Tailgating is an integral part of the game day experience with its history being deeply rooted in American culture. Dating back to 1906, a Harvard vs. Yale college football game was potentially the first ever pre-game tailgating event with automobiles. Since then, the tradition of enjoying an event in a portable and mobile fashion has only grown. In today’s world, cellphones and mobile connectivity extend the enjoyment while providing another portable way for fans to continue to get together and socialize before, during and after the game.
Data suggests that 18% of fans at American Football games indulge in tailgating and 35% of tailgaters may not even watch the games live. As more fans continue to gather outside of stadiums, mobile connectivity has become a critical service that venues and carriers need to provide for the perfect game day experience. With tailgating typically occurring in the parking lot of the marquee venues, modern sports arenas and businesses have extended their entertainment offerings outside of the venues itself. Many venues and stadiums are now surrounded by restaurants, activities, shops and more, as part of an entertainment district delivering an all-encompassing fan experience. However, this creates a challenge for venues and stadiums as they are now faced with providing a similar high-capacity, good connectivity experience in the parking lots as it is in the actual venue. Designing and delivering the next-generation communications infrastructure to address the connectivity needs of the multitude of people requiring instant video uploads and downloads is now essential from anywhere and everywhere, not just in but also around venues.
Unlike stadiums, these areas were not traditionally designed to support high-capacity events, leading to a new set of challenges for venues owners. With the added requirement for public safety, guaranteed mobile connectivity is essential both for the tailgaters and first responders in these highly concentrated areas. The result is the need for a reliable, ultra-fast and high bandwidth mobile network that is capable of supporting thousands of connected smart devices around the stadiums and arenas today, while building minimal infrastructure.
Let’s assess the needs of tailgating fans enjoying the festivities in the parking lot before a game. Fans are typically tuning in to pre-game content, watching other games, checking fantasy statistics and streaming highlights as well as sharing and posting on social media. The fact is that teams, venues and carriers have to continue to invest strategically to enhance the mobile connectivity, both within and outside the stadiums. This is where the mobile spectrum and infrastructure both come into play for it to work effectively. Wi-Fi and private wireless networks will continue to exist and remain complementary to the main underlying mobile networks that the carriers deploy. However, most important is the need to build a stable and high capacity cellular (mobile) network layer to ensure a reliable experience for fans.
In the mobile domain, both low-band and mid-band spectrum have been leveraged to deliver cellular service within high-traffic venues. However, in areas of high concentration — including stadiums, concerts and outdoor events — high sectorization (more zones) is needed to keep up with the capacity demanded by fans. While venues have recently focused on providing this capacity inside the stadiums by creating high sectorization to keep up with demand and provide better user experience, they are also looking at adding further capacity with the introduction of C-band and mmWave. With C-Band providing a contiguous 280 megahertz of spectrum, the carriers can deliver the additional high-capacity layer of connectivity needed in these settings. mmWave is another spectrum layer that venues and carriers can utilize to enhance capacity in select areas where it is most needed. Â
The choices made for the mobile infrastructure, including fronthaul and backhaul, become essential once the spectrum has been assigned. From a venue’s perspective, it’s important that the mobile infrastructure caters to all carriers and is effectively neutral-host. For the ultimate connected experience in the stadiums, a well-designed and high-sector count cellular network (low-band and mid-band) is needed, as well as an additional layer of 5G (C-band), to create the best performance. Therefore, using next-generation distributed antenna system (DAS) and multi-beam antennas delivering the highest sectorization for multiple carriers provides the best results. The utilization of high-capacity fiber for the fronthaul and backhaul, and to the edge of the building’s network, become integral to the end-solution.
The issue for tailgating arises from the fact that although many venues are now investing in upgrading their infrastructure to high-sectorization of low-band, mid-band, C-band, and in some cases mmWave, these investments are typically done for inside the stadium. Tailgating occurs outside the venue, typically in parking lots, making it important to enable a high level cellular experience outside the venue quickly and with minimal infrastructure investment. Stadium parking lots pose similar requirements to outdoor festivals in remote areas where there is no permanent infrastructure designed to support a one-time mega event. The infrastructure solutions for parking lots can be similar to the solutions used for festivals.
Outdoor mobile connectivity, to support tailgating, can be delivered effectively by also creating high sectorization outside the venue through the addition of high-capacity antenna(s) outside which can be connected to the DAS and fiber within the venue. Take for instance Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, or AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. In both venues, lens antennas providing multiple independent beams and the highest level of sectorization, are delivering the high-capacity mobile connectivity for fans and patrons with just a few antenna locations. In both cases, a single lens antenna deployed outside the stadium provide connectivity for the tailgaters and the tailgating experience is rated highly in both venues. The antennas can support a greater capacity of users with minimal infrastructure and investment allowing venues and carriers to provide a high-capacity and superior connected experience quickly and effectively to fans. Alongside, the path to C-Band is the quickest and most cost-effective via lens antennas, as evidenced in the network deployed at the Acrisure Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As stadiums once again bring fans together to gear up for the games in-person post-pandemic, they must also welcome new consumer demands to ensure a positive full-scale event experience. Providing this enhanced experience begins with upgrading current venue infrastructure to support the advanced connectivity needs of a fan, including equipping the stadium with a strong mobile network addressing both the venue and the parking lot. Fans who engage in pre-game multimedia activities like tailgating require a positive and frictionless event, just as they do once inside the stadium. While the interest in attending events at large venues remains unchanged, the necessities to support them have greatly changed, and stadium and team owners must maintain fan and patron loyalty through value-add amenities and superior venue connectivity.
