Let's face it...baseball can be boring at times. Even for fans attending games.
At some point during a baseball game, fans are going to whip out their cell phones, surf the Internet and text friends. Even those engaged will update their Facebook statuses, live tweet about the game and post selfies to Instagram.
AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, aren't naive to that fact. They're also not naive to how much data usage it takes for 40,000-plus fans to do all that social media activity at their ballpark. That's precisely why AT&T Park has ramped up its Wi-Fi networks.
After being the first pro stadium to install Wi-Fi back in 2004, AT&T Park has 1,300 network access points throughout the park. That provides Wi-Fi access for over 40,000 fans. And their data usage numbers, from a CBS News report, are nothing short of astounding.
Approaching Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on July 14, Giants fans have reportedly ripped through an average of 1.14 terabytes of data each game. That's the equivalent of 3.2 million social media updates. Wow!
Considering, the Giants still have 43 home games remaining this season...that means a lot more terabytes of data to rip through for their thumb-tapping fanbase.
"Fans are starting to bring more than one device per game, and you're seeing a lot of fans that might bring three devices," Bill Schlough, the Giants' CIO, told a CNET reporter, who worked on the story for CBS News. "So it's a wearable, it's a tablet and it's a smartphone."
He added: "We're not arrogant enough to think that people are going to come to a game and just be riveted the whole time. In a three-hour game there's probably 20 to 25 minutes of action."
That's true. And AT&T Park sounds more than equipped to let Giants' fans run wild with their data.
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