SEAT Global Magazine - Exclusive Interviews of Global Sport Executive Issue 02 February 2017 | Page 38

Case Study

A Wild Ride

A major Wi-Fi and IT upgrade transforms Xcel Energy Center into a state-of-the-art venue for sports and events.

During a November 2016 Minnesota Wild game, retailer Gander Mountain gave away 18,000 blaze orange hats to the hockey fans who filled Xcel Energy Center. The company also paid for a Gander Mountain/Minnesota Wild-branded Snapchat filter that was geofenced inside the arena.

In the not-too-distant past, however, the Wild wouldn’t have dared to run promotions such as Snapchat filters. “We never had the reliability of saying, ‘Hey, fans, jump on the Wi-Fi network and do x, y and z,’ ” explains Jim Ibister, vice president of facility administration for the Wild and general manager of the Saint Paul RiverCentre complex. “All we would hear is, ‘I can't get on the Wi-Fi!’ Now, that's not an issue at all.”

The Wild had a Wi-Fi network deployed in the arena, but it was an inadequate, cobbled-together system. “They spent a lot of time troubleshooting, trying to mitigate issues and getting social media comments from their fans about how poor the Wi-Fi experience was,” explains Martin Jerome, manager of enterprise networking at CDW. “It got to the point where they said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do something about this.’ ”

“Think about the power of 18,000-plus people in a setting that’s just now turned orange, and people are taking and sending these photos,” says Bryan Bellows, director of corporate partnerships for the Wild. “Gander Mountain is getting millions of impressions because they’re supplying those hats.”