"Saw the downside of an analytics ending" - Chris Mannix says OKC's reliance on analytics cost them Game 1 vs. Denver
The use of analytics in the NBA has drawn criticism from the game's purists. For example, teams shooting tons of three-pointers in today's era is a product of analytics. Many say that the approach has led to a boring game and has resulted in poor TV ratings for the league.
On Monday night, veteran sports writer Chris Mannix criticized analytics, tweeting that they cost the Oklahoma City Thunder Game 1 of their best-of-seven second-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets.
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"Saw the downside of an analytics ending. OKC played the numbers, and didn't give Denver a shot at a game-tying three. But it also kept the Nuggets in it. Chet misses both, scramble ensues, Russ makes a great pass, Gordon makes a monster shot, and another home team goes down in Game 1," wrote Mannix on social media.
OKC left too much time on the clock by fouling immediately two times
The Thunder looked like they were going to survive the stubborn Nuggets in Game 1 after Shai Gilgeous-Alexander canned two free throws with 13.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter to put his team ahead 117-114. But after Denver called a timeout, OKC opted to foul Nikola Jokic immediately after he caught the inbounds pass rather than allow a possible three-pointer. "The Joker" made both foul shots to cut the lead to a point.
On the ensuing play, SGA broke loose from the Nuggets' inbounds defense and scored on a quick layup to put the Thunder back up by three points at 119-116 with 11.1 seconds left in the game. Surprisingly, OKC gave up another immediate foul on Aaron Gordon, who was still in the backcourt, and with Denver no longer having any timeouts. AG made both free throws to slice the deficit to one, again.
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After Mark Daigneault called his final timeout, the Nuggets responded by putting Chet Holmgren to the foul line. A career 78 percent free-throw shooter, Holmgren missed both free throws. Although Denver didn't have any timeouts left, the Thunder twice fouled up three without letting a few seconds run out. The clock left too much time for the "Mile High City" squad to set up a play, as they did not want to go to overtime.
Related: "Everything the people in Dallas said about him is true" - Sam Mitchell believes Luka needs to improve his conditioning if he wants to prove his worth
You have to be in single digits to make it worthwhile
After the game, Daigneault refused to blame the strategy for the defeat, saying they had been using it successfully all season long. But while you can't argue with a coach whose team finished with a regular season record of 68-14, the best in the league this year, perhaps Mark should have heeded the advice of University of Virginia alumnus and "The Athletic" senior NBA columnist John Hollinger, who is considered one of the originators of basketball analytics.
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"I'm a big advocate of fouling when up by three in late-game situations, especially when the opponent is out of timeouts, but generally you need to be in single digits on the clock to make it worthwhile. Stan Van Gundy said his own rule of thumb was six seconds, while Jackson said his was five; regardless, it sure as heck isn't 11," said Hollinger.
The Thunder first fouled "The Joker" with 12.9 seconds left, when he wasn't even ready to shoot. The next time around, they put AG at the foul line while he was on the opposite court, with 10.7 seconds left. They paid the price.
Sure, the loss needed two conditions to happen: Chet missing two foul shots and the Nuggets hitting a three-pointer on the other end, and both don't happen every day. However, perhaps the Thunder should've waited a couple of seconds both times before fouling. Or maybe Daigneault should have trusted his team's defense, which ranked first in defensive rating during the regular season. Mark didn't, so OKC gave away the home court advantage in the series opener.
Related: "Jamal Murray has to go nuclear" - Q says Denver's best chance of beating OKC is if the superstar version of Murray shows up
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NBA Finals predictions! Who will be champion: Pacers or Thunder? And who will win Finals MVP?
