A look inside the newly refurbished Victory Suite and Fans Zone at Portsmouth Football Club
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00:00I'm Mark Judges, I'm the Director of Sales at Portsmouth Football Club.
00:04So Mark, just tell us a little bit about the new changes and why the changes?
00:10Yeah, so we've completely refitted the Victory Suite, previously known as the Victor and Warrior
00:15Lounge. That's basically been a summer schedule of work, which has seen the place completely
00:21changed. So we've lifted the ceiling, sort of made it feel a little bit more open and airy to people,
00:25changed the sort of architectural features in the middle of the room and changed lighting to
00:30allow mood lighting on match days and non-match days, as well as sort of leaning into people's
00:35brands with different colours. I think you'll predominantly see it in blue, but ultimately
00:40it fundamentally is a different space. So try to bring forward something the city can be proud of,
00:45not just the football club. The work as is sort of taken across the bars, the general sort of
00:51internal space, as well as sort of the TVs and AVs. So there's a full state-of-the-art AV solution,
00:59a large LED screen which can be used for conferencing and events, as well as showing
01:03games on match days and watch-along parties during sort of significant football tournaments
01:07and other sporting events. In addition to being able to split the space into multiple sizes to
01:13allow for events on match day as well as non-match day. So with Remembrance Fixture coming up this
01:19weekend, the space will be split to cater to allow us to have the armed forces have a space
01:25to be able to go to their briefing before going out on the pitch, and then opened up for supporters
01:30as well as on non-match day being able to run two events in sort of tandem with each other. But
01:35that's sort of the focus on the inside, and then on the outside we've done a whole refit of the
01:40outside space, getting rid of sort of the individual access doors and ramped access that was there,
01:46which also probably lent itself to being a bit of a trip hazard at times, and
01:50sort of brought in a gradual internal to external space which allows sort of accessible for all,
01:56and a wheel-in-wheel-out sort of culture which is really really positive. And also added,
02:01we previously had one container on the outside for food and beverage, we've now got four,
02:05all have varying uses, two of which will be F&B related, one of which will be merchandise,
02:10and another will be sort of centred around match day activation, whether that be for
02:14charities like Pompey and the Community or for match day sponsors,
02:18it really lends itself to be a versatile space and expand our business portfolio.
02:23So just going back to the Victory Suite being used on non-match days, what's the benefit and
02:32the future of generating that extra revenue for the club?
02:37Yeah, I think any sports club is always looking to diversify their commercial revenue streams,
02:44we're no different, I think for us we're wanting to try and change the space into being
02:48sort of really beneficial to the supporters on 23 match days a year, to actually being a 365
02:54day a year business, which can bring in the local community and hold their meetings here,
02:59whether they're sort of awards dinners and AGMs, or whether it be sort of two-day conferences from
03:04sort of larger corporate businesses, but ultimately it brings in additional commercial revenue,
03:10it allows us to diversify our reach into the community and really sort of deliver on more
03:15revenue coming into the football club. And tell me, what do you think the reaction will be like
03:19for the new fan zone? I think it'll be really positive, I think a lot of fans have obviously
03:24seen it sort of progressing over the last few games, and sort of a lot of questions going on,
03:28what's that going to be, what's that going to be used for, and when it all comes together and
03:32people can see what it is, it's going to be really positive. I think it's a real statement from what
03:36was there previously, and ultimately will hopefully enrich fan experience. At the end of
03:41the day we're here to create memorable experiences for our supporters, and the fan zone is the start
03:46of that upon sort of arrival on match day, and ultimately been able to have more dedicated space
03:51which allows fans to access food and beverage quicker, but also be able to pop to the club shop
03:57on the concourse rather than having to go up the road, is a really really positive thing for us.
04:01And I can't wait to sort of hear the DJ, I think a lot of supporters who have come along previously
04:06will have been sort of confined to the noise in one place, and now there's a speaker system
04:11going along the whole of the fan zone which will really enrich everyone's experience and
04:14get them involved in match day.