Manchester City will be the first-ever soccer club to have its stadium in the virtual world for fans to explore.
Blockchain technologies have been slowly entering the sports industry, with several teams making sponsorship deals, and driving fan engagement via collectibles. However, Man City will seemingly become the first sports team to have a stadium in the metaverse.
According to the report, the world-renowned soccer team made a three-year partnership deal with one of the largest tech companies in the world Sony.
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Knowing that the tech giant also has a large presence in the video game industry, the creation of the Etihad Stadium in the metaverse will feature Sony’s Hawk-Eye computer vision system that will track player movement and perform image analysis.
Man City’s Chief Marketing Officer Nuria Tarre spoke on the plans for the metaverse, arguing that fans will be able to watch the game from any angle they want and spectate any part of the game without being restricted by physical barriers. She added:
"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."
With the plans for the metaverse, the collaboration will seek to drive fan engagement by letting soccer enthusiasts meet in the metaverse, with options to acquire exclusive digital assets.
Earlier this month, several legendary players of the earlier Manchester United squad have announced that they will be creating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that will act as an investment platform for soccer projects.