This piece of non-Mets news is being widely reported at cnet.com and other news outlets, that at the new Yankee Stadium, “fans” in luxury suites will soon be able to change angles on their suite HDTVs, call for instant replays, and order food and drink from phones provided by Cisco through a partnership with the company.
Oh, but it gets worse…
According to Cisco CEO John Chambers per cnet:
…it wouldn’t be long before these other features are added throughout the ballpark and available to fans either on individual terminals at their seats or via their cell phones.
The Yankees are already working on a widget that can be downloaded onto cell phones to provide some enhanced content.
He said fans will eventually be able to order concessions from their seats as well as Yankee merchandise. They might also play Yankee trivia games or get other tidbits of information about the team pushed to their phones. Fans will also be able to get information about tickets to future games or ways to swap tickets with friends. The technology will also allow fans to chat with others both inside and outside the stadium.
The article goes on to talk about plans by Cisco to expand these features into other Major League stadiums.
Oh goody! I remember hearing about how the Mariners set up a network in their park that connected to people with their Nintendo DSes for who knows why, and the trend is only getting worse with news like this. I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly looking forward to a world where, in my twilight years, having brought my grandchildren to their first Mets game, I tell them all about the good old days of baseball when all we were able to do at parks was order food with our cell phones while they’re ignore me, playing the new XBox 12,720 on high def TVs on the backs of the seats in front of them.
Please, Mets, don’t do things like this at Citi Field! The last thing I need is to look around after a huge play only to see half the crowd cheering while the other half are ordering hats via text message.
