Comcast joins SAP in supporting 49ers' new stadium
Tom Paine
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Comcast, which provides cable and telecom services in the Bay area, and also reaches area viewers through CSN Bay Area and NBC Bay Area, announced jointly with the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday a 10-year partnership with the aim of delivering an “unmatched in-stadium fan experience.” The partnership coincides with the opening of the
49ers' new Levi’s Stadium next year.
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| Rendering of Levi's Stadium /Source San Francisco 49ers |
The agreement includes an array of in-stadium telecom and video services, as well as enhanced coverage from CSN Bay Area and NBC Bay Area. I find it interesting that NBC Bay Area is designated "the official broadcast partner of the San Francisco 49ers", since the
49ers are an NFC team broadcasted primarily on Fox.
Another technology company with a major Philadelphia-area (and also Bay Area) presence, SAP, also has a partnership role in Levi's Stadium. In late 2012, the 49ers announced that SAP would be a Founding Partner at the new stadium. SAP was named as the team’s exclusive Business Software, Statistics and Performance Partner, and the new training facility adjacent to the stadium will carry the SAP name.
SAP has developed specialized, HANA-based software that helps 49ers management in the
area of player evaluation, combining both the usual football stats and more heuristic
tools reflecting the role of human thought processes in evaluating all aspects of a player's potential.
SAP also has a role at the Super Bowl.It will be hosting the "SAP Stats Zone", to be located on Super Bowl Boulevard, a 14 block stretch of Broadway in Manhattan that will be temporarily closed off to vehicles and occupied by football-related exhibits. It will be open from
January 29 until Super Bowl Sunday.
While Comcast's stake in the sports industry is more obvious, SAP under mega sports fans
Hasso Plattner and Bill McDermott's leadership has taken on a much larger role in both marketing itself through sports and developing products for the sports vertical.
