More operators. More sizzle. More founders investing in each other. And making the city a better place to live.

Those are some of the ingredients that could boost Seattle’s startup scene, according to four early stage venture capitalists who spoke on a panel at the Seattle AI Investor Summit + Showcase, hosted by the Technology Alliance on Tuesday.

Seattle often gets criticized for not having enough homegrown money to help fuel the next great tech startups. The number of firms deploying dollars pales in comparison to Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

But the panelists didn’t point to that as a pressing problem.

“We spent a lot of time here navel gazing and beating ourselves up for something that I don’t think matters — which is the number of VCs or the amount of money that lives here and gets deployed in this ecosystem,” said Kirby Winfield, founding general partner of Seattle venture firm Ascend.

Most Seattle startups raise investment from firms based outside Washington state. That’s a feature, not a bug, said Leslie Feinzaig, founder and general partner of Graham & Walker.

“Being a net importer of dollars is something we should be proud of,” she said.

Feinzaig said there’s something else lacking from the Seattle ecosystem — founders supporting founders.

“At the very earliest stages, one thing that I see in the Bay Area, and to a lesser extent New York and L.A., is founders investing in each other — really experienced startup people being the angel investors that fuel other startups,” Feinzaig said.

Winfield agreed, calling it a “level of connectivity” between founders at different stages in their careers that can make it easier for investors to back startups in those types of entrepreneurial communities.

There are efforts in Seattle to try to create those connections. Founders’ Co-op investor Aviel Ginzburg recently unveiled Seattle Foundations, a new invite-only organization and shared workspace that supports tech founders by surrounding them with fellow entrepreneurs and experienced startup mentors.

The panelists also touched on another critique — or advantage, depending on who you ask — of Seattle startup founders: their general subduedness.

Feinzaig said Seattle founders “need a little bit more sizzle” in their pitches. Her firm mainly invests outside the region, and she’s noticed a difference in the delivery of other founders.

The local startup scene also has too much “Seattle Nice” that can stall future innovation, said Heather Redman, managing partner at Flying Fish. In other words: investors and advisors need to be more transparent and direct when giving feedback.

“In the Bay Area, I think there’s a little bit more ruthlessness of, ‘that’s not going to get funded, so don’t do it. Do another thing.’ And Seattle doesn’t always do that,” Redman said.

Seattle is certainly not lacking in talent, particularly top engineers. The problem is that many have “beautiful golden handcuffs” at large tech companies based in the region such as Microsoft and Amazon, said Ken Horenstein, founder and partner at Pack Ventures.

“When you’re an AI engineer that can make seven figures, it would be insane to go start a company,” he said.

Horenstein, whose fund backs companies with ties to the University of Washington, said there are ways local government can incentivize entrepreneurial activity.

He added that Seattle could use more “operators.” He said many experienced startup execs, particularly in life sciences, move away after their company gets acquired. “We need to keep those people here,” he said.

The investors also talked about elevating Seattle’s image on a national and international stage.

“The number one thing to concentrate on is making this the best place to live,” Redman said. “If we can attract the very best talent here, because this is where people want to live and where they want to raise their families, then we will be the winners in the long run of the talent race, and we will have the best companies.”

Athletes might possess the right touch to execute a perfect pass or shot. A Seattle startup’s touch is bringing blind or low-vision sports fans closer to the games they love with a device that lets them “feel” what’s happening on the field or court.

OneCourt‘s technology and hardware translates gameplay data into spatial haptics. The company’s tabletop device syncs to the television or radio broadcast of a football, basketball or baseball game, for instance, and tracks key movements and plays in the game with tactile playing-field outlines and vibrations under a user’s fingers.

Many blind or vision-impaired sports fans rely solely on audio to follow a sporting event, but that audio can often be behind the live action, and makes going to in-stadium events less appealing. Audio can also lack certain spatial details about what’s transpiring.

OneCourt’s haptics are intended to augment the audio and fill in gaps. CEO Jerred Mace said it all plays into how we form meaning from different senses.

“With touch, you’re building an understanding through the details. You’re feeling and then you’re building,” he said. “Whereas with vision, you’re seeing the big picture first and then you’re picking out details. So it’s kind of the reverse.”

Mace started OneCourt more than two years ago at the University of Washington, where he studied industrial and product design. His co-founders include three fellow Huskies: COO Antyush Bollini, CTO Andrew Buckingham, and CIO Nick Durand.

“I think my role as a designer, as an innovator is how can we bring this awesome experience to everybody?” Mace said.

OneCourt relies on data that is already being collected and distributed by professional sports teams and leagues for a variety of purposes, such as the NFL’s Amazon-powered Next Gen Stats.

“We view ourselves as a very human-centric application,” Mace said. “We’re out to improve somebody’s foundational experience with the game. And it’s cool that we can do that through data.”

OneCourt’s biggest support has been a 12-month grant through Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility program. The startup is also partnering with T-Mobile on technical support, 5G integration, and access to workspace.

OneCourt took home a $50,000 investment prize — as well as a $5,000 fan favorite prize — at the Flywheel Investment Conference in Wenatchee, Wash., last month. The startup has also competed in a number of UW competitions, such as the Dempsey Startup Competition and the Holloman Health Innovation Challenge, and it went through the Jones + Foster Accelerator Program.

The company also had its first in-venue pilot recently with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Mace and others got to go to the last three games of the season and sit with students from the Washington State School for the Blind and the Northwest Association for Blind Athletes who were using the device.

“It was a very special experience to work on this for so long and being able to watch the game with fans who finally feel a part of the action,” Mace said.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith and his wife Kathy Surace-Smith have purchased a stake in the Seattle Mariners, becoming just the third additions since the team formed a partnership group in 1992.

Mariners chairman and managing partner John Stanton announced the news Wednesday, saying that the goal of the group has been to find “partners who both love baseball and are passionate about public service.”

Stanton is a wireless industry pioneer who sits on the Microsoft board of directors. He took over as Mariners CEO in 2016.

The Smiths are the first new additions since Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. joined in 2021.

Brad Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 after leaving private practice as an attorney. He’s held his leadership position at the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant for the past nine years. He serves as chair of the Board of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship program, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University.

