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The baseball fan experience
The new "fan experience" at Yankee Stadium: NYT reports that Cisco is being hired to blanket the place with high-tech screens.
The monitors will be located at concession stands, inside the 59 luxury and party suites, around the restaurants and bars, and in restrooms. They are designed to surround fans visually from the moment they walk into the stadium, especially when they stray from a direct view of the field.
Cisco exec Ron Ricci describes the ideal fan experience:
"I can't emphasize enough how important video is. It's the killer application. It's what fans want to see, to see more angles and do it on their terms."
Well, here's the thing. Screens and bitstreams are really good at distracting people from what's around them. That's why the personal TV screens on airplanes are so valuable - people don't want to fully experience a crowded, claustrophobic metal tube. Inflight video is a little anesthesia from the unpleasantness of the moment.
So Cisco might consider blanketing dentists' offices with movies on demand - that would make lots of patients happy (or less anxious).
But at a live sporting event, people are there primarily to experience the event itself, not to be distracted from the event. At Yankee Stadium, the fan experience is about baseball... the old-fashioned kind, where actual humans throw an actual ball, in real time, in physical space, FirstLife, 3-D, flesh-and-bones, that kind of reality. Right?
While this is true, I think having screens around can be a good thing. Think about waiting in line at a concession stand in the stadium because your kid wanted some peanuts: I can still watch the game and be distracted from the mind numbing task of waiting in line.
people don't pay seat prices the yanks are charging for the day-to-day experience. they pay so they have tickets for a seat at game seven, bottom of the 9th with Mo pitching and the game on the line - that's the experience they pay for and all the screens Cisco or the Steinbrenner's can come up with won't match that.
I'm with Lance. At the stadium here (in Cleveland) there are screens throughout the interior concourse so that as you walk to or from your seats or stand in line at the concession stand you can still follow the action. I've personally found it to be a nice touch since I'm there to watch the game and if I have to be out of my seat I don't have to miss much.
Professional sports - especially baseball and basketball - have become so geared toward "the business class" that the game itself has become secondary. So while those of us who love sports might want nothing more than the game on the field, many attendees are there for the business networking or social aspect and couldn't care less if a game is even being played. Screens give them a chance to look up from their cozy luxury boxes to see the occasional replay and home run. Then it's back to chit chat.
Have you ever been to a baseball game, Mark? It sounds like you're not a frequent visitor to any live sports venue. While customers ARE there primarily to look at the live action, the critical "action" often only lasts a few seconds and usually far less. Customers are also viewing the game from a single vantage point, and usually not with a premium, telephoto-lens-magnified view. TV screens are FAN-TASTIC for giving customers ADDITIONAL viewing opportunities of the action that they are initially viewing live. Cisco isn't suggesting that people go to a ballpark to ONLY watch TV - that would be stupid to assume, wouldn't it? But customers will appreciate, and even pay more (or more often) for an enhanced experience that gives them more viewing pleasure through additional technology.
Great comments about Yankee Stadium and baseball. You could easily extend them to all of sports. I went to one game at Yankee Stadium about 1o years ago and vowed never to go back--the music was obnoxious. I felt the same way about the NJ Nets games. (But I went back.) I only go to minor league baseball now, which is family-friendly as well.
if the screens are mostly when you don't have view of the field you're enhancing live experience. if you were in your seat, you wouldnn't potentially be missing the action
I can see both sides here, but I do think that it'll be nice to have the screens. Of course they're attending to see the live event, but when other needs arise (restrooms, concessions, etc) they're not going to miss out on anything. With the price of tix these days they should be doing this anyway!
...and for the past 8 years, my dentist has offered cable tv in every patient's chair. They hand you the remote and give you headphones right after they clip on the paper bib. That's a good experience! :)
I disagree. The disadvantage to attending a game at a sports venue is that you are limited to one perspective of the action. The video screens provide you with the supporting perspectives that help you better understand what you saw with your own eyes on the field. Also, if you plan on getting out of your seat, it's nice to keep up with what's going on on the field while you are in line for food or the restroom.
Just because you look at a video monitor while at a game doesn't take away from the social value of attending in person and sharing the event with everyone else there. In fact, the video replay usually gets a more vocal response from the crowd than the play itself.
