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Magic, VenueNext in talks for tech upgrade at Amway Center

Don Muret
The Orlando Magic is in talks with tech vendor VenueNext to help upgrade mobile technology at Amway Center for next season, team CEO Alex Martins said.

As of last week, no deal had been signed between the Magic and the Bay Area company, Martins said.

VenueNext, formed in 2013, developed the mobile application for Levi’s Stadium, new home of the San Francisco 49ers. Its primary financial backer is Aurum Partners, an investment company owned by the York family, the 49ers’ owners. (SportsBusiness Journal, Sept. 22-28, 2014).

“For Magic games, we are going completely mobile for next season, whether it’s food and beverage, retail, ticketing or from a content standpoint with replays, stats and wayfinding” as an option for fan engagement, Martins said.

To get a firsthand look at the 49ers’ stadiumwide mobile platform, Magic executive Charlie Freeman and officials with Levy Restaurants, Amway Center’s concessionaire, visited Levi’s Stadium for the recent NHL Stadium Series game between the Sharks and Kings.

Martins said, “The 49ers have accomplished a lot in a short period of time and have created an effective platform to integrate other third-party vendors. Our whole goal is to provide that kind of convenience for our fans.”

The upgrades will be the third Wi-Fi installation at the arena. Three years ago, the team and the city of Orlando jointly invested $750,000 to upgrade the Wi-Fi system. Those upgrades came two years after the facility opened as one of the most technologically advanced venues in North America.

“When we opened, we had more Wi-Fi than any arena in the country,” Martins said.

But over the past few years as more consumers bought mobile devices, the demand for greater connectivity across sports has escalated and the Magic, like most big league teams and venues, finds itself playing catch-up to meet fans’ expectations for seamless connections.

“As much Wi-Fi as you have, there’s always a need to upgrade again,” Martins said.

The next round of tech upgrades will come from a capital expenditures fund tied to a facility fee for all tickets sold for all events at Amway Center. Under its lease agreement with the city, the Magic can start tapping into that pool of money this summer after its fifth season at the arena.

An indoor lounge is among the upgrades at Citrus Bowl Stadium.
Photo by: DON MURET / STAFF
“The good news is we have a funding mechanism as we go through the years,” Martins said. “The premise behind the fund is that our old arena at 20 years old became obsolete and we didn’t want this building to be in the situation. We want to continually upgrade it.”

> JUICED UP: A few blocks down the street from Amway Center, the $207 million renovation of Citrus Bowl Stadium is about 90 percent complete, said officials from Orlando Venues, the city’s group running both facilities. Two bunker suites will be built in the north end zone in the coming months.

Before the upgrades, the entire north end was open. Now there are permanent seats and a 20,000-square-foot plaza for fans to congregate and buy concessions, with ample room for sponsor activation.

To date, the improvements include 5,000 new club seats along the east and west sidelines and a new indoor lounge flanked by covered outdoor clubs on the west side. HNTB designed the upgrades.

The Citrus Bowl opened in 1936 and as of this year, it is the only stadium in the country to play host to three college bowl games.

In addition to the Buffalo Wild Wings and Russell Athletic bowls, the facility has picked up the AutoNation Cure Bowl for 2015, a new game connected to the American Athletic and Sun Belt conferences.

On March 8, Orlando City FC kicks off its first season in MLS at the Citrus Bowl, a game expected to draw 60,000, team officials said. Orlando City SC moves into a new Populous-designed stadium for the 2016 season.

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

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