How Orikan transformed parking at Marvel Stadium – and won a national award doing it

20%+ reduction in manual labour through back-end automation

~5% increase in parking revenue within the first months of dynamic pricing

2024 Parking Australia Award – Excellence in Technology & Innovation (Off Street)

Zero paper tickets – fully digital, contactless entry and payment

Before the Orikan integration, Marvel Stadium’s parking operation relied heavily on manual processes that were poorly suited to the scale and complexity of a major event venue. The existing system created compounding problems across three areas:

Ticket distribution

The process of creating and distributing parking tickets to AFL clubs, umpires, and event hosts was time-consuming and cumbersome. There was no self-service capability – every allocation required intervention from parking staff, creating a bottleneck that worsened under event-day pressure.

Operational inefficiency

Without automation, staff were absorbed by routine ticket management tasks that added no value to the fan experience. The manual workload was unsustainable at scale and left little capacity to respond to issues as they arose on event days.

Limited data and visibility

The absence of a data-driven parking platform meant the stadium had limited insight into how its parking assets were being used. Space utilisation, demand patterns, and revenue performance were difficult to measure – making informed operational decisions almost impossible.

Orikan identified these interconnected challenges as an opportunity to deliver genuine transformation, not just a technical upgrade.

Orikan’s approach to Marvel Stadium centred on three core areas – each addressing a specific operational gap and together delivering a fundamentally different parking experience for every stakeholder.

1. Technical integration with the Marvel Stadium app

Orikan’s technology was embedded directly within the Marvel Stadium app and integrated with AFL ID’s Single Sign-On (SSO) system. This meant fans could reserve parking from the same app they already used for tickets and stadium information – without creating a separate account or navigating to a different platform.

The integration enabled QR code-based entry, stored payment methods, and real-time parking availability – all surfaced within a familiar, trusted app environment. The result was a frictionless experience from the moment a fan decided to drive to the match.

2. Self-service event administration

A back-end event admin tool was developed to give AFL clubs, umpires, and event hosts direct control over their parking ticket allocations. For the first time, clubs could manage their own pass distributions independently – without routing every request through parking staff.

This shift from centralised management to distributed autonomy had immediate operational impact. Manual labour associated with ticket management decreased by more than 20 per cent, and the accountability for allocation decisions moved to the clubs themselves – reducing errors and disputes.

The system’s dashboard and event creation features were also purpose-built to comply with the AFL’s strict exit protocols on event days, ensuring that operational flexibility did not come at the cost of venue policy adherence.

3. Data-driven resource management

With physical ticketing eliminated and all transactions flowing through the digital platform, Marvel Stadium gained real-time visibility over its parking operation for the first time. Staff could monitor space availability, track utilisation patterns, and make live adjustments on event days.

Dynamic pricing was introduced as part of the integration – enabling parking rates to adjust based on real-time demand. In the first months of operation, this capability alone delivered an approximate 5 per cent increase in parking revenue, with further growth expected as the platform matured.

For Marvel Stadium, the fan experience is the ultimate measure of success. A packed grand stand means little if supporters arrive stressed, late, and frustrated from a difficult parking experience.

The Orikan integration addressed this directly. Fans gained:

• The ability to reserve a parking space in advance through the Marvel Stadium app
• QR code-based entry – no paper ticket, no boom gate queue, no card tap required
• Real-time updates on parking availability before and during travel
• Stored payment methods for fast, contactless checkout on departure

Entry wait times fell. Congestion around the venue eased. And the parking experience shifted from a source of frustration to a seamless extension of the event day.

“We have a goal here at Marvel Stadium of making it the most technologically advanced stadium in the Southern Hemisphere.”

– Rob Pickering, Former CTO, Marvel Stadium

The Orikan platform is a direct contribution toward that goal – providing the connected, data-driven infrastructure that a modern stadium of this ambition requires.

The move away from physical ticketing and the reduction in vehicles circulating in search of spaces both contribute to Marvel Stadium’s sustainability objectives. Key environmental outcomes from the integration include:

• Reduced paper consumption through the elimination of physical parking passes and tickets
• Lower vehicle emissions from reduced search and queue time around the venue on event days
• Support for carpooling and alternative transport mode promotion through app-based communication
• More efficient space utilisation, reducing unnecessary vehicle movement within the car park

As major venues face growing scrutiny over their environmental footprint, the ability to demonstrate measurable reductions in parking-related emissions is an increasingly important part of the broader sustainability story.

In November 2024, the Marvel Stadium project was recognised with the Parking Australia Award for Excellence in Technology and Innovation (Off-Street) – the industry’s highest acknowledgement for innovation in off-street parking management.

The award reflects the breadth of what was achieved: not just a technology implementation, but a genuine operational transformation that improved outcomes for fans, clubs, stadium staff, and the venue’s commercial performance simultaneously.

It also affirms Orikan’s position as a leading parking technology provider for major events and entertainment venues across Australia – with the capability to design, integrate, and sustain solutions at the scale and complexity that premier venues demand.

The Marvel Stadium parking transformation is part of a broader vision for the venue – one in which parking, ticketing, concessions, and stadium services are unified within a single app experience. The parking integration has laid the technical and operational foundation for that future, demonstrating that complex, multi-stakeholder systems can be brought together without sacrificing usability for any of them.

For other event venues, stadia, and large-scale facilities facing similar challenges – manual processes, fragmented systems, limited data, and escalating fan experience expectations – the Marvel Stadium case provides a clear and replicable model.

Orikan’s events parking solutions are designed to scale from mid-size venues to major stadia, with the same integrated approach to access, payment, administration, and analytics that delivered results at Marvel Stadium. To explore what a similar transformation could look like for your venue, visit Orikan’s events sector page.

• Manual systems cannot scale. If your current parking operation relies on staff to manage ticket distribution and access control, it will break under event-day pressure as attendance grows.
• Self-service changes the equation. Giving clubs, event hosts, and fans direct control over their parking interactions reduces operational overhead and improves satisfaction simultaneously.
• Data unlocks revenue. Dynamic pricing and real-time utilisation data are not luxuries – they are revenue tools that pay for themselves quickly.
• Integration is everything. Parking technology embedded within your existing app and identity ecosystem delivers far higher adoption than a standalone solution requiring separate login.
• Sustainability and efficiency go together. Reducing search time, eliminating paper, and improving flow are good for the environment and good for operations.