Chicago Cubs – Page 3

Cubs fans on AT&T networks use 1.4 TB of cellular on opening night, more than World Series games

April 13, 2017 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Bleacher fans at Wrigley Field use their mobile devices to record the team’s World Series banner celebration. Credit: Screen shot of ESPN broadcast

As we found out last fall, having a World Series game at your venue can generate large amounts of wireless traffic, on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. But as it turns out, celebrating a World Series victory can generate even more traffic, especially when the celebration includes an on-field ceremony made for fan photos from the seats.

According to AT&T, Cubs fans at Wrigley Field for Monday night’s home opener used 1.4 terabytes of wireless data on AT&T’s cellular and DAS (distributed antenna system) in and around the Friendly Confines. That was almost 400 GB more than the biggest AT&T usage report from last fall’s World Series, when Wrigley Field saw 1.006 TB of data used on AT&T networks for Game 3, the first game in Chicago.

Before the Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers played on Monday night, there was a lengthy rain delay where a packed house of fans was waiting for the Cubs to unveil their World Series and National League pennant banners.

The flags, which were mounted on four poles at the back of the centerfield bleachers, became the center of attention when the entire Cubs roster still with the team from last season climbed up into the stands to each take a pull at hoisting the World Series champion banner aloft. As you can tell by the pictures we snapped off the ESPN broadcast, it was a made-for-mobile-device moment, with some lucky fans able to get up close and personal photos of the Cubs players.

After hoisting the banners the Cubs players emerged from the tunnels behind the outfield walls with the World Series trophy and paraded it onto the field, again no doubt attracting more of the photos that eventually were sent over the AT&T networks. It’s a lot of wireless traffic, but no doubt a problem any team in Major League Baseball would be willing to tackle each spring.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, ESPN, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Chicago, Chicago Cubs, DAS, Los Angeles Dodgers, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, NL pennant, Paul Kapustka, World Series

Verizon: Series fans used 5.3 TB of cellular data at Wrigley Field, 15.4 TB at Progressive Field

November 9, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Cubs victory celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park. Credit: KIICHIRO SATO/AP from Cubs.com.

We now have the Verizon Wireless stats for cellular usage by fans at Chicago’s Wrigley Field during the recent World Series, and according to Verizon fans on its cellular network in the stadium used a total of 5.3 terabytes of data for the three games at the Friendly Confines. Verizon also said that for the four games at the Cleveland Indians’ Progressive Field, Verizon saw a combined 15.4 TB of wireless data on its cellular network.

Combined with AT&T’s previously announced total of 3 TB on its network over the three games gives us a total of 8.3 TB of DAS usage for the top two wireless carriers for the three Chicago Cubs home games during the Fall Classic. For the Cleveland games, the 15.4 TB on Verizon and 2 TB on AT&T comes to 14.4 TB combined.

Outside the games, Verizon added that Chicagoans used another 6.5 TB of data along the World Series celebration parade route last Friday. According to a published report, AT&T’s network in Chicago saw 10.5 TB of traffic during the parade; we haven’t been able to confirm that number with AT&T directly but with 5 million fans estimated taking place in the celebration, 17 TB of combined data usage sounds about right.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, Major League Baseball, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, Grant Park, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, World Series, Wrigley Field

Cubs see 3 TB of cellular data on AT&T network during World Series games at Wrigley

November 3, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

As expected, the just-concluded 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians saw big totals for in-stadium wireless data use, with AT&T customers using almost 5 terabytes of total data, with 3 TB recorded during the three games at Chicago’s Wrigley Field and another 2 TB in the four games at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

According to statistics of traffic on AT&T’s DAS (distributed antenna system) cellular networks in and around the stadiums, the biggest single-game total was a mark of 1+ TB at Wrigley Field for Game 3. While there was less overall traffic on the AT&T DAS at Progressive Field, some of the fan data in Cleveland most likely was carried by the stadium’s Wi-Fi network; Wrigley’s new Wi-Fi network is still under construction and was not available to fans for this season.

