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Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- 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.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Boston Legacy FC to play inaugural season at Gillette Stadium
Boston Legacy FC will play its entire inaugural season at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., after delays in the redevelopment of White Stadium in Boston, a team spokesperson confirmed. 'With the 2026 NWSL season beginning in 10 months, Boston Legacy FC will play its inaugural season at Gillette Stadium before the club moves into its permanent home at White Stadium in 2027. After nearly two years of community process, including more than 70 public meetings, a landmark lease agreement and a clear victory at trial, White Stadium construction is well underway, but construction will not be finished by March of 2026. For this reason, we have selected Gillette Stadium as an alternate site for 2026 to ensure the consistent, high-level experience our fans and players deserve,' Boston Legacy told The Athletic in a statement. Advertisement The Legacy will share the stadium with MLS' New England Revolution and also has to work around seven FIFA World Cup matches scheduled for June and July 2026. The team will pay rent to the stadium's owner, the Kraft Group, led by Robert Kraft, whose son Josh Kraft is running for mayor of Boston and has publicly opposed the White Stadium project. Boston Legacy signed a 10-year lease with options for two more decades with the city and Boston Public Schools last December. However, the $200 million renovation of the historic Franklin Park venue, which was part of a public-private partnership with the City of Boston, isn't expected to be completed at least until late 2026. This timeline eliminates the possibility of a midseason move. The team still has to make a partial-year rent payment to the city next year. The demolition at White Stadium is nearly complete, with only the historic west grandstand and concrete towers remaining. Boston Legacy is responsible for more than half of the $200 million renovation costs. 'Boston Legacy's home is White Stadium. We have signed a binding agreement with the City of Boston, are contributing over half the cost of the renovation and have committed to spending at least 50 percent of those dollars with local, minority- and women-owned businesses. As part of our lease with the city, we will cover the full cost to operate and maintain White Stadium for decades, as a home for Boston Public Schools athletics and a new public resource in Franklin Park. We will be launching a year of community events, career opportunities and other partnerships in 2026 tied to White Stadium,' the team said. Since securing its expansion bid in September 2023 and gaining city approval for the stadium renovation the following year, the team and city have collaborated to design, demolish and rebuild a state-of-the-art stadium. The venue will host up to 40 soccer matches and practices annually while also serving as a year-round hub for BPS Athletics and community events. Advertisement The stadium overhaul, which includes a new grass field, an eight-lane track and expanded community access, has garnered support and sparked opposition. An ongoing lawsuit from the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and several residents who live near Franklin Park has contributed to construction delays. The group argued the project would equate to the privatization of public land that was legally mandated to remain public. Last month, a Superior Court Justice ruled that the renovation of White Stadium was not in violation of state law. The decision was perceived as a major win for the team and the City of Boston, which have supported having a professional women's soccer team and renovating the historic 10,0000-seat capacity stadium through a public-private partnership. The team is expected to officially announce the venue shift Thursday. Additional announcements, including the team's crest reveal June 7 and a head coach hire, are forthcoming.
Boston Globe
30-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Robert Kraft has Josh Kraft talking about Robert Kraft and Trump
Of course, Josh Kraft would rather talk about schools, housing, and what he sees as a lack of fiscal discipline under Mayor Michelle Wu. Talking about his father and Trump is, as he said, 'a complete distraction from the issues facing the city of Boston.' But keeping his distance from Robert Kraft isn't that simple — not when he may be benefiting from those family ties. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up In February, Then, in March, Advertisement A spokesperson for the Kraft Group told the Globe that Robert Kraft was not involved in coordinating any donations from Paul Weiss attorneys to his son's campaign. Got it, no coordination. But just speculating here: What if Robert Kraft mentioned, even casually, that his son is running for mayor? In the hyper-transactional world of business and politics, that could signal that a check would be welcome. Asked about the Paul Weiss contributions, Josh Kraft told me they came in online, and 'Brad Karp is a huge Democratic donor.' Asked why he thinks Karp would know about or contribute to a Boston mayor's race, he said, 'I have no idea why he gave me the money. Whatever the reason is, he donated. It is what it is.' Apart from any connection it has to his father, those contributions also connect him to a law firm that capitulated to Trump. Paul Weiss is Advertisement After the firm committed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal services to support Trump administration initiatives, Trump rescinded the order. What message does it send to take money from a firm that gave in to Trump? 'The only message it sends is that four people donated to my campaign. That's the message I get,' Josh Kraft said. But in these turbulent, highly partisan times, when who stands up to Trump and who doesn't really matters, it might send a different message to others. Meanwhile, there's also the mystery of a New England Patriots' plane that was traveling near Guantanamo Bay on Monday. The plane, which according to Axios, is operated by Omni Air International under a partnership with the team, flew from Fort Worth, Texas, to off the coast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There are But according to a statement issued by the Kraft Group and forwarded to me from Josh Kraft's campaign, in this case, the plane 'was not used for any kind of deportation flight and there were no detainees on the plane. Under our current charter manager, neither of the Patriots' planes have ever been used for that purpose. The team planes are operated by a professional charter company when they are not in use by the team. This company manages all logistics, bookings, and operations independently.' According to the statement, the charter company does use the plane to move military personnel under a contract with the Department of Defense, 'with no financial gain' to the Kraft organization. Advertisement Asked about it, Josh Kraft said, 'As you know, I don't have anything to do with any of that. Zero.' It's not what Josh Kraft wants to be talking about. But thanks to Robert Kraft, it is what he is being asked to talk about. Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
Boston Globe
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Robert Kraft helped broker a deal between Trump and Paul Weiss. Now, the law firm's chair is supporting Josh Kraft for mayor.
