Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Hi-(priced) tech

Coming soon to a Stadium near you (if you're in the NY or Boston Metro areas, and even in KC!):

At their home opener April 16, the Yankees officially will unveil what Cisco calls the most technologically advanced stadium in North America. At the new Yankee Stadium, there are 1,100 high-definition video monitors programmable with everything from replays to subway routes. Fans will find the monitors in luxury suites, concession stands, restaurants, and restrooms. Standing 59 feet high and 101 feet wide, the high-definition main scoreboard will be the top video attraction.

The stadium also will offer TelePresence and the same touch-screen, on-demand phones Ricci demonstrated in San Jose. Plus, the Yankees installed enough infrastructure to eventually support personalized fan experiences at every seat through various mobile devices.
[...]
The Royals, who invested $250 million into renovating Kaufmann Stadium and added many of the same high-tech innovations...
So Royals fans, rejoice!

4 comments:

Mark said...

If the answer to the question, "How will any of this make watching the game any better" is, as I suspect, "Not at all" -- and if in fact it actually makes it worse in some way by driving up the price of a ticket at these new sport-u-tainment complexes -- then I'm even more convinced that the best place to watch the game is on TV in my living room.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

I agree, mostly. Not having to get up to get snacks is a wonderful thing. Not standing in line is wonderful. Keeping me in my seat when I am AT the game I am paying a boatload to attend is wondeful. Even for a slight premium per order.

However, some of the other stuff is just noise to me. A nice video screen is good, but some of the other doo-dads are superfluous.

All these kiosks...too much. "Upgrade" kiosks: just a way to separate the contents of your wallet from your possession.

Ron Rollins said...

Yeah, because we don't need to spend our money on top-tier free agents? No, now we can watch Hillman mis-manage in High-Def!!

How do you take the best baseball park in all the land and turn it into a sideshow attraction? Let David Glass own your team.

Someone shoot me.

Anonymous said...

I was told the TV's in the luxury suites are programmed to only display the YES channel. Maybe they will add in a Yankee Shopping Channel as well.