Strategic Dir Stewart Mison said, "Think about what you can sell. You can pre-order drinks and food, sell tickets for other games and it can be cashless. Say you have a 40,000-seat stadium and eight out of 10 people spend £10 ($15) in the stadium. That is £320,000 ($485,000) of cash you have to deal with every week and some of it will leak in transit." But the "fear" among stadium owners is that fans "may spend all their time with their heads down, looking at their phones, instead of with their heads up watching the game." Populous Architect Chris Lee said, "Why do people go to a stadium? It is for the experience, not the technology." And the "barriers between corporate hospitality and normal fans are breaking down." Lee: "There used to be fans and then suits, the ‘prawn sandwich’ brigade. You will see in the next decade a blurring of that. Just because you are a diehard fan does not mean you do not have money. You may sit in normal seats but want an upgrade in your hospitality" (FT, 5/3).
