Stadiums Improve Wi-Fi to Compete with Home Screen

As the home viewing experience gets bigger, louder and more interactive, college and professional sports teams are challenged to continue to bring in a live audience. In response to fans’ growing need to stay constantly connected and to keep up on fantasy sports scores and other live games, stadiums are spending big money to up their Wi-Fi offerings.  

In a release November 20, the Washington Redskins announced the improved Wi-Fi network at FedEx Field, now running at 10 gigabits per second. Not only has the team increased the speed of the network, but they encourage fans to use by including free passes to streaming sites such as NFL RedZone and NFL Game Pass in the season ticket holder membership package.

The New England Patriots have made similar improvements to Gillette Stadium, extending their partnership with Extreme Network in order to implement new wireless technology which may include the potential for an augmented reality experience, according to SportTechie.com.

Fred Kirsch, VP of Content for the New England Patriots, said in a release, "We recognize that in-stadium, high-density Wi-Fi connectivity is the next frontier for the NFL and we're proud to partner with Extreme to deploy such an advanced solution. Looking ahead, we're confident that we're prepared to meet our fans' increasing connectivity demands. Whether it's wearables, augmented reality or accessing next-gen player stats, we'll be ready with the best available technology to support our fans."{module Stadium wifi}