Manchester City to build world's first metaverse football stadium
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English football club Manchester City is teaming up with Sony to build a virtual reality football stadium where fans can watch live games and meet their superstars.
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Sony experts have visited the Etihad stadium to map it digitally and recreate it in virtual reality.
A report published by iNews website revealed that English football club Manchester City are in the process of building the world's first metaverse football stadium with the help of tech giant Sony.
According to the report, Sony is using "image analysis and skeletal-tracking technologies" developed by Hawk-Eye -- a Sony group company -- to recreate a virtual reality version of City's Etihad stadium
The Club's officials are hoping the project would work to enable its fans who are unable to fly to Etihad to enjoy watching live games anywhere in the world.
Sony and Manchester City have signed a three-year deal, and experts from Sony "have already visited the Etihad to map it digitally and recreate it in virtual reality," indicated iNews.
🚨 Manchester City will become the first Premier League club to enter to Metaverse after beginning construction of the virtual Etihad stadium with the help of Sony's VR experts.
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) February 22, 2022
They have signed a 3-year partnership with Sony.
(Source: SI) pic.twitter.com/TBTRVgfu1P
"Other ideas being explored involve fans meeting players in the metaverse, interacting with one another and purchasing products that are not available in real life," the website added.
Nuria Tarre, Manchester City Football Group’s chief marketing and fan engagement officer, explained that through this innovative project "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."
For his part, Andy Etches, co-founder of Rezzil -- a company that has developed the metaverse game Player 22 used by Premier League clubs to train players -- pointed out that the idea is "not too far off."
“We could pretty much deliver it now, although at this stage it would more likely be a computer-generated version,” he told iNews.
