Sports organizations can leverage tech to streamline the live fan experience |
Casual NFL fans may have watched the league’s London 2025 experience from afar, letting the usual glossy production values and familiar coverage beats wash over them, and remained oblivious to the technological issues that plagued the event.
Specifically, the NFL’s Week 5 game between the Cleveland Browns and Minnesota Vikings reportedly saw roughly 2,000 fans stuck outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium due to a ticket downloading issue — which backed up visitor queues and kept many fans from reaching their seats before kickoff.
It’s a bad look for America’s premier sports league — a multibillion-dollar organization — to flub such a central (and seemingly simple) element of the fan experience. More than that, it’s a PR nightmare and a legitimate threat to both future growth and customer retention when a legion of curious European fans and traveling Americans are turned off by the product before ever getting a chance to set foot inside the venue. At a time when many NFL fans prefer to stay home or find another remote viewing setting over attending a game live, the league should take London as a signal to get its tech ducks in a row — and right away.
The purpose of........