At a time when demand for new technologies that improve the fan experience are at an all-time high, the New York Jets have worked hard to maintain an edge over other teams.
This season, the team began engaging fans at the stadium with real-time graphics featuring Next Gen stats collected from Zebra chips in shoulder pads and balls. The team’s expansive production team works lightning fast to visualize data collected live from plays, which then appear on video boards during games at MetLife Stadium.
Additionally, the Jets made several enhancements to their consumer-facing app in 2017, unlocking an artificially intelligent chatbot called JOAN that can answer fan questions in natural language, launching out of beta the predictive game “I Called It” that lets fans predict the outcomes of plays, and rolling out an augmented reality digital T-shirt cannon.
The Jets also have worked with Apple to develop a more elaborate mapping system that will enable fans to see exactly where they are in the stadium, announced an experimental relationship with the parent company of TSA Pre✓ that may enable it to develop innovative new security tools, and became the first team in the NFL to launch a mobile subscription-based season-long ticket program.
In December, the team began testing contactless entry into the stadium for season ticket holders through Apple Wallet. Seth Rabinowitz, the Jets SVP of marketing and fan engagement, told SportTechie that NFC-enabled check-in kiosks will roll out more widely next season.
The nominees for the SportTechie Award for Most Innovative Venue were:
FC Bayern Munich
New York Jets
Sacramento Kings
Salt Lake Screaming Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
