Re:As much as I like the idea .. (Score 1)

Make the arena reasonably RF tight and set up microcell transceivers on the ceiling that accept emergency calls and reject all others

Ever seen a Faraday cage? Want one at your place? Bwahahaha

What I assumed they were talking about is "silent cells" - a "fake" cellphone node that you install locally that captures any cellphone close enough and does not do anything eles. Your phone thinks it's connected to the network, your cell knows otherwise. Jamming (esp CDMA) would be tricky and loud (read lots-o-watts)

That sort of thing can be low power and not obtrusive, and you could possibly even make one that was battery powered and portable. The problem of accepting calls to emergency services is, IMO, a dead herring. Require users to tell people about the dead zone and leave it at that. Anyone stupid enough to forget is SOL.

With GSM etc you can even display the location as "jammed" or "silenced".