Surace-Smith is senior vice president of human resources and legal affairs at Seattle-based biotech company NanoString Technologies. She was previously VP and general counsel at SonoSite and Metawave Communications. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and of Columbia University.

In 2022, the Smiths committed $5 million to a campaign to restore the 104-year-old ASUW Shell House at the University of Washington in Seattle. Brad Smith also helped lead fundraising efforts for The Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering at the UW, which opened in 2019.

“We’re excited to join the partnership group and support the Mariners success, both on the field and in service to the community,” the couple said in a statement, via MLB.com.

Kerry Carter, a former pro football player with the Seattle Seahawks and other teams, is tackling a new role as CEO at Atavus, the Seattle-based sports technology company that teaches proper tackling technique.

Atavus has grown beyond being a consulting company for NFL teams and higher-end collegiate programs. The focus now is mainly as a software-as-a-service business targeted at a wider market, including high schools, where coaches can get certified in a tackling system aimed at increasing player safety. Certification opens up access to Atavus drill videos, tackle plans and more.

“I tried to really shift what the foundation of the business would be,” said Carter, who started at Atavus in 2016 and took over as CEO in January. He plans to reintroduce the company’s consulting and analytics product, which will be improved by advances in machine learning and generative AI.

“It’s just finding better ways to intake information and produce better outputs for our clients that are actionable,” he said. “The biggest thing for us is being a resource for coaches.”

Carter is already busy linking Atavus to other sports tech providers. The company announced a new partnership Monday with Hudl, a Lincoln, Neb.-based sports analysis technology company. The plan is to combine Atavus’ player safety expertise with Hudl’s cutting-edge technology to track and improve performance.

Atavus started as a rugby skills platform in 2011 and transitioned to a comprehensive training program for football through its Atavus Tackle System, which offers coaching techniques and analysis aimed at making tackling safer. Former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was a big believer in the system, which he labeled “Hawk Tackle,” and the University of Washington and Ohio State football programs were also early adopters.

The startup was acquired by sports technology and data investment fund Phoenix Sports Partners in 2019.

Carter said there’s a lot of conversation around football and tackling technique right now, especially in the NFL where a rules change will eliminate the so-called “hip-drop tackle” from the game. Carter doesn’t think safety and performance have to be mutually exclusive.

Atavus’ approach is to look at tackling from a data-driven perspective to determine if it’s safe and efficient. Carter points to former Seahawks great Bobby Wagner as a prime example of what a player can achieve with proper technique.

“Bobby’s one of the most efficient tacklers and has been for a very long time, and he’s a high shoulder and chest percentage guy. Bobby’s rarely injured,” Carter said. “[Teams] have invested millions of dollars in these guys and they want to keep them on the field.”

Seattle Kraken fans will have a new place to root for the pro hockey team next season.

The franchise announced an innovative new broadcast deal Thursday that will bring games to Amazon Prime Video and Tegna stations KING 5 and KONG in the Seattle area.

The move is a departure from regional cable broadcaster ROOT Sports, where Kraken games have been televised for the past three seasons.

As part of the multi-year agreements, KING 5 and KONG will broadcast all non-nationally televised Kraken games — more than 70 in total — for free over the air.

Prime Video will stream all non-nationally televised games for Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, including pre-season, regular season and the first round of playoffs. The Kraken are the first NHL team to have Prime Video as a direct streaming partner. 

Amazon is already a major player in the franchise:

• The tech giant bought naming rights to Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena back in 2020 when the old KeyArena was being redeveloped.
• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is part of the team’s ownership group.
• The company’s name is on team helmets and its cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology is used throughout the arena.

And Amazon is no stranger to going after the valuable streaming rights to sports broadcasts, most notably with its “Thursday Night Football” deal with the NFL, which runs through 2033. Last year, the company also announced a seven-year content deal with NASCAR to stream five NASCAR Cup Series races beginning in 2025.

Prime subscribers who pay $139 per year or $14.99 per month get access to the live sports streams, and those in the Pacific Northwest will now be able to watch Kraken games, as well. Amazon touted a boost in U.S. Prime signups during its first exclusive stream of an NFL game in 2022.

“Seattle Kraken hockey is synonymous with the Pacific Northwest, and we’re thrilled to bring Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska access to Kraken games on Prime Video,” Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships for Prime Video, said in a news release. “Live Kraken games add to our growing selection of premium live sports and deliver additional value for Prime members throughout the Kraken home footprint.”

KING 5, an NBC affiliate, will be the official television partner for the Kraken. John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olczyk, Alison Lukan and Nick Olczyk will continue broadcasting games next season.

All non-nationally televised games will be broadcast on Tegna’s KONG, with a number of games throughout the season simulcast on KING 5. In addition, games will be broadcast free over the air on Tegna stations KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, and KREM, the CBS affiliate in Spokane, Wash. Additional markets in the Pacific Northwest will be added.

The Arizona Coyotes and Las Vegas Golden Knights also broadcast games over the air. After a new TV deal last year, Coyotes President Xavier Gutierrez said it was necessary to reach more households, serve the fan base and capture new fans.

ROOT Sports continues to be home for Seattle Mariners baseball games.

When Sanjay Parthasarathy left his last tech job in February 2023, he figured he’d do what he could to help get the first season of Major League Cricket up and running in the Seattle area and at the national level. After that, it would probably be time to go find another “real job,” as he put it.

Just over a year later, Parthasarathy, one of several notable names from the region’s tech industry who are backing the Seattle Orcas, is beyond just getting things off the ground. He’s become fully immersed in the business of the sport he once played as a professional.

“I’ve done a startup. It was 10x a startup kind of pace and velocity,” Parthasarathy said of the inaugural season for the league and the Orcas. “I’ve played cricket my entire life. Running a team — that was something else.”

The Orcas lead investor group includes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Madrona Venture Group Managing Director S. Soma Somasegar; Icertis co-founder and CEO Samir Bodas; and GreatPoint Ventures managing partner Ashok Krishnamurthi. Indian conglomerate GMR Group also has a stake.

