Project Scope

Modernise point of sale operations across public catering, VIP hospitality, and retail merchandising, delivering speed, flexibility, and integration for matchday service. 

Requirements 

• Fully cashless transaction processing 

• High-speed service for public concourses 

• Table service functionality for VIP lounges 

• ERP integration for retail operations 

• Offline mode to ensure uninterrupted trading 

• Compact POS hardware for kiosks and vans 

• Real-time customer displays and promotional tools 

Zucchetti Solutions 

• TCPOS  

• Fixed POS terminals 

• Mobile POS handhelds 

• Compact tills for kiosks and matchday vans 

About the Client 

A leading German football stadium with a capacity of more than 42,000 seats is one of the country’s best-known sporting arenas. On matchdays, thousands of fans stream through the gates, each with only a short window to order food, buy merchandise, and take their seats before kick-off. In the concourse, speed is the priority, queues must move quickly to serve the crowds. In the VIP lounges, however, expectations are different: guests want restaurant-style dining, with orders taken at the table and service paced smoothly between courses. 

At the same time, retail teams face their busiest trading hours. Permanent stores and pop-up vans must serve fans quickly, while managing complex product ranges from replica kits to customised memorabilia. With sales concentrated into just a few hours, every transaction matters. The stadium needed a POS solution that could handle both the scale of matchday catering and the precision of retail, all while integrating seamlessly with enterprise systems. 

Customer Requirements 

Before Zucchetti, the stadium’s operations were being held back by an ageing POS system. The hardware was outdated, and the system could not support the heavy demands of matchday service. Public catering service operators required high-speed, high-volume transactions to keep queues moving. VIP lounges needed restaurant-style table service, with the ability to place orders against a table and settle the bill at the end of the match. 

At the same time, retail operations were preparing to migrate to a new ERP system and required a POS that could integrate seamlessly. Just as important was offline resilience. They needed a robust solution that could function even during network outages  

Finally, the stadium needed a flexible solution that could be deployed across very different environments from large-scale catering counters to compact kiosks and temporary pop -up vans. 

The Project 

Implemented Solutions 

• Zucchetti’s TCPOS software tailored to their specific needs and custom integrations 

• Over 180 fixed POS terminals rolled out across public and VIP catering areas, all operating cashlessly. 

• Compact tills installed in matchday vans, combining printers and customer displays in a small footprint. 

• More than 150 TCPOS SmartPOS handhelds introduced in 2024, used by mobile runners in the stands and by waitstaff in the VIP lounges. 

Features Delivered 

• Dual service modes: fast transactions for public catering, table service for VIP lounges. 

• Real-time ERP integration for merchandising. 

• Offline functionality to guarantee uninterrupted trading. 

• Customer-facing displays in retail outlets for basket visibility and promotions. 

Implementation  

The project was completed within six months, carefully aligned with the start of the Bundesliga season. Like all stadium deployments, it had to be delivered in the “frozen” window between seasons. Once matches began, the system had to run flawlessly, with no possibility of changes mid-season. 

The initial phase focused on hospitality. Once live, the system immediately demonstrated its reliability and flexibility, leading to a follow-on contract for retail and merchandising just five months later. 

Results 

Hospitality

 
Matchday service is now fully digital and cashless: 

• Public catering benefits from high-speed tills that reduce queues at peak times. 

• In the VIP lounges, staff who once carried pens and notepads now use handheld POS devices to take orders directly at the table. Bills are linked to the table and closed seamlessly at the end of the match, providing a polished restaurant-style experience. 

• Mobile runners use handhelds to sell drinks and snacks directly in the stands, creating new revenue streams while reducing congestion at kiosks. 

Merchandising 

Retail operations have also been transformed: 

• ERP integration ensures real-time accuracy across stock, pricing, and sales data. 

• Offline mode proved especially valuable, allowing tills to continue trading even during connectivity issues. Where outages once meant queues stalling and frustrated fans leaving empty-handed, sales now continue uninterrupted, safeguarding revenue during the most critical matchday periods. 

• Compact tills enabled retail to operate efficiently in space-constrained vans around the stadium. 

• Customer-facing displays improved the checkout experience by showing baskets in real time and promoting special offers. 

Scalability and Trust 

The success of the hospitality rollout gave the stadium the confidence to extend TCPOS into retail. The trust built during the first phase has since evolved into a longer-term partnership, with the system now at the heart of both catering and merchandising operations. 

The stadium continues to expand its use of TCPOS, exploring new features and products such as Zucchetti’s digital receipts solution, E-Bon and voucher management integration to modernise manual processes. 

Conclusion 

By delivering a fully cashless, multifunctional POS solution, Zucchetti enabled one of Germany’s largest stadiums to modernise its operations from the ground up. TCPOS now powers the speed and scale of public catering, the refinement of VIP table service, and the complexity of merchandising — all with the resilience of offline capability to ensure sales never stop, even when connectivity does. 

For staff, the changes have been transformative: pen-and-paper orders have given way to digital handhelds, queues move more quickly, and retail teams can serve fans with confidence. For fans, the experience is smoother, faster, and more enjoyable, no matter where in the stadium they choose to spend their time.