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Saturday, June 4, 2016

High Tech Sac Stadium

An excerpt from Wired -

The Highest-Tech Stadium in Sports Is Pretty Much a Giant Tesla

FOR AN ARENA that will soon play host to more than 17,500 fans nightly, the new Golden 1 Center doesn’t make a huge first impression. Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive may have likened his team’s new arena to the Roman Colosseum, and it may be a much-needed cultural centerpiece for a city that desperately needs one, but the arena feels almost modest in its proportions.


Except for what’s underneath. Construction on the Golden 1 Center began in October 2014 after the city fought successfully to keep the Kings in Sacramento. Eventually Sacramento officials promised $255.5 million to the project, which Kings president Chris Granger says will be a billion-dollar project in all. And a not insignificant amount of that money is going toward building what the team hopes will be the most technologically advanced sports arena ever built.

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Gameday 2016
One day this fall, here’s the way Granger and his team hope you’ll spend an evening. You unlock your phone, open up the Kings app, and look for tickets. You buy them (and a parking pass) in the app, which is connected to the team’s loyalty program, so you’re automatically on the list for last-minute ticket upgrades. As you approach the stadium, your phone buzzes: a notification from the team telling you which lot’s the easiest to park in right now. You park, walk up to the arena, scan the ticket displayed on your smartwatch and stroll through the turnstile. Your app guides you to your seat and asks if you want a hot dog or a foam finger. Attendants can bring either one to your seat in a few minutes. You’re late, but that’s fine; the app has replays and stats. Or you can just look up at the 84-foot (that’s foot, not inch) screen that’s carefully designed to make sure you can see it perfectly no matter where you are in the stadium. (Or out of the stadium—more on that in a minute.)

http://www.wired.com/2016/06/highest-tech-stadium-sports-built-like-tesla/?mbid=nl_6316

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