York’s LNER Community Stadium has become the latest venue to adopt UK autonomous technology company GroundWOW’s products in an effort to open up new revenue opportunities.
Venue operator York Stadium Management has taken delivery and set up the GroundWOW SFX MAX product, with National League football club York City and Championship rugby league team York Knights reinventing their revenue model by converting under-utilised ground into advertising inventory.
The GroundWOW team worked with York Stadium Management to train their grounds and operations team on the hardware and software. Pete Kitchen, stadium manager at LNER Community Stadium, said: “We first visited GroundWOW at their very cool HQ in Manchester and we were instantly sold on the technology.
“Taking delivery of our own system is an exciting moment and really only the start of our partnership with them. My team were engaged from the first minute with the training and to be able to operate it themselves so quickly speaks volumes for how intuitive GroundWOW have made the user experience.”
About the possible revenue generating opportunities and creative capabilities, Kitchen added: “Our minds are already racing with the commercial possibilities that GroundWOW instantly opens up, especially so when you consider our dual mandate across rugby and football and our host venue status for major events beginning with rugby league’s Summer Bash in May.”
GroundWOW, recipient of TheStadiumBusiness Innovation Award in December 2021, seeks to unlock the value in sports stadia by turning any surface into advertising real estate easily and quickly.
In October, GroundWOW teamed up with the English Football Association (FA) to celebrate the 10th anniversary of St. George’s Park, while its technology has also been harnessed at Emirates Old Trafford in its home city of Manchester.
GroundWOW’s chief commercial officer, David Pritchard, said: “The LNER Community stadium is an incredible venue and partnering there with the team from York Stadium Management is an amazing prospect.
“Not only is it the home stadium of York Knights and York City FC, it is a community facility built on innovation and ambition, characteristics of our own DNA at GroundWOW.
“It’s a real thrill to see our technology deployed at such a modern, pristine venue and we are looking forward to working with such a forward-thinking team across different sports as they bring major commercial opportunities to life.”
