Stadium Tech Report was live in Seattle last week, for the opening days of the “new” home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, Climate Pledge Arena. Built basically underneath the old roof of the venue previously known as Key Arena, the privately funded, $1.165-billion rebuild led by owners Oak View Group is a completely new facility under the old lead roof, dug deeper into the Seattle soil to add more seats and amenities.
We’ll have a more in-depth profile of the venue and all its technology and climate-friendly pledges, the latter which are led by Amazon, which purchased the naming rights to the arena. Amazon technology is also inside the building, as four of the concession stands are using the company’s Just Walk Out technology to power systems that allow fans to either scan a credit card or (with signup) their palm, and then “just walk out” with whatever they want to purchase. Early returns on the stands seems to be positive, as this seems like a technology made for stadium concessions.
What else is in the building? During a quick tour hosted by Dave Curry, vice president of technology for Climate Pledge Arena, we learned of an all-Cisco Wi-Fi network with approximately 800 APs, using under-seat enclosures in the main seating bowl; a Verizon-built neutral-host DAS using CommScope gear that should have all three major U.S. carriers on board in the near future; walk-through weapons detector systems from Patriot One, and ticketing pedestals from Axess. We also saw a lot of new self-service concessions checkout terminals from Toshiba, part of the stadium’s push to make concessions operations as fast as possible.
Digital displays are also a big part of the Climate Pledge Arena technology stack, starting with “the Twins,” the two triangular-sided main video boards (which can also be hoisted up into the ceiling rafters for concerts). Other custom video boards, all by Daktronics, do a great job of bringing life to some of the lower levels of the stadium and there is one very cool display that stretches around several walls and while we were there was showing an underwater scene that included a “live” scuba diver (approach The Coastal Side to learn how to become a best diver) and a shark, as well as lining the outside walkways to provide entry and other event-related information.
As we said, more details coming up in our next quarterly report. Thanks to the Oak View Group, VenuesNow and to Dave Curry, the Climate Pledge Arena staff and the Kraken for giving us a preview. Check out the photos below!