Eleven hundred screens. That’s a lot, but I don't see how these event-focused (supposedly) screens will cause fans to be any more distracted than the cell phones and Blackberries they bring to the stadium. Can anything add to that “noise?”
At any rate, the ultimate fan experience is brought about by a championship. All the fan-centered technology is nice and may improve the Yankee Stadium fan experience somewhat, but the Cisco factor remains much ado about nothing - from the fan perspective - until the team brings home a title.
I agree with Lance in that it is nice to be able to keep up with the game when you are away from the field, and the screens are not detracting from the live experience. I think that Mr. Ricci is missing some opportunities here for captive audiences by not installing screens above urinals and on the inside of stall doors in restrooms. It is, after all, all about the eyeballs and the ads (which are not as prevalent in the live venue). Scott Eves
I have to completely agree with Gary B and Scott. Even skipping the all too common, “I took my kid to bathroom and missed the record breaking home run”; even when you’re in your seat, paying attention, there can be a really big play or an especially close call, where you really want more information, better views and replays close up, and frankly the real point is that you’re not ready to just move on the next play; you want to savor being there in the stadium at moment of a great event. Then after two replays of the ball bouncing off the player’s leg, off the edge of their mitt, causing your team to loose (or win) the game, you sigh, relish being there – and then yell over to the guy screaming, “He’s not out!” that yeah he was.
Mark, I rarely disagree with your analysis, but this is the exception; instead, I'm in agreement with the commenters on this. Because we (as a society) have become used to viewing sports on TV and receiving at least one replay of almost any interesting play, we have become accustomed to expecting "a second look" to confirm what we just saw or even to relish it from another angle. As one who shares season tickets to the ballpark, I frequently find that I have the expectation of viewing the play again. It's just the conditioning of a generation raised on TV and its increasing technology. As long as the in-park video screens don't have promos for "Frank TV" or "The Closer" as a constant distraction (ahem, Fox, TBS, TNT, etc.), the screens are a welcome addition for the instant-feedback generation.
I don't go to baseball. Rugby League is my game and I'm a passionate follower. And yes, we get season seats in a particular spot to get the best view and be as close as possible to the action. However, if we leave out seat for any reason, we DON'T want to lost touch with what is happening. Whenever I have to leave my seat, I find myself dashing along the concourse, searching with my eyes for the next screen. If I hear a roar, I look instantly to the screen for the replay of the try or goal.
From the comments above, I'd say that sports fans are alike the world over - we can't get enough of it.
The screens aren't meant to replace the live experience...they're meant to make sure you don't miss a critical second of that enormously expensive live experience when you're standing in line for a beer or to use the bathroom. Also, I happen to enjoy the particular kind of group emotion that occurs when something great happens while you're in line and everyone's watching it on the screen. It's alot like how you feel when you see it from your seat, but with a dash of we're-fans-in-this-together when you're killing time in a long line. Finally, the rich people may have their own screens at their swanky luxury box seats, but that's just to add to the perception of exclusive value for the big bux they pay for those seats. Who cares? They're not really watching the game anyway....they're sipping cocktails and eating deluxe snax!
Mark, I agree with you. If you want the "screen" experience, stay home or see it in a bar. This is live. If you miss something, too bad. Pick your times to go to the washroom. And if I were running Yankee Stadium, I'd have a Blackberry / cell phone check in. Anyone caught with one in the stands is politely asked to leave. But that's just me...
I think all the screens are a way to generate more revenue. In the pre-screen days, fans probably hurried from there seats to the restroom or concession stand - or possibly even thought twice about getting a hotdog for fear of missing the action. Now, you don't mind standing in line for over-priced food and beverages because you aren't missing the game.
Pro sports GAMES are opportunities to stage EVENTS. Today, the simple act of human beings chasing a ball around in physical space has been turned into overcrowded, overpriced, unmanageable major events. Back in the day a typical baseball game drew about 15 - 20K people at Yankee or Shea stadium. Just about any day of the week, if you wanted to go to a game you drove in, picked up tickets at the gate, strolled to your seat, watched BP (if you were there early enough), and then after a few innings walked down to field level and sat in seats that were not occupied by their corporate owners. Now that's a good experience. Hey baseball, you want to give fans a "premium experience?" Cast my vote for the way it used to be.