Parthasarathy was a longtime Microsoft executive before founding and leading Indix in 2012. The AI and machine learning startup was acquired by tax software giant Avalara in 2019, which was in turn acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2022. Parthasarathy stepped down from his role as Avalara’s chief product officer last year.

In retrospect, the 2023 cricket season went much better than he and others expected. Parthasarathy said the effort probably accelerated cricket in the U.S. by two or three years. Not bad, considering the goal was “just to survive the season.”

MLC and its six teams — Seattle, Texas, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. — attracted fan and broadcast interest. And the Orcas finished as runners up in the short season of Twenty20 cricket that wrapped up outside Dallas last July.

There are several goals this season and none seem to faze Parthasarathy’s enthusiasm for what’s possible. Those goals include:

Make the Orcas ‘America’s favorite cricket team’

Parthasarathy said the Orcas decided from the start to be loud, different, and fun.

The team boasts a core group of fans from around the Seattle area, including many Asian Indians from the tech community. But as the smallest of the six MLC markets, the Orcas want to grow their base by attracting fans in cities across the U.S.

A redesign of the team’s original, quickly conceived logo added a cricket bat and crown (for King County) to the playful orca mascot. Fans took notice last summer, and Orcas merchandise was a hit.

“Every adult has their favorite team, but if you look at all the kids in the stadiums, they all have Seattle Orcas [jerseys],” Parthasarathy said. “That’s who we need to reach out to as a team.”

Broaden the fan base

“We have product market fit — just to use a traditional startup term — with the core audience,” Parthasarathy said, referencing 30- to 40-year-old males tied to what he calls “the Commonwealth diaspora” — India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and England.

To reach a broader base of U.S. fans used to professional baseball, football, basketball and more, it’s about getting cricket in front of people.

“If people are aware of it and they actually go watch, they’ll get hooked,” he said. “Is that going to take three years, seven years, 10 years? Probably. We’ve got to do out-of-the-box things to attract attention and just be different. Because if people watch it, they’ll enjoy it.”

Grow the sport at grassroots level

Referencing the popularity of the NBA, and basketball in general, Parthasarathy said there are pickup games in gyms, parks and home courts all around the country.

“We don’t have enough pickup games in cricket,” he said. “If you go to India, there’s pickup cricket going all the time, everywhere. How do we get from here to there? I call that grassroots development. … It doesn’t take much to get started. Don’t worry about the rules. Don’t worry about the technicalities. Just start to play. It’s see ball, hit ball, right? That’s where it starts.”

Prepare U.S. for strong showing at 2028 Olympics

Even though it’s regarded as the second-most-popular sport in the world (behind soccer), cricket last appeared at the Olympics in 1900, at the Paris Games. In October, the International Olympic Committee approved the addition of the sport for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and Parthasarathy called it a pivotal development, especially on the heels of the U.S. hosting matches for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

“How do we get from Major League Cricket to the Olympics? That’s the journey that is most interesting, because you’ve got to get grassroots awareness and you’ve got to get the domestic team playing at a reasonable level,” Parthasarathy said.

Continue work on bringing a cricket ground to Seattle area

Two years ago, the King County Council passed a motion of support for the development of a cricket grounds at Marymoor Park in Redmond. Parthasarathy said discussions between MLC and the county and cities involved are ongoing.

“If we take a phased approach, we’re hoping we can get games going in this area in 2025,” he said. “But a lot of stars have to align to make that happen.”

MLC and the Orcas ownership group wants the grounds to be a community resource.

“This is not just going to be like the traditional approaches that we have with baseball stadiums and football stadiums,” Parthasarathy said. “There’s a lot more nuances and benefits to both sides that need to be worked out.”

Instant replay has changed the landscape of professional sports and added more eyes to what officials and referees see in any given contest. A new pilot project in Washington state is adding cameras to high school sports, with a twist.

In an effort to address unruly behavior, a high volume of ejections, and concerns over the safety of officials, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and Washington Officials Association (WOA) announced an initiative earlier this month to test the use of body cameras on referees, starting with basketball.

Approximately 100 basketball officials across the state have already begun wearing cameras, and the project will continue throughout the school year with soccer, baseball and fast pitch softball officials.

The officiating organizations are teaming with Reveal Media, a global maker of body-worn camera technology, whose devices have been used in the lower levels of the English Football Association and are being tested with a youth soccer association in Canada. The WIAA and WOA are the first partners, professional or amateur, in the U.S. for Reveal.

The body cameras, which are always recording, can be activated by basketball officials during a game to create a timestamp for future viewing. Once the camera does get activated, it begins showing what the official is seeing. There are three possible triggers for such activation:

• Unsportsmanlike technical foul.
• An event that creates an unsafe/dangerous environment for the official, such as fighting or fans storming the court.
• Discriminatory or harassing behavior that causes a stoppage in play or delays play from resuming.

WIAA Assistant Executive Director Justin Kesterson told GeekWire that in situations where there is a camera activation, the WIAA and WOA offices have the ability to review each incident.

“If the incident led to an ejection and the school appeals, we can use the video as part of the appeal,” Kesterson said. “However, we will not use the video to go back and retroactively eject a player or coach if the officials did not eject them originally.”

The video will also be used as part of any investigation if there has been an assault on an official or to pick up unruly behavior, including audio, from the stands.

Kesterson said that since Jan. 5 there have been activations for instances in games, but so far the organizations have not had to go through a response or appeal process.

And the reception from schools, players, coaches and parents has illustrated more curiosity than pushback.

“Schools understand the need for this trial program and why we are taking this step,” Kesterson said. “Once we have further explained how the program works and that the videos are only sent to our offices and cannot be edited by the officials or anyone else, it has helped ease some of the worries.”

The move to address poor behavior among sports participants and fans, and to protect officials, shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has witnessed such incidents in person or seen any number of viral videos online. Smartphone cameras always seem to be rolling and sometimes catch violence against officials, as in this youth basketball incident, and this from high school football, for example.

Beyond the body cameras, one Washington state legislator wants to try to curb bad behavior by upping the punishment for such violence in schools.