The 2025 NBA Finals are here! Will the Thunder complete one of the greatest NBA seasons of all time? Or will the Pacers pull off a major upset? Our writers break down the series and make their championship predictions. 1. What's the biggest question in the Finals? Vincent Goodwill: Tyrese Haliburton's name is on a poster in OKC's locker room, as a wanted man (sarcasm), and he'll receive special attention from the league's best defensive team. How will he handle it? It's arguable he's more important to the outcome of this series than even the MVP, because so much revolves around him. There's no Jalen Brunson to hunt, no Mikal Bridges to torture. If he's not the engine, the Pacers have a hard time scoring. If he's supercharged, they have a shot— maybe a thin shot, but a shot. Advertisement Tom Haberstroh: How can the Pacers get Tyrese Haliburton cooking? He's largely been a nonfactor against OKC's defense the past two seasons, averaging just 12 points per game in four matchups. He's proved the doubters wrong all postseason long, so I wouldn't count out Haliburton in this series. But getting an aggressive Hali will go a long way toward upsetting the Thunder. Dan Devine: Can the Pacers get enough stops against the Thunder offense to stay connected? For all the focus on the other side of the ball — on the strength vs. strength matchup of Indiana's fast-paced offense against Oklahoma City's high-pressure defense — OKC swept the regular-season series largely by scoring 123.5 points per 100 possessions against the Pacers defense. Newly crowned MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to get his. Can Indiana find a way to limit Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and the rest of Oklahoma City's supporting cast enough to keep the games tight and give its elite crunch-time attack an opportunity to tilt the run of play? (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration) Dan Titus: Ratings, ratings, ratings. But no, seriously, which bench unit will truly swing the Finals? Both the Pacers and Thunder utilized deep rotations to achieve success in the postseason. Rick Carlisle and Mark Daigneault masterfully adjust their lineups to match their opponents. The minutes that X-factors like Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Bennedict Mathurin, T.J. McConnell, or Obi Toppin provide could tip the scale of a game or even a championship. Advertisement Ben Rohrbach: Can Indiana's defense withstand Oklahoma City's offensive firepower? We talk a lot about Indiana's high-powered offense (for good reason) and even more about OKC's top-rated defense (for good reason), but the Thunder play with pace and score in bunches, too. Can Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith stay in front of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander without fouling? Is Myles Turner a formidable enough last line of defense? Can everyone else stay home on Oklahoma City's shooters? It is a lot to account for, and that is just in the halfcourt. God forbid the Thunder catch your defense in transition. 2. Who has the most at stake in the Finals? Rohrbach: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. If he were to win the title and capture Finals MVP honors, he would become only the third guard in NBA history to seize both the regular-season and Finals MVP awards in the same season, joining Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. He would join Jordan as the only guards ever to hold a scoring title and Finals MVP honors at once. In his wake on the all-time list of point guards would be Chris Paul, Steve Nash and John Stockton. Ahead of him would only be Johnson, Stephen Curry, Isiah Thomas and Bob Cousy — the multi-time champions. This is the company he could keep with a win. [2025 NBA Finals: Pacers-Thunder and the legacies on the line] Advertisement Titus: Tyrese Haliburton. Mr. Statistician Face Man mentioned Hali's underwhelming performances against the Thunder the past two seasons. If that trend bleeds into the NBA Finals, are we sure Haliburton's beaten the overrated allegations? I disagree with the narrative, but a poor showing would give the haters more ammo to reignite that asinine conversation. For all the signature moments he's provided this postseason, I'm anticipating he'll rise to the occasion and continue silencing the critics against one of the best defenses we've seen in a very long time. Haberstroh: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but if I'm being honest, it's hard to drum up do-or-die stakes when these teams are so young and have such bright futures ahead of them. With that said, the Pacers are playing with house money right now, so the pressure is all on the Thunder to deliver after winning 68 games with the MVP. If SGA wins a title, the volume on the foul merchant chants won't hit the same decibels next season. Goodwill: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP, the league's scoring leader and, let me repeat, MVP by a wide margin. The last reigning MVP to get to the Finals and lose was Stephen Curry in 2016. And remember those jokes, the 3-1 cookies and the like? People still bring that up. Nobody bags on Allen Iverson for 2001, he was lauded for that one-game performance. But Karl Malone in 1997? A big topper in Michael Jordan's legacy. It's