"The new wave is how do we begin to sell in a way to give the consumers what they want in the first place .... not only how do we fix the problem but how do we become more interactive on how we talk to those fans about exactly what they want and how we deliver it to them." - Tom Fox (San Jose Earthquakes)
Michael Carillo (SJSU football player): We’ve all be given iPads and that really helps with our time constraints. We watch all our assignments with the data that the coaches provide so we get a good look at everything we need to see in a timely manner. We’re able to break things down in more depth and draw things up user a marker. And all that data helps us with our weight training and injuries, too. We have technology to track all that data.
Brent Brennan (SJSU head football coach) - One of the biggest pushes in coaching is teaching via VR. It’s very powerful. We can also use VR to take a recruit anywhere we want in our program (lockerroom, campus, classroom, practice).
The search for talent ...
Anthony Fenu (Crowdking): Technology and sports backgrounds. Athletes make good sales and business development people. We want someone who understands the sport, team, league when we try to engage with them. We can teach them the technology.
Andy Steen (Avaya): Passionate, hard-working, smart. We can teach the rest. Get an internship with a major company. It can open a lot of doors.
Jeff Ota (SJ Earthquakes Innovation Board/Intel): Seems like companies are developing around the “A’s” - automate, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality - and are looking for former athletes and those with engineering degrees. If you have both then that’s a real plus. You (students) would be surprised to learn how many big companies have sports groups inside them, especially in Silicon Valley.
Ziad Tleimat (TeamRunner): Keep your eye on the Sports travel business. It is a $600b business worldwide and $240b in USA alone.
Breaking through the technology clutter ......
Fenu: Are you throwing everything you can at them or breaking things down before giving it to the fan? Can overuse tech data. Can throw too much at the fan. Find the engagement point in the stadium and work to take advantage of that.
Steen: You shouldn’t overload the fan. Have the right strategy as a marketer. We need to know when to market to you and through what ‘channel’ to reach you the consumer/fan. We’re looking for the seamless experience that doesn’t move so fast that fan gets overwhelmed or confused.
Steen on a hypothetical result of the AI connection: “Avaya wants to touch the fan so we know and can tell our client, if the fan turns right instead of left at a certain point in the stadium, you can increase revenues.
Ota: Key is how to process through the data, but we can’t ever have enough data. We need to be smart about what we throw away, what we keep and what we combine to make things better for the athlete, fan, team, league.
You (students/millennials) are the target market and there are $100s of millions being spent to figure out how to extract millions of dollars from you. If you (as millennials) are thinking about ‘what if ...”, you are thinking correctly. Get a friend in technology, another in business, another in marketing and together just go ‘do it’. It’s a great time/place to be in Silicon Valley.
Tom Fox (San Jose Earthquakes): The new wave is how do we begin to sell in a way to give the consumers what they want in the first place .... not only how do we fix the problem but how do we become more interactive on how we talk to those fans about exactly what they want and how we deliver it to them.