In efforts to create a larger demand for attending games and fulfill the goal to revive the team’s home base, Vivek Ranadivé plans to build a new stadium in Sacramento before the 2017 NBA season. But it won’t just be your run-of-the-mill new stadium. Ranadivé promises it to be a “21st century Coliseum”.
Not only does Ranadivé hope to lure in more Kings’ fans, but he also expects every top performer in the country to want to be at this venue, which is being called the Golden 1 Center.
“We believe that this will be one of the top performing venues not just in the country but in the world,” Ranadivé said.
Get The Latest NBA Tech News In Your Inbox!
The Golden 1 Center will not only focus on attracting fans, but also engaging them once they are in attendance with tremendous connectivity. With 1,000 Wi-Fi access points for around 17,500 seats, the network can handle over 500,000 Snapchats posts per second.
The Golden 1 Center will be working with Comcast Business to provide an array of services including delivering data at rates of 100 gigabits per second. Which will make it one of the world’s fastest and most connected indoor sports and entertainment venues due to investments in cabling, networking, and access points.
To improve fans’ experiences even more, people will be able to order food from their seats through the team’s official app.
The entire design of the arena is directed to give attendees the ultimate experience at the Golden 1 Center. But interestingly, the league’s other high profile owner who made his money in tech, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, may disagree with Ranadivé’s views. In numerous talks Cuban has explained that he wants fans off their phones so they can enjoy the experience and be more present and provide more energy in the arena for their team. This is a nice argument, but with the attractiveness of having everything from ordering food to finding the closest restroom available to you, Ranadivé is just giving today’s fans what they want. Which ultimately sells seats.
Kings team President Chris Granger agrees and joked that depriving teens of their smartphones is a rare form of punishment these days: “We have the youngest fan base of all major sports [in the NBA], and they’re connected,” he told Re/code. “You can’t preclude them from that connection.”
With an Internet connection that can handle more than 225,000 Instagram photos per second, fans will never want to miss out on an experience at the Golden 1 Center.
The Kings’ report on the Golden 1 Center also explains that the arena will aim to “be a powerful and intelligent command center that will bring all of the arena’s technology, data analytics, and security together in one streamlined location. Acting as the arena’s central nervous system, the 6,000 square foot command and data center, powered by Advantel Networks, will ensure we provide unmatched service to our fans and operate the network and related infrastructure at optimum levels, including availability, reliability, and uptime. Data from the arena’s smart sensors and other sources will flow through the command center and be analyzed and utilized in real-time to enhance the fan experience.”
Ranadivé expects the arena to open in October 2016, a year ahead of schedule.