too early for the legacy stuff, seriously. But reputation? It will be solidified as the league's top big game player, the foul merchant stuff will quiet, and entering the club of champions is far more important than most can imagine. Advertisement Devine: It's tough to go too heavy into legacy talk with so many of the principles here still so young, with so much runway ahead of them … so let's go with Rick Carlisle. Only 14 coaches in NBA history have won multiple championships, and only three (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Alex Hannum) have led more than one franchise to the promised land. No observer with a pulse and two eyes can doubt the impact that Carlisle has had on winning throughout his tenures in Detroit, Dallas and Indiana; a second ring, though, would put him in historically exclusive company. 3. Name an X-factor in this series. Devine: Chet Holmgren. I wrote all about why in our series preview, but the CliffsNotes: He didn't play in either regular-season matchup against Indiana, and who he guards, who guards him and the downstream effects of those two decisions will represent pretty major tactical questions on both sides of the floor. If he can limit Pascal Siakam and keep turning the paint into a no-fly zone, I'm not sure how Indiana scores enough to win this series; if he struggles as much as literally every other defender has with Siakam and gets drawn out of the paint, then the Pacers might have a pathway. Rohrbach: Andrew Nembhard. It sounds like he will draw the initial defensive assignment on Gilgeous-Alexander. During the regular season, he spent 70 possessions defending SGA in their two matchups, according to the NBA's tracking data. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting (61%), as the Thunder scored 124.3 points per 100 possessions in that span. Not good. And after what he expends on defense, can Nembhard give the Pacers anything on offense? On a handful of occasions, he has scored 17+ points in these playoffs. In another handful, he has scored single digits. Which Nembhard shows up? Advertisement [NBA Finals preview: Pacers-Thunder key matchups, schedule, X-factors and prediction] Haberstroh: Lu Dort. The All-Defensive First Team member has averaged 18.8 points per game against the Pacers over the last two seasons, which is actually more than the All-Star he was tasked to guard, Haliburton. A lot will hinge on his ability to knock down open shots and lock down Haliburton. If he averages 18.8 points per game in the Finals and neutralizes Haliburton, I low-key could see an Iguodala-esque Finals MVP future. Goodwill: Myles Turner. The bigs in Minnesota struggled with the length, aggressiveness and speed of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Turner was in foul trouble in three of the six conference finals games, and even though he doesn't always score big, he has to be an athletic presence on offense and deterrent on defense. He has to make SGA at least think, for a beat, as opposed to giving him free access everywhere. If he's the inside-outside monster who dominates his matchup, that's a significant flex for the Pacers. Titus: Aaron Nesmith. I think he'll draw arguably the most important assignment of the series, matching up against SGA. As Devine said, SGA will get his, but any disruption to his flow will be crucial for the Pacers. Offensively, Nesmith's elite 3-point shooting in the postseason, specifically from the corner, could offset the Thunder's suffocating defense. As great as OKC's defense is, the Thunder's constant ball pressure can sometimes leave them vulnerable on weak-side rotations. That's an opportunity for the hot-shooting Pacers and Nesmith to take advantage. 4. After Game 1, everyone's going to be talking about _________. Titus: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. It's all eyes on the MVP, as SGA will set the tone for the series from the outset. In their two regular-season matchups, SGA averaged 39 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 stocks on 56% shooting from the field. He hasn't missed a beat through three rounds and he ain't stopping on the NBA's biggest stage. Advertisement Goodwill: Lu Dort. He plays football and at times, can be reckless going for loose balls. Defending Haliburton will be his main task and unlike Anthony Edwards, Haliburton isn't the physical specimen, so getting pushed around won't be looked at so kindly. But yes, sticking his chest into everybody will be a story after Game 1. Devine: Alex Caruso. People really like talking about Alex Caruso. Rohrbach: The Thunder's defense. They are historically great, and it is a sight to see. They swarm, forcing a ton of turnovers and turning them into easy, entertaining transition opportunities. It is the most jarring part of watching them, other than the brilliance of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Between Lu Dort, Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso — and even Gilgeous-Alexander — Oklahoma City has waves of point-of-attack defenders to throw at Tyrese Haliburton. In the first of their games during the regular season, the Thunder held him to his lowest usage rate of the season. In the other, the Thunder limited him to three assists. Replicate anything close to either of those accomplishments, and the Pacers