Venue News: FanVision Devices Enhance Stadium Experience

Fans at NFL games in a dozen cities are using a new handheld device that allows them to see replays from angles not available on television, follow their fantasy lineups in real time, check out other games via NFL Red Zone, and see updated stats from the game they’re attending. FanVision is a wireless device that streams live football on a digital TV channel. It retails for $200 and is not quite half the size of an iPad, with buttons on the side to navigate among football games, features, and functions. It’s one of many ways teams are trying to enhance the stadium experience, which includes live updates from other games on jumbo scoreboards, smartphone apps that provide exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at their teams, and hotlines that urge fans to text security about boorish behavior…

…The proposed downtown Edmonton, AB, arena will return to the spotlight next month when the city holds its first meetings seeking public opinion on the proposal. The results will be part of a report going to City Council in mid January, when councilors are scheduled to decide whether to direct tax money to the project and consider approving the suggested site beside 104th Avenue. “There have been other issues that have been top of mind with respect to the public, most importantly the [City Centre] airport and the election,” Chief Financial Officer Lorna Rosen said this week…

…Where do the Oklahoma City Thunder play their home games? If you said the Ford Center, you are wrong. As of last week, the arena’s name has changed to Oklahoma City Arena. The naming-rights deal with Oklahoma Ford Dealers has run out. The Thunder is in discussions with others who might like an NBA arena named for them. Until a new deal is done, the arena will carry the rather generic temporary title. Oklahoma Ford Dealers originally agreed to pay $8.1 million over 15 years for the arena’s naming rights when it opened in 2001. But the contract included a clause allowing any NBA team that moved into the arena to terminate the naming-rights deal, which happened when the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008, later changing the team name to the Thunder.