STADIUM


Ugly Fight Breaks In Ticket Aftermarket

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 04-24-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
via toptenreviews.com

via toptenreviews.com

Here’s the reality of the current landscape in the online ticketing market: If you’re going to charge others for “protection,” some days you actually have to step up and deliver.

Ticketmaster made just such a show of force. Last week Live Nation announced that it will bring variable pricing to its online ticket products.

Called Dynamic Pricing, clients can now adjust prices of sports and concert tickets in real time as demand ebbs and flows. The hope is that this will put a dent in the “scalpers.”

Honestly, the idea is probably doomed. This is the web, after all. It destroys pretty much anything it touches. What Ticketmaster is forgetting is that these scalpers — for sports events, anyway — are actually season ticket holders stuck with crazy high-priced seats for games they cannot attend. So what will happen here is while a few legit scalpers might be scared off, cash-strapped fans will find gray-market ticket exchanges — like Craigslist —  to get at least something for their unwanted tickets.

But hey, at least the Ticketmaster is trying something here. And who knows, they might get lucky and figure out a way to avoid the web cliff that ticket prices are falling off of.




Artificial Cloud to Shield Players at World Cup in Qatar

Posted by Dan in STADIUM on 03-24-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Cloud

How’s this for staying cool?

According to reports, the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at Qatar University is working on an artificial cooling cloud that will be used to shield the soccer fields from the blazing Arabian sun.

Apparently the hovering shade device will be remote controlled, made of ultra light materials, run on solar power,  and be filled with … helium!

Sounds crazy but they have til 2022 to make it work.




Sony Hedges 3D Bet, Purchases Tech Firm Hawk-Eye Innovations

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT, STADIUM, TELEVISION on 03-08-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Via Hawk-Eye Innovations

Here’s an interesting piece of sports production news: Sony has gobbled up goal-line analysis firm Hawk-Eye Innovations. According to The Financial Times, Sony did not say how much it paid for the company, but the publication reported that an analyst told them the firm was worth $32 million, which sounds about right.

A couple of interesting things here:

  • It’s amazing how little real companies are worth. Considering that a complete bucket of nuts and bolts, like The Huffington Post fetches something nuts like a $350 million valuation even though it most certainly makes  less than Hawk-Eye, Sony got a hell of a deal here.
  • 3D is turning into a long bet: Sony is investing in a traditional sports infrastructure company at roughly the same time it is rolling out 3D. It was announced today that Wimbledon will be broadcast in 3D using Sony’s gear. Clearly a company of Sony’s size can both buy a small company and roll out 3D at the same time. But it is telling that basic sports technologies will have serious legs.

Either way, sports tech remains the place to be.




FIFA Sets High Bar For Goal-Line Technology

Posted by Seth in EQUIPMENT, GENERAL, STADIUM on 02-24-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

So stodgy old FIFA finally decided to act like it wanted to embrace modern technology. Act is the operative word here.

Soccer’s governing body is apparently taking a look at goal-line sensor technology that would help determine whether the ball crossed the line or not. They had a dog and pony show last week in Zurich where 10 companies had the chance the show the FIFA muckety-mucks what they could do. But if you read between the lines of a report in England’s Guardian, the whole thing was a sham.

First of all, one of the major players in this field, Hawk-Eye Innovations, declined to participate because they didn’t care for the conditions of the test. But regardless of the circumstances, there is one key problem that leads you to believe FIFA isn’t too serious about adopting goal-line technology: They want any system they put into use to deliver a verdict to the referees that is 100 percent accurate in 1 second.

One tick. One-one-thousand. Goal or no goal? Anybody else think that’s a ridiculous expectation?

It takes time to look at the video and see if the ball got all the way across the line. Not a lot of time. But longer than one second. FIFA should talk to the folks in the NHL’s War Room in Toronto, where they monitor goal/no-goal situations every night. It doesn’t have to be as hard as FIFA is making it.

At this point, the smart money says FIFA will add a goal judge behind each net before they put in goal-line technology. When the game clock starts counting down instead of up, then we’ll start looking for soccer to seek out techno solutions.




Super Bowl Pregame Show To Run Forever Online

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 02-02-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

CaptureJust how high can the hype ziggurat — yes that’s a word, it’s like a pyramid —  get for the Super Bowl? Who knows. But one thing we do know is that for some reason Kid Rock is part of the action.

Looming strike or not, the NFL is cranking up its promotion tie-ins for the game on NFL.com. One of the more interesting is Fan Jam, which basically creates a halftime show that starts before the game.

