In October 2016, two months before the Cleveland Cavaliers announced a $140 million renovation plan for Quicken Loans Arena, the team’s chief information officer, Michael Conley, was at a leadership conference in London eyeing a mixed reality technology that he thought would set the project off right.
The product, built by a company called Taqtile, would bring the renovations to life through a hologram that would create a 3D rendering of the renovated stadium for stakeholders and potential investors to explore.
It was just the kind of technology that Conley thought would reflect what the Cavaliers were trying to accomplish: a glimpse into the future with an experience once deemed a dream of sci-fi movies. The Cavs were recreating their vision to upgrade the 23-year-old arena that hasn’t undergone major renovations in 15 years by placing a tiny holographic version of it on a table for people to poke and prod.
“I was interested in the technology because it was different,” Conley said in an interview with SportTechie. “It set the foundation for us going into a transformation project that puts technology at its core.”
Beginning in April, through June when the Cavaliers were battling the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, and in the offseason, Conley and his team have invited hundreds of stakeholders, including board members from the city of Cleveland, to visit the arena through a Microsoft Hololens headset.
In comfortable leather chairs in a war room set up specifically to showcase renovation plans, visitors have been given a tour of the miniature arena. A member of the Cavs executive team has walked them through the plans for everything from new entrances and restaurants to high-tech additions to the locker room. As the tour moved through each component, 360-degree views of specific locations were unlocked as the user was transported into the digital walls of the hologram building.
Quicken Loans Arena from Taqtile on Vimeo.
The 3D map is the brainchild of Seattle-based Taqtile, which refers to that product as a “holomap.” Similar maps have been created for other clients in the sports industry, including the PGA Tour.
In May 2016 at the PGA Tour’s Player’s Championship, Taqtile debuted a detailed holomap of the iconic TPC Sawgrass golf course in Ponte Vedra, Fla. overlaid with data from ShotLink showing historical player statistics, side-by-side player comparisons, and the exact lines balls traveled from tee to hole. It was created to give players an ability to visualize the course and strategize with coaches, but could one day also be used to enhance the fan experience.
A similar table-top putting experience enabled by Taqtile through its detailed maps was utilized by 2015 U.S. Amatuer winner Bryson DeChambeau, who says it helped him practice the visual and mental components of putting a green without wasting the energy going into full swing mode.
“It allows for strategic decision making,” said Kelly Malone, vice president or product management and business development at Taqtile.
Conley says the holomap of the Quicken Loans Arena revamp plan, which was nearly canceled last month due to a battle with taxpayers over public funding, is just the beginning of what he says will be a large commitment from the Cavs to use mixed reality throughout the franchise.
The Quicken Loans map, for example, could potentially be used to sell season pass or suite space to consumers or corporate clients. But Conley believes mixed reality will also power the fan experience of the future, whether it’s enabled through headsets such as Hololens or the 5-inch screen of a smartphone.
The team has already experimented with augmented reality via mobile phones during games in the past, including in November 2016 when the Cavs released printable paper rings that activated an augmented reality championship ring-wearing experience for fans. In April 2017, it unlocked an augmented reality game that let fans shoot a virtual ball from their phones into a digital basket on the videoboard.
Like other professional sports teams, including the San Francisco Giants, the Cavs prefer mixed and augmented reality, as opposed to virtual reality, because it infiltrates and enhances the in-person fan experience without taking fans away from the action. It also enables teams to add second-screen experiences akin to the way many consumers watch games via broadcasts from home.
The only hold-out to larger scale adoption, notes Conley, is the cumbersome nature of headsets. But when the hardware streamlines as it often does, Conley believes the Cavaliers, in all the glory of their retrofitted high-tech facility, will be prepared.
“We’re fascinated by the opportunity as far as mixed reality is concerned,” he said. “We always pride ourselves on being at the leading edge of technology. We’re not afraid to take risks that turn out to be fruitful and rewarding. We’re going to become all-in on mixed reality.”