UK autonomous technology company GroundWOW has entered into a development partnership with Stockport County in a deal that is set to generate new year-round revenues for the English National League football club.
The agreement will see GroundWOW autonomous print capability deployed at Edgeley Park by the technology start-up, whose AV/AI-driven Ground Printer was the recipient of the Innovation Award at TheStadiumBusiness Awards 2021 held earlier this week at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.
Launched in October 2019, GroundWOW was developed with a founding mission to make printing on ground as easy as printing on paper. GroundWOW Special FX can print any logo, any size, on any surface. Deployable in under 10 mins, autonomous technology, A.I and an end-to-end Cloud platform combine to create images as accurate as a blade of grass.
Talks between GroundWOW and Stockport began earlier this year. GroundWOW chief commercial officer, David Pritchard, said: “We have been talking for a while and the deal makes sense on so many levels. Stockport’s ambition is obvious to anybody who is around the club just now and with ambitious plans of our own, it felt like a great fit from the moment we first met.
“At this stage in our own roll out, we need to work with creative thinkers, innovators and individuals that are willing to embrace what technology has to offer. We saw that straight away in Stockport who have never shied away from doing things differently.
“We know the club have a strong commercial foothold in the community and so bringing a world first capability to that setting is a source of real excitement. We gain stadium authentic access and get to work alongside first-class teams in operations, commercial and marketing. For the club, the agreement provides 24 hours a day access to a world first technology that turns stadium-wide real estate into a revenue generating opportunity.”
GroundWOW said the opportunities for the partnership will go “way beyond game days”, adding that the partners are already “deep into planning some exciting activations” for the months ahead.
“We went to see GroundWOW at their high-tech headquarters and we were blown away by what they are doing,” said Rick Simkin, Stockport County’s director of operations.
“While we can see the obvious opportunity for match day activations, it was obvious that their vision aligned with ours for non-match day opportunities as well. Outside of football, people might know Edgeley Park for its appearance in the Blossoms film (Back to Stockport) or the huge branding that sits atop the stands visible on the flight path into Manchester airport.
“GroundWOW think on the same scale and so we are excited to imagine the sort of activations we can bring to life.”
Image: GroundWOW
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