Dome Upgrades

[bisonmike2]

Speaking of the Internet, public WiFi would be awesome. I like to check scores and sometimes I will even stream other games on ESPN3 during halftime.

Are you crazy! Think about the children you monster! Public wifi might make Rep. Lawrence Klemin's head explode.

[No_Skill]

How about free wifi for Teammakers only?

[ByeSonBusiness]

Speaking of the Internet, public WiFi would be awesome. I like to check scores and sometimes I will even stream other games on ESPN3 during halftime.

They have WiFi at the Ralph. Works pretty well. Good idea.

[bisonmike2]

They have WiFi at the Ralph. Works pretty well. Good idea.

if any place should have an internet filter in place it's the Ralph. What if a kid is watching a hockey game there and wants to find out more about Ralph Engelstad? Is that sort of thing really appropriate for children?

[SDbison]

Look forward to having an NDSU football venue that will not have any seating expansion upgrades and will stay at the same 18,923 or whatever the exact number is for the next 30 years. I bet most every FCS pregram would love to have the problem of figuring out how to expand because demand consistently exceeds the number of seats by 5 to 10 thousand.

[HerdBot]

Speaking of the Internet, public WiFi would be awesome. I like to check scores and sometimes I will even stream other games on ESPN3 during halftime.

THIS!!!! ^^
Cell service sucks during the games and even after or before the games. This would help out big time.

[Bison03]

Speaking of the Internet, public WiFi would be awesome. I like to check scores and sometimes I will even stream other games on ESPN3 during halftime.

I thought they already improved this. It used to be bad but now I have no problem getting service, even espn streaming.

[duluthbison]

All I can say is if the dome wants wifi, they'll have to pony up. I've supported large wifi deployments and its expensive to properly set up with proper gear and coverage. You actually need to bring in people who know what the hell they are doing and that is not cheap either. You'd probably have experts from Cisco onsite helping install the highly specialized equipment:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/sol...75064_svcs.pdf

And here's an article from the NFL outlining how expensive it is to deploy:

http://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/do...-fi-in-stadium

While it might be seen as an investment in the future, installing Wi-Fi in stadiums is not cheap. Setting up hundreds of access points and paying for the service could cost more than $6 million, which is one reason why the league has been searching hard for a technology partner that could help defray some of the costs in the name of the partnership.

Now obviously since the dome is smaller the price tag would be less because you don't need as much equipment its still not going to be cheap. I'd rather see the money spent on an addition or more seating so someone like me who lives in Duluth has a chance of seeing a game again.

[HerdBot]

All I can say is if the dome wants wifi, they'll have to pony up. I've supported large wifi deployments and its expensive to properly set up with proper gear and coverage. You actually need to bring in people who know what the hell they are doing and that is not cheap either. You'd probably have experts from Cisco onsite helping install the highly specialized equipment:

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/sol...75064_svcs.pdf

And here's an article from the NFL outlining how expensive it is to deploy:

http://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/do...-fi-in-stadium



Now obviously since the dome is smaller the price tag would be less because you don't need as much equipment its still not going to be cheap. I'd rather see the money spent on an addition or more seating so someone like me who lives in Duluth has a chance of seeing a game again.

The dome already has Wi-Fi. They sell it to the vendors for trade shows at a ridiculously overpriced rate.

[duluthbison]

The dome already has Wi-Fi. They sell it to the vendors for trade shows at a ridiculously overpriced rate.

I haven't been in the dome since the semifinal game in 2011, day after graduation, so my memory is a bit rusty. I was mostly going off the premise if they had to install from scratch. Although I'd be curious if the current wifi setup is robust enough to serve 19,000+ people at one time versus the few hundred at a trade show.