visits, visitor browsing history, clickthroughs and customer
purchasing patterns. Search-engine optimization is also part of
the package, increasing the Falcons’ odds of coming up on top
of the Google charts when fans type in phrases like “Atlanta
Falcons gear.”
As a result, the Falcons are expecting a considerable uptick
in online sales as the season gets under way. With the selection
of top-pick quarterback Matt Ryan of Boston College, there’s
a hopeful buzz about the team’s future. When fans go to the
Falcons’ site to snatch up, say, a jersey with Ryan’s name and a big
#2 (his official team number) on the back, they’ll have a much-improved user experience to get to the point of purchase.
“It’s much more fan-friendly than the previous site, which
has been in use since 2005,” Norton says. “The new site has
much easier navigation—it’s more like what you see on larger
e-commerce sites like Amazon.”
The site features better merchandising and reporting, with
more information about a fan’s past purchases and what that
fan may want on the site now. Also, when fans buy gift cards in
stores, they can use more than one card for a purchase online,
which wasn’t allowed before. The Ignify solution also boosted
anti-fraud tools. “This new site will help us to engage our fans
and keep them engaged year-round,” Norton says.
network connection on the floor in the
expo or anywhere else in the facility.”
This is one of the first times that virtually all operations of an
NFL venue have been connected via Cisco’s Connected Sports.
Traditionally, stadiums have separate, proprietary networks to
operate building systems, video surveillance, ticket sales, merchandise sales and other needs. By providing all of these on one
secure IP network, Cardinals’ officials and Insight were able
to work together to integrate wired and wireless access, voice,
video and other services to fulfill these needs.
As a result, fans with Cisco IP phones can now touch their
screens to get leaguewide score updates, or order a beer and a
hotdog from concessions, or even buy upcoming game tickets
from box-office staff. Coaches can send game film and special
features back and forth between the stadium and the team
headquarters in Tempe. In addition, police officers outside the
stadium and security officials within it can e-mail each other
about traffic updates and suspicious incidents.
As for the future, Cardinals officials see expanding applications for the network to weave even more eye-catching
technology into the fan experience. “We’re looking closely at
what we could do with video,” Feller says. “Thanks to You Tube
and other online sites, video is becoming more and more integrated into our lives, and that’s where we want to go next with
our network. We can envision using it to get videoscreens of
the live action to our fans throughout the stadium.”
RAVENS STAY TOUGH
ON DEFENSE
The Baltimore Ravens team keeps a lot of important “stuff” in its network files: for starters,
scouting reports on pro players who could be
available as free agents, the latest 40-yard sprint
times of college seniors who could end up as
draft picks and medical histories of current players. In the
past, all that information was kept on tapes. If the team
wanted to back up the data, it would produce a duplicate tape
and store it at its stadium in Baltimore, about 20 miles from
the team’s headquarters in Owings Mills, Md.
To replace this antiquated method, the Ravens turned to
AmeriVault to provide an automated access and offsite solution based on backup technology from Asigra. “The cost savings, in terms of just accessing and securing the data, have
made it very worthwhile,” says Bill Jankowski, vice president
of IT for the Ravens.
“We don’t put tapes on
trucks anymore to send them
to Baltimore. We just use the
software from AmeriVault and
back up our data. If we need to
access some data from the past,
we can search on the software—
say, input a search going back 28
days—and it comes to us securely
over the Internet. Previously,
we’d have to call up the old tape
to find the data.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF CISCO SYSTEMS
MOBILE IP
CONNECTS A STADIUM
The Arizona Cardinals’ new University of Phoenix
Stadium in Glendale—the venue for the most
recent Super Bowl—is so connected that you
have to wonder if well-wired fans notice that a
game is being played on the field. Fans in the
stands use BlackBerrys, iPhones and other wireless toys to
check up on their Fantasy Football stats or snap a photo of
themselves at the game and e-mail it to friends.
Thanks to a technology deployment of Connected Sports
solutions—provided by Cisco Systems and designed, integrated
and managed by solutions provider Insight—the Cardinals can
now stake a claim to providing the most techno-friendly game
experience in the league. Connected Sports combines data,
voice, video, wireless and social networking to create a single,
secure network that essentially serves every stadium-related
function. These include everything from keeping an eye out for
potential terrorism threats to scouting opposing teams’ game
films to selling tickets to marketing fan-experience items.
“It’s not just about football,
either,” says Mark Feller, vice
president of technology for the
Cardinals. “This stadium is a
multi-event facility that hosts
concerts, other sporting events,
car shows, food shows and all
kinds of expos. Anyone who
comes in here can use this Cisco
Cisco IP phones give users at the
Cardinals’ Phoenix Stadium access
to a variety of information.