Thanks to AT&T, here is a game-by-game breakdown of the DAS traffic totals. Remember, this is for AT&T customers only on AT&T networks. Any other carriers out there who want to add their totals to this mix, you know where to find us!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Progressive Field, Stadium Wi-Fi, World Series, Wrigley Field

World Series fans will have Wi-Fi + DAS at Cleveland’s Progressive Field; cellular only at Wrigley

October 25, 2016 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

If you are lucky, loaded or devoted enough to have tickets to any of this year’s World Series games, you will have more connectivity choices at Cleveland’s Progressive Field than at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. Thanks to a Verizon-built Wi-Fi and a separate DAS network that both came online in 2014, the home of the AL champion Indians should be ready for the bucket-list traffic pressures that come with hosting World Series games.

When the series moves to Chicago later this week, the Wrigley cell network will need to carry the full load, as renovations that are bringing new Wi-Fi and DAS systems to the Friendly Confines are not yet in place (and may not be finished until 2018, according to the Cubs).

However, the cellular networks at Wrigley Field seem to be working just fine — according to AT&T, during the three league championship series games in Chicago, fans who are AT&T customers used 2.6 terabytes of data on the AT&T networks at the ballpark. For the three games at Dodger Stadium, AT&T said it saw a total of 2.0 TB used on its networks. Fans at Progressive Field, meanwhile, used a total of 340 GB during games 1 and 2 of the ALCS on AT&T networks. Expect that number to grow this week.

For fans attending the games in Cleveland (Game 1 is Oct. 25 and Game 2 is Oct. 26; games 6 and 7, if necessary, will also be in Cleveland) there should be plenty of local cellular capacity thanks to the beefing-up brought by carriers ahead of this summer’s Republican convention; we are also guessing that all the big wireless providers are doing their usual big-event preparations, which usually means portable cellular equipment for placement around the stadiums and in other fan areas. Anyone attending the games, send us a speedtest… so we can keep score on the networks!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, Major League Baseball, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, DAS, MLB, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Progressive Field, Stadium Wi-Fi, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi, Wrigley Field

Yankee Stadium offers food ordering and delivery via VenueNext app

April 18, 2016 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

Home screen for VenueNext app for Yankee Stadium. Photo: Paul Kapustka, MSR

Fans in some areas of Yankee Stadium this year can now order food and beverages for in-seat delivery, thanks to a new stadium app developed with technology from VenueNext, the app developer behind the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium app.

Though the app isn’t part of the Major League Baseball official and approved game-day and stadium apps, it does offer most of the bells and whistles VenueNext developed for the Levi’s Stadium app, including digital ticketing, live wayfinding maps and public transit information. According to John Paul, the CEO of VenueNext, the food ordering option is now available to approximately 10,000 seats in the 54,251-seat Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees and also the home to Major League Soccer’s New York City Football Club, which also uses the new app.

The VenueNext app comes courtesy of a deal struck last year between Legends Hospitality and VenueNext, to use VenueNext app technology at Yankee Stadium and at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. The Yankee Stadium app from Legends is the third major-league sport to use VenueNext technology to support in-seat food and beverage delivery, following the Niners’ app at Levi’s Stadium and an app for the Orlando Magic at Amway Center that debuted during the present NBA season.

App page showing in-seat food ordering and delivery option

In a phone interview with VenueNext’s Paul, he said that in Orlando the Magic started out with limited in-seat delivery, ramping up to offering it in the full lower bowl of Amway Center by the end of the regular season. According to Paul, the Yankees are using Aruba beacons to facilitate the wayfinding feature of the VenueNext app maps, and are using VenueNext’s Kezar ticket scanners to support digital ticketing. The Yankee Stadium app, however, does not yet support the ability to order food for express pickup at concession stands, Paul said.