A bill introduced in the state House of Representatives last week would make fighting at schools among students or adults a class C felony, according to the Everett Herald. Rep. Sam Low, R-Lake Stevens, said his priority is to toughen the punishment for parents or students who intimidate or hurt sports officials.

WIAA and WOA will conduct a review of the body camera pilot project following the conclusion of the school sports season.

On paper, the performance of the rowers at the center of the movie — and at the center of the bestselling book on which the movie is based — pales in comparison with current Olympic and world records. Today, the world’s fastest time for a 2,000-meter course is just under 5 minutes and 20 seconds, which is more than a minute faster than the time that won the gold medal for the Boys in the Boat in Berlin.

One of the big reasons for that speedup can be found at Everett, Wash.-based Pocock Racing Shells. The company’s founder, George Pocock, built the Husky Clipper — the boat in which the Boys won their Olympic gold. In the movie, Pocock (as portrayed by Peter Guinness) plays a role similar to Yoda in the Star Wars saga, performing wizardry with wood and dispensing wisdom at just the right moment.

Today, wood just doesn’t cut it for championship-level racing shells. “The boats have no wood,” says John Tytus, the current president of Pocock Racing Shells. “These boats are all built out of advanced composites, mainly carbon fiber — which, for its weight, is the strongest material available.”

Lightweight materials are just part of the equation. Hydrodynamics and computer modeling have helped Tytus and other boatbuilders tweak their designs to an extent that would impress even George Pocock.

Science has also transformed how today’s rowing men and women are being trained to outperform the Boys in the Boat. “As stark as the difference between wood and carbon fiber might be, the training volume that the crews do now, compared to what the Boys did in ’36 — that’s actually a bigger quantum leap,” Tytus says.

In the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, Tytus explains how innovations have taken athletic performance far beyond what moviegoers see when they watch “The Boys in the Boat.”

Building the boat

Although they’re made of sterner stuff, the racing shells that today’s rowers look pretty much the same as they did in 1936. But not exactly the same.

“There’s been a lot of work on the drag science,” Tytus says, “and so the boats are still long, but they’re not as long as they were back in the 1930s. We’re roughly talking about a 67-foot-long boat back then, 66 feet, depending on the size of the crew, [compared] to roughly 59 to 57 feet long now. But otherwise, yeah, they look very similar. Still long and skinny. Still very, very narrow. Still very tippy.”

Tytus says racing shells “are absolutely a different beast” from other boats, because they either stop or go backward every time the crew takes a stroke. That complicates the task of optimizing the way the boat moves through the water.

Engineers use computational fluid dynamics to fine-tune the design of the racing shells, as well as the shape of the oars that are used to propel them. And just as aerospace designers use wind tunnels to test out scale models of their airplanes, boatbuilders use towing tanks to put their models to real-world tests.

“A designer will build a scale model of the form of the hull that they want to drag through the water,” Tytus explains. “They load it up with sensors. The tow tank is then a pool of moving water that drags this form through that water. And it measures flow over the course of the surface area of that hull. Those have been around for a long time.”

When it comes to designing faster racing shells, the computer isn’t always right. “Whenever we design a new shape for a shell, a lot of it’s based on intuition and what we’ve proven to ourselves from previous iterations of hull design,” Tytus says, “because when we go and put certain shapes into various computer modeling applications, sometimes that shape looks promising in one modeling situation, and then in another program, it might look slow.”

Could artificial intelligence generate the optimal shape? “I’m afraid to go there,” Tytus admits. “I haven’t looked into that one, but I’m sure it’s coming.”

Today’s boats are built to be more adaptable to individual rowers. “The improvements would be in adjustability and what we call rigging in the sport, which is ways to modify the gearing per each athlete so that their load might be different from some of their teammates, in order to suit a different body type,” Tytus says.

Modern racing shells are wired up in ways that would have been impossible in 1936. In the movie, UW coxswain Bobby Moch (played by Luke Slattery) has a cone strapped to his mouth to urge on his eight-man crew. “Now, there’s a series of speakers in the boat, and you wear a headset,” UW women’s rowing coach Yasmin Farooq says. “And so there’s an amplification system in there.”

The racing shells are also equipped with sensors to track each rower’s performance. It wasn’t that long ago that coaches gauged their crew’s performance by eyeballing the spaces between the splashes thrown up by the oars.

“Now they have little computers on the boat, and the computers will tell you your distance per stroke, your 500-meter split and your actual speed in miles or kilometers per hour. And then of course it does your time,” Farooq says. “Also, we have these gauges you can put on the oarlocks that actually show how much force each person exerts on their blade.”

Once again, the computer doesn’t have the final word. “We will use those measurements to inform our decisions,” Farooq says, “but you still gotta have the eye at the end of the day. … When you’re doing it well, you know that computer is going to say it’s a good time.”

The human factor

The racing shells may have gotten shorter since the 1930s, but the rowers have definitely gotten bigger.

Director George Clooney and the production team for “The Boys in the Boat” put the actors portraying the Boys through five months of athletic training to get them in shape. However, even after all those workouts, there’s no way the actors — or for that matter, the 1936 Boys in the Boat — could match today’s top crews.

“The size of the actors that are acting — these are not rowers,” Tytus says. “These are actors that learned how to row well enough to film a movie. These guys are not ready to go to a national championship, trust me.”

The actors in the movie are probably similar, size-wise, to how athletes looked in the 1930s. But since then, the typical rower has become bigger and brawnier. “They average now maybe 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-6,” says Michael Callahan, head coach for men’s rowing at UW. “They weigh over 200 pounds. There’s a lot of lean muscle mass. They can produce a tremendous amount of power for six minutes.”

What’s changed? For one thing, the Boys in the Boat lacked the advantages that are typically available to today’s athletes, Callahan says.

“These guys lived through the Depression — and imagine their youth, growing up with poor nutrition and training practices,” he says. “They learned to row in college, and many of our rowers now learn to row in high school.”

The movie shows the UW crew building up their muscles by sawing through a giant log — which was actually part of the training routine back then. For today’s rowing crews, however, the training tool of choice isn’t a two-person saw but rather an ergometer rowing machine, also known as an erg. Over the years, the exercise machines have been fine-tuned to provide an experience that comes closer to feeling as if you’re actually in a boat.

