 From the SAP Center at San Jose, home of the San Jose Sharks. Extracting the signal from the noise. It's theCUBE, covering HGST Sports Data Silicon Valley. Brought to you by HGST. Now your hosts, John Furrier and Jeff Frick. Okay, welcome back. We are here live at the Shark Tank San Jose SAP Center. This is theCUBE. So our special broadcast with HGST here. Sports Data SV, hashtag Sports Data SV. I'm John Furrier, founder of Silicon Valley with my co-host Jeff Frick, general manager of theCUBE. And Dave Cavill, the president of the San Jose Earthquakes. Great stadium, congratulations. First year here in this new stadium, congratulations. Thank you. Tell us, what awards are you winning? I heard the groomer, break it down for us. It's been incredible, like an unbelievable inaugural season for a via stadium. The Quakes, our new home, 40 years in the making to finally have our own place, really incredible. And we've been getting all sorts of accolades from selling out every game in the season, which was an incredible accomplishment to actually winning the Stadium Business Award in Barcelona for the most innovative stadium in the world. Up against stadiums in England and France and South America, you know, it was an amazing accomplishment and one that I think Silicon Valley should be proud of. It was super exciting when we interviewed with you and Giants AT&T Park, we got my Bitcoin, all the other things, so let's break it down. Looking back now, what were some of the things that fell into place for you in your plan? And what are some of the things that kind of like, you had to kind of like, Barry, don't look behind me. There's always something behind me. It's like a wedding, nothing ever goes right. But you guys were successful, what were the Quakes? You know, I think one of the key things, especially from a technology perspective, was partnering with Avaya. They became our naming rights partner, but it was more than just the name on the stadium. They integrated their technology in the building, created the first cloud-enabled stadium, and really created a platform to build a lot of other applications on top of. And that really drove a lot of social media integration. Fans could all be on Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat and Instagram and know that they were gonna have robust Wi-Fi. Everything was free, and then we could actually have that interaction happening in real time, putting it up on the video boards, having it through our Avaya Stadium app, so people felt connected in a way that was beyond just being in the stadium. They felt that they were connected to their social network, and that was a huge addition and something that would not have been possible without Avaya. It's interesting, you know, we've got the perspective from the technology companies, why they sponsor sports teams, but from your point of view, you know, talk about the kind of magic that happens between tech and high-level competitive sports at this level, and kind of through these venues and these relationships. Well, I think the thing is, you know, we're in the business of putting on a sporting event and having a great experience for our fans. I'm not a tech company, and so I don't have that expertise, so I'd rather find the right partner who wants to invest in what we're doing and have really a shared vision for creating a fan experience that uses technology, but doesn't take away from the fans, and so they can watch the game enjoy soccer, which is like you sit there, you watch it, but at the same time, you can have this technology buttress the experience and enhance it in a positive way. So one of the things you talked about is a destination-based experience. Obviously, the game, that's primary, but the amenities were really to bring that fan experience as more of a destination. What else did you guys do? I mean, obviously, Wi-Fi, that was one of the number one complaint that Bill Slough was saying, that the players are one of the people. What did you guys do that you tricked that? And I almost mentioned cloud. So talk about the Wi-Fi, what else did you do to make that great experience of their Wi-Fi and the cloud? Well, I think the app was a key thing. So first of all, you needed the Wi-Fi and the cloud-enabled Wi-Fi and system to basically make it scale and have it work over many years. So you didn't deploy the technology and then a year later, they come to you and say, hey, here's another $2 million you need to spend because the other system is outdated. And so it's a scalable system that can work for many years. So then I can build things on top of it and make additional investments. And we started with the Avaya Stadium app. So you can use your app to actually, as a ticket, to get into the game, which fans love. So you don't need to actually print out your tickets and you can use it to transfer and then it gets a barcode and boom, you walk right in. And then we actually can use data to figure out when people are arriving, where they're moving around on the concourse, and we can change operational strategies and operational efficiencies that we create by knowing that. And that's all using that data, having my analysts and my business intelligence team crunch it, figure out what's going on at every match and then for the next match, think of a new way to actually deploy resources to enhance it. So any surprises when you've been analyzing that data and kind of the in-day experience that you had just like no idea this was going on? People don't move very far in the stadium. Like I thought people would move around more, but you can kind of see like people congregate near their seat and near the concessions areas around it. And so one thing we wanted to do was inform people, hey, let's say if you're in section 120, hey, if you go around to 134, you know, we have gourmet food trucks over there, we have the largest exterior bar in North America, we have other things that you can see and experience and just knowing that they're not even going over there allows you to do that. And so Avaya's identity engine really allows you to see kind of groupings of people on how they're moving through the stadium. And that's just a really intriguing way to analyze fan behavior. And you said you had Bitcoins, is that still in place? Yeah, we have Bitcoins. We take that through our point of sale. It's primarily used to merchandise. That's probably the way we had the most sales. We have sold a lot of hot dogs with Bitcoin and I don't know if you've ever purchased it with that, but we have lots. Marla fries are hot, we're good with the Bitcoin right now. Yeah, evidently they are. Comma meal, Comma meal, yeah. But it has been something we wanted to be on the cutting edge and we wanted to provide any possible way for people to conduct commerce. And if it's Bitcoin, they should be able to do that as well. So what are the new things for next year that you're going to work on? Obviously the first year's under your belt, congratulations award-winning year. What's new next year? What are you working on with the key initiatives? Well, I mean, obviously we want to take the fan experience that's been very well regarded and we want to get input from our fans and all our stakeholders and enhance it because there always can be new things that we're trying and we want to really take the social to the next level and we want to have more