Case Study: Carolina Hurricanes achieves arena-wide high-density Wi-Fi and enhanced fan experience with Extreme Networks

PNC Arena and the Carolina Hurricanes Team Up with Extreme Networks to Deploy High-Density Wi-Fi Solution

PNC Arena, home of the Carolina Hurricanes, needed to deliver reliable, high-density Wi‑Fi across a 20,000-seat venue that hosts 150+ events and 1.5M visitors annually. The Hurricanes engaged Extreme Networks to replace and optimize a partial back-of-house network with a purpose-built guest Wi‑Fi solution using ExtremeWireless, Extreme Switching, Extreme Management Center and ExtremeAnalytics to give the venue event-to-event configurability, visibility, and simpler day-to-day administration.

Extreme Networks overhauled the deployment, optimized AP placement and mounts, and enabled centralized management and analytics; the Hurricanes now offer free arena-wide Wi‑Fi and one small IT team can provision for every event. Measurable results include unique Wi‑Fi users rising from ~18% (spring 2016) to ~29% (spring 2017) and 35% (2018), concurrent users increasing from ~22% to ~28% and 30%, and peak data per event jumping from 587 GB to over 2 TB — demonstrating Extreme Networks’ tangible impact on fan experience and operational efficiency.

Carolina Hurricanes

Glenn Johnson

VP of Technology