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Stadium Tech Report

October 8th, 2026

Editorial

5 takeaways from Converge summit

The organizers of STR Converge framed two days of discussion around the iconic movie "Miracle," then spent those two days arguing against the moral most people draw from it. The miracle is the story we tell. The Soviet national hockey program that won nine world championships without indoor arenas is the story we should study. As STR Publisher and summit...

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What Vince Lombardi can teach us about stadium technology

Football has spent much of its history becoming something the previous generation did not recognize. The forward pass was an intrusion. Television was viewed as a threat to ticket sales. Giant video boards gave fans a reason to look somewhere other than the field. Smartphones piled on. Even Madden, a video game built to imitate football, became sophisticated enough to...

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What is a frictionless fan worth?

A new J.D. Power study of airport passengers offers stadium operators a useful way to think about the economic value of reducing friction inside a venue. The 2026 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, released Sept. 16, surveyed 24,710 passengers and found that travelers who rated their airport experience as perfect spent an average of $47.60 in the terminal, $20.22 more...

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Technical debt is like a hidden tax on stadium business

How much is it costing yours? Stadium owners spend enormous amounts of time tracking construction budgets, operating expenses and capital replacement plans. There is another technology cost they rarely measure: technical debt. The term originated in software development, where it describes the future burden created when organizations make technology choices that solve an immediate problem but make systems more difficult...

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The missing layer in the Smart Stadium: operating capability

A stadium can have excellent technology and still struggle to get value from it. That is something I think gets overlooked. A lot of attention goes into choosing systems, installing them and making sure everything works before opening. That makes sense. Stadium technology is expensive, complex and increasingly connected to almost every part of the venue. But installation is only...

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Convergence is an ownership strategy

How early technology decisions shape operations and business performance at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park When building a new stadium, the most important technology decisions are not always the ones fans notice first. Long before opening day, stadium owners make choices about the building’s infrastructure and whether it can adapt as the venue’s needs change. Those choices affect how efficiently...

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