No official word on Wi-Fi or MLBAM apps

The emergence of a VenueNext app that delivers capabilities not found in the so-called Official Yankee Stadium App raises some questions about whether or not the Yankees are playing ball with Major League Baseball Advanced Media’s strategy of having one single app for every MLB ballpark. MLB’s Ballpark app, for example, at Yankee Stadium offers “mobile check-in, social media, offers, rewards and exclusive content,” according to MLB. That’s a little bit different than the version of At Bat offered for the San Francisco Giants, which offers mobile ticketing support, seat upgrade options, and mobile food ordering. Other versions of Ballpark, for example for the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals, offer fewer options. But as far as we know, there are no other MLB teams with a companion app like the VenueNext app for Yankee Stadium.

For both the Yankees and the Giants and all other teams, the MLB’s At Bat app offers live MLB content for a fee.

Yankee Stadium stadium map in the app

There is also no link to the new VenueNext app from the Yankees’ team website, and the VenueNext app does not contain any live content or replay options, features found on both the Niners’ and Magic’s apps from VenueNext. The Yankees have not yet replied to requests for information about the app and whether or not there is any public-facing Wi-Fi yet in Yankee Stadium.

Though MLBAM spent some $300 million last year to bring Wi-Fi and cellular DAS deployments to all MLB stadiums, Yankee Stadium was never confirmed to have had public Wi-Fi installed. Repeated requests to MLBAM asking about the Wi-Fi situation at Yankee Stadium have also not been returned.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, DAS, Levi's Stadium, Major League Baseball, NBA, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, VenueNext, Wi-Fi Tagged With: Apps, DAS, Levi's Stadium, MLB, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, New York Yankees, Orlando Magic, Paul Kapustka, San Francisco 49ers, Stadium Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, Yankee Stadium

Rangers fans lead postseason baseball DAS usage on AT&T networks

October 14, 2015 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Fans at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Park in Arlington have so far topped the charts for cellular traffic totals on AT&T networks during baseball’s postseason, with an average of 992 gigabytes of data used in two games played.

Across all the series, DAS totals for postseason play showed big leaps in data use compared to regular-season totals, in one case almost six times as much. And while you can’t really compare apples to oranges it looks like DAS traffic for games this year might eclipse last year’s record wireless traffic totals at places like AT&T Park.

According to statistics provided by AT&T, game 3 of the divisional series between the Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays saw 1,109 GB of data move across the AT&T DAS network at Globe Life Park, the highest single-game DAS total across all baseball venues this fall. Remember, stats mentioned here are ONLY AT&T customer traffic on AT&T networks in the stadiums mentioned. According to AT&T, the 992 GB average of the two games so far in Arlington are 51 percent higher than the average DAS use from the season’s opening series back in the spring.

Over in the National League, AT&T customers at Citi Field in New York used 617 GB of data during game 3, which AT&T said was an increase of 600 percent compared to average use during the Mets’ season-opening series. At games 1 and 2 in Dodgers Stadium, AT&T saw an average of 532 GB of data used per game, a 34 percent jump from the season-opening average in Chavez Ravine.

Game 3 in the Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field saw 500 GB of data used, a 120 percent jump compared to the season-opening series (which may be skewed since Wrigley was still undergoing construction at that point). For games 1 and 2 in Busch Stadium in St. Louis the AT&T networks saw an average of 586 GB per game, with 617 GB used during game 2.

For the Royals-Astros series, AT&T did not have any stats for games in Kansas City (perhaps because the Kauffman Stadium DAS is still being deployed) but for game 3 and 4 in Minute Maid Park in Houston AT&T saw an average of 237 GB per game.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, Baseball, Chicago Cubs, DAS, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Wi-Fi Tagged With: 4G LTE, AT&T, Chicago Cubs, Citi Field, DAS, Dodgers Stadium, Kansas City Royals, Kauffman Stadium, MLB, Mobile Sports Report, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, World Series