What an exciting week as we put the final touches on Avaya Stadium for our inaugural regular season match against the Chicago Fire this Sunday. The dramatic win over the Seattle Sounders FC this past weekend was a great lead into the opening week. How amazing was that Innocent Emeghara goal? Wow! The team played with courage and conviction to secure three points in the hostile environment of CenturyLink Field. That we were able to overcome both a Clint Dempsey goal in the first minute and playing almost half the match down a man was remarkable. A real credit to the culture being created by Dominic Kinnear.
We have spent the last three weeks making some key final additions to Avaya Stadium for our first regular season game. I wanted to take a moment to outline some of the new cool features fans should expect this Sunday.
This week, we had a seismograph installed at the stadium by U.S. Geological Survey geophysicists. The seismograph will improve the understanding of ground shaking in the Santa Clara Valley from earthquakes in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. Also, if we make enough noise at the games, we will see what kind of reading we get on the equipment.
On the technology side, the Wifi system is fully operational and will provide connectivity for free for all fans. All fans need to do to experience the free wifi is to logon to the “GOQUAKES” SSID. A page will either automatically launch or head to your browser to accept the terms and conditions. Then you will be ready to post on your favorite social media site all the memorable highlights from the match. Be sure to use the hashtag #Quakes74 or #MarchHome.
One of the great benefits of the cloud-enabled stadium is that we have deployed a new app for the stadium. The Avaya Stadium App which is available on the Apple App Store and Android Play Store is your one stop location for stadium information. It includes a wide variety of convenient features including way-finding, digital ticketing, parking passes and social media integration. I encourage all fans to download the Avaya Stadium App for the most state of the art fan experience.
I think one of the most popular technology features is our full-scale social media integration on all our HD video boards. If use the hashtag #Quakes74 you can find your witty tweet or epic Instagram photo on the giant screen, concourse screens or the LED boards.
Speaking of LED boards, we have invested in a field level LED board to complement the concourse level board that is already installed in the stadium. Unfortunately, due to the Oakland port slow down and back up the LED Field Boards will not be here until the second match. As a solution, we will put the old static field board system to use for one last time.
The final two technology systems that I want to encourage everyone to check out are the fifteen 80” concourse TVs encased in beautiful reclaimed redwood and the video board facing the 7UP Epicenter behind the bar. The concourse screens are connected to the main control room and we will be rotating player imagery, sponsor messages, social media content and Quakes highlights. The backside video board is just awesome. Not only is it massive but it also allows us to push relevant video, highlights, and the early MLS games to the board for fans to watch before the match. It will also show the match itself during the game. Combined with all the other video boards and LED ribbon boards, these two new systems continue to set Avaya Stadium apart as one of the most technologically advanced and innovative stadiums in the world.
There is one last item that I wanted to mention that unfortunately will not be installed by the opener. The Devotion Wall for season ticket holders is not complete. We have been patient to make sure it was designed and constructed with the same high level of craftsmanship seen throughout Avaya Stadium. It is in production and will be added as soon as possible to create a lasting account of those fans whose passion has made the stadium possible.
We cannot wait to host everyone Sunday at the first match at Avaya Stadium. We look forward to making history together as we march home.
GO QUAKES
