Venue News: Sony, 49ers Shed Light on Technology Partnership; Nebraska s New Basketball Arena Nears Completion

Compiled by Karen Hogan, Associate Editor, Sports Video Group

Sony will be outfitting the new San Francisco 49ers Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, when it opens next year. Sony's Kaz Hirai, who became CEO of the struggling Japanese tech and entertainment giant a little over a year ago, appeared at a recent industry conference with Jed York, owner of the Niners. We want to be a software-driven stadium, York says a cashless, ticketless place, if fans choose to go that route. Sony will step in with its entertainment content, technological infrastructure and hardware notably outfitting the stadium with the 4K televisions (and cameras) that boast four times the resolution or sharpness of today's HDTVs. Bloomberg West also sat down with York to get a behind-the-scenes look at the technology plans for the venue

The scoreboard has been hung and most of the red cloth seats have been anchored at the new arena that will be the home for Nebraska basketball. With construction 85% to 90% complete, the project manager said Friday that Pinnacle Bank Arena is on schedule to be ready for the university's August graduation ceremony. The $179 million arena, with a seating capacity of about 15,500, sits on the northwest side of downtown Lincoln looking like a big silver space saucer just a few blocks west of Memorial Stadium

The NBA is giving the new Sacramento Kings ownership group a 2017 deadline to have a new arena built or risk losing the team to new owners. The Sacramento Bee reported that the group, which is led by Vivek Ranadive, must meet a series of benchmarks as part of the agreement to own the team. Its purchase of the Kings from the Maloof family for an NBA-record $535 million was finalized this week. If Ranadive's group does not meet the 2017 deadline, the NBA can arrange for new owners to buy the team and move it to another city. Ranadive plans to have an arena built by 2016

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith says plans have been made to expand Ohio Stadium by 2,500 seats in 2014. The proposal will go before the university's board of trustees next week. The project would cost $9 million. Smith said the seats will be added in the South end zone. The expansion would increase the official capacity of Ohio Stadium to 104,829. Ohio Stadium is currently the country's fourth largest college football stadium

When news first broke about a proposed new arena in Chicago that would house DePaul basketball, with the city contributing around $100 million of the estimated $170 million construction cost, Sports Illustrated's Andy Glockner writes, my old finance ears perked up. It's well-established that almost any public financing for a sports venues is a boondoggle, but this project seemed particularly galling. First, DePaul is a basketball program long removed from its glory days under Ray Meyer. The program definitely needs a different arena setup; the Blue Demons' current home, Allstate Arena, is 15 miles away from campus and on the edge of O'Hare Airport. But it's hard to defend new construction with DePaul as a primary tenant when the program went 7-83 in the old Big East over the past five seasons.

LINK:	http://sportsvideo.org/main/blog/2013/06/04/venue-news-sony-49ers-shed...
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