MetLife Stadium switches to Extreme for stadium Wi-Fi

MetLife Stadium

MetLife Stadium, home of both the NFL’s New York Jets and New York Giants and one of the busiest large venues anywhere, has chosen Extreme Networks to supply a new Wi-Fi 6E network for the stadium, a process already underway.

Kevin Wittnebert, Extreme’s senior director for public venues, sports and entertainment, said the deployment is already in progress and will continue through the NFL season, with an eye toward completion before MetLife hosts its eight scheduled soccer World Cup matches in 2026, including the championship game on July 19. Extreme announced the deal during its Aug. 6 earnings report.

What’s interesting from a stadium Wi-Fi market angle is that Extreme will be replacing one of the two NFL stadiums still using Wi-Fi gear from Everest Networks, one of the pioneers in the hyper-directional antenna market. The Everest antennas, which could communicate with client devices at distances much greater than regular Wi-Fi antennas, were no doubt useful at the East Rutherford, N.J.-based MetLife, which seats about 82,500 for football and more for concerts. With big sections with many rows of seats, MetLife Stadium has many distance-challenging aspects for wireless deployments, with overhangs far away from the front-row seats at multiple levels.

No long-reach hyper-directional gear for new design

Though Extreme has told Stadium Tech Report that it expects to ship a hyper-directional version of its stadium Wi-Fi antenna line that will support longer-distance connections later this calendar year, Wittnebert said that equipment is not planned to be part of the MetLife configuration.

“We will be doing a traditional hybrid mix of overhead and under-seat deployment,” Wittnebert said. Wittnebert said Extreme has a lot of familiarity with the stadium, since Extreme has supplied wired networking gear to MetLife since about 2017.

Everest gear is also currently deployed for the fan-facing Wi-Fi network at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, home of the NFL’s Eagles. Security networking leader Fortinet, which acquired Everest earlier this year, has published a data sheet on a new antenna using Everest technology, but has not revealed any pricing or availability for the device. Cisco, the leader in the hyper-directional stadium antenna space, recently announced a new version of its hyper-directional antenna, which is already shipping.

MetLife Stadium technology executives declined to speak about the Extreme deal. Fortinet has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

As more venues start to look to replace aging Wi-Fi deployments with newer 6E or even Wi-Fi 7 networks, the competition to provide those systems is heating up. Cisco recently announced that it had signed six sponsorship deals with NFL teams, while Extreme announced that it has renewed its sponsor deal with the NFL, and will also deploy a new Wi-Fi 6E network at Acrisure Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

While having two NFL teams playing creates a busy schedule for Extreme to work around, Wittnebert said building networks while a venue is operating is somewhat standard procedure.

“It’s something we’re used to,” Wittnebert said.