The New York Mets are enjoying a successful 2022 campaign. While the team is currently in the hunt for the National League pennant and MLB postseason glory, Mets fans are reveling all the hits, runs, and excitement with an enhanced gameday experience.
Off the field, Samsung and the Mets have partnered for a technological upgrade for Citi Field, which opened its doors in 2009. However, the facility isn’t going through a traditional upgrade. Much like the team, the stadium is growing and evolving—and seemingly bringing just a bit more "wow" to the fans each month.
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Why would a stadium that ushered in a new era of Mets baseball just 14 seasons ago already need an upgrade? "There were two reasons," explained Oscar Fernandez, vice president of technology solutions, New York Mets. "One is we wanted an upgrade for the fans. With new ownership, new investment, and a new team on the field, we said, 'Let’s look at the stadium and take a step back. What can we do from a technology perspective while still staying with the aesthetic, and how can that enhance the game?'"
The second reason was an end-of-life strategy and new program created with the upgrade. "There’s a new benchmark for what we’ll install and we’ll continue to invest,” he added.
The phased upgrade began in late 2021, which left less than four months to be ready for first pitch of the 2022 season. “We started around December 13, and we had to deliver by Opening Day on March 31. We had to replace all our ribbons, gut our entire control room, build a new data center," Fernandez recalled.
[Editorial: Take Me Out to the Scoreboard]
The organization looked across the industry and considered several major players for the project. “Our criteria were not just the control room, not just LED boards, not just a big scoreboard eventually, but also an IPTV network, wayfinding—it’s a long-term, 3–5-year plan," Fernandez said. "We wanted a partner that could be very wide in what they could do. Samsung was a true master integrator for all those components. They had the best grasp of our vision and were the best partner.”
Samsung and its integration and design partners got to work installing the new "wow" factors. The Mets took advantage of the technological upgrade with some architectural enhancements, gutting the control room and some of the adjacent booths and redoing the production offices so the production teams had a better base for running the show.
As promised, Samsung delivered—but it was just the beginning. Instead of waiting for the next offseason to push forward, the Mets and Samsung added a little more in June, and then again in July, and even some more at the end of August.
“That was a large benefit of a phased approach,” Fernandez noted. “[Samsung] are still here the whole time. The tech side, the PM side, the installers are all here. It’s been good to have them fully embedded.”
As the Mets continue to improve on the field, so does the entire experience around it. What was originally some flashy new LED ribbons and screens in April was suddenly, by July, a completely redone Jackie Robinson Rotunda, full of digital displays that showed the lineup, pitching stats, and player cards.
“Initially I loved the outfield LEDs. It was all static, but now it really pops during moments of domination. But I’ll tell you now, it’s the Rotunda,” Fernandez admitted. “It’s the first thing fans see. It’s like they’re hit with, ‘Hey, I’m at the Mets game.’ It looks so vibrant.”
For fans new and old, the Rotunda is their first experience at Citi Field. While the Mets have gotten extremely positive feedback from surveys and in-person fan intercepts, Fernandez said you can see it as soon as fans enter the ballpark. He saw a big difference when it debuted earlier this season. “I was out there for 10 minutes, and I counted 29 different groups taking pictures and selfies of themselves in front of those displays," Fernandez added, "which wasn’t happening before.”
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The Mets plan of a phased rollout has been an overwhelming success. "Just like you change up the roster at the trade deadline, we’re continuing to enhance the stadium," Fernandez said. "If you came to a game in April and then in July and August, you’ll have a different experience."
Neither the Mets nor Samsung are taking the proverbial foot off the pedal, as there are big plans for 2023. Some of those upgrades include the installation of roughly 1,000 additional Samsung LCDs around the ballpark, two large LED boards for game viewing, and tight-pitch LED throughout the experience on the Promenade Plaza.
“The investment in IPTV is going to be big for the fans,” Fernandez explained. “Even if you have to wait on line for food, you’re going to be able to see the game in crisp clarity. We dipped our toes in that at Taste of the City [a "foodie" food court in centerfield], so we want to have that everywhere.”
And what about the massive, signature scoreboard in centerfield? Fans can expect big changes there as well. Fernandez was a bit more tightlipped about what that entailed, but he teased: “It’s going to be something to awe fans and make us an iconic venue from a technology perspective.”
Mets AV Season-at-a-Glance
Don’t let the "phased approach" fool you. This has been a massive undertaking at Citi Field. The 2022 season upgrades include:
· 12,000 square feet of Samsung dvLED displays
· Five levels of Samsung LED ribbon boards
· Enhanced displays in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda
· Approximately 300 new Samsung LCD screens
· An immersive IPTV system using Samsung’s MagicINFO software
· Triple the number of cameras capturing real-time action from every angle
· Double the number of slo-mo replay systems
· Complete digital conversion from static screens at the Taste of the City Food Court
· New Samsung HD screens in the dugouts to the bullpen and even the clubhouse
