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Premier League champions Manchester City and Sony have begun the construction of Etihad Stadium in the Metaverse to serve the purpose of virtual recreation.
Do You Know Metaverse?
A virtual reality version of the internet that is accessible to users through their mini digital version is called ‘digital avatars.’ Facebook, now Meta has been leading the charge in transforming metaverse into a new reality. The objective of Facebook is to create 'a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you.' Users can work, play, hang out, create, explore, among other things through Metaverse. Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, is betting big on the potential of a virtual reality world determining our future. He sees it as the next generation of the internet, where everyone will connect, trading flat displays for three-dimensional immersions.
Etihad in Metaverse
Etihad Stadium is home to England’s premier soccer team, Manchester City. Earlier this month, the premier league’s digital pioneers have signed a three-year partnership with Sony. The club’s stadium will become the center of Manchester City in a virtual reality environment due to image analysis and skeletal-tracking technologies developed by Hawk Eye. Hawk-Eye is a subsidiary of the tech and entertainment behemoth, Sony. Individuals working on the project foresee a time when fans who may never be able to watch live Manchester games can now watch live games within the comfort of their homes located anywhere in the world. The introduction of the Metaverse has been beneficial to people all across the globe. As the pandemic broke out, Covid limitations continued to limit people’s travel choices, the chance to attend live games or live concerts. The opportunity to watch games in an immersive Metaverse environment might be a welcome reprieve for those who are wanting to go back into a gaming setting. By constructing the virtual Etihad Stadium, Manchester City is breaking down geographical barriers for fans who want to be a part of live games. On February 18, City Football Group’s Chief Marketing and Fan Engagement Office, Nuria Tarre said,
“The whole point we could imagine of having a Metaverse is 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, it’s completely virtual.”
Tarre further continues to explain that the user is in control of what they want to watch.
“There’s not one broadcast point of view, you can look at it through any angle of the stadium. That’s the sky – the limit.”
Sony's Hawk-Eye subsidiary has long been committed to improving sports for both spectators and officials. It uses replay technology to assist referees in making in-game decisions in real-time. Its visualization feature will be utilized to recreate Etihad Stadium in the Metaverse. At present, the metaverse is accessible via a headset and can be navigated with hand controllers. Football and virtual reality developers think that present technology will allow a match to be duplicated in a digital version, similar to how the Fifa video game appears, but that in the future, viewers will be able to witness real games played within a virtual stadium. Andy Etches, co-founder of Rezzil, a firm that created Player 22 in the Metaverse stated,
“We could pretty much deliver it now, although at this stage it would more likely be a computer-generated version.”
If the metaverse garners attention in football, it has the potential to transform broadcasting rights that are presently sold to broadcasters as part of the Premier League package. The possibility of selling these themselves, through their metaverse looks exciting. Whatever the case may be, the influence of the new digital world is massive and the rate of change is rapid!
“I think the traditional image of someone sitting on a sofa, watching a screen, is something we cannot imagine is going still be the reality not even in 10 years, maybe in five years already,” remarks Tarre.
Further continuing Tarre stated,
“For many fans, the first contact with football is actually through Fifa – that’s a video game experience. Then they enjoy it [and] then come to the real game. We need to be very open-minded about the opportunity this gives for the future fans.”
While on one side, Manchester and Sony plan on building Etihad in Metaverse, on the other hand, they are also exploring how fans can meet in the metaverse, participate, what they wish to engage in, how long would they like to stay, and if they do have a desire to buy virtual items that exist in the virtual world only. However, the plans of users engaging in the metaverse are limited to aim at the younger audience only - the next generation of fans of football. And this initiative is not taken to replace the originality. Manchester City is all out to seize both the opportunities of ‘increased interactivity and virtual items ownership’ to provide supporters with maximum access to the team and the stadium as well. Liverpool FC, the Reds have been inspired by Manchester City to move into the Web 3 ecosystem and the Metaverse. Rivals Manchester United have also entered the Web3 ecosystem, partnering with Tezos (XTZ) on February 10.