Venue News: Giants Boost Wireless at AT&T Park; Queens MLS Stadium Plans Leaked

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, Sports Video Group

The San Francisco Giants are boosting AT&T Park’s technology again to stay ahead of demands by users of mobile devices. After smashing records for mobile data traffic during last season’s championship run, the Giants developed a two-year plan to improve the wireless experience at a stadium already recognized for being on the cutting edge of mobile technology. The first phase of the project will double the number of wireless access points in the lower bowl to 700 this season, said Bill Schlough, the team’s senior vice president and chief information officer. Next year, more access points will be added to the upper deck…

…Here’s how Major League Soccer hopes to score big in Queens. During a recent presentation at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Gregg Pasquarelli of SHoP Architects revealed the first designs for the $300 million, 25,000-seat soccer stadium that MLS wants to build for an expansion franchise in Flushing-Meadows Park. His hour-long presentation was primarily about his firm’s design of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, but it briefly offered four preliminary renderings for the MLS stadium project that SHoP was hired to design in October…

…Is Dodger Stadium in play for the NFL? Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Daily reported Monday that the league has had direct talks with Dodgers owner Guggenheim Partners about the possibility of a football stadium at Chavez Ravine, a concept that has been floated since the mid-1990s, when Peter O’Malley pushed to bring the NFL there. At first blush, the idea is enticing and makes sense, because that’s an iconic L.A. location that’s appealing to many NFL owners as well as Commissioner Roger Goodell, who consistently has called it a great site for a football stadium. In fact, when O’Malley was hoping to bring the NFL there, he had hoped to hire the young, up-and-coming Goodell as the team’s general manager. But the concept of scrapping AEG’s downtown plan in favor of a stadium on the hill is not as clean and simple as it sounds, for several reasons…

…Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he expects the city council to have an Atlanta Falcons stadium deal on its plate by the end of this month. Reed said the parties are in “robust” negotiations. The current version of the deal would have the city issue $200 million in bonds backed by hotel-motel tax revenue to partly fund a $1 billion stadium that would replace the Georgia Dome. The council would have to approve a funding deal. The Falcons, the NFL and personal seat license sales would pay the rest of the construction cost…

…David Hoard, Jackson State’s vice president for institutional advancement, has unveiled the school’s plans for its much-discussed 50,000-seat domed football stadium. Hoard showed renderings of the proposed on-campus stadium that would not only serve as the new home for the Tigers’ football and basketball teams but could potentially bring much more to Jackson. Hoard said the stadium comes with a price tag of $200 million.