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A comment on An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats.

Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by bluetidepro on Friday March 29, 2013 @09:17AM (#5460529)
> "A fan logs into the app, which determines through geolocation the user's exact position within the venue..."

In terms of the indoor venues/stadiums/etc. I have ever been to (honestly, quite a few), I ALWAYS have absolutely HORRIBLE reception on my iPhone (AT&T). I feel like this could be a massive issue for this sort of app. How can I use it, if it can't even figure out where I am or display the data inside the venue?

Possible solution: It would be nice if the venues that they teamed up with started offering free WIFI to help with this problem of poor reception or no data. Almost always, the venues have WIFI, but it is password protected. Maybe there are security concerns for having public WIFI at places like this that I am unaware of?

EDIT: I will also add more of a "real world" example of this. When I use Foursquare, I always have to "check-in" outside of the venue, because it can't even find where I am when I'm inside. Luckily, Foursquare's model allows you to do these "check-in's" manually (by searching), or before/after you attend the event. I think that is why they can get away with it, unlike an app like this. It seems like a big problem they would need to figure out before they launch.

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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by miles_matthias on Friday March 29, 2013 @09:21AM (#5460541)
Yes, same problem for my iPhone on Verizon. Maybe partnering with a major ticket seller so they know your exact position, or better yet, allow the user to scan their ticket with their phone. Still have the issue of bad reception though. Free wifi would be awesome but a major investment for 60,000+ people.
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by zcuskelly on Friday March 29, 2013 @08:44PM (#5463856)
Depending on what ticketing system the venue is using we either have fans input their seat location manually or input their ticket barcode (scan feature to be released shortly).
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by sharkweek on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:32AM (#5461222)
Most modern stadiums are moving that direction -- http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/the-49...
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by bluetidepro on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:35AM (#5461234)
That is true, there are some moving that way. What about the hundreds of other stadiums that are not upgrading anytime soon, though? Again, seems like a big issue they have not addressed or mentioned.
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by pmarsh on Friday March 29, 2013 @02:49PM (#5462317)
Yeah connectivity is going to continue to only slowly get better. The cost of upgrading the infrastructure is just so high and older venues don't always have the room for upgrading DAS systems.

It'll be another 3 years before things are really ironed out in the newer buildings. Not sure how older ones will manage to deal with the situation.

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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by zcuskelly on Friday March 29, 2013 @08:35PM (#5463821)
Zach from pogoseat here. You guys bring up a great point about connectivity and it certainly is something worth noting. To help address we do our best to make the app as lightweight as possible. Additionally we look to partner with venues that have solid connectivity and thus far have had no issues in this area with our deployments at Stanford and the GS Warriors.

Cisco is helping improve the situation as well although it is expensive as was noted earlier. http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/sports/stadium_wifi.html

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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by gz5 on Friday March 29, 2013 @01:44PM (#5461918)
with that problem being addressed, I would like to see in-game auction of the prime corporate seats that sit empty (but are purchased) and are usually heavily guarded. put real fans in the best seats.
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by zcuskelly on Friday March 29, 2013 @08:39PM (#5463837)
gz5, great thinking. This is something we are working on doing soon for both corporate seats as well as individual fan seats. Venues of course want to push their unsold inventory first and so there are still some details to be hashed out here.

love the line "put real fans in the best seats".

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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by abelcuskelly on Saturday March 30, 2013 @12:17AM (#5464379)
we are working on getting program going where corporate season ticket holders can donate their unused seats or suite as last minute as they want thru our app to upgrade youth groups like boys and girls club of america at the game to an amazing experience. some details to be worked out but hoping to make good use of all unused inventory at an event
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by bennyg on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:13AM (#5461125)
Isn't the best case GPS position only within 10m anyways?
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by davebees on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:21AM (#5461162)
Would it be so bad to just enter your seat number into the app?
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Re:An App That Moves Sports Fans to Better Seats by bluetidepro on Friday March 29, 2013 @11:28AM (#5461195)
That doesn't solve the problem of the app not even working because data can't be passed back and forth. The app requires dynamic information to work correctly, and if that data going back and forth is inaccessible or not possible then it's pointless.
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