On the erg, and in the boat, athletes are getting real-time feedback to help them fine-tune their performance in return.

“We’re using a lot more GPS,” Callahan says, “We know how fast we’re going at all moments. We know different training zones. … That data allows you to make more educated progress through your training program.”

The swing’s the thing

The Boys in the Boat probably wouldn’t believe how much their sport has evolved over the past 87 years. But Callahan says there are still some things his modern-day crews can learn from their predecessors.

“They had that ‘swing.’ They had that intangible,” he says. “It’s not really about the technology. It’s about nine people coming together as one, and I think that’s what they can learn. These guys were pulling for each other at the finish line, not for themselves.”

The way Farooq sees it, rowing is a sport that blends technology and biomechanics with less scientific factors, including the factor that rowers call swing.

“What’s it all about? It’s physics. It’s a sport of leverage,” she says. “It’s also a sport of endurance, power and mental toughness. So, somebody could have a really long arc initially, but if they don’t have the fitness and the power to support it, you can’t sustain it over the course of the race. And then the other thing is, somebody could have all three of those physical ingredients, but if you don’t have the mental toughness, it doesn’t mean anything.”

On top of all that, Farooq points to the feeling of pulling together — that intangible feeling of swing. “If a person comes off the power, the pressure in a boat, that kills the rhythm,” she says. “So, it doesn’t matter how strong the other people are, or the force, or arc that they are contributing. If one person comes off the rhythm, that’s it.”

Farooq wonders if that’s the sort of feeling AI could ever match.

“I don’t know if AI wants any part of that — unless AI gets to experience emotions,” she says. “When that happens, then I guess it will be meaningful to them.”

“The Boys in the Boat” goes into wide release this weekend. Consult your favorite local listings for showtimes — and get a look at the reviews in The Seattle Times (“a sweet adaptation”), The Washington Post (“handsome but familiar”) and The Associated Press (“both stirring and a tad stodgy”).

The University of Washington is in the midst of a fundraising campaign called Pulling Together, which is tied to the movie release and will benefit UW’s rowing and student support programs as well as the restoration of its historic ASUW Shell House. Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry is also playing up the movie connection with an exhibition titled “Pulling Together: A Brief History of Rowing in Seattle.”

Looking for more books and shows that feature rowing? Check out the original version of this item on Cosmic Log for recommendations from John Tytus — and stay tuned for future episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Google, Spotify, Player.fm, Pocket Casts and Radio Public.

In a small corner of Lumen Field, Amazon is putting a new spin on its cashierless “Just Walk Out” shopping system.

At the home of the Seattle Seahawks, just down the street from Amazon’s headquarters, the new Seahawks Pro Shop Outlet store gives football fans a way to grab some gear without needing to wait in line.

We gave it a test run last week before the Seattle Seahawks hosted the Carolina Panthers.

The store uses RFID tags to track individual products, instead of overhead cameras typically found at other stores with Amazon’s cashierless technology.

This makes it possible to sell clothing, apparel, and other “soft goods” merchandise, going beyond food and beverage.

At a typical “Just Walk Out” store, customers scan their credit card or palm at the entrance, and they’re tracked by the cameras. This is how the store knows what you pick up, in addition to sensor tech on shelves or tables.

The new Seahawks shop does not have any scanners at the entrance. Instead, they are placed at the exit. That’s where the system detects any RFID tags, and charges the customers as they leave with their jerseys, shirts, jackets, and more.

It worked pretty much as advertised during our test run. It felt like normal shopping — browse through items, try stuff on, put stuff back, etc. — until the end, when you either plug a credit card in for a few seconds or scan your palm to pay.

The best part was not wasting time in line. There can be a small queue when multiple customers try to exit but I didn’t notice many logjams.

This advantage was made more apparent as I walked down the concourse and saw a hoard of people waiting to check out at the main pro shop store.

I used the extra time to grab pizza and a drink at Tutta Bella, one of four new concession stands at Lumen Field that uses Amazon’s cashierless tech. There are now nine such stores at Lumen Field, the most of any venue globally.

My only complaint at the outlet was the limited product selection. Clearly this is a test run of sorts as Amazon and the Seahawks figure out if it can work.

So far, it seems so. Amazon said it plans to roll out the RFID-enabled system to more locations this year. And the Seahawks are seeing improved transaction time and reduced friction at checkout compared to a traditional shopping experience, according to Doug Orwiler, managing director of consumer experience (retail) for the team.

Amazon first tested the RFID tech at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, toward the end of the Seattle Kraken season. It’s using RFID technology from an Ohio company called Avery Dennison.

“RFID technology has been around for decades and is typically used by stores to track and manage inventory,” Amazon wrote in a blog post. “Given its prevalence in retail supply chains, we decided to figure out a way RFID could benefit customers in a checkout-free environment.”

More than 70 Amazon-owned stores and more than 85 third-party retailers currently use “Just Walk Out” tech across the U.S., U.K., and Australia. The lineup includes grocery stores, airport travel retailers, music and sports venues, theme parks, and shops and cafes on college campuses. Amazon opened its first Go convenience store, featuring “Just Walk Out,” in 2018 in Seattle.

Stadiums across the country are quickly adopting various versions of cashierless tech from Amazon and others such as Standard AI, AiFi, and Zippin.

The Seahawks opened their first “Just Walk Out” shop last season and said transactions increased 85% while sales per game increased 112% compared to the traditional concession stand that previously was in the same location.

Seattle’s professional soccer club is adding more tech heavyweights to its ownership group.

Seattle Sounders FC announced Wednesday that the families of Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky and Redapt CEO Rick Cantu are now owners. Jay Stein, president of Sand Capital and real estate development company Sandor, is also now part of the ownership group.

They join several other tech execs, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who became owners in 2019.

“These additions bring the team successful, respected and passionate leaders in innovative spaces, as well as deep connections and diversity of insight that strengthens our club and pushes our organizational goals forward,” Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer said in a statement.

The equity for the new trio of owners come from Hanauer, via shares he acquired from previous owner Joe Roth.

