In April, intechnologyWiFi installed its WiFi network solution for Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) at Headingley Cricket Ground. The network was quickly put through its paces with a series of county games, an international Test Match and a T20 fixture.

As one of the world’s oldest and most successful cricket clubs, and the current county champions, YCCC are no strangers to success and progress in the cricket arena.

When the club approached intechnologyWiFi earlier this year, however, they were looking to gain a greater understanding on who was attending games at their Leeds home – the 17,250 capacity Headingley ground – while also enhancing the match-day experience for their fans.

The intechnologyWiFi network solution met these two objectives with:

• • A WiFi network, providing free-to-use internet for fans (without restrictions on time), covering all the main seating, key internal hospitality areas and external public areas (e.g. car parking)
  • Installed and managed end-to-end for the life of the contract
  • No interference with existing network connections
  • A bespoke, YCCC-branded Captive Portal, facilitating tailored information capture during the WiFi log-on process
  • Allowing the club to better profile, understand and engage attendees
  • Informing future marketing campaigns, promotions, etc.
  • Potential for driving new revenue streams
  • Regular reporting of data during matches (e.g., number of registrations; congested areas)
  • Regular reports providing vital intelligence for the club for future planning, allocation of resources, etc.
  • Data package managed end-to-end by intechnologyWiFi: capture, analysis, storage and back-up

The YCCC WiFi network was installed in less than two weeks, allowing the club to capitalise on an exciting run of fixtures, including the First Investec Test Match, which took place at Headingley between 19–21 May.

As the first Test Match of England’s international season, Headingley saw over 40,000 people attend across three days (despite the clouds and rain). Of this number, 5,173 (~13%) made use of the WiFi, with up to 2000 connected to the network concurrently.

Those 5,000+ people made good use of the fast and free WiFi connection over the course of the match, blitzing through some 600GB of data – that’s enough for 5.8 million web pages to be viewed, 100+ million emails sent, 100,000+ high quality photos shared or 7.5 million tweets tweeted!

The match provided a world-class test-bed for the capabilities of the intechnologyWiFi network solution, with fantastic feedback received from both YCCC and users across social media – demonstrating the power of great stadium WiFi in today’s cricket landscape.

In the week following the England Test Match, Headingley hosted its first Natwest T20 Blast fixture of the season, with the Yorkshire Vikings taking on the Leicestershire Foxes on Friday 27 May.

The match saw 6,133 through the gates, keen to see their teams in action during the exciting, fast-paced limited over contest, which took place in the evening. Of those who attended, 1,261 (~20%) made use of the WiFi and consumed 60GB of data between 6–11pm.