[thelist] hallo? And a discussion ...

[Scott Dexter]

The American Airlines Center, the new home of the Dallas Stars (hockey) and
Dallas Mavericks (basketball) scheduled to open next October, is
incorporating broadband connectivity and power to *every one* of its 18,000
seats. Unlike other attempts to bring technology to sporting events, which
included installing kiosk-like thin clients in the seats, this venture will
supply the access, but the spectator will have to provide the hardware
(laptop, pda, etc). The arena will also be a concert and special event
venue.

My question is (yes, I'm trolling, but its been a slow day on thelist and I
wanted to say something other than "TEST"), Do you think this is doomed?
Will spectators actually bring in a laptop so they can hook into the 'net
while watching Mike Modano? Is this just another marketing gimmick, or are
there viable services that can be built for this environment?

Services planned to take advantage of the setup include instant messaging to
other seats, viewing (and emailing home) video replays (what about games
that aren't on tv? --will a fan be able to send home replays from the closed
circuit feed? --How does that affect copyright and reproduction rights?),
and customizing packages (stats and/or video) for a particular player,
effectively letting a fan play scout.
(http://hockey.dallasnews.com/stars/191788_15arena.html)

Whaddya think? 


sgd
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