Our 2013 NFL Tech Series provides a quick hit of tech insight on all 32 NFL teams up until kickoff of Week 1 of the regular season. Each feature includes the latest tech advances implemented by the organization in the effort to advance the team’s success… in a wide variety of venues. Stadium experience, fan engagement, mobile technologies, player performance and health, statistical data gathering and analysis… any and all aspects of the organization’s procedures in the effort to find success in the NFL is on the table. We’re uncovering those efforts, investigating those innovations and pondering the benefit they might provide, for the team, players and fans alike… today and looking forward.
Our LAST installment of the NFL Tech Series is on the New York Giants and the preparations for Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium.
MetLife Stadium is very busy this year. Not only are they hosting both the Giants and the Jets throughout the season and engaging those fans, but they also have to prepare for the first outdoor, possibly cold weather, Super Bowl in Feburary.
As stated in our Jets article, MetLife stadium will undergo DAS and Wifi upgrades throughout the season to ensure that fans will have better mobile connectivity. The Giants have made improvements to their app to include exclusive video angles and NFL Redzone like other teams as well. Also, what we’ve learned last year is the the Giants invested in GPS tracking technology with a company named GS Sports, but now they are one of the growing number of teams following the trend of using Catapult Sports for athlete data measurement.
The 3 year old MetLife Stadium was built to handle any and every technology that is available today and beyond. Each electronic item, from the four massive 30 x 118 foot HD video display boards in each corner of the stadium to the concessions check out register is digitally connected. This means quicker ticket scanning, faster trips to concession stands during timeouts, and instantaneous HD video highlights throughout the building. In fact, MetLife Stadium features more HD square footage than any other building in the United States. Highlights include:
- Four massive 30 x 118 foot HD video display boards in each of the stadium corners to see every move – and then see it again in replay.
- 82,500 seats with more legroom and width than other stadiums
- 48″ x 2200′ ribbon board that circles in the interior bowl
- 2,100+ HD Monitors throughout stadium
- (20) HD video pylons ranging from 20′-60′, welcome fans all around the stadium
There was also a partnership formed with SAP and EMC Corporation to share a sponsorship position at MetLife Stadium. With the partnership, the Giants hope to advance the level of fan interaction and activation throughout the entire building to enhance the game day experience for fans.
“We expect our partnership with SAP and EMC, in addition to the relationship we already have with Verizon, will ultimately provide technology and innovations that no other stadium or arena can offer,” John Mara, the Giants’ president and CEO, said. “Our fan experience at MetLife Stadium will be unrivaled when it comes to what we hope to provide in high-tech options.”
The biggest concern for the up coming Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium is obviously the weather. How will the city of New York host festivities during cold weather when so many people are used to going to warm weather locations during the Super Bowl? How much of an impact will this have on the teams, especially those who don’t experience cold weather? Is there a blackout procedure so what happened in last year’s Super Bowl doesn’t happen again? There is already a no fly zone set up for the Superbowl during a potential blizzard, but what about safety concerns inside MetLife?
All these are questions that the city of NY and NJ are looking forward to handling. “Good stadium, good system, great engineers, good power, redundant power,” Eric Grubman, the NFL’s executive vice president for business ventures, said of MetLife Stadium. “We will go through another set of procedures to make it double safe.” Security will be on high alert in the big apple and safety procedures will be enforced.
There is a big storm predicted to occur during the Super Bowl so the Giants and Jets organizations have all year to prepare troubleshooting situations for February. For the number 1 grossing stadium in the world, this seems like a challenge they can handle. Grubman is very confident that MetLife will be able to pull off the Super Bowl without a glitch. One exciting announcement came earlier this week stating that Bruno Mars will perform at halftime dependent on the weather (hopefully no black out occurs after this performance). Also, MetLife Stadium has created a theme song and video to stir some excitement about the upcoming Super Bowl.
The Giants would love to play in the first Super Bowl hosted in their city. However, they are in a tough division that is one of the more unpredictable divisions in the NFL. They started off bumpy with a loss on opening night against the Cowboys, but if you know the Giants, they can turn it around in a second. In the meantime, the Giants are engaging their 490k + twitter and 2.7 million + facebook fans with many campaigns throughout the season and leading up to the special “Super Bowl” day in NY and NJ.