Chelsea Football Club has partnered with Ericsson to provide fans with free Wi-Fi connectivity across its Stamford Bridge home stadium in West London.
Ericsson has been selected as Chelsea’s connectivity partner in the capital, where it will be tasked with designing, building and operating the Wi-Fi network via a Small Cell as a Service connected venue business model.
This means Chelsea fans will be able to keep their friends and family updated on social media as they watch their team attempt to defend their Premier League crown over the coming season.
Chelsea sold out every home game during the 2016-2017 season, meaning cellular networks were often stretched to capacity on match days.
But the club is now revamping its connectivity as well as its playing squad, with Ericsson’s network set to improve the digital experience for fans as well as enabling Chelsea to innovate with new services in the future.
“Our research indicates that people want to use their digital devices wherever they go – and the urge to connect is even greater at a Chelsea FC home game,” said Arun Bansal, senior vice president of Europe & Latin America at Ericsson.
“Through this partnership, we will ensure the connectivity at Stamford Bridge matches the quality of the football and look forward to exploring further options that will enable Chelsea FC to take the digital experience to the next level.”
Chris Townsend, Chelsea FC commercial director, added that the club is looking forward to “a rich partnership with Ericsson which will directly assist the thousands of fans who come regularly to Stamford Bridge.”
But the Roman Abramovich-owned club is not the only one upping its digital efforts. For example, Tottenham Hotspur has claimed that its new stadium, set to be completed by 2018, will be the most technologically advanced in the Premier League.
Further afield, Real Madrid is in the middle of a digital transformation project to help it win more trophies and FC Barcelona is set to build an innovation hub to develop the future of the sports industry.
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