have no chance. Advertisement Haberstroh: Chet Holmgren. He didn't play in the regular-season matchups against Indiana, and he's been much better at home than on the road this postseason. There's a good chance he'll be the story coming off his Western Conference finals run. I could see him sliding over at center especially if Indiana goes zone. He's critical to everything they do. 5. What's your Finals prediction, and who's the Finals MVP? Haberstroh: Thunder in 5. My head is telling me it's gonna be a sweep, but my heart won't let me go there. The villainous Pacers will get hot and torch OKC from deep to steal one game, but I'm going with my preseason pick, the Thunder, in a quick one. SGA wins the first clean sweep of MVP and Finals MVP since LeBron James in 2012-13. Titus: Thunder in 6. The Pacers will show resilience and steal a couple of games with their depth and coaching adjustments, but OKC's brilliance will ultimately prevail. It's only fitting that SGA concludes this historic year by becoming the fourth player in NBA history to win the scoring title, MVP, and Finals MVP in the same season. (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports Illustration) Rohrbach: Thunder in ... 4. With all due respect to the Pacers, the watered-down Eastern Conference has met its match in a 68-win juggernaut. Give Gilgeous-Alexander his Finals MVP, and call it a summer. Advertisement Devine: Read the preview! It's all in there! OK, fine: Thunder in 6, and SGA caps off a season for the ages by adding Finals MVP hardware to his regular-season and Western Conference Finals MVP trophies. Goodwill: Thunder in 5. It's not disrespect to the Pacers. It's just the Thunder are that damn good and those 68 wins weren't by accident. They graduated by beating the Nuggets in the seven-game slugfest. Now, it's time to turn those tassels over, with Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way as the Finals MVP. It's OKC's time.
New York Times
18 minutes ago
- New York Times
What would a 2025 Belmont Stakes win mean for Journalism's legacy?
Ten years ago this Friday, 90,000 people rose to their feet and exhaled in catharsis. Even in the shadows of a city that knows how to celebrate big moments, the roar that rose from Long Island on June 6, 2015, rivaled anything a sports fan could conjure. As American Pharoah came around the final turn and bore down on the Belmont Stakes finish line, disbelief gave way to stupor. And when 37 years of Triple Crown futility finally and officially evaporated, the cheers for Pharoah somehow grew louder, the stupor turning into awe for the colt's incredible triumph. Advertisement When, just three years later, Justify matched American Pharoah's efforts to win his own Triple Crown, it felt like horse racing was entering a golden age. Instead, not only has the Triple Crown entered yet another dry spell, but no horse has won even two legs of the famed horse-racing gauntlet. Even more, of the 109 horses who have entered the Kentucky Derby since 2019, only two — War of Will in 2019 and Mystik Dan, last year's Derby winner — went on to race in both the Preakness and the Belmont. Which leads us to the present day, and a horse named Journalism. The bay colt's commitment to all three legs of the Triple Crown defies convention, and as he preps to load into the starting gate for the Belmont on Saturday, he's chasing his own little slice of history. Despite a messy start at the Derby and a harrowing ride down the stretch in the Preakness, Journalism finished second in Louisville and won in Baltimore. Were he to win on Saturday at the Belmont, he would be the first horse aside from Pharoah and Justify in 20 years (Afleet Alex did it in 2005) to win two and come close to winning all three Triple Crown contests. He'd also be the first to capture two wins and a place since the beloved Smarty Jones in 2004. (Smarty did it in reverse order, winning the Derby and Preakness before finishing second by a heartbreaking length at the Belmont). Only one horse since has even come close. In the mashed-up COVID season, Authentic won the Derby (run in September) and took second in the Preakness (run in October), but he did not run in the June Belmont. 'If [Journalism] were to win, it would confirm the suspicions that this is truly a special horse,' says David Grening, the New York correspondent for the Daily Racing Form. 'To run in all three is hard enough; to run well is truly rare.' Advertisement Special, however, lives a hair off the edge of great, and in any sport, greatness is the goal. In horse racing, greatness is defined by a three-race stretch run over a five-week period. So what, then, would be Journalism's legacy were he to go two for three in the Big Three? The answer, like a lot of things in horse racing, is complicated. The way he has run to date certainly shows a fierceness that is nothing shy of extraordinary. At the Derby, Bob Baffert's front-running Citizen Bull took a hard right to get clear of the rail from the one hole. That caused what could be best described as a horse bottleneck at the start of the race, forcing Journalism to come from much farther back than his trainer, Michael McCarthy, would have liked. 'Because of that, he was 10th and out of position, and in horse racing, position is everything,' says longtime horse racing writer Dick Jerardi. 