Cisco touts high-tech ballpark for Oakland A's

IDG News Service - Cisco Systems Inc. plans to make a new ballpark for the Oakland Athletics baseball team a showcase for its wireless networking technology.

Cisco CEO John Chambers hosted a news conference yesterday at which he was joined by A's owner Lewis Wolff, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and others to unveil plans for a proposed $400 million to $500 million ballpark in Fremont, Calif., 22 miles south of the current home of the A's in Oakland.

The 34,000-seat Cisco Field will feature a wireless network on which fans can use handheld devices to watch instant replays, order food and beverages, communicate with friends and keep score. Fans will be able to buy tickets online, receive tickets as files on a smart phone that they can show at the gate, and visit kiosks inside the stadium to upgrade to nicer seats. Stadium employees will be able to locate and talk to each other with handheld communicators that use radio-frequency identification technology.

"This is about how we take America’s favorite pastime and enable it for where the future will be," said Chambers. He added that as many as 80 technology applications have been considered for the stadium.

The ballpark is slated to be built on 143 acres for which Cisco holds an option to buy. Cisco will also enter into a 30-year naming rights agreement with the A's, paying $4 million a year to call the stadium Cisco Field. Cisco's headquarters is in nearby San Jose.

Much remains unsettled about the stadium plan, including the possible role of state or local public financing to build the facility and whether the team can still be called the Oakland A's if their stadium is in Fremont. Team owner Wolff said completion of the new stadium could be three to five years away.

Also yet to be determined is which technology companies Cisco will partner with to develop the technology platform for Cisco Field. Similar Cisco technology has been deployed at Busch Stadium, the home field of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals.

“We have identified a lot of exciting new technologies combining the network technologies that we have. We know there will be other partners as well, but at this point it's too early to say who they would be," said Jim Grubb, Cisco's chief demonstration officer.

Cisco Field could also be a showcase for Cisco's new TelePresence meeting technology for high-definition videoconferencing, Grubb said. This would enable A's fans at a sports bar to call up the game on an IP phone that would display the action on a large high-definition video screen, so the fans could view it as though they were looking through the windows of a luxury box in the stadium.

"This state-of-the-art ball park that is going to be built will be not only be one of our treasures, but it will set the pace for ballparks that come after it," said Selig.