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Cisco Systems, Inc is beginning to venture into the very lucrative and fast growing sports industry. But wait a minute, who in all of corporate America is Cisco? Well, the next time you're at work and you glance down at the phone with all the gadgets that the cute blonde uses to transfer your calls; you'll probably notice the Cisco logo at the top, if you can keep your eyes off the secretary.

The San Jose based firm is best known for its "internet plumbing" (SBJ, 17) since they sell products ranging from networking solutions and routers, to security, and numerous wireless hardware. Now, Cisco wants to get in on the next big piece of the pie - sports business. TelePresence, StadiumVision, Venue Management and new contracts with current wireless technology are generating revenue for the company totaling one hundred million dollars in the past year alone. That sum alone is respectable considering Cisco has tapped into the sports market only recently. There is evidence that these innovations are here to stay, and that they are only the beginning as the company has projected over one billion dollars in future revenues from these technologies.

Pioneers of TelePresence, Cisco have used this to equip and connect two separate rooms with video and audio capabilities. It is meant for users to be able to interact as if they were in the same room. This state of the art videoconferencing technology has been used for player "meet and greets" during both the NHL and the NBA All-Star breaks. Kevin Durant attracted quite a crowd as he was seen on a big screen high definition television using TelePresence to interact with fans and answer questions. Cisco has recently talked deals with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on a future partnership.

StadiumVision and Venue Management are the newest innovations being incorporated in the latest sports complexes. The new Yankee Stadium has installed the former, with 1100 HD monitors around the park, and IPTV phones in place within the fifty some luxury suites. Cameras are strategically placed all over the facility to help manage events. They can be used in combination with the televisions to provide live scores and updates around the stadium, assist patrons with stadium traffic flow, and can be used to regulate the flow of personnel and guests in the event of an emergency. One of the coolest things about this technology is how precise mangers can be in their control of events. For instance in 80,000 person capacity Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of Madrid, a control room on the other side of the country can be staffed by as few as eight people who have the ability to maintain and adjust fine elements such as speaker volume in certain sections to account for crowd noise to enhance individual fan experience. 

Cisco has been very successful in the past with communications products and employs over 64,000 people. It is now branching out into the wide world of sports and will register on the radar the next time you have the money and are thinking of investing.

Syracuse, Binghamton, Cornell, Siena, Niagara and Buffalo could all be in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  What a great year for Division I Upstate New York basketball in a terrible year for the economy.

Although UB needs to win the Mid-American Conference Championship tonight to punch its ticket and Niagara must wait for Selection Sunday, all of the aforementioned teams have had tremendous seasons and deserve to be in the Big Dance.

Even if UB and Niagara do not make it, the economic impact created by the buzz around all these teams will be interesting to measure, especially with the current state of the economy. How many more tickets were sold? How much more merchandise was sold? How many more meals and hotel rooms were sold? How much did applications increase at those schools because of national exposure? How many more dollars did alumni donate?

The answers to the above questions will provide the quantitative proof of the impact of success on the basketball court, but what could be of even more importance is the measurement of the enhancement of community image and visibility. Sports teams are highly visible images of universities, communities, cities and regions. Success of sports teams have proven to provide millions of dollars worth of positive public relations in addition to direct economic dollars.

With Upstate New York, especially Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Binghamton, being particularly hard hit during this recession and unemployment approaching double figures in many cities, Division I college basketball success just might be the stimulus package its communities are looking for.