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Football fans Carlo Quintanar and his wife Michelle Caballero of Mexico use AT&T\u2019s “Pose with the Pros\u201d, an interactive augmented reality (AR) photo experience, on Dallas Cowboys gameday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, September 20, 2026. A camera superimposes the fans with Cowboys players then instantly texts or emails your “live portrait” to you.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
In the hour before the Cowboys 2026 home opener, tens of thousands of fans scanned their tickets \u2014 all entirely digital, via smartphones \u2014 and streamed into AT&T Stadium\u2019s spacious concourses, where they were met by augmented reality kiosks featuring star players and cheerleaders. Smiling attendants stood next to interactive navigation machines that were available to help them find their seats. Throughout the stadium, nearly 1,000 antennas boosted a Wi-Fi and cell network that supported everything from influencers\u2019 fieldside selfie streaming to an integrated concessions platform that employees use to manage 13 kitchens and some 1,200 points of sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s the command center,\u201d one man remarked to his partner as they walked past the stadium\u2019s control room, where a glass window wall separated tech workers huddled around screens from the throngs of passing fans. \u201cKinda cool,\u201d she replied. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Ever since it opened nearly two decades ago, AT&T Stadium has ranked among the world\u2019s most famous arenas, acclaimed for everything from its retractable glass walls and building-length steel arches to its extensive art collection<\/a>. Less known is that it\u2019s also among the most high-tech, boasting its own data center, 261 miles of fiber, approximately 3,000 wifi access points and among the world\u2019s largest distributed antenna broadband systems. This year, in addition to the new Wayfinding navigation system and techy upgrades like an AI-powered feature that transforms fans\u2019 photos into custom Cowboys hype videos, the stadium completed a $350 million pre-World Cup glow up that included a top-of-the-line Wi-Fi update.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIn our mind,\u201d said Zee Hussain, AT&T\u2019s head of global enterprise solutions, \u201cthis is the most connected venue in the entire world.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \nA Super Bowl connectivity burst\u00a0\n<\/p>\n The arena then known as Cowboys Stadium opened in 2009, with a price tag of $1.2 billion. And while the outside of the 3 million-square-foot structure was praised for its dramatic glass walls and clean, futuristic curves, inside the showstopper was the screens. The stadium\u2019s Jumbotron was 25,000-square-foot and over 1 million pounds, qualifying as the largest LED screen in the world. Nearly 3,000 more flat-screen monitors were everywhere from the luxury boxes to the concession areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Football fan Kiera Wade of Waldorf, Maryland follows the instructions on an AT&T interactive augmented reality and mixed-reality kiosk to play football with Dak Prescott. The AT&T powered kiosks were popular during Dallas Cowboys gameday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, September 20, 2026.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The stadium was built with a high-speed communications network and data center to support all the screens, as well as the nearly 200 security cameras. But even after the opening, a team of engineers spent months installing millions of feet of ethernet cables, hundreds of miles of optic fiber and more than 800 wireless internet access points. With Arlington set to host the 2011 Super Bowl \u2014 and smartphones and tablets quickly becoming ubiquitous \u2014 the idea was to make the stadium the first Super Bowl host arena to provide fans Wi-Fi.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou build it, they will come,\u201d said Matt Messick, who leads the stadium\u2019s tech operation as Cowboys\u2019 CIO. \u201cYou build it, and then you enable the technology on top, and then you just create that consumption of data.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That year Aaron Rodgers led the Green Bay Packers to a tight victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of 103,000 fans, and the stadium\u2019s new Wi-Fi system held. But in the years after Arlington\u2019s fancy new stadium opened, several more $1 billion-plus NFL arenas opened, including MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Using AT&T Turbo Live, Veronica Brevard (left) shows fans how to navigate the stadium using the AT&T Stadium Wayfinding kiosk at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, September 20, 2026.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n They also went all in on tech, especially Levi\u2019s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers\u2019 new home in Silicon Valley, which opened in 2014 with tech infrastructure that included over 1,200 antennas, 1,700 Bluetooth beacons \u2014 paired with an app for in-stadium navigation \u2014 \u00a0and more than 2,000 high-def Sony TVs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The consensus was that the business of sports was changing, and teams needed to provide more comprehensive \u2014 and digitally-enhanced \u2014 stadium experiences to justify soaring ticket prices<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the future of a sporting venue,\u201d Scott Mair, then a senior vice president at AT&T, previously told The Dallas Morning News. \u201cThat\u2019s the evolution we\u2019re seeing play out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The world\u2019s most valuable sports franchise<\/a> and its tech-focused owner<\/a> were keen to maintain its edge. In 2013, the year AT&T inked a deal to take the stadium\u2019s naming rights, the telecoms company also completed an overhaul of the Wi-Fi system by replacing its 750 existing access points and adding 500 more. The following year, the arena debuted a new 130-foot, 40-panel LED \u201cfan experience board\u201d and a stadium app that could temporarily turn fans\u2019 phones into vibrating strobe lights to create a kind of interactive light show. Several years later, AT&T Stadium became among the first major venues to incorporate 5G.\u00a0<\/p>\n Employees work in the AT&T technology command center on Dallas Cowboys gameday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, September 20, 2026.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s fan who sits at home has a fantastic experience,\u201d Cowboys executive Charlotte Jones Anderson previously told The News. \u201cWe have to take it a step further. We have to give them something they can\u2019t get at home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \nA new global profile \u00a0<\/p>\n AT&T Stadium\u2019s tech has also been periodically tested by non-Cowboys events, including George Strait\u2019s 2014 farewell concert, which required a floorside signal boost<\/a>, and recent Monster Jam events, for which the stadium upgraded its audio control room.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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