By George Vaughan, The Digital Line

For decades, premium hospitality in sports and entertainment venues was relatively easy to define. There were standard seats and there were boxes. One was for the fan. The other, more often than not, was for the corporate guest.

Today, that distinction is becoming much less clear.

Across new-build and redeveloped venues, premium is no longer confined to a ring of private suites overlooking the bowl. It is spreading through the building in different forms and at different price points: shared clubs, loges, courtside experiences, members’ lounges, all-inclusive seating, private spaces connected to seats within the crowd, priority access and experiential upgrades.

The result means that premium is becoming less about where somebody sits and more about how somebody experiences the venue.

And there is a strong commercial rationale behind that change. 

At the University of Kansas, the $450 million transformation of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium introduced 23 new premium seating products. Ahead of the 2025 football season, premium seating sales generated $187 million in capital commitments, around $60 million above initial projections. 

Read the full article from ISSUE 49 below: