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ESPN The Magazine Oct. 4, 2010

The NeXT WaveHow some previous nominees and current wannabes are doing rigHt now.

Surround Sound, high-def and fantasy player updates, not to mention a private bathroom and a fully stocked fridge. That’s what the NFL is up against.

With league attendance down 2.4% in 2009 and ticket sales projected to drop another 1-2% in 2010, teams are hoping to give increasingly frugal yet tech-savvy fans a reason to ditch their LCD TVs for the real thing. This year, 12 clubs are testing FanVision, a handheld interactive

device with a four-inch screen that streams live content and offers access to multiple replay angles, the RedZone channel, NFL Network coverage, personalized fantasy updates and postgame press conferences—so long as its user hasn’t left the stadium parking lot.

“At the game, you don’t get the live stats and footage of other games like at home,” says Michael Weisman, a former NBC Sports executive producer who serves as an adviser for FanVision. “This is the answer.”

Former Chiefs GM Carl Peterson and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross are

heading the project, which is already online for fans of NASCAR, F1 and the PGA. Ross is so confident about its success that he’s gifted 25,000 FanVisions to his own ticket-holders and 5,000 to 11 other pro franchises and one college team, Michigan. (The devices are available for $199 on fanvision.com.)

For their Week 1 game against the Packers, the Eagles let premium ticket-holders experiment for free. Although impressed, longtime fan Pat Kearney had one question: “How do I know this won’t just flame out?”

There’s no guarantee, of course. And some teams,

like the Patriots, aren’t so sure fans want to juggle yet another device. Instead, the Pats are evaluating YinzCam, a free Wi-Fi phone app. “Our device has its own network,” Tery Howard, FanVision’s project manager, says of the competition. “The two

aren’t comparable. Wi-Fi can’t sustain 70,000 users at once.”

Maybe so, but with the Eagles down 27-10 at the start of the fourth quarter, fans who braved the rain-soaked stadium filed out early. Round 1 goes to the couch.

By LaRue Cook

VIEW TO A THRILL

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dErrICK FAVorSneXt ’09First-rounder likely won’t start at power forward. Let’s go Nets!

AMoBI oKoYEneXt ’05texans tackle and former No. 10 pick disposes of the Colts—and bust label.

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