Connected Sport: building resilient, sustainable and fan-centric venues webinar summary

Stadiums are becoming testbeds for next-generation connectivity. On 20 October, techUK brought together members to discuss what it takes to connect a modern sports venue, who pays for it and what it means for fans.

The panel was techUK's first webinar on stadium and venue connectivity. The speakers were:

Tony Davison, Cuttlebrook Consulting
Liz St Louis, Director of Smart Cities, Sunderland City Council
Tom Bennett, Chief Technology Officer, Freshwave
Gavin Smith, Cyber Security and Networks Sales Lead, Fujitsu
Maria Lema, Co-Founder and CEO, Weaver Labs

techUK Webinar Recording: Connected Sport

Connectivity has to just work

The panel agreed on a simple starting point: before anything else, venue connectivity has to work, every time. Tony Davison pointed out that fans lose faith quickly. If a club app fails once, many won't open it again.

Liz St Louis set out how much now depends on the network. Stadium operations, staff communications, safe running on match days, sales and merchandising, and immersive experiences all rely on it. Fans expect to check scores, place bets and upload content. When the network falls short, it hits safety, revenue and the club's relationship with its supporters.

Gavin Smith described Fujitsu's view of the digital foundation as a "fourth utility". It is no longer a nice-to-have bolted on at the end; it has to be considered at the design stage. He argued the business case widens considerably once the focus moves from connectivity itself to what it enables: safety, payments, resilience and lower operating costs.

Who pays?

The old funding models are largely gone. Tom Bennett explained that sponsorship deals and "anchor tenant" arrangements, where one mobile operator funded a venue system, no longer exist. With average revenue per user falling for more than a decade, mobile network operators (MNOs) will rarely pay for these systems. Instead, the venue increasingly invests itself. Freshwave's approach is to provide coverage on behalf of all MNOs, so fans aren't forced onto one network.

Maria Lema argued that connectivity should be treated as an asset that drives business outcomes, with the value lying in the venue's whole "digital real estate". Cloud-native, software-defined architectures treat a 5G network as an application running on a server. That makes infrastructure-as-a-service possible, with the flexibility to serve many uses without duplicating kit.

Tony noted that the value is spread so widely that it is hard to pin the business case on one stakeholder. Someone has to take a leap of faith. Better connectivity sells more drinks, raises sponsorship value as fans share more content, and improves safety. Gavin added that speed matters as well as reliability: cutting transaction times by close to 50% can double throughput in tight windows such as half-time.

Sunderland made the case stack up by taking a whole-city approach. Liz explained how the council used a 20-year partnership with Boldyn Networks to connect two venues, the Stadium of Light and the British Esports National Performance Campus. Funding came from the council, Boldyn, the club, British Esports and a central government grant.

The technology

Stadiums are demanding to connect, logistically, operationally and physically. Tom pointed out that most of the UK's roughly 200 stadiums with 20,000+ capacity are already built, so upgrades have to fit short off-season windows. Systems must meet both match-day and day-to-day needs, with change and incident management joined up with the venue, the police and event teams.

The Stadium of Light brought its own challenges: limited space, weight limits on the roof, and health and safety issues such as snow and ice. Liz explained that Sunderland chose a 5G neutral host for capacity and throughput, with Wi-Fi as a complement for back-of-house operations and for fans without enough mobile data. Virtualising the network cut the equipment footprint by more than 70% and reduced power needs. One shared set of infrastructure, with antennas split into sectors to target pockets of demand, made it more cost-effective for operators. Tom agreed that Wi-Fi alone could not cope in the bowl.

Energy came up repeatedly. Freshwave works with operators' roadmaps so that on non-event days most spectrum is switched off, then "lit up" again for events. Maria explained how virtualisation makes networks elastic, and how orchestration software can provision a match day automatically from a control room.

She was clear that AI-native networks are not here yet. The main barrier is a lack of open, programmable interfaces: one major vendor's radio network exposes only simple controls, such as switching on and off, out of around 10,000 configurable parameters. She called for a more open, IT-style, software-driven approach. Gavin stressed that venues have already invested in Wi-Fi, wireless and fixed lines, so new designs should build on what exists rather than rip and replace.

Resilience and cyber

Venue connectivity is now safety-critical. Gavin explained that ticketing, payments, communications and crowd control all depend on it, so a network or cyber problem can quickly become a safety problem. He advocated a "secure by design" approach that starts with services, not technology: working with the board to identify the services a match day depends on, and what each of them relies on. He highlighted three practical measures:

No single point of failure across power and connectivity
Identity and access management for the many connected devices in a venue, from tills to CCTV and digital signage
Network segmentation, as many existing venue networks are "flat"

Governance, ownership and clear processes matter just as much, and they must be tested regularly rather than filed away. Tom noted that the Premier League is introducing cyber security requirements for clubs. As a telecoms provider, Freshwave is bound by the Telecommunications (Security) Act and is ISO 27001 certified, with incident, change and problem management tested every year. He also clarified who is responsible for what: the neutral host and operators meet their obligations on the mobile side, while securing the venue's Wi-Fi is the venue's responsibility.

Beyond the turnstiles

A fan's match day doesn't start or end at the gates. In Sunderland, connectivity links venues and public spaces into a wider ecosystem. Liz described traffic sensors that inform signal changes for safer arrival and departure, shared CCTV with a joint control room on event days, and support for nearby vendors. Data on how fans move is also informing decisions, such as routes after a new pedestrian footbridge opened. On shared infrastructure, the 200-seat esports arena and the Stadium of Light are becoming fully interchangeable.

Tom said the first priority is coverage for every operator, including a smooth handover between the stadium system and the surrounding mobile network. At some northern stadiums it made sense to cover outdoor fan zones from the stadium system, since fans are rarely in the bowl and the fan zone at the same time. Fan zones can also stagger when crowds leave, easing pressure on train stations.

Maria argued that connectivity is just the start. Orchestration plus edge computing makes crowd gaming, multi-angle video and AI-generated statistics possible. In a project at MK Dons, an edge-hosted server streamed 13 camera feeds into the stadium app so fans could pick their angle. At the same time, Nokia analysed the feeds in real time to overlay player tracking, which would not have worked with the latency of a distant public cloud. Keeping data at the edge also helps with data sovereignty and lets different applications share it.

Tony noted a change in mindset at clubs. Many once resented independent content creators but now embrace anything that makes fans feel part of something that matters, because the social media exposure sells tickets. Gavin added that venues are increasingly interested in private 5G for more control and richer data, enabling features such as player cams and switchable camera views.

Get involved

This was techUK's first look at stadium and venue connectivity, and we plan to build on the discussion in 2027. If you would like to get involved in our work on connected venues and infrastructure, please contact Josh Turpin, Senior Programme Manager for Telecoms and Net Zero.