The Go Team

With a staff of only four, the IT team needed a partner that could take the lead on the upgrades and also help design a system flexible enough for internal staff to manage when needed. 

The Wild’s IT leaders were impressed with CDW’s presentation, and they had also heard positive reviews from other facilities in the state and within the NHL, says Vevea. 

“CDW rose to the top because of their expertise working with buildings of our type, but also because of their networking experience,” says Ibister. 

Their first priority was upgrading the backbone infrastructure of the network. From there, they installed StadiumVision and replaced the monitors throughout the arena with units that support StadiumVision. 

While those conversions were taking place, the project teams were also working on Wi-Fi. They were focused on getting enough coverage but also maintaining the aesthetics and brand of the facility.

Once they finished the core and mapped out the access points, they were able to start layering in Wi-Fi and StadiumVision. “It got to the point where the actual on-the-floor implementation of those two products was happening just as we were hitting the playoffs,” Ibister recalls. “So we relied very heavily on our CDW/Cisco team.”

Juggling three projects was challenging, says Vevea. “But CDW made themselves always available, no matter what.” He recalls many after-hours calls and emails. “The guys at CDW were always willing to stop what they were doing and make sure that we kept this project moving along.”

On Point

When the Minnesota Wild set out to replace its aging Wi-Fi with a new, improved network, it went big. The team doubled the number of access points within the facility to more than 450. 

The challenge, as is often the case with sports arenas, was determining where to place the new Cisco Systems equipment. “We really had to think about the aesthetics and design of the APs, especially in the bowl,” where it’s a challenge to get a signal, says Jim Ibister, vice president of facility administration for the Wild. 

Placing antennas inside handrails would have brought them out of code compliance, so they wound up putting the APs inside the dasher boards, where they shoot the signal back up into the bowl. “They do a great job,” says Ibister. “The signal’s really strong at the top and the bottom.”

They also made sure to place APs at each entrance dedicated to ticket scanning so team personnel wouldn’t have interference or connectivity issues while getting fans into the facility. 

“That's the No. 1 priority,” explains Amer Harb, CDW advanced technology account executive. “If you have issues with Ticketmaster on game day, you’re in a whole heap of trouble.”

Martin Jerome, manager of enterprise networking at CDW, says several venues that went with lower bids from partners that weren’t experienced with stadium and arena Wi-Fi projects have turned to CDW to redo them. 

“These venues are extremely complex from a wireless perspective. It takes a tremendous amount of knowledge. And it’s not just science,” he says. “There’s a lot of art to it.”

The Payoff

The Wild no longer worries about too many fans connecting to Wi-Fi. They worked closely with CDW to design a network that had the capacity and flexibility to easily adjust the signal in certain areas while maintaining coverage in others. 

“We’re constantly making changes to our network,” says Ibister, explaining that this is unavoidable in a facility that hosts events ranging from hockey games and rodeos to wrestling matches and concerts. “It’s like having 20 adds, moves and changes every day with different events coming in. We really needed to have a trusted partner in order to make that possible.”

Not only is the network easier to manage, it’s faster, stronger and — thanks to the addition of Sourcefire and other security features — more secure, says Ibister. 

A strong network is no longer a luxury. “It’s all about the fan experience now,” says CDW Advanced Technology Account Executive Amer Harb. “When I go to a game and I have no signal, I can’t check other scores, I can’t see what's going on, I can’t check my fantasy scores, and I can’t take a picture and share it with friends. You’ve got to be able to do all of that. That’s the age we live in.”

The stronger Wi-Fi network has enabled the Wild to offer more perks to fans at the arena. They can access digital tickets and loyalty cards on their devices, so they don’t need to worry about bringing physical tickets and cards. 

The network also made it possible to expand in-seat ordering through handheld devices for club-level seating. “Without the new Wi-Fi network, we never could have gotten there,” says Ibister. 

The team can also engage and interact with fans on social media. “Fans are passionate,” says Bellows. “They’re trying to get in as much as they can, and they don’t want to miss something because they can’t get a good signal.”

Not only does this build relationships with fans, he adds, but it also strengthens opportunities for sponsors to get their messages out, because the Wild can wrap ads around the content.

“Our social media team is interacting with fans throughout the games,” Bellows says. “It’s such a different age. Just think about how often people are engaging with their phones, even at live sporting events.” 

The arena’s point-of-sale concessions are wired to the network, but they can connect to Wi-Fi if the wired network goes down. And StadiumVision has simplified the process of changing menus and marketing items at the POS stands. “You’re essentially running 25 to 30 individual stores,” Ibister explains. “Having the flexibility to manage that business with StadiumVision was really important.”

Because the Wild’s IT staff are no longer spending all their time mitigating issues, they can focus on how best to utilize the infrastructure and scale it as needs change, says CDW’s Jerome. 

“Rather than trying to find a million dollars to come in and do the whole thing, we’ll look at how to transition this stage by stage,” says Vevea.

_{Photography by Steve Craft}