Hanauer earlier this year announced a six-year strategic growth plan for the club, which includes the opening of a new training facility and corporate office in Renton, Wash., its engagement with the FIFA World Cup 2026 (Seattle will host matches), and potential strategic investments and acquisitions related to tech and fan engagement.

Selipsky rejoined Amazon’s cloud division in May 2021 after five years as head of Tableau Software. He replaced Andy Jassy, who took over as Amazon CEO.

Cantu is the co-founder and CEO of Redapt, the Woodinville, Wash.-based company founded in 1996 that provides various IT services.

Stein is a longtime commercial real estate executive who is also a part-owner of the Colorado Rockies and Leeds United FC.

It’s an all-out blitz of Amazon technology at Lumen Field in Seattle as the Seahawks are expanding the use of “Just Walk Out” and Amazon One technology to a new Pro Shop Outlet location and four more concession stands.

The team announced the plans Tuesday, saying that the new tech will be in place for Thursday’s preseason home opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

The use of Just Walk Out and the Amazon One palm-scanning technology at a team merchandise store is a first for any sports venue, according to the Seahawks. The Pro Shop Outlet, located in the northwest corner of the stadium’s main concourse near section 140, will sell gear at reduced prices, including hats, shirts, jerseys, and souvenirs.

Customers are able to grab items and leave through an exit gate by using their credit card or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device. The credit card they used or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged. If the customer makes no purchase, they can exit without a card or palm scan.

The technology, which relies on an array of overhead cameras and computer vision, is designed to get fans in an out of retail and concession spaces faster, without the need to wait in cashier lines. Amazon first debuted Just Walk Out at its Amazon Go convenience stores, and it’s now in use in a variety of locations, including grocery stores, airports, music and sports venues.

In addition to the Pro Shop Outlet, Lumen Field is also adding the technology to four existing concession locations: Tutta Bella (section 137), two Local Dogs locations (sections 109 & 135) and Pizza Hut (section 107). There are now eight concession locations with Just Walk Out, and with the Pro Shop, Lumen Field has the most Just Walk Out locations of any sports venue in the world, according to the Seahawks.

“Lumen Field has rapidly become the go-to destination for Seahawks fans to experience the latest in checkout-free technology,” Jon Jenkins, VP of AWS Technology, said in a statement.

Last season, GeekWire interviewed fans at Lumen Field as they tried the technology for the first time before the Seahawks took on the Denver Broncos. Watch the video below:

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas —The promise of cricket in America could be seen and felt in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Awash in Friday night lights after a scorching Texas sun, the trim green cricket oval invited fanatics and families alike to watch the Seattle Orcas chase the Washington Freedom’s 144 runs.

Deep in the Heart of Texas played cheerfully from the loudspeakers during a brief break in the action, and local law enforcement, sporting straw cowboy hats and boots, looked on in bewilderment.

Major League Cricket debuted last week, the cricketing world’s American Dream, a new field of dreams.

Unlike the seesaw, to-and-fro of baseball innings, the format of cricket known as T-20 is played politely with one team batting until 20 overs (120 balls) are thrown – around the same number thrown by a baseball team in 9 innings.

During a cricket game’s overs, the batting squad attempts to score as many runs as possible while the bowling team, the defense, attempts to take the batting team’s wickets. Batting ends when 10 wickets are taken or 20 overs are completed, whichever comes first.

In the opening innings, DC had scored 144 runs and lost seven wickets. Now it was up to Seattle’s assortment of Indian, Pakistani, South African, Sri Lankan, West Indies, and U.S. players to beat that score. Seattle displayed an offense not unlike past Mariners teams — slow but steady small ball.

After eight overs, Seattle still needed 101 runs. With two overs remaining, they needed 17. Imad Wasim of Pakistan and Shimron Hetmyer from the West Indies formed a partnership that produced a pair of 6s (baseball’s equivalent of a homerun), and Shubham Ranjane came up with the winning hit for four (something like a ground rule double) after Hetmyer was dismissed.

The Seattle Orcas won their inaugural match Friday night with 148 runs and five lost wickets. They followed their thrilling victory with another win Saturday night over the San Francisco Unicorns, this time in a more decisive manner, 177 runs and four wickets. The Orcas took all ten San Francisco wickets after the Unicorns put up just 142 runs. Orcas batsman Heinrich Klaasen of South Africa scored the franchise’s first “half-century,” putting up 53 runs.

In 2015, I wrote an article seeking to answer a question: Could cricket in the U.S. be a worthwhile investment? I flew to New York City to watch a tour of the world’s cricketing all-stars because, having fallen in love with the sport thanks to business travel to India and England, I was curious about its viability in America.

Not long ago, the idea that Major League Soccer franchises would pop up in cities across America, each competing for international talent, was a dream to some, and a joke to others. Cricket? It’s too complicated. Don’t matches stretch on for days? It will never work.

But might the MLC and the Indian diaspora attract a legend at the end of his career, like MLS and its “soccer is life” Latino population attracted Messi to Miami?

The night before Seattle’s match, the Texas Super Kings played the LA Knight Riders to commence tournament play. Ross Perot Jr.’s Super Kings beat the Knight Riders by a score of 181 runs and the loss of six wickets to 112 runs with the loss of all 10 wickets.

Thanks to an agreement with the Indian Premier League (IPL), several of the American teams share IPL mascots. Chenai and Texas are the Super Kings, Mumbai and New York are the Indians, Kolkata and Los Angeles are the Knight Riders.

All six teams — Texas, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. — began this week’s tournament in Texas, to be continued in North Carolina, and then return to Texas for the playoffs on July 27.

The scene in Grand Prairie

Major League Cricket debuted to a sellout crowd of around 7,000 fans with the kind of diversity the NFL, the NBA, and MLB can only dream about. Television networks from around the world, including America’s Willow cable channel, broadcast the game live to hundreds of millions in cricket-mad places like India, Australia and New Zealand, the U.K., and South Africa. International news outlets have run coverage almost hourly through the weekend.