'With that kind of field, the rider has to go sooner than he wants, and out of the final turn, he was only a length ahead of Sovereignty, and that brought the best closer into the race.' True to form, Sovereignty closed with gusto to beat Journalism by 1 1/2 lengths. Then at the Preakness, Umberto Rispoli kept Journalism on the rail to save some ground, but that also put the horse behind a wall of other horses. At the top of the stretch, the jockey somehow squeezed a 1,000-pound animal through the eye of a needle. Journalism bullied his way between Clever Again and Goal Oriented to find daylight and win. Clever Again's trainer, Steve Asmussen, less than thrilled with the contact, said Rispoli rode the Preakness favorite 'like a rented mule.' 'The bravery he showed going through that hole, whether you want to credit the jockey or the horse — that colt is tough,' says Ken McPeek, who trained Mystik Dan through three Triple Crown races. 'No question he is some kind of tough. And he's fearless, which is obviously a great thing.' In so many ways, Journalism is (or at least could be) just getting started. He is just 3 years old, and the Belmont will be his eighth start. To date, his worst finish came in his debut; he crossed third. Despite the opinions of the general public, whose interest peters out post-Belmont, his legacy may not be finalized at Saratoga, where the Belmont Stakes will be run this weekend while its namesake track completes renovations. Advertisement There is recent precedent for a great horse earning his stripes post-Triple Crown. In 2007, Curlin finished third in the Derby, won the Preakness and lost by a head to the filly Rags to Riches in the Belmont. Impressive but not great by Triple Crown standards. Yet Curlin then went on to place third in the Haskell that August, win the Jockey Club Gold Cup and win the Breeders' Cup Classic, two races that included older horses. At the end of the year, he was named Horse of the Year. He repeated the feat in 2008, winning Horse of the Year again before retiring as the highest North American money-winner at the time, with $10.5 million to show for his efforts. But Journalism, a son of Curlin, would be an odds-defier were he to keep racing and keep winning. Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex never raced after the Triple Crown season, both done in by injuries. Justify retired immediately after the Belmont, his entire racing career lasting a whopping 118 days. American Pharoah went on to win the Haskell, take second at the Travers and win the Breeders' Cup Classic, cementing his legacy before retiring for a lucrative breeding fee. 'Going 2-1-1 would make him special, but what he could do afterwards really elevates where he could measure up,' says Grening. 'To me, what can really determine this horse's legacy is what he does after the Triple Crown.' Though they are well aware of the rare company Journalism could join, those associated with the horse, of course, are not terribly interested in talking legacy or what's next. 'Needless to say, it would be an enormous honor,' says Aron Wellman, one of the majority owners. 'That said, we're not taking anything for granted or allowing ourselves to get too far out in front of ourselves.'' With good reason. While only an eight-horse field, the Belmont includes some legit contenders, top among them Derby-winner Sovereignty. McPeek, for one, is a Sovereignty fan and has been since Louisville. 'I thought he was one of the easiest selections or wagers for the Derby that I've ever seen in my life,' McPeek says. He likes Bill Mott's horse even more now, what with the extra rest he's received by not running in the Preakness, and he's running at the same Derby distance at which he's already won. Another contender horse people are keeping an eye on is Baeza, who finished third in the Derby. Advertisement For now at least, the line says that Journalism will go off as the favorite. Just as he did in the Derby. Just as he did in the Preakness. Whether a win will be good enough to cement his greatness is up for debate. 'But it would be great for the game,' Jerardi says. 'You don't have to sit out the Preakness. You can still do it. The really good ones, they can do it. That's really what it comes down to. If you have a good enough horse, it's doable. He's good enough.'' (Photo by Rob Carr / Getty Images)
Forbes
19 minutes ago
- Forbes
Bringing Tech To Game Day At The New England Patriots' Stadium
In April, the Kraft Group—which owns the New England Patriots, MLS' New England Revolution and Gillette Stadium—signed a five-year agreement with tech infrastructure provider NWN to transform the tech framework for the Kraft Group's facilities, including Gillette Stadium and a new training facility for the Patriots. I talked to Kraft Group CIO Michael Israel and NWN CEO Jim Sullivan in April about the challenges of bringing the latest technology infrastructure to a place like Gillette Stadium, and how big facilities with a multitude of uses can plan for the future. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. It was excerpted in the Forbes CIO newsletter. Why is it important to partner with NWN to bring upgrades to Gillette Stadium and the Kraft Group's other event facilities? Israel: With NWN as a partner, everything we do within the Kraft organization from an IT perspective is on a life cycle: When we buy something, this is how long we expect to use it. It's become a necessary component within IT because you want to have a predictive budget. It's no longer 'set it and forget it.' You have to know that I'm going to keep this Wi-Fi system for five years. That way, you can at least let management know that while we're spending this amount of money now, it's going to come back up four or five years later. Creating that expectation, long-term budget and continued investment in it avoids the surprise. That being said, we have been looking at what the next five years brings to the Kraft organization, and in partnership with NWN, we have a whole bunch of things that are lining up together. That, plus new facilities, really made us sit back and say, 'We need to be looking at this beyond the typical 18 to 24 months of what we do for budgeting.' We have a new football practice facility that's being built as we speak, which comes live in April of '26, which brings about its own components for networking. We then have the FIFA World Cup coming in June and July of '26. Coming out of that, we have new network and Wi-Fi refreshes. We'll have to make determinations of [the best Wi-Fi speed and capacity]. By the time we're done with all that, we have another firewall refresh that comes forward. And then in the midst of all that, if that's not enough, we're potentially building another stadium north of Boston, in Everett, Massachusetts, for our soccer team. Kraft Group CIO Michael Israel and NWN CEO Jim Sullivan All of this together from a core infrastructure perspective, we sat with Jim [Sullivan] and [CMO] Andrew [Gilman] and their team and said: This is everything we have on our docket for five years. I need an organization that can help us strategically plan, make decisions based on what's the right choice for all of this. We're making a commitment now that's going to go five to seven years into the future, and I need that platform in place because what we're doing functionally is rapidly changing at the same time. There's base items that are happening, like as we build our football practice facility and you go into a room, I can control the light, or the temperature or the ambient settings in conference rooms from our Cisco platforms. But if I enter the room, what's going to happen on our IP TV systems? How are we [working with] the endpoints that are hanging off of the network, to create a better experience for the players that are coming in? As you bring AI into the mix, you're talking about things that are entirely different and looking and saying, 'How can I take data that's historically sitting there and use it to my advantage?' We're looking at the stadium itself. If you're a ticket holder and you're walking up to the gate, what's the last thing you want to do? Wait in line for 20 minutes to get into the stadium, wait in line for 20 minutes to get a cheeseburger. One of the projects we're currently investigating is building a digital wallet system, where I walk up and, similar to a Clear lane at an airport, we can do opt-in facial recognition tied to your digital wallet, hook into Ticketmaster, shred your ticket. You don't have to take anything out. Walk up to a concession line. Fast pass line, sees your face, hits your credit card, checks your ID for age verification, logs into the loyalty system and says, 'You just bought two cheeseburgers,' and you're in and out. Those are the types of things that will change a stakeholder's perception of, 'Gee, that was a pleasurable experience. The folks who choose to wait in line are waiting 20 minutes for a cheeseburger. I just did it in a minute.' That will differentiate us. People will say, 'Maybe I don't want to sit home and watch a 75-inch TV. Maybe I do want to come to the stadium and experience it.' Those are the challenges that we are faced with. It's how can I use the network and put solutions on top of it to speed transactions, to get more things done and to make us more efficient. How do you come up with what you want to accomplish, and how do you figure out what kind of infrastructure is needed to make it happen? Israel: We have our Monster Jam [this weekend] at the stadium. On Saturday, I'll be walking around the stadium engaging. Gillette is one of the few stadiums in the country in which we own and self-operate our stadium. It's our security staff, our concession staff. I am walking around watching how our fans engage with us. How are our systems being used? Where are they inefficient? Where are they doing their job? How can we improve that experience? Guests will come up to me and say, 'How do I get to the gate?' 'How do I get to my suite?' 