This transcript has been lightly edited by AI
Sean: As a college supporter, I'll heartily agree. I go there and have fun no matter what, win or loss. And yes, more of them have been wins. But do you also think that when you have great product on the court or field, it does solve a lot of problems. But where does that position you as a stadium? Because I think in that tech phase, and I was one talking about it with Wi-Fi getting rolled out, chatting with people on where you should put your DAS antennas so people can't see them but they're most effective. I love the tech, but the positioning of what the stadium should do in that space is a little bit of get out of the way, but make sure everything is there when the fan needs it and trying to find that balance. Because I feel like there were five or six years where stadiums were saying, “Hey, look at us. Look at us. Hey, look, we've got all these shiny things” when it's like, “No, no, I want to get to my seat. I want to enjoy the game. I want to be able to get to a restroom when I can get there. I want to be able to get a beer when I can. The pies need to be hot.” Getting that experience right and having that focus on the fan. How much of that, you talked about having a smart stadium project, but have you tweaked that a little to say, what's the customer experience like?
Lewis: Yeah, definitely. We would debate things like wayfinding and finding your seat. Do you want people looking down at their device on a phone and a map? Or do you want them using touch screens or screens that they can walk up to? Or do you want them to ask the person in a blue jacket that says, “Come and help me”? We put a lot of effort and time into our training, customer service training of our staff.
I spend a lot of time just at the gates, just out of interest, personally, just watching people come in. Do they look up at the screens to get some direction and see what seating bays are open today? Do they look at the advertising? Or do they know where they're going already? Or do they go and ask a customer service person? I think that the personal touch is really winning this one. If someone doesn't know where they're going, just as long as there's someone there to help them and say, “Yep, there's the nearest bathroom, that's where you can get a drink, that's where your seat is.” I think that's really important.
Obviously, having Wi-Fi, having good data access, that's like oxygen. You just have to have it. People want to be able to pull out their phone and make those things work. So that's just a given these days. There's always the search for the fan experience type elements, what can we add that helps people have a fun time. If it's about integrating some “get a photo with your team on a digital display” or something like that, or a game zone, all those things are still important and always will be.
I guess we're just in that really blessed position where we've got such a good product, stadium, and we put so much time and effort into maintaining the stadium that it's in great shape. All those amenities of being able to get a beer, being able to get your food and constantly improving those. We spend a lot of money on enhancing the venue, the stadium, so that the athletes look good and they're comfortable and people want to be there and they've got room to move around. So all those things are really important. And making sure we've got all the important elements of digital and tech, just go hand in hand with that really.
Sean: I think it's also like, I'm the same. I took Stacy McGranahan from the Sharks and she did the same. She was secret shopper mode. I was watching all the signs but things like rolling out wait time and having the different signage of the different arrows to know which way to turn to go to the shorter line. You do the press release and tell everyone about it. But it's a two or three year thing and the people start getting that ingrained behavior.
And even, I go with my nephew and I go to look for the signs. He just pulls out the phone and goes, “Oh no, we should go to this bay.” And it's like, well, that's nice. That's more native for him than me still looking at the signs, even if I'm looking at the digital sign, so it's sort of an amalgam of those things to, for that experience to bed down.
Lewis: Mm. And particularly the different types of audiences.