MLC took over an abandoned independent league baseball stadium (the Airhogs) in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, and invested heavily in a world class cricket oval. There, fans in Dallas Cowboys gear and Bass Pro Shop hats mixed with the national team jerseys from every cricket nation. Country and Western, Bollywood, and hip-hop blasted overhead. Fans munched on chickpeas and rice seasoned with Tex-Mex Chipotle hot sauce.

The Dallas metroplex made for a surprising backdrop. Looming over the new cricket stadium is Lone Star Park, a hulking horse racing venue. Soaring above the racetrack’s spire, commercial jets take off and land from nearby DFW Airport.

Inside the arena, an English gentleman from Birmingham, more recently residing in Jacksonville, stayed over in Dallas when he learned he could catch the first-ever Major League Cricket game.

Tim Miller, 54, and his son Iain, 18, live locally in the Dallas metroplex and were standing near the field an hour before the action began. Iain began playing with friends, mostly Indian, in a nearby park as the pandemic began. He fell in love with the game and has now tried out for an Under-19 team. He and his father watch cricket on Willow.

Mark Roberts and his kids, 10 and 13, drove 12 hours from Fort Collins, Colo., to see the launch. Dad took an interest in 2018 when he stumbled across the sport on Willow. He wanted to introduce his kids to cricket because “it’s a better alternative to baseball.” Why? The action.

Like a winter league baseball game in the Caribbean, fans blew whistles and anticipated, and then reacted to, every play of the game.

By all accounts, the cricket grounds and the quality of play were top-notch. Likewise, the league clearly invested in slick, professional video and merchandise.

Cricket in the Pacific Northwest

Orcas cricket is backed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Madrona Venture Group Managing Director S. Soma Somasegar; Icertis co-founder and CEO Samir Bodas; GreatPoint Ventures managing partner Ashok Krishnamurthi; and former Microsoft and Avalara executive Sanjay Parthasarathy.

Soma and his family attended both Orcas games over the weekend.

“Seattle was initially not a day 1 city for the league,” he said. “But because of the strong and vibrant fan base and sports community in Seattle we made Seattle a day 1 city for the league. We have an important fan base to build upon.”

He pointed out that the U.S. and Seattle should be part of the world’s second most popular sport.

“Sports bring people from different perspectives together” he said. “ We want to unify.”

Tech hubs like Seattle and Silicon Valley in California have long attracted software programmers from India. The Asian Indian population in the U.S. has grown steadily, rising from 2 million in 2000 to more than 5 million.

In the Seattle area, Microsoft is incorporating a recreational cricket pitch on its new campus in Redmond. King County’s Marymoor Park, where Seattle’s amateur league has played for decades, envisions its own professionally-run stadium.

What’s next for MLC?

Seattle will play three more matches in Morristown, N.C., over the weekend. The teams return to Texas for the championship round.

Beyond that, it’s a little uncertain.

MLC franchises expect to have their grounds in order by the 2025 season. Tom Dunmore, who heads MLC marketing, said the hope is that 2025 will be the first regular season.

Next year, the U.S. and the West Indies (Jamaica, Bahamas, Antigua) will co-host cricket’s World Cup. The International Cricket Committee (ICC), the equivalent of soccer’s FIFA, is currently working to identify host cities. New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland are possibilities. With the Oakland Athletics heading to Las Vegas, that could open up a suitable stadium. The Oakland Coliseum is known for its generous foul territory, which would enable a proper cricket oval.

Dunmore says MLC will wait to see what the ICC comes up with, and perhaps next year’s MLC tournament could be played on a World Cup pitch.

“Not to be cliché, but if you build it people will come,” Dunmore said.

A little more on how the game is played

If you’ve played the game all your life, feel free to skip this. If not, read on. More than 10 years ago on a trip to New Delhi, I downloaded Cricket for Dummies in order to be conversant on the subject since the Australian national team was touring India. The test match, this one played over weeks, was all anyone wanted to talk about.

Learning a little about the game helped. In Texas, some fans dressed in Jacob deGrom and Ronald Acuna Jr. baseball jerseys said they watched how-to videos on YouTube to get up to speed.

Here’s a short lesson that might be helpful.

• As in baseball, a batsman (batter) stands before a bowler (pitcher) and swings at pace balls (fastballs) and spin or swing balls (curves and sliders) attempting score runs.
• The batsman can score 1-3 runs with hits inside the boundary (fence) or 4 runs at once if a fielder fails to stop the ball from exiting the boundary. If the batsman clears the boundary in the air, it’s 6 runs.
• What are wickets? Well, wickets are taken by the defense. The defense can take a wicket by catching the ball in the air, smacking the stumps behind the batsman or hitting the batsman’s leg pads without contact with the bat.
• A batsman can stand at the crease (like baseball’s plate) all day if the defense cannot take the wicket.

Who wouldn’t like to watch Aaron Judge or Seattle native All-Star Corbin Carroll stand at the plate for the entire game because no one could get him out?

For further reading

• Major League Cricket secures $120M funding from Microsoft CEO and others to launch in U.S. – GeekWire
• Cricket was once America’s cup of tea | by Greg Shaw | Medium
• Coder by day, cricket bowler by night | Crosscut

The hardest thing about testing a mobile app during Monday’s Home Run Derby at T-Mobile Park in Seattle was the action on the field.

It’s not that T-Mobile’s new “MLB Next” app wasn’t up to the task of delivering compelling data through its augmented reality feature, assorted field views, and a live audio stream. It’s that I had to keep closing the app to open my iPhone camera to record video and shoot photos of the historic event.

For fans attending Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game festivities, including the main event on Tuesday, the free app (on Android and iOS) is designed to add a broadcast element to the joy and energy of being at the ballpark.

As I watched home run after home run head for the seats on Monday, MLB Next was an interesting way to enhance the experience. The launch angle, direction and landing spot of each smash showed up in 3D on my phone thanks to a simple AR feature, activated when the app was open and my camera was aimed at the pitcher’s mound.

But I’ll admit, as a baseball fan, that I didn’t want to look at my phone while Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodriguez went on his record tear, hitting 41 home runs in the first round to ignite the home crowd. The cheering told me a ball was headed out in a more exciting way than any app could.

And I needed to close the app and record the chants of “Ju-li-o! Ju-li-o!”