'Where's the nearest bathroom?' When they're asking me these things, that's registering in my mind: They don't have that information today. When you have these types of events, they're new users. You want them to have a positive experience because that's your lead in to a potential soccer season ticket holder or future Patriots season ticket holder. But even when you get to the Patriot season ticket holders, what can we do to enhance that experience? It's seeing how our guests experience things, what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong, and not sitting back and saying, 'I'm good. I'm going to go watch the game.' I've been here six years. I think I've seen 15 minutes of one football game. On a football day, I'll generally do about 30,000 steps walking the stadium, watching what's going on. The other side of the coin is what do we do from a technology perspective, looking at what do I need to do to ensure that I have connectivity, and what devices are now connecting to the networks that hadn't in the past? The system that waters the field is an IoT system that's attached to our network. If it's not connecting, it's not watering the field, and we don't know what's going on. We have to allow for connectivity, secure that connectivity, and make sure that that connectivity is reliable. We constantly do surveys after a winter to say, what got impacted by the winter? Do I have Wi-Fi access points that may be misaligned that need to be looked at? I have FIFA coming in next year. That's like having seven Super Bowls over six weeks here at the stadium. They're going to use my parking lots on the east and west side as fan activation zones. I don't have connectivity there. Working with the NWN team, we have to determine what does FIFA need? How do we light up those areas that when the fans are there, they have connectivity. Their booths can operate, their systems can operate, the fans can get connectivity, and we'll have maybe 50,000 or 60,000 fans in the bowl, but we could have an additional 50,000 people on the campus, and that's not a crowd that we're used to having. What are some of the infrastructure upgrades that you need to make some of these things happen? You're talking about wider connectivity, AI, faster speeds and more reliable facial recognition. Israel: Looking at expanding where that connectivity takes place [starts with] something as simple as evaluating the state of our infrastructure all underneath: the state of our cabling infrastructure, our fiber backbones, all of that is one piece. We look at the bandwidth right now at the stadium for Wi-Fi. We have four 10Gb pipes supplied by Verizon. Is that going to be sufficient? As we look to perform upgrades, we have to turn around and say, what do we predict that rate of growth to be over the next five years? Because what is working today is probably not suited for what's going to happen in two or three years, as we start adding more and more onto the network itself. With NWN, we'll evaluate the vendors. Which technology do we want to put in? Is it a Wi-Fi 6E decision? Is it a Wi-Fi 7 decision? Is it something else? In some cases, we're having to make sure networks aren't stepping on top of each other. Ultimately, it's assessing our current state versus what we expect the future state to be. And at the same time plan for building another stadium. How am I going to support all of that? The relationship with NWN affords us the opportunity to say, 'I can't do this all myself.' My staff is here. I need a vendor who's got the breadth of product knowledge to be able to sit with me and say, 'These are your choices,' and also be a group of folks who have a deep bench that can handle multiple projects with us at the same time. On the NWN side, how do you determine what to do in large facilities like these and how to support current and future needs? Sullivan: NWN, over the past five years, has grown from $250 million to over $1 billion dollars this year, and really expanded this full end-to-end IT infrastructure. The market is changing really fast with AI adding in. For us, it's working with organizations to start with the end state: What's the vision of what we have to have here, what we're trying to drive? And then, what's the required capabilities? Most of these environments, from the application, to the AI, to the infrastructure, to the unified communications, to security all have to be assessed as one holistic solution. Then we put in the right required capabilities from the technology, the services, the overall management, and co-management with Mike's team. We've reached the breadth and scale where we're dealing with organizations where there's hundreds of thousands of people, or states with 50,000 deployments of people and requirements. We can cover end-to-end, but also have the scale to handle a large project that goes across multiple technology domains and supports a smaller event, and all of a sudden it surges to hundreds of thousands of people. Everyone is getting used to [the fact] that customer experience needs to be world-class; there's expectations there. Ultimately, the Wi-Fi is going to be fast, strong and secure. And then going into these new technologies to a real beneficial evolution, where it's creating new user experience, new knowledge, but is also driving a backend that's going to create a lot more capacity demands on the networks, on the infrastructure. You've got to be able to tie it all together. We've got 5,000 enterprise customers across the country: both state and federal, and then large enterprises like the Kraft Group. You're talking about lots of upgrades, but what will fans, players, vendors and employees actually notice? Israel: The fans are going to notice these little things like the changes in applications. We'll have more autonomous concession locations where you can just go in, check into the location, pick