Welcome to the future of watching football: 87ft-wide TV screens coming to a bar near you

Ultra high-definition cameras smaller than a smartphone installed in stands at Premier League grounds to create an ‘immersive’ experience

At first glance, the footage appeared to show Manchester United supporters sitting in the Old Trafford stands for their Premier League opener against Fulham.
So when it quickly emerged clips posted to social media during and after last Friday’s match had instead come from an indoor venue 5,200 miles away in Los Angeles, they inevitably caused a stir.
That venue is Cosm, and it could be about to revolutionise the way fans pay to watch football – including in the UK and potentially even at Old Trafford itself.
What initially looked like match-going supporters at Friday’s game were instead fans sat in front of an “immersive” 180-degree, 87-foot LED screen showing live footage provided by specially-installed camera equipment at United’s stadium that gave the impression of being in the stands.
So much so that when Joshua Zirkzee scored a late winner against Fulham, those fans at Cosm Los Angeles celebrated just like their counterparts at the ground.
The viral footage was the perfect advert for what has been branded “shared reality” – think virtual reality (VR) without the headset – and a venue billed by those behind it as “the world’s best place to experience the event next to actually being there in person”.
And that experience provided by Cosm’s custom-designed 1,500-seater dome is about to be rolled out worldwide, starting in the UK.
Confirming plans to fly to London this autumn on a mission to find a construction site, Jeb Terry, Cosm’s president and chief executive, told Telegraph Sport: “There are starting to be a number of sites that are emerging and potential partners there.”
Terry said it was possible for what he dubbed Cosm’s “flagship” UK venue to be up and running in fewer than 18 months amid expansion plans that have already seen a second site built in Dallas, Texas, confirmation of a third to be constructed in Atlanta, Georgia, and scouting missions under way for further locations on the United States’ east coast.
“We have identified the UK as a location where we want to be in our first 10 venues,” added Terry, who has ambitions to open “over 100 Cosms globally” after securing $250 million (£190 million) in funding last month in order to help in that aim.
Telegraph Sport has been told one of those Cosms could end up on the site of a rebuilt or revamped Old Trafford, amid interest from United in including one in the potential £2 billion redevelopment of their home and the surrounding land.
Officials from the club, including chief operating officer Collette Roche, met those behind Cosm when the club played Arsenal in pre-season at the LA venue’s neighbouring $5 billion (£3.8 billion) SoFi Stadium last month as part of a fact-finding mission.
Subsequent meetings have been held that could lead to United becoming the first Premier League team to build their own version of Cosm.
“They’re not the only club that are interested in working with us,” said Terry, who claimed the same was the case for other, unnamed, English sides.
For Cosm to screen Premier League matches in the UK it would need the permission of the league, each club hosting games and deals with television rights holders Sky Sports and TNT Sports.
It was a similar case in the US, with the company striking such a deal in January with NBC Sports which holds the equivalent TV rights there.
The upshot of that is that Cosm has been allowed to install ultra high-definition cameras smaller than an average smartphone in the stands at Premier League grounds in order to capture the footage necessary for its “immersive” experience.
Staff at Cosm Los Angeles are able to switch between camera angles depending on where the ball is on the pitch to give those watching the best view of the action at any given time.
Terry boasted: “You’re always behind the right goal at Cosm.”
As well as United’s win over Fulham, Cosm Los Angeles screened Manchester City’s victory at Chelsea on Sunday and will show Arsenal’s trip to Aston Villa this Saturday.
It also has deals to broadcast several other sports and events, including National Basketball Association (NBA) games, tennis’s US Open and college American football, as well as the likes of Cirque du Soleil’s latest show.
Ambitions to grow that portfolio will be helped by the fact that, before moving into building “shared reality” venues, Cosm had already worked with broadcasters to help pioneer the use of VR in the transmission of major sporting events like the Olympics.
Its latest business venture relies partly on selling tickets, the cost of which vary depending on what Terry described as the “scarcity” of such events and on what type of experience a customer is seeking.
Terry added: “There’s very luxurious, VIP seating. And there’s also standing-room-only seating. Much like you might go to a stadium, where there’s different sections and seats and supporter sections.”
For example, tickets at Cosm Los Angeles for Saturday’s Villa-Arsenal game were priced between $22 (£16.78) and $132 (£100).
But Terry suggested the real money was made on hospitality, saying: “Our technology is fantastic. That will help us wow people. But it’s the hospitality that wins.”
For that reason, Terry also ruled out building a super-sized Cosm venue in the UK or elsewhere, despite acknowledging one of the main markets here could be the tens of thousands of “hardcore” match-going fans who attend their clubs’ home games but cannot get tickets for away fixtures.
Suggesting a capacity of 2,000 was the natural limit, he said: “For us to be able to serve that number of people with fantastic food, with the right graciousness and hosts that we had that standard of, we don’t want to get too big.”
He added: “I’d rather go two Cosm venues than one big one.”
For Terry, Friday’s viral footage vindicated a project five years in the making after overcoming obstacles including the coronavirus crisis.
He said: “You can imagine, four years ago, pitching this on Zoom during the pandemic and people were like, ‘Jeb, you are a crazy person’. But now we get to show off the fruits of that labour.”
Suggesting not even the viral clips had truly done Cosm justice, he added: “You have to see it to believe it.”