Weeks later, on April 18, Karp and three other lawyers at his firm contributed $1,000, the maximum legal limit, to Josh Kraft's campaign, campaign finance records show. A spokesperson for the Kraft Group said Robert Kraft was not involved in coordinating any donations from Paul Weiss attorneys to his son's campaign. The Kraft campaign said it did not reach out to any of the donors from the firm. 'Josh is grateful for the significant momentum and support the campaign has received since launching in February,' a spokesperson said. The donations to Kraft's political campaign come as the Advertisement Robert Kraft was a Robert Kraft seemed to distance himself from Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Josh Kraft has said he has never voted for Trump or financially supported him, and earlier this year, called him 'unfit to be president due to his character and lack of emotional control.' He has also emphasized that he differs with his father when it comes to his views on the president. 'I love my dad,' Josh Kraft said in February Josh Kraft has said he is running as his own person, even asking voters to 'set aside any ideas they might have about me based on my Advertisement Still, his father's ties to the president stand in stark contrast to the views of incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, who has positioned herself as a fiery counterweight to the administration as its threats to yank federal funding State Senator Lydia Edwards, a Democrat from Boston who has been an ally of Wu, said accepting funds from attorneys at a firm that 'capitulated' to Trump shows Kraft is out of touch with the city's needs and political leanings. 'If he really does care about the people of Boston, he needs to give the money back,' Edwards said. 'He is not a destitute first-time grassroots candidate that can't get the funds from someplace else.' To be sure, the recent $4,000 from Paul Weiss attorneys is just a fraction of the more than Still, the donations to Kraft are notable not just for their timing: None of the four Paul Weiss donors — Karp, Scott Barshay, Angelo Bonvino, and Gregory Ezring — live in Massachusetts, and none has ever given to a Boston mayoral candidate before, state campaign finance records show. Advertisement Of the four, only Karp, the firm chairman, has ever donated to a state-level candidate in Massachusetts. Karp has been a prolific donor to Democrats at the federal level, giving more than $100,000 last year to candidates, including Kamala Harris. But he has only rarely given to state-level candidates in Massachusetts; the most recent donation was in 2014 to former attorney general Martha Coakley, then the Democratic nominee for governor. A spokesperson for Paul Weiss and the four donors at the firm did not immediately respond to questions Monday. The firm is also known locally for its role in the Patriots' 2015 Deflategate scandal: Even as Josh Kraft has sought to distance himself from his father's politics, Robert Kraft has made it obvious he takes a keen interest in Boston's political leadership. (Josh Kraft has said he would Robert Kraft has long been stymied by political opposition in Boston, most notably when he Asked about his plans to build a soccer stadium in nearby Everett, Kraft added, 'We just need the political people and get all the agendas, putting [the] team first. And we hope it happens, but we can't force it.' Advertisement Ben Volin of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Emma Platoff can be reached at
Boston Globe
18-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Kraft Group inks big IT contract to use AI at Gillette Stadium and across its businesses
The work started earlier this year, with a replacement of the Krafts' phone systems. But with NWN's artificial intelligence expertise, the potential for this deal goes well beyond making phone calls. Among other things, Kraft Group chief information officer Mike Israel sees efficiency savings at a Rand Whitney factory in Montville, by tracking how long trucks sit in loading docks, and a more fun experience at Gillette, by giving fans the opportunity to use facial recognition to access their digital wallets and 'unlock' their game tickets or buy concessions. The AI tech can also be used to spot when someone climbs a fence, or when a stadium bathroom needs to be restocked. 'What it means for us ... is taking decisions that may be sitting in a report or a dashboard, and bringing them to life,' Israel said. Advertisement He said Robert Kraft and son Jonathan Kraft, the company's top two executives, are pushing the Kraft Group to be more creative and entrepreneurial. NWN's contract will help with that, he said. 'There's that drive to move fast and be adaptive,' Israel added. 'That comes right now from the top. That pushes us forward at lightning speed in terms of innovation.' Advertisement The new contract comes as the Kraft Group is building a new football practice facility in Foxborough and is preparing to put up a soccer stadium in Everett. The company is also preparing to host seven World Cup games in Foxborough next year — the equivalent, per Israel, to hosting seven Super Bowl games within a matter of six weeks. The Kraft Group represents a high-profile customer for NWN, which cleared about $1 billion in sales last year. The Kraft Group, NWN chief executive noted, is one of the largest private companies in the country. 'It's a great fit,' Sullivan said. 'We're incredibly appreciative of the opportunity.' This is an installment of our weekly Bold Types column about the movers and shakers on Boston's business scene. Jon Chesto can be reached at
