Charlotte Hornets Step Up Their Mobile Game With New App

August 7, 2024         By: Steven Anderson

When I was a kid, I had an irrational fondness for the Charlotte Hornets. Given that I lived in Michigan and knew absolutely no one in North Carolina, it was plenty irrational. Perhaps I just had an oddly prescient vision, because now, the Hornets are the objects of a new mobile payments push that will let fans get access to just about anything from a mobile interface.

Not only will the concession stands be hooked into this app, with users able to order their food and drink from a smartphone, but there will also be access to other features as well, like real-time player stats right in the middle of the game. Tickets will be scanned right as users walk into the Spectrum Center, making that process a lot smoother by comparison.

The Hornets already had an app, reports note, but the new version—set to be available October 2—will be a significant upgrade from the previous version and incorporate a lot of new features. A further advantage for the organization itself, meanwhile, is that the app can also collect customer data and route it back to the Hornets organization itself for later use.

What’s more, the Hornets join teams like Sacramento, Portland and several others who have done likewise. The Hornets staged a pretty substantial upgrade to its stadium Wi-Fi in order to give the app the necessary backbone on which to operate, with around 100,000 users having already downloaded the old Hornets app.

In an environment where customers are much more able to stay home and be entertained, getting users to come out for a complete stadium experience requires a lot more than just showing a game in progress. No, it takes those extras like food you can only get at the stadium, or other experiences unique to the venue, in order to make it worthwhile. This is a lesson movie theaters either have learned or are still learning; look at how they’ve added unusual food options or even daycare.

Adding mobile payments to the mix, along with mobile order-ahead, certainly can’t hurt. While my fondness for a remote sports team as a boy might have been irrational, they’ve certainly added plenty of tangible reasons to keep a closer eye on them now.