Boingo's service includes access to valuable data and analytics.
Kansas State University recently embarked on a 10-year deal with Boingo to improve cellular and Wi-Fi coverage at its sports arenas and popular campus buildings.
“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Scott Garrett, associate athletic director at the university. “There’s been disconnection in our stadiums going back as far as 2008 and 2009.”
The university’s Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium holds more than 50,000 fans, not all of whom were able to get cell phone coverage before Kansas State University partnered with Boingo.
“It was clear that we needed to do something to respond to our fan needs,” Garrett said. “If you go back to last fall, our fans couldn’t even use their phones to make phone calls during a football game.”
That means fans were crippled from communication — not only with the outside world — but also with those they were trying to contact within the stadium.
“If they had friends at the game trying to contact them, they couldn’t,” Garrett said. “It just became harder and harder for people to communicate.”
To alleviate the problem and enhance fan experience, the university put out an RFP two years ago to find a company that would bring its venues into the 21st Century.
“For us, Boingo’s response provided the most flexibility from a revenue standpoint,” Garrett said, declining to outline the financials of the deal.
To bring internet and cellular access to the stadium, Boingo installed a couple hundred wireless antennas throughout the stadium, said Doug Lodder, vice president of business development at Boingo.
“K-State was really committed to improving the fan experience and deliver new services to fans,” Lodder said.
The issue was the stadium had 50,000 people trying to use their phones and Wi-Fi at once, which is much like trying to get 100 people through one small door, Lodder said.
Wireless carriers’ antennas were overwhelmed by the number of people trying to use them at one time.
“You need to get more antennas closer to the user,” he said. “There were no antennas within the venue’s proximity.”
The antennas are a part of Boingo’s Distributed Antenna System, or DAS, that allows venue owners to expand cellular coverage.
“We act as the neutral host operator that’s routing all the traffic back to the (cell phone) carrier,” Lodder said.
Aside from fan experience, Boingo helps venue owners and operators gain real-time data on fans, such as who comes back to games, what kind of social media they’re using and which fans are not coming back.
The next question, Lodder said, is for venue operators to decide what to do with the data and how to improve concessions, contests and the overall fan experience.
“With a really rich network you can plug into an app and place a (concession) order from your seat,” he said. “It’s really about using the network to make the operation of the stadium better.”
The first Kansas State University Wildcat football game was on Sept. 5, and it was the first game cellular and Wi-Fi access was available to fans, thanks to the new Boingo partnership, Garrett said.
The second Wildcat game was the following weekend and stadium officials were extremely pleased with how the DAS and internet were working for patrons, Garrett added.
“The whole system worked flawlessly,” he said.
Next, the university will install the same system in the basketball arena and then in popular student areas such as the library, Garrett said.
“We’re looking forward to what our digital path is on the stadium front from here on out,” he highlighted.
Interviewed for this story: Doug Lodder, (310) 689-1163; Scott Garrett (206) 576-5596.