Author: Tim Newcomb

Outdoor Crowd-Tracking Technology Moves Indoors for Venue Data

Outdoor Crowd-Tracking Technology Moves Indoors for Venue Data

Posted by | Sep 5, 2019 | , , ,

Tracking software from Motionloft gives fans real-time wait times by specific concession line. (Courtesy Motionloft) Motionloft isn’t new to tracking the movement of crowds through outdoor spaces, but the company has begun to make inroads in taking its movement-tracking technology inside.  Now owned by Mark Cuban, Motionloft has entered American Airlines Center and improved the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks’ ability to track concession lines and flow through the indoor arena that serves as a home to both the NBA and NHL.  “We were primarily an outdoor analytics product offering,” said Chris Cooper, Motionloft’s senior director of sales. “Now we get to talk about the entire fan journey from outdoors to indoors.”  At its core, Motionloft has worked with commercial real estate and smart city groups to learn about fan movement outside of large event spaces, whether traffic and parking patterns to how crowds flow through restaurant and retail spaces. That technology… Continue Reading Outdoor Crowd-Tracking Technology Moves Indoors for Venue Data

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Uptix Offers New Uses for Stored Value

Uptix Offers New Uses for Stored Value

Posted by | Aug 29, 2019 | , ,

Services from stored value company Uptix are available at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Courtesy Uptix) Givex product offers teams the opportunity for surprise activations From loyalty rewards to surprise activations, Uptix from Givex is giving sports teams and concessionaires new ways to think about stored value tied to ticket barcodes.  As the baseball season winds down and Uptix looks toward basketball and hockey this winter, the company is promoting the idea of using stored value on tickets as a way to engage fans in the venue during a game.  “There is more opportunity to do different things,” said Debbi Blackburn, vice president of business development for Givex, “because there are so many games. You can incentivize people to continue to come and fill the seats or maybe you want to reward people who are there.”  Stored value tied to a ticket barcode isn’t new. As a loyalty reward,… Continue Reading Uptix Offers New Uses for Stored Value

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Down to the Tweaks at U.S. Open’s Home

Down to the Tweaks at U.S. Open’s Home

Posted by | Aug 15, 2019 | ,

Arthur Ashe Stadium (center) and Louis Armstrong Stadium (right) anchor the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. (Getty Images) With $600M project behind it, USTA fine-tunes the results The heavy lifting of a $600 million, seven-year revamp of the U.S. Tennis Association’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., wrapped up in time for the 2018 U.S. Open. Now, one year removed, the USTA has waded through lessons learned as it approaches the 2019 event, which runs Aug. 26 through Sept. 8. “This was a massive undertaking for the organization financially, financing this ourselves,” said Danny Zausner, chief operating officer of the tennis center. “At the conclusion of 2018 I couldn’t go back to the board and ask for another $500 million to build more. This had to stand the test of time.”  The site’s transformation included opening Court 17 in 2011; rebuilding the… Continue Reading Down to the Tweaks at U.S. Open’s Home

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Chefs Pop Up for Dodgers’ Series

Chefs Pop Up for Dodgers’ Series

Posted by | Jul 31, 2019 | , ,

Jenee Kim, Andrew Ahn, Danny Trejo, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken. (Courtesy Levy) Levy leans on experience at Wrigley for new ballpark offering The local dining trend has come to major sports vLenues in three waves, said Alison Weber, Levy’s chief creative officer. First came the concept of creating locally themed menus and then the realization of inviting local chefs and restaurant brands into the venue. Now, though, we’re seeing wave three: turning venues into local food influencers. Dodger Stadium, historic home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, serves as the latest example with its Chef Series effort this summer, inviting four local well-known chefs to create pop-up dining experiences, each for less than a week, in the same vein as we’ve already seen from another Levy-run venue: Chicago’s Wrigley Field.  “It is no longer enough to simply say ‘Favorite Local Restaurant will serve our fans,’” Weber said.… Continue Reading Chefs Pop Up for Dodgers’ Series

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Washington Entrepreneur Mark Ein Takes Over Citi Open Tennis

Washington Entrepreneur Mark Ein Takes Over Citi Open Tennis

Posted by | Jul 26, 2019 | ,

Mark Ein, a Washington, D.C.-area native, acquired the 50-year-old Citi Open in April. (Courtesy MDE Tennis) Major upgrades to tournament grounds for premium and general seats Mark Ein has a passion for tennis. He also has a craving for making decisions based on what’s best for business, not what’s the easiest. That philosophy has led to a complete remake of the Citi Open, a U.S. Open Series tennis tournament held at Rock Creek Tennis Center in Washington, D.C. Now in its 50th year, this is the first with Ein’s MDE Tennis, a division of MDE Sports and Entertainment in a five-year deal. The agreement was signed in April, giving Ein just a few months to remake the 2019 event, which began July 27 and runs through Sunday. “To start, our mindset was there was not a single decision we were going to make where the answer was because we are doing… Continue Reading Washington Entrepreneur Mark Ein Takes Over Citi Open Tennis

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