user-generated content that we're putting into the app and then actually showing to people so you can actually say, hey, I want to get a stream of all videos that are being created in this part of the stadium, maybe the supporters area and you can see the flags and banners and TFO and all the great things that are happening from a totally different perspective. And so those are the types of things we want to roll out so fans can have an even more integrated experience. And I think the key thing for us is for a long time, and this is a big issue like in the NFL, it's almost easier to be at home. You know, it's like you're at your own living room, the bathroom's right there, the food's right there, it's simple, we want to make sure that the experience at the stadium is better and I think you need technology in this day and age to do that and that's what we're trying to do at Avaya. So one of the things I wanted to do with Jeff and I were brainstorming is go to all the venues and do a speed test. Have you done that? I mean, you guys go around and look at the other venues and saying, hey, they only got 10 up and something down. We got the five or we got the fat pipe. You got to do it when they're full though. The key thing is that's the whole thing. So you can go to all the stadiums, but if it's not an off day. And so when I actually travel around, I usually travel with the team, I always check as an away game and see what it is. And it's pretty spotty, to be honest with you, especially in a lot of the larger stadiums. And so one thing we've really prided ourselves in, whatever we roll out works. And it might not be as much as we want to in terms of feature rich, but whatever we do, the performance is where it needs to be. Because I think that's critical. Wi-Fi is a beast to do a lot of design involved, a lot of access points. We got lucky with our roof. That made a huge difference. So instead of having the Wi-Fi underneath the seats and kind of busting out like underneath you, it comes from above. And that actually makes a huge difference in terms of actually connecting and being able to move around the stadium. And so we didn't build the roof for Wi-Fi, but it actually helped us out. So you've mentioned the cloud component of it of number of times. And obviously cloud is one of the great trends that's happening right now. So what does that mean exactly? What does cloud-enabled stadium mean? Well the key thing for us is that when I look at the life cycle of the technology deployment, it actually lengthens it and allows us to update and have the newest possible software and applications at all times. Instead of kind of being stuck with like, you know what, we need to put another lift out there and we need to deploy actual new access points or new switches and routers and things like that. So we're trying to put as much in the cloud as possible and that's what a Vi is spearheading. So you don't have to have those technology integrations and I don't have to have a lift on the field and interrupting the play and all that stuff is really complicated. And so this allows you to stay cutting edge for a longer period of time. So we're going to ask you the soccer question. I always do a little straw poll because my daughter plays and you know we talked about this last time. The game is growing here in the U.S. But still you got the coaches who come from England else to say it, I was boring in America. They're so technical and boring. How is it getting less boring? From that perspective, I mean certain Americans but selling out all the stadiums because that seems to be the thing. The traditional kind of Premier League players it's boring in America. I'm not sure you agree with that but that's kind of a sentiment. I think the thing is is that I think they have a certain way that they're used to and they're kind of very tradition bound. And so I think one thing that they get a little perturbed by is that we are more innovative and open to new ideas and trying things. And that includes the way we kind of play. And I think for us that's an advantage and that makes our sport very intriguing and fun and exciting for a lot of our young fans. Because if you look at kids who are like 15 to 25 that's our sweet spot now for a Major League Soccer. Only the NFL is more popular in that group than Major League Soccer. Are you streaming snippets out of goals and Instagram and Facebook real time? Yeah that's it. You see gifs of that going out immediately. As soon as they goal building they're out. And you can see the social interaction of our fans on Twitter, on Snapchat and all these different areas is really amazing. And that part really drives how avid the fans are. And they want to consume as much content as possible and we're trying to just generate so much of that as we can to make that happen. What are some of the innovative things you're doing with streaming? Is there restrictions? I know we talked to the Niners and the Giants and even the Sharps, they have a cable partner. There's some limitations. Do you guys have a cable partner? Is it restrictive? You guys circumventing the rules for social, bending them? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but you know. I think the thing is, is that some of the things like Periscope and Meerkat and things of that nature, like we try to do that in areas where we're not really creating content on the broadcast. Behind the scenes. Yeah behind the scenes in the locker room, at the walkout, the coach on the sidelines. And sometimes that's the stuff they want. And then just a little blurb of that, a little three or four second thing could just go viral everywhere over the internet. And so we're trying to generate as much of that. And then the other thing is we're trying to be more playful with our Twitter voice and with our handles. So it's not just like corporate goal in the 13th minute. Like, you know, we want to throw some emojis in there. We want to have like, we beat the galaxy. For this is a good example. We beat the galaxy on August 28th. They had all these multi-million dollar players. And so when we won the game, we tweeted out a picture of the Death Star exploding. Because you know, they're kind of like the evil empire, the galaxy. And that thing went just nuclear. I mean, seriously, it got like, whatever, 25,000 retweets like that. And that's the kind of thing. It's playful, it's fun. The young kids like it. But you don't necessarily see that with like, you know, Manchester United and the Premier League. They would never do something like that. They're so boring. Yeah, exactly. They're the boring ones. They're so boring. I got my point in. Thank you very much. All right. Well, social media certainly with the demographics you have, great opportunity to get that experience programming. Absolutely. Makes people feel part of that. And that's the thing. And that connection is something that, especially if they're only 23, 24, you could have that for many years. So the lifetime value of these investments that we're making as a league is tremendous. And then they're going to have their own kids and they're going to bring to the game. So we like that. Dave Cavill here inside theCUBE. Thanks for coming. President of the Earthquakes, congratulations, banner year. Thank you very much. Great job. Appreciate it. We'll be right back with more after this short break. Thank you.