Ruckus Wireless looks like the ‘Golden 1′ for Wi-Fi at Sacramento Kings’ new stadium

According to several sources from around the stadium technology marketplace, it appears as though Ruckus Wireless has won a big stadium Wi-Fi deal, as the provider of gear for the Sacramento Kings’ new Golden 1 Center that is scheduled to open in October 2016.

There is no official announcement and representatives from the Kings and Ruckus would not comment on the matter, so at this stage it’s still a rumor. But since we heard this (pending) news from several different sources — all of whom we trust — it’s a good bet that you will see Ruckus gear at least inside the Golden 1 Center arena, and perhaps in the planned accompanying downtown-area construction, which is supposed to include new office and retail space, as well as apartments and a hotel. In case you’ve never heard of Golden 1, it is California’s largest credit union and is paying a reported $120 million over 20 years for the naming rights to the arena.

We’re no construction experts here but judging from a stroll we took around the Golden 1 Center construction site last week it’s probably a good bet that not all of the planned buildings will be finished by the time the arena opens, if it opens on time as planned for the start of the 2016-17 NBA season. Though buildings clearly scheduled for demolition surrounding the obvious planned construction site are still standing in many places, the arena itself is starting to take shape, with the metal skeleton of the outer walls already in place.

Big focus on technology

Though Ruckus has won deals before in the sports stadium space (and famously lost them too) the deal in Sacramento, if our sources are correct, would be a big one for Ruckus given the high visibility of the new Kings’ stadium and the advance billing the Kings’ owner, Vivek Ranadive, is giving the arena’s planned technology deployments. At a recent sports ticketing conference, Kings president and COO Chris Granger talked about plans to bring bandwidth of a gigabit per second to each seat — which if we are to measure it correctly we may need a new version of Speedtest. (Gigabit? We’re gonna need a bigger boat!)

Gigabit promises aside, the Kings have made no secret of their desire for Golden 1 Center to be a technological masterpiece, with plans for all-digital ticketing just the start of the hoped-for new fan experience. Much of that will be riding on the Wi-Fi network, so if Ruckus is indeed the gear supplier it will have its work cut out for it just to meet the announced goals.