London Stadium goes cashless for fans’ ease

Article posted by Coliseum, December 7^th, 2020

Image: MJR Group Ltd./Coliseum

The United Kingdom has just come out of a second national lockdown as COVID-19 has throttled the island nation once again. As of December 2^nd, England returned to a revised tiered system of COVID-19 restrictions from the period of national lockdown during November.

Under the new rules, most sports facilities can open across all tiers. With this, football fans are planning their return to stadia across the country and the London Stadium is pulling out all stops to provide guests a safe and secure match day experience.

London Stadium is a multipurpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London. It was constructed specifically for the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Paralympics, serving as the track-and-field venue, and as the site of their opening and closing ceremonies.

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Recent upgrades to the venue have been made with technology in mind, thus providing the stage for a safe, secure and fully ‘connected’ experience.

High density WiFi will allow fans to enjoy free, fast and stable download speeds of up to 30mb per second and will help boost connectivity and efficiency across the facility.

Features will include the venue going totally cashless so as to enable a convenient and contactless point of payment, ensuring the latest hygiene and social distancing measures can be incorporated into retail and refreshment purchases.

Once the venue returns to full house, the above upgrades will help cut down on queuing time at bars and eateries, increase speed of service and raise hygiene standards. Fans will also miss out less on the pitch action with no lines of worry on their foreheads at the point of sale.

The cashless facility is not just for the customer, but will also extend to all food and beverage merchants, with the improved security and logistics of payment taken care of directly via contactless cards, wearables, digital wallets or QR codes.

The Chief of London Stadium, Graham Gilmore, stated, “The event industry has to be proactive in responding to the situation we find ourselves in, to create a safe and convenient environment for people to return to our venues. Fans come to our stadium for unforgettable experiences, going cashless means that whether you are coming to London Stadium to watch football, baseball, rugby or a concert, you are going to have a better customer journey and spend more time watching the action.”

“A significant amount of work has gone into preparing the stadium and making it fully compliant with Government regulations, so we can’t wait to welcome fans back this week,” Gilmore added.

Apart from the cashless feature, supporters will be able to enjoy other facilities which has been added to the arena during the lockdown period – the setting up of a futuristic LED lighting system, improved visibility and uniformity on the field of play, and a new seat configuration bringing the seats closer to the pitch and more versatile when transitioning for summer concerts and sports.

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