Business View Magazine | November 2019

203 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 BUFFALO STADIUM berm seating and standing room only space at the concourse level. The stadium offers opportunities for future expansion of up to 14,000 permanent seats. A landscaped entry plaza creates an event area for use on football game days for tailgating and throughout the year for other activities. McBroom relates that he is most proud of the stadium’s seating design. “We worked diligently with the architect,” he says. “We wanted every fan to feel like they were part of the action. It’s a two- tiered stadium, and we went an angle of degree difference to push a little more vertical, so even in the top row of seats, you feel like you’re on top of the field. Probably, the best compliment people have given me – and it’s come from multiple people – is, ‘I generally prefer to stay at home to watch football on TV, because you get the replays and the close angle views, but sitting at a game is this stadium is better than TV.’ “Also, when the students passed the vote, they said, ‘We just want you to promise us one thing; that we will have the best technology.’ So, we worked with our IT department, and the contractor and architect, to make sure that we had the best available technology in there. So, we have HD ribbon boards, 120 yards down both sides, and we have an HD video board. But most impressive: we’re the first stadium in the country with Wi-Fi 6. It’s an extreme network system; the same system that they use in the Super Bowl and that they’re putting in two NFL stadiums next month. It’s the fastest public Wi-Fi network in the United States. We can have 10,000 people in there, streaming simultaneously, with no buffering. “We had a sneak preview for the students before we opened the season to experience everything, and to log onto the Wi-Fi network, and tell us what they thought, and of course, they’re blown away by the Wi-Fi. And then, they asked if they could come out to the stadium to study. We laughed about it at the time, but we realized that we could turn it into the world’s biggest study hall. So, we’re actually planning to do that around mid-terms and finals.” Regarding health and safety, McBroom explains