A Next-Generation Arena, and up to $1.7M a Year Kept Inside the Organization
A major Canadian sports organization is preparing to open a new arena, with point-of-sale, ticketing, sponsorship and fan engagement all being chosen at once. This is what a payment and data layer is worth when it goes in before opening day instead of after.
Co-processing embedded value layer · All figures are directional estimates
What the current venue pays today.
Blended card processing rate of 1.5% to 2.6% on $730K to $927K in fan-facing revenue per game.
The organization's current venue processes $30M to $38M a year in fan-facing revenue across food and beverage, retail and event operations: roughly $730,000 to $927,000 a game. At a blended card processing rate of 1.5% to 2.6%, $11,000 to $24,000 of every game goes to payment processing instead of staying with the organization, where it could fund fan engagement and future investment.
Over a season that is $450,000 to $988,000, absorbed by the organization and passed on, indirectly, to the fan. The new, larger venue is projected to handle $35M to $50M a year, so the exposure grows from the first night it opens.
What was being evaluated.
The organization was weighing four priorities at the same time.
- Value per fan interaction
- Faster, frictionless payment changes how fans behave at the point of sale. Capturing more per visit, per fan, across a full home schedule compounds into material revenue, and it starts with knowing what fans buy, when, and how often they come back.
- Fan data ownership
- Arenas capture fan behaviour across ticketing, concessions, retail and events, but that data flows through third-party systems, point-of-sale providers and card networks, where the organization has limited visibility and the fan has none. The question was whether a new building could make that data serve the fan and the organization instead.
- New sponsorship inventory
- A branded payment and fan-data program is an inventory category that did not exist before. The organization is tracking it alongside the modelled value below, with its own valuation framework still being scoped.
- Transaction cost reduction
- At arena scale, card processing is not a rounding error. It is a structural cost in every fan interaction, every season. A new build is a window to address it at the infrastructure level rather than manage it after the fact.
The CredX layer, in the new build.
CredX runs as a co-processing embedded value layer, compatible with leading point-of-sale platforms, including the ones already selected for the new arena. Fans keep paying the way they do today: tap, scan a QR code or use a digital wallet. Qualifying card transactions route through CredX and settle at a flat rate instead of the card networks' variable interchange, so more of each sale stays inside the organization at a fixed, predictable cost.
Each transaction is also a source of insight. CredX captures the transaction, the spend category, visit frequency, spending patterns and payment method together: five connected data streams the organization cannot currently see in one place. Returned to the organization, they support fan segmentation, cross-property activation, personalized game-day offers and better operating and marketing decisions.
The same intelligence links fan spending to media and sponsorship. As sponsor-funded engagement becomes more data-driven, it can inform how media inventory is priced, packaged and delivered, so payments, sponsorship and media buying work from one picture instead of three.
SOC 2 and designed to align with PIPEDA. Data is de-identified and shared only on explicit opt-in.
Three capabilities it does not have today.
- One view of fan behaviour
- A unified picture of what fans do across every transaction in the building.
- New revenue
- Personalized engagement and sponsorship activation built on first-party fan intelligence.
- Lower operating costs
- Reduced transaction and hardware costs that improve operating margins.
The numbers.
The figures below are directional estimates of the platform's potential financial impact. Actual results will vary with venue operations, payment mix and fan adoption, and a venue-specific assessment would refine them using actual processing volumes.
| Assumption | Basis |
|---|---|
| Annual fan-facing transaction volume | Current venue: $30M–$38M. New arena projection: $35M–$50M a year. |
| Home schedule | 41 regular-season home games, plus concerts and other events. |
| Average transaction volume per game | Approximately $730K–$927K: current annual fan-facing revenue divided across the home schedule, excluding incremental event revenue. |
| Blended payment processing rate | 1.5%–2.6%, from the organization's processing profile and publicly available Canadian payment industry benchmarks. |
| Adoption scenarios | 40%, 65% and 85% of qualifying transactions routed through CredX. |
| Savings method | The blended processing rate applied to qualifying transaction volume under each adoption scenario. |
| Fan intelligence estimates | Revenue uplift derived from program benchmarks and applied directionally to projected venue volume. |
| All values | Modelling estimates, to be validated against the organization's actual transaction data in a venue value assessment. |
| Adoption | Per-season saving (41 games + events) | Approx. per game |
|---|---|---|
| 40% | $180K – $395K | ~$4.4K – $9.6K |
| 65% | $293K – $642K | ~$7.1K – $15.7K |
| 85% | $383K – $840K | ~$9.3K – $20.5K |
Savings are one part of the value. The same payment layer supports revenue growth through more repeat visits, better fan targeting, higher spend per visit and new sponsorship inventory built on first-party fan intelligence.
Across the whole portfolio.
This venue is one of five properties in the organization's portfolio. Across all five franchises, qualifying card volume runs $49M to $66M a year, rising to $83M to $115M once the new arena's projected volume is included.
Across the full system, transaction processing savings run $532,000 to $1.21 million a year, the conservative and upside cases of the combined value table below.
| Adoption | System-wide saving |
|---|---|
| 40% | $294K – $686K |
| 65% | $478K – $1.12M |
| 85% | $625K – $1.46M |
At 85% adoption, excluding the new arena: $625K to $1.46M. Including the new arena's projected volume (Stream 1 total), transaction processing savings run $637K to $2.90M a year.
What fan intelligence adds.
Directional estimates across the five properties.
Rather than only authorizing payments, the CredX layer captures behavioural intelligence that helps the organization bring fans back more often, improve campaign performance, raise spend per visit and build sponsor-ready audience segments.
The QR-based model also removes ongoing terminal rental and ownership costs, without any new hardware.
| Benchmark | Directional figure |
|---|---|
| Uplift | 321% |
| Greater spend when fans return | 76% |
| Revenue lift on targeted fan campaigns | 2–4× |
The 321% and 76% figures are PayPal benchmark data, not CredX results, shown for illustrative comparison in a similar embedded payment ecosystem.
| Value stream | Conservative | Base case (65%) | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction processing savings | $532K | ~$796K | $1.21M |
| QR hardware & settlement savings | $110K | $170K | $230K |
| Fan intelligence | $131K | ~$197K | $262K |
| Combined annual value | $773K | ~$1.16M | $1.70M |
With the new arena's projected volume included, the combined value available to stay inside the venue ecosystem is $878K to $3.39M a year.
Why the new build changes the timing.
Retrofitting a financial infrastructure layer into an operating arena is hard. The contracts are signed, the systems are integrated and the cost of switching is high. A new build removes that problem.
The new arena carries forward the same franchise and fan base in a larger, next-generation home. The window between choosing infrastructure and opening day is the most practical moment to put a payment and data layer under the whole fan experience, before contracts and hardware are locked in for another generation. Organizations that decide at the infrastructure stage capture the value of fan adoption from the first night; those that defer keep absorbing card processing costs.
Local spending should create local value.
What the fan experiences.
Nothing complicated. Fans tap, scan a QR code or pay with a digital wallet, the same way they always have. The platform is white-labelled: the organization's brand, colours and name are on it at every touchpoint, and CredX stays in the background. Fans see the team's program, not CredX.
Card networks process the transaction, but they do not build the arena, develop the players, design the fan experience or create the community. The technology, compliance and credit infrastructure are CredX's. The brand, the fan relationship and the value that stays inside the building belong to the organization.
Find what your venue could keep.
CredX models your actual transaction volume, sponsorship opportunities and fan engagement to identify the value that could stay inside your venue.