While stadiums become more and more expensive to build and manage, how can football clubs make sure they are maximising the return on their investment? Udinese’s marketing manager, Gianluca Pizzamiglio, attended the Thinking Football Summit in Portugal to speak about the main ideas in the market regarding hospitality, catering, sponsorship and activation in order to have a stadium that is active 365 days per year.
“Once again, Dacia Arena has confirmed its position as a model on the international stage for stadiums that are active 365 days per year,” stated Pizzamiglio. “It’s not the first time that our model of a stadium that is open not just on matchday has been taken as an example at major events such as Thinking Football.
“Our aim is to keep developing innovative projects linked to all different types of events, rather than purely football, which make Dacia Arena a core part of our community for sport and in other fields alike. This is down to the constant commitment shown by our partners, which have a growing feeling that the stadium is also their home.
“The challenge that we’re facing more and more now is linked to ecosustainability. At Dacia Arena, we’ve been using green energy for years thanks to Bluenergy and it’s our ambition to make it the first green stadium in Italy.”
The Udinese marketing manager had the chance to meet and interact with some major names in the world of European football such as Andy O'Sullivan, the stadium director at Tottenham Hotspur, Alexil Zhukovin, the head of infrastructure at Botev Plovdiv and Vicky Jaycock, the head of sales at Everton. The Summit was overseen by Natasha Thiebaut, the director of Bluerock.