The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.
Name: Sean Henry
Company: Nashville Predators/Bridgestone Arena
Position: President/Chief Executive Officer/Alternate Governor
Sean Henry is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer and Alternate Governor for the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena. In 2016-17, his seventh season with Nashville, Henry led the Predators and Bridgestone Arena to their most successful season to date. For the first time in franchise history, the Predators sold out all 41 regular season home games, and leading into Game Four of the Western Conference Finals, Nashville had sold out sold out 56 straight home games.
Prior to joining the Predators, Henry spent 11 years as the Executive Vice President and COO at Palace Sports and Entertainment, two years as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Unity Motion and 14 years with Volume Services Inc., where he worked with the Detroit Pistons, St. Louis Rams and the Washington Redskins.
1) What utilization of technology in professional or college sports has recently blown you away and why?
I think in the evolution of the game day experience, we’re incorporating the fans into the overall presentation by combining the on-ice projection, the music, the video into those tangible, interactive bracelets. You have 17,000 screens to go from the jumbotron to the ice to the crowd in an interactive manner that allows for heightened engagement.
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2) How are the Nashville Predators utilizing technology to enhance the fan experience at Bridgestone Arena? Why were those specific technologies selected?
I think for the Predators it’s pretty simple — we have the best game day experience in all of sports. The earlier we can engage with our fans in that game day experience, the better it’s going to be in building their excitement. No matter what we ever install in the building — no matter what evolution of electronics there may be — you’re never going to be able to surpass the passion a fan brings. All technology allows us to tap into is to tap into that a little bit deeper, and start a little bit earlier.
3) If money were no object, what technology would you build or buy to help you do your job better?
Putting some barriers on money — we have 17,000 people that have a jumbotron in their hands — we can push and receive more information in and out of them. So, we can invest in anything that would provide a big enough pipeline to them and from them to take in everything that they want, or more importantly, push it back out — in which case you wouldn’t have to wait for a break in game action — for replays. We could provide point-of-view cameras. Really, whatever they wanted to solicit. Whatever stats they wanted to pull up that we were driving, or they could cater their own. So it’s a bandwidth opportunity to grow interactively of what stats we can provide, as limited or as expansive as a fan wants, and more importantly, to tap into the fan’s passion — which is a common theme of ours – to bring it out to group viewing from my phone to the other 16 or 17 thousand people and engage in some type of network chain for that.
4) As a sports fan, what sports-related service, app, product, etc., could you not live without and why?
Mine has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with what sporting events are, and that’s the group dynamic. Sitting and watching a game by yourself is fun. Sitting and watching a game with a group of your friends is a lot of fun. Sitting with 17,000 pseudo-strangers and celebrating and hugging or commiserating with them is the ultimate. I cannot do without that. It’s the reason why I sit in the stands and not a suite. My energy is driven off of that, as our fans are. You can never lose sight of that as much as we’re chasing new technology. All new technology is used to do is to drive back that group interaction and engagement with each other. To me, that is the most important thing that I enjoy and the most special thing about live sporting events.
5) If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most fans watch their favorite NHL teams?
We spend a lot of time with our future of sports groups that we have within our own organization. I think the biggest thing we need to do is to figure out the best way to keep the group dynamic in, and to continue to provide enhanced services, but I don’t see much change in how people interact with each other. The biggest question to me is, do buildings get much larger? With different ways to view it, like the device in your hand? Or much more intimate, building more proximity experiences to the game itself? I think over the next 10 years, we’re going to be writing that future — not even 20 years out — but because of our ability to connect with each other, I think whatever the prime viewing area will be, that’ll be one thing. I think we have the opportunity to have a series of satellite viewing group areas. As the price of products continues to go up, different individuals will have to make different choices on how they will continue to come to the prime venue. We will still have an opportunity to continue to grow the fan base to the secondary viewing areas to still provide the group dynamic, the fan passion which is contagious and to build upon your sport for future growth.
6) Give us your bold prediction about a form of technology that will be integral to the NHL in general over the next 12 months and why?
I think allowing our fans to select view any of the 15 to 25 cameras in a building will allow continued education and appreciation for what our sport is. Some fans may always choose to view from the goal cam, some the blue line, some traditional broadcast cameras, home feed, away feed — we’re starting to see that crossover now. But there are so many other cameras that are in the building picking up on different things. Some are fan cameras. I think that connection, for a fan, will just make viewing easier, and that’s what we want. The uneducated hockey fan often uses ‘I can’t watch it on TV.’ I don’t accept that premise. I think as we continue to evolve how we connect people with our broadcasts, it further takes teeth away from that fake excuse and allows fans to really appreciate the full speed of the game. They may like sitting in the upper bowl, and by tapping at certain camera sources, even when sitting in the building, you can feel like you’re sitting on the glass. Conversely, even when you’re sitting on the glass, sometimes you may want to have the vantage point of up top. I just think continuing to connect our fans is our current theme of everything.