Does that mean the actual game becomes the halftime show of the halftime show?




CrowdWave Is The Latest Addition To The Time Out Circus

Posted by Jonathan in GENERAL, STADIUM on 02-01-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

crowdwaveIf you’ve been to a professional sporting event in this country you know that, for the fans, there’s no such thing as a time out. The ball is either in play or you’re looking at a nonstop of orgy of dance teams, kissing cams, fan promotions, dunking mascots and T-shirt cannons. Where you stand on this issue probably depends on how you feel about sitting through stuff like this, but let me add one more thing to the list: crowd-based video games.

They’re coming to a stadium or arena near you, if they haven’t already. CrowdWave, which makes mass-participation Jumbotron-based games, already has systems in 10 different NBA and NHL arenas, with plans to expand to the NFL and MLB later this year.

Basically, we’re looking at a giant version of Kinect. CrowdWave can sense whether the people in a section of the stadium are throwing their hands to the right, or left, or up in the air (like they just don’t care!), and depending on the game, the system acts accordingly.

Here’s what a few of the games at Madison Square Garden look like. Pretty simple, but it adds another layer to your typical Jumbotron fare. You have to wonder about the actual game becoming a sideshow to the sideshow with all this gimmickry, but with tickets prices being what they are, it’s understandable that the leagues want to make sure you feel like you got as much bang for your buck as possible. Winning teams are always going to drive ticket sales first and foremost, but hey, Quicken Loans Arena debuted some of these games this season — after LeBron James took his talents to South Beach — so if you’re a Cavaliers’ season ticket holder, you’re probably welcoming the distraction.




Cell Phone Apocalypse May Hit Super Bowl

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 01-31-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
Courtesy dallasnews.com

Courtesy dallasnews.com

Here is a simply hilarious story from DallasNews.com.

There is a possibility, however remote, that nobody in Dallas will be able to make a phone call while the Super Bowl is being played at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday evening.

In an effort to head off the Cairo-scale rioting that is almost certain to ensue, local media has been spinning a story about the pressure on the phone grid the Super Bowl can cause.

Strictly speaking, of course, this is all nonsense. There have been 44 other Super Bowls before this one, and phone calls were made. So I am not sure what the problem is in Dallas.

That is, unless Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones just can’t help himself from dialing a few thousand phones at once.




Booze News: Bottoms Up Tap System To Speed Beer Delivery At A Stadium Near You

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 01-27-11    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Is this a big sports news day or what?

The Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call is hyping the new Bottoms Up beer pouring system, which is being used at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, home of the Flyers and 76ers.

The technology speeds the pouring of beer by injecting it through a flexible valve  in the bottom of the glass. By sneaking the beer in from below, there is less head and less wasted foam.

There is also less messing around with goofy taps and overfoaming barrels. Ask anybody who has worked at a bar to tell you what a revolution this is.

To be clear, the bottom-up filling method has been common overseas for some time. The news is, it is finally coming here to America, and it is about time.

Anything that gets me my brew and back to the action faster is real progress.




Giants Stadium On Your iPhone? Virtual Stadium Tour Apps

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 11-06-10    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Once you see this, it certainly makes a lot of sense: New stadiums are offering tours via the iPhone.

Case in point, the Newcastle United Virtual Stadium Tour app. It not only gives you several views of the stadium, but it also lets you know what you can expect in terms of amenities and provides an overall fresh look at the what is what down at your newly renovated local sports mecca.

As of now, the tool is mostly like what any real estate agent would offer for a  new property. But considering the competition now for the dwindling live stadium audience, how long it is going to be before mobile device stadium apps get much cooler?

The Cowboys, Giants and Jets now have chief technology officers, and they all have to figure out some way to keep new fans interested in coming to games. Live TV feeds, instant replay and improved data will certainly be in users’ pockets sometime soon.

Personally, I can’t wait.




The Goodyear Blimp Goes International

Posted by Jonathan in STADIUM on 10-08-10    No Comments


VN:F [1.9.10_1130]
Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Leave it to those clever folks in India to reinvent the sports blimp. Here’s a behind-the-scenes shot of a so-called aerostat. That’s a blimp that does not fly around, but stays tied in one position. This sucker was used as part of the opening ceremonies at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

How fun is it to see how the rest of the world  chipping in with their own vibe in the pageantry tied into the big game?

Certainly it’s better international sports news than Kim Jong-il hiring people to cheer for the North Korean team at the FIFA World Cup.