Innovative Tech behind Spurs’ New Stadium Connects with the Fans

On 3 April 2019, Tottenham Hotspur officially opened its new stadium, the creatively named Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, marking the end of a nearly four-year build and a 118-year residence of White Hart Lane.

After many delays and an estimated £1 billion bill for owner Daniel Levy, Tottenham Hotspur have been able to move out of the biggest football stadium in the UK, Wembley Stadium, and into the most technologically advanced – an exciting move which the team marked with a 2-0 victory, as shown by the BBC, over fellow-Londoners Crystal Palace.

So, let’s delve into all of the technological innovations which have made Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the envy of football the world over, and why other clubs should follow suit.

Other stadiums should try to be more tech-savvy

The primary reason behind the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium being built with the latest technological innovations at its heart, as well as commonly adopted technological innovations, is to make the experience as seamless and easy as possible to all. Many top-tier stadiums in the UK and across Europe lack in the use of technology, mostly because the stadiums still turn a massive profit and some simply aren’t built to adopt tech as Spurs have with their new stadium.

These days, the majority of adult fans will be ready and willing to pay for food, drink, and merchandise with touch cards or their phones, and during the games, they’ll undoubtedly be checking the scores elsewhere via their phones and possibly placing a bet on the game in front of them. Fans are more than willing to use their phones as their tickets in the stadium, just as they are using Oddschecker free bet no deposit offers to be able to place bets without committing any cash to new bookies: it just makes the whole experience very convenient and seamless.

Many football clubs still use paper tickets sent in the post, and many aren’t cashless yet. Using technology can not only enhance the stadium experience and the spectacle, but it can also make everything much easier and more pleasing for anyone who attends.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’s tech

Tottenham Hotspur wanted their wait to be worthwhile by ushering in a new stage of stadium sports with their state-of-the-art design and features.

To move the new stadium into the future, it is completely cashless. With seemingly everyone being able to make quick payments by either touching their phones or cards to payment terminals, using cash is becoming less and less necessary at stadiums. Contactless goes beyond payments, however, with digital tickets being used via the stadium’s app to get fans through the turnstiles, which also features a navigation system to help people find their seats.

One of the most impressive is the stadium’s ability to have two pitches. Following a decade-long deal struck with the NFL, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium wanted to ensure that American football games played on their turf wouldn’t impact Premier League games. So that the pitch can be retracted, the engineers designed a sliding pitch design, according to Compelo, which is the first of its kind. To transition, the grass pitch splits into three, to then unveil the American football field.

The stadium also features another world-first with its grass-growing technology. Suspended over the pitch to ensure a great playing surface when game time comes around is a 120-tonne lighting system. When the pitch is stored under the ground, similar subterranean lighting grows the grass.

As you would expect from a modern build, the stadium boasts tremendous Wi-Fi connectivity. Spurs partnered with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to allow the ground to offer high-density Wi-Fi, and best of all, it’s free to use. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium also provides complete mobile coverage across all of the UK’s major providers.

While Tottenham Hotspur Stadium isn’t the largest in the UK, holding a 62,000 capacity to Old Trafford’s 75,000 capacity, it does boast the two largest screens of a western Europe football stadium, with each measuring in at 317 square metres each.

Along with the two massive screens, there are 1800 HD televisions installed around the ground. The team also gets to benefit from some new screens, with the old whiteboard and pen being binned for a touch-screen television to be used to relay tactics and instructions.

It’s not a brand new invention, having already featured at the Cheltenham Festival, but it’ll certainly have fans gasp when they go to the bar: draught beer that fills from the base. The containers have a strong magnet on the base which floats slightly above the base’s hole when the upwards-facing pump starts to fill the container with beer, allowing for very speedy beer pouring. This technique is a major feature of the longest bar in Europe, the Goal Line Bar, which stands at 65 metres-long within the stadium.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is a technological marvel of sporting arenas, setting a precedent for all other clubs to follow.