Menu
Facilities

Wells Fargo Center will show off Comcast facility technology

Don Muret
The vision surrounding Comcast-Spectacor’s future is starting to take shape as the company positions Wells Fargo Center as a technology showcase for the industry.

Nine months after retired Comcast Corp. executive Dave Scott took over as president of Comcast-Spectacor, followed by others moving to the sports and entertainment side, officials are focusing on technology to improve arena amenities and market Comcast services as a whole.

Mike Connelly, Comcast’s vice president of strategic development, is leading the charge at Wells Fargo Center, tackling a list of upgrades starting with a new distributed antenna system and a high-density Wi-Fi network set to triple the arena’s hot spots to 300 by January.

The DAS, a carrier-neutral system installed by AT&T, is in place and ready for the coming NBA and NHL seasons. It will boost the cell signal for all users of mobile devices at the arena.

The arena is getting a new Wi-Fi network and DAS  system.
Photo by: LEN REDKOLES / COMCAST-SPECTACOR
Officials are also investing in improvements to Wells Fargo Center’s mobile application and location-based services using the beacon technology that’s gaining traction at other sports facilities across North America. Their vendor is Radius Networks, which equipped Verizon Center in Washington.

In the suites, X1, Comcast’s new cloud-based television platform; Xfinity Wi-Fi; and Comcast Business Class services are examples of technology being showcased.

The cost of the investment is not yet known because the upgrades remain a work in progress, said John Page, president of Global Spectrum, Comcast-Spectacor’s facility management division.

The goal is to develop a suite of services at Wells Fargo Center for the arenas and stadiums that do business with Comcast-Spectacor’s venue management, ticketing, concessions and marketing divisions to potentially adopt, Connelly said.

Along the way, Flyers and Sixers fans will reap the benefits, and down the line, Comcast-Spectacor sees itself going to market to sell technology services to other teams outside of the company’s roster of facilities, Connelly said.

Most of the upgrades to Wells Fargo Center will bring the 18-year-old arena up to par with newer buildings, such as Barclays Center and Levi’s Stadium. At the same time, Comcast-Spectacor’s goal is to become a leader in that space, a reflection of its parent’s core business.

“We look at these other venues as benchmarks,” Connelly said. “It’s obviously an evolution starting with connectivity and mobility and layering in new software upgrades and integrating our own services on the back end for ticketing and food service.”

At Wells Fargo Center, officials are working on an extension of beacon technology in which fans passing a digital advertising display on the main concourse would trigger a more seamless interaction with their mobile devices than the text messages they receive through current systems.

The technology remains in development, but it’s just one example of how Comcast-Spectacor can get out in front of technology to create a market for its services, Connelly said.

The model at Wells Fargo Center is similar to how Delaware North Cos. tests concessions concepts at TD Garden in Boston, the arena it owns and operates, before expanding them to other locations.

> OF MEIS AND MEN: Veteran sports designer Dan Meis is on the move once again, leaving Woods Bagot to focus exclusively on his own practice.

Meis, the name of the firm he has kept alive on the side for the past seven years, opens a new studio Oct. 16 in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.

The company also has an office in Santa Monica, Calif. Meis lived and worked in Southern California for several years until he moved to New York two years ago to serve as head of Woods Bagot’s sports practice.

Now, Meis is back on his own in New York, working strictly as an independent. His staff of 18 people includes Tim Lambert and Jan Szupinski, both of whom worked at NBBJ and Rossetti, and Lori Peterson, formerly with Populous.

As a firm, Meis continues to work on the design of a new soccer stadium in Rome for AS Roma, a project set to open in fall 2017. The architect is also a consultant for the new MLS stadium in Las Vegas, and is designing scoreboard upgrades to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.

Meis helped design the Bengals’ facility during his tenure at NBBJ in the 1990s. He’s also worked at Populous and the former Ellerbe Becket.

Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @breakground.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/09/29/Facilities/Breaking-Ground.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/09/29/Facilities/Breaking-Ground.aspx

CLOSE