No more details than what we know on Twitter, but according to Niners CEO Jed York, networking vendor Brocade is the first “networking sponsor” of the new Niners stadium. The team broke ground for the new facility on Thursday, digging those ceremonial shovelfuls in the shadow of Great America in the Silicon Valley city of Santa Clara.
Here’s York’s tweet:
I want to welcome #Brocade as the Official Networking Partner of the San Francisco 49ers. Thanks for being the 1st new stadium partner!
— Jed York (@JedYork) April 20, 2012
No word yet whether or not Brocade will be the title sponsor of the stadium but it is a huge loss for networking vendor competitor Cisco Systems, whose main campus is right down the street from the new stadium site. Brocade’s main Silicon Valley office is also close to the new Niners stadium. But this is a potentially big loss for Cisco, which has been trying to find a place at the forefront of Bay Area sports (you may remember Cisco’s failed efforts to help build a new stadium for the Oakland A’s in the East Bay city of Fremont) and has a special business group dedicated to building out in-stadium networks.
More as we hear more. Anyone inside Brocade (or Cisco), please let us know what you are hearing.
UPDATE: We replyed to Jed’s tweet, asking for more details… not much yet apparently. But it sure sounds network-based to us:
#Brocade will play an integral role in redefining how #49ersFaithful experience football in the stadium
— Jed York (@JedYork) April 20, 2012
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