Middlesbrough Football Club will transform the Riverside Stadium this season – installing a game-changing integrated digital platform designed to radically enhance the matchday experience and create powerful new commercial opportunities for club partners.
The club has appointed digital venue specialists ADI to consult on the project, who will work with them to deliver a long term digital strategy to transform the stadium experience and revolutionize the way the club and its partners interact with fans throughout every stage of the match day.
The result will see ADI install a stadium-wide digital platform, which, at its heart, will be a first in world football – a 360° dual sided digital perimeter LED system. Surrounding all four sides of the pitch, the revolutionary digiBOARD system will feature a crowd-facing digital display capable of serving live match stats and social media content to entertain and inform fans throughout the game.
The new display will form part of a wider digital transformation – creating a powerful cross-channel communications platform to engage fans with compelling content.
Each digital channel, including the stadium LED screen, perimeter system, and a network of new displays, will seamlessly integrate to deliver exclusive programming, latest news, social medial, and unique StatZone content to fans throughout the Riverside.
Content will be powered by Live Venue, ADI’s high-speed fiber network, which connects the Riverside Stadium to the company’s Preston-based sports production hub. ADI’s experienced sports production team will be responsible for driving the content across every display in the stadium – delivering an immersive engagement-led experience for fans whilst creating huge commercial opportunities for the club’s partners.
Speaking of the development, Middlesbrough Football Club’s Chief Operating Officer, Mark Ellis, said:
Having worked with ADI we know first-hand that they deliver the highest quality solutions and are leaders in their field. In addition to transforming the appearance of the stadium, the digital platform will offer incredible value for our sponsors whilst improving the experience for fans.
It is extremely important that we are able to commercially justify any investment in new technology. Working with ADI, we were able to develop a business model that will enable us to quickly generate a positive financial return and also provide a strong platform for future growth.