your product, walk out. It's frictionless engagement. In other areas, our club and suite locations, we'll see changes in how people can engage the absorption of IP TV: more dynamic programming, potentially changing what an individual suite holder can see or control in those scenarios. We have a stadium that's 20 years old. When you look at some modern stadiums coming in— whether it's SoFi in California or Allegiant in Vegas—[we're looking at] things that they're doing there and saying we need to up our game. Our stadium is used as a convention center year-round. We have events going on almost every day and [we are] making sure that we're in that competitive landscape. When you look at us versus the Massachusetts State Convention Center in Boston, we want to make sure that we're on par. The Kraft family is always looking to invest in the stadium, keep it up to date, modernizing. But at the same time, [Kraft Group President] Jonathan [Kraft] and [CEO] Robert [Kraft] are very entrepreneurial in terms of what do we need to do that's different. Getting that support from ownership is key. I'm walking in with an idea, and maybe sometimes the ideas don't come to fruition, but I'm given the chance to bring things forward and saying, how can we take that step? Players are coming out of colleges and walking into an NFL environment expecting more. That's what our player facility is going to be. How do I take information coming out of the weight rooms and bring that and put that in the coach's hands to say, 'Did Jim do all of his pushups today? How much is he lifting? What are we seeing?' Those types of pieces. Where can AI enhance the teams, whether it's soccer or football? I don't have those answers today. I need to sit with the coaches and say: What would you like to see from that side? How can we brainstorm together? I don't know what a football coach is looking for. Did someone line up incorrectly at the line of scrimmage? Are they doing things a certain way? How can I help them with systems to mentor, train and teach the players? That requires us collaborating. Something as simple as a coach telling me, 'I don't like to sit at the front of the room and just teach. I need to be able to walk around the room. I need to have a tablet in my hand, and as I'm marking on my iPad, I want that to project up on the screen.' These are easy wins, but if I don't hear that, I can't supply that solution. One of the first things you said was that you like to be able to have a predictable plan. So how do you plan and get everything in place for not only the capabilities of today that you want, but the capabilities of tomorrow that no one has even thought about yet? Israel: You're making sure that you have room for growth in the systems that you have and that you have management and measurement systems in place. We have a very well established network operation control system and a security operations control system, in which we can monitor at all times what's the utilization on these systems, what's going on, what's the bandwidth, how are they operating? Then we can predict, 'Maybe I bought this thinking it was going to be a five-year investment, but do I need to do something in the midst of that life cycle?' And that will also happen when all of a sudden, in the middle of a process, we're going to build out a new north end zone and the traffic is going to wind up changing with 30% more than last year. What do I need to do to adjust the network for that? Life changes quickly. Those are the types of things that we adjust accordingly, but as long as my core network is there and it can support this, that's ultimately what we're looking to supply. Sullivan: In technology today, we talk about the application enhancement piece or the user experience piece: if you have the right backbone and infrastructure and support the capacity. This is very different than 15 years ago, when you had to put in some major software program with some of the AI technologies and features. Today, it's learning, and then a new feature could come on that you could just add into the user experience. It's pretty incremental once you have this base plan, and that can be added in on the fly, versus having to do some major infrastructure. It does provide a lot more flexibility, a lot more agility for applications or innovations that didn't exist today, but six months from now they do exist and you can put them in place. What advice do you have for CIOs looking to bring more technology to their facilities, thinking about not only what to do today, but what to do in the future? Israel: Ultimately, it's not just if you build it, they will come. If you're building it, you need to be brainstorming how you're going to use it, and you need to have relationships with all of your stakeholders to understand what's holding them back, what would they like to see? In some cases, they don't know what they don't know, and we have to take these technology discussions, take the technology out of it, and think about how are we going to provide solutions. Sullivan: We did 5,000 distinct deployments last year. The really successful ones are driven with a positive outcome you're trying to get to. Collaboration and a partnership between the two as a seamless team really drives the most success to drive those outcomes.
