Levi’s Stadium, the home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, has been an example of sports stadia innovation ever since it opened in 2014 and now it has announced another world first with a real-time management system.
The West Coast NFL team, in collaboration with SAP, has installed an innovative solution called Executive Huddle, which aggregates and reports real-time information about the operations at Levi’s Stadium.
Housed in a suite overlooking the field at Levi’s Stadium, and accessible via mobile devices, Executive Huddle pulls real-time data from nine different sources, including attendance, parking, food and beverage, retail, ticketing, social media and more.
The available data is displayed on interactive screens for organizers, team officials and operations teams to see and monitor. It offers the ability to make informed decisions, proactively address potential issues and take advantage of opportunities during game days and events.
Using Executive Huddle, team management can drill down into specific areas of the stadium, as well as benchmark real-time data against past games and seasons for a more contextual view of their operations.
The system was tested during the pre-season and over the course of three home NFL it has proved its worth as, according to the 49ers, ticket data enabled staff to see where fans were entering the stadium and then direct crowds to appropriate gates that would have shorter queues.
“It takes a lot of coordination to operate a 1,850,000ft² building that, on game days, employs over 3,500 individuals, many of whom are temporary part-time or seasonal workers,” said Jim Mercurio, 49ers vice president of stadium operations and Levi’s Stadium general manager.
“We leverage multiple platforms to manage parking and traffic solutions for over 15,000 cars, entry and egress through hundreds of access points for 70,000 fans, and concessions and retail stands with 600-plus points of sale, among other critical services. Having a single resource to aggregate all those datapoints is a valuable asset to our commitment to ensure all Levi’s Stadium guests have a great experience.”
