Vision Pro may help Real Madrid’s capacity issue—but it could help accessibility too.
Ryan Christoffel at 9to5 Mac reports today Apple is in talks with Spanish soccer club Real Madrid to purportedly use Vision Pro and Apple Immersive Video as part of the upgrades to the club’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Christoffel notes the venue is currently undergoing “a costly transformation,” with Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez telling Spanish sports news site Marca the stadium regularly exceeds capacity.
“It’s a problem,” Pérez said. “Everyone wants to come to the Santiago Bernabéu. That’s why we are negotiating with Apple about being able to put on glasses and watch the game as if you were in the stadium. It would be the infinite Santiago Bernebéu. It’s Real Madrid and the future—the end of that there are no tickets, of the famous ‘sold out.’”
As Christoffel also notes, Pérez neither specifically cites Vision Pro nor offers details on what exactly is being discussed with Apple. The gist, however, seems to be Apple Immersive Video vis-a-vis Vision Pro would solve Santiago Bernabéu’s capacity problem because more people would be allowed to watch matches live as if they were actually at the venue.
However interesting from a technical perspective, it’s also interesting from an accessibility standpoint. As I wrote in my April review, Vision Pro is “unquestionably the best device I’ve ever used for watching video” and “video alone is reason enough” to buy the thing if you’re a Blind or low vision person like me. Not everyone, disabled or not, can afford Vision Pro in its current incarnation. Yet the device is so good for watching video that I can see how it would work wonders for live sports.
As someone with low vision, attending live sporting events is fun for the ambiance and pomp and circumstance, but isn’t so fun when it comes to actually paying attention to the action on the field. More often than not, I’m seated too far away to really understand what’s happening; usually, I ask someone else for updates or let the roars of the crowd dictate whether a good or bad play happened. Earlier this year, I was interviewed by ESPN on this very subject. Live sporting events leave much to be desired if you’re visually impaired, in my experience at least.
Luckily for me, I do have a Vision Pro that I love using to watch content on Apple TV+ or Disney+. It’s fascinating, then, to ponder how that experience could be extended to enjoying live sports. It’d certainly make attending Giants or Warriors or Bay FC games exponentially more appealing, knowing I could pack my Vision Pro in the carrying case and bring it with me to Oracle Park or Chase Center or PayPal Park, respectively. Instead of asking my seat mate and/or let the ambient noise alert me to the action, I could literally see it for myself via Vision Pro.
And if I couldn’t be at the venue, I could still watch live from home.
Vision Pro’s entertainment story is, while stellar, isn’t without some warts. I wish Netflix and Prime Video, for example, made native visionOS apps. Likewise, I wish Channels was on visionOS so I could access my over-the-air television as well. All told, however, watching stuff on a 100-foot screen, with impeccable visual fidelity to boot, is an incredible experience for accessibility. Perhaps it’ll be so for live sports.
