North-West autonomous technology innovators, GroundWOW, have recently announced the agreement of a Development Partnership with National Football League side Stockport County FC. The deal will see GroundWOW autonomous print capability deployed at Edgeley Park by the technology start-up whose journey began more recently than that of the club whose origins trace back to 1883.
“We are absolutely thrilled to finally announce this” said GroundWOW Chief Commercial Officer David Pritchard, who began discussion with the Hatters earlier this year. “We have been talking for a while and the deal makes sense on so many levels. Stockport’s ambition is obvious to anybody who is around the club just now and with ambitious plans of our own, it felt like a great fit from the moment we first met” continued Pritchard.
“At this stage in our own roll out, we need to work with creative thinkers, innovators and individuals that are willing to embrace what technology has to offer. We saw that straight away in Stockport who have never shied away from doing things differently. We know the club have a strong commercial foothold in the community and so bringing a world first capability to that setting is a source of real excitement. We gain stadium authentic access and get to work alongside first-class teams in operations, commercial and marketing. For the club, the agreement provides 24 hours a day access to a world first technology that turns stadium-wide real estate into a revenue generating opportunity”.
The opportunities for this partnership will go way beyond game days though and the partners are already deep into planning some exciting activations for the months ahead. “We went to see GroundWOW at their high-tech headquarters and we were blown away by what they are doing”. said Rick Simkin, Stockport’s Director of Operations. “While we can see the obvious opportunity for match day activations, it was obvious that their vision aligned with ours for non-match day opportunities as well. Outside of football, people might know Edgeley Park for its appearance in the Blossoms film (Back to Stockport) or the huge branding that sits atop the stands visible on the flight path into Manchester airport. GroundWOW think on the same scale and so we are excited to imagine the sort of activations we can bring to life”.
The announcement of the deal with Stockport is another major news story in a week when GroundWOW were named Innovation winners at the globally profiled StadiumBusinessSummit Awards 2021, a world leading stadium technology showcase held at Emirates Old Trafford Stadium.