Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. But after a global pandemic nearly caused the world to grind to a complete halt, fewer people than ever are heading to the stadium to enjoy their favorite pastime. The good news is that many sports organizations have closed this gap by creating virtual venues online, which enable fans to sit in a virtual stadium seat and enjoy the game from the comfort of their own home.
Below, learn more about virtual venues for football games and the popular engagement tools they deploy to improve the user experience.
What Are Virtual Event Venues?
Virtual event venues are digitally rendered stadiums, concert halls, conference rooms, and more that empower organizations to host myriad events including large-scale, televised experiences such as football games, sports championships, and awards ceremonies.
In the case of a sporting event, the virtual venue will take the form of a virtual stadium, designed to simulate the POV of an in-person event as closely as possible and create a rich and engaging user experience. The event venue usually mimics the real stadium, with added benefits. Since there are no physical engineering restrictions to get in the way of the design, organizations can use design elements that may be impossible to achieve in real life and engage with their fan base like never before.
Benefits of Virtual Football Stadiums
Virtual football stadiums are an online event venue created to look like a traditional football stadium including a field, goal posts, stadium seating, and other small details. They create unique fan experiences that can promote your team franchise and increase your following year round. There are multiple benefits of choosing virtual stadiums for your football game or of hosting a hybrid sporting event, where users have the choice to attend the event either in-person or virtually.
- Reach a larger audience. Virtual event platforms allow people to attend your event from all across the globe. Attendance isn’t limited to a user’s geographic location, and the platform gives fans an easy way to show support and interact with their favorite team in an always-on environment.
- Provide real-time foreign language translation. Users can sign up to view the event in their preferred language, and your virtual event platform can translate in real-time. Chat rooms are also available to connect users in different regions with one another.
- Eliminate physical restrictions. If you've chosen to build a virtual football stadium, there are no physical restrictions to how your stadium will look and feel. For example, if you want to give users the illusion they are sitting in luxury recliners to watch the football game, you can include this feature - without spending a dime on upholstery fabric!
- Save money. As mentioned above, you don't have to invest in physical features when you host your event on a virtual platform. You don't have to pay stadium fees or cover the cost of food, merchandise, etc.
- Improve attendance rates. Virtual events make it easier for people to attend because they eliminate travel and similar expenses. Therefore, attendance rates tend to be better for virtual events than for in-person ones, and the platform enables you to communicate with your audience 24/7/365.
- Facilitate easy ticket purchasing. Booking tickets to a virtual football game or other event online is easy and secure and removes the risk of ticket scalping.
- Make stadium seat selection easy. Virtual event platforms usually offer interactive seating charts that allow users to browse available seats before purchasing their tickets. Some platforms also offer a virtual stadium view, where users can visualize what the game will look like from their selected seat before making their final purchase.
- Generate continuous excitement. A virtual stadium allows you to build momentum for important games and events by easily sharing news, social posts, and more with fans and sponsors worldwide. You can also hear what your fans have to say in return via easy messaging, chat, and networking tools.
- Analyze the event. Hosting a virtual event affords you a plethora of analytics tools that allow you to measure your event attendance, engagement rates, website clicks, and much more.
- Thoughtfully plan in-person stadium changes. With a virtual stadium, you can visualize physical changes to your in-person stadium before committing to them. Here, you can move objects, change designs, and even renovate without absorbing any cost. Once you are satisfied with proposed changes, you can execute. This eliminates potential mistakes.
Virtual sports events like football games can be a great way to get together with family or friends who live in different regions. Users can plan virtual gatherings and invite people from all over the world to join them for the festivities.
Sponsors of your organization can also utilize your virtual stadium to showcase their brand, expand their audience, and launch exclusive promotions - reinforcing their connection to your team and increasing recurring revenue opportunities.
How a Virtual Stadium Benefits Your Audience
Virtual stadiums don't just benefit the organizations that build them. There are also a number of advantages for audience members who engage with their favorite teams in a digital arena. Dealing with large crowds, inclement weather, and the high cost of food and drink at a sports complex can be challenging at best and impossible for many. When you create a virtual event venue, you immediately make your event more accessible to people within your community and across your fan base. Other benefits to consider:
- Convenience. Fans won't have to travel far to attend their favorite sports games, making it more convenient than ever to cheer on their favorite teams. Virtual venues also make it easier for fans to host their own get-togethers.
- Realistic game immersion. Virtual venues help to create realistic game immersion, even when users are far away. Three-dimensional designs and high-quality graphics help make your virtual venue visually engaging for your audience.
- Playback and rewind capabilities. Virtual stadiums can give users the ability to rewind a recorded game and play it back without leaving the venue or interrupting the live game. Watching the game becomes more enjoyable when users can rewind a play, slow it down, and watch it frame by frame.
- Easy attendance. Traffic, parking, and waiting in lines for concessions and merchandise at an in-person football game can be stressful, but the same is not true of a virtual stadium. Audience members won't have to fight the crowd at your virtual venue.
Virtual Stadium Seating Options
Virtual stadium seating is as dynamic as stadium seating in real life. You can have traditional public seating, sectioned seating, and private VIP rooms with interior and exterior seating in your virtual stadium. Customize your VIP rooms with on-brand decor, furniture, and more.
Market Events Taking Place At Your Virtual Venue
Once your virtual stadium has been created and you begin to schedule events, it's important to have a solid digital marketing plan in place to attract attendees. Here are some ideas to market the events taking place at your virtual venue:
- Social media marketing. Creating social media accounts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Twitter, just to name a few, is free and an extremely valuable way to market your virtual events. Facebook is also a great place to use paid ads due to the channel's superior geo-targeting options.
- Email marketing. Encourage people to sign up for a monthly or weekly email newsletter that markets upcoming events at your virtual stadium. You can also offer exclusive discounts, coupons, or VIP stadium seating to subscribers as an incentive to register.
- Content marketing. Content marketing is a critical component of any digital advertising strategy. You should post engaging blogs to your website and social media channels regularly to improve your search engine optimization and keep your audience engaged with your brand.
Build Your Virtual Event Platform Today
After the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people are heading to the stadium to enjoy football games in-person. Fortunately, many people can now enjoy the flexibility and versatility that hosting virtual events in digital spaces offers.
Virtual football stadiums are the next big shift in sports event technology and to remain successful, you should be on the forefront of this change. 6Connex is the top provider of in-person, virtual, and hybrid event technology for companies across the globe. Our reliable team of virtual event professionals can help you create a virtual football stadium designed to meet the needs of your organization and its target audience.
Our virtual event platform includes the latest features, apps, integrations, and other virtual event solutions. We can also help with marketing, sales, HR recruitment, employee training, virtual or in person event planning, remote office development, and more. We'll help you transform your innovative ideas into tangible, measurable results to help grow your business and its revenue year over year. Request a virtual event platform demo to learn more today.
