Manchester City, in collaboration with Sony, have started the process of building the world’s first football stadium in the metaverse.
Sony will provide virtual reality to experts to use image analysis and skeletal-tracking technology from subsidiary Hawk-Eye.
The virtual rendering of Man City’s home stadium will include a new fan loyalty rewards program and the ability for users to customize their avatars. Sony says it will use “multiple” technologies across its entire ecosystem to make Man City’s virtual world.
Club officials believe that the ultimate goal is to be able to fill up the virtual stadium’s capacity on numerous occasions, to ensure City fans that may never travel to Manchester can still watch live matches involving their club within the comfort of their own homes.
“You can recreate a game, you could watch the game live, you’re part of the action in a different way through different angles and you can fill the stadium as much as you want because it’s unlimited,” said Manchester City chief marketing officer Nuria Tarre.
With Manchester City signing a three-year deal with Sony in 2021, aiming to develop new digital fan experiences, it has been claimed that the company’s experts have already visited the Etihad Stadium to digitally map it to recreate it in the virtual space.
Sony’s Hawk-Eye subsidiary has long been dedicated to enhancing sports for viewers and officials. It helps officials make in-game judgments in real-time with specialized replay technology. Its visualization applications will be used to recreate the dimensions of Etihad Stadium in the metaverse.