During less exciting moments of the event it was worth playing around with the app to learn whether baseball is better with that type of technology.

Mike Katz, president of marketing, innovation and experience at Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile, believes it is.

“There are some things in today’s world where watching a baseball game on broadcast can be better,” Katz said before the Derby. “And then there’s some things that can never be replicated about being inside the ballpark — like the sights, the sounds, the smells, everything else.

“This allows you to kind of get both together, where you can be sitting and enjoy the actual environment of the ballpark, but then get all those real-time stats,” he added.

The stadium’s own giant video screen in centerfield turned out to be a bit redundant to T-Mobile and MLB’s app. The screen flashed the animated path of all home runs, added the distance for each, longest hit, average distance, and average exit velocity.

And despite a constant promo on in-stadium TVs encouraging fans to download the app, it looked like many fans were either watching the Derby with their eyes or doing what they do on their phones at every other game — taking pictures, texting, scrolling on social media, swiping on dating apps, etc.

Hardcore baseball fans might appreciate one added benefit of the app. T-Mobile teamed with San Francisco-based startup Mixhalo to deliver high-quality, low-latency audio of the live ESPN and FOX broadcasts within the app, using 5G to eliminate the delay typically experienced while listening.

T-Mobile also promotes its 5G network as a nice way for its own customers to connect at the ballpark. As a non-customer, the app worked just fine for me on T-Mobile Park’s Wi-Fi.

Drones will help baseball fans get closer to the action in a first-of-its-kind production feat during the MLB All-Star Game in Seattle on Tuesday.

GeekWire went behind-the-scenes Monday at T-Mobile Park with FOX Sports, which is broadcasting this year’s Midsummer Classic from the Emerald City.

FOX teamed up with Los Angeles-based Beverly Hills Aerials, which will fly its custom-made drones and give viewers unique aerial vantage points. It’s the first time drones will be used in a stadium as part of an MLB game.

The drones will quietly zoom out from the left field bullpen and follow players walking out during introductions or heading back to the dugout after an inning, for example. They won’t be used during live action.

Here’s a short clip from the drone during Monday’s batting practice session before the Home Run Derby.

Two people will be in control of a drone — one that pilots the drone and gets it in place, and another who operates a gimbal on the drone itself.

“As a viewer sitting at home, watching on your screen, you’re going to feel more immersed in the game than ever before,” said Evan Turner, a drone operator with Beverly Hills Aerials and Drone Racing League world champion pilot.

FOX started testing drones in 2015, and its first live event usage was at the 2018 Daytona 500 race. Other sports broadcast giants are also using the devices.

Drones are just one of many tech tools helping FOX broadcast this year’s game to millions of fans worldwide.

A helicopter and a wireline camera that runs from home plate to left field will add more aerial angles. There are seven robotic cameras placed near the field.

There’s also the ump cam, which garnered rave reviews during last year’s All-Star Game and provides a behind-the-batter view.

The entire production is a massive symphony of sorts that blends state-of-the-art technology with real-time decision-making. FOX has around 200 people on-site controlling live video, audio, and replay operations, as well as another 30 in Los Angeles providing support.

“We’re producing a feature film — live,” said Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at FOX Sports.

FOX uses eight miles of fiber optics with more than 880 connections; 43 cameras; 45 field microphones; and more than 1,300 hours of 4K HDR storage.

New technology helps broadcasters like FOX meet evolving consumer expectations.

“People expect better pictures, better quality, better audio,” said Cheney, a 25-year veteran of the live sports production industry.

Cloud-based TV production, which got a boost during the pandemic, could gain more adoption in the future, Cheney said.

“As we get more interconnected and the infrastructure gets better, everything’s possible,” he said.

Cheney envisions the ability for a viewer to have any vantage point in a stadium, even pretending to be a batter or a pitcher. The viewing experience may get more personalized.

Want to sit behind home plate? Press this button. Want to access the camera on a player’s hat? Press that button.

But even as more tech is adopted and automates some parts of the production, humans will be essential to the process.

“It still takes amazingly talented people to do this,” Cheney said.

Related: Testing T-Mobile’s ‘MLB Next’ app: AR tech adds boost to in-stadium All-Star baseball experience

The Seattle Storm and Coinbase are teaming up to launch NFTs commemorating Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird’s jersey retirement at Climate Pledge Arena on June 11.

A pair of digital collectables will be available for fans, honoring the WNBA star’s 21-year career that included four championships and five Olympic gold medals.

During the Seattle Storm vs. Washington Mystics game — where Bird’s No. 10 jersey retirement will take place — fans in attendance can claim a NFT, or non-fungible token.

The digital collectible offers a digital keepsake of the event and access to sweepstakes and discounts at the Storm’s team store. The other edition will be released on Bird’s social media accounts the day after the game.

It’s the first-ever POAP — “Proof of Attendance Protocol” — token by a WNBA team.

“Web3 opens the door for fans to engage with their favorite teams and players in new ways,” Coinbase Sports Marketing Senior Manager Maria Grosso told GeekWire.

NFTs are digital certificates of ownership that use blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. They gained significant attention during the cryptocurrency boom of 2021, a time in which athletes, artists, celebrities and others released their own digital collectibles to interact with fans. Even Bird got in on the action. Sports leagues such as the NBA also created NFTs.

But popularity of NFTs have significantly dwindled in recent years amid a broader downturn in the crypto market due to macroeconomic conditions and regulatory crackdown.

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, alleging the company operated as a crypto asset trading platform without proper oversight by the federal agency. That came a day after the SEC sued Binance, accusing the trading platform of mishandling funds and lying to regulators.

To claim the Bird NFT at the game, attendees must scan a QR code, submit their email, and set up a Coinbase Wallet. By clicking a button, they will reach the claim page where they can enter their Ethereum address to finalize the process. Once completed, Bird’s jersey retirement NFT will live in their Coinbase Wallet.

Completing the process automatically enters participants into a sweepstakes. Prizes include an opportunity to win four courtside seats to a Storm game, a meet-and-greet with Bird, and signed merchandise including a jersey and bobblehead. In addition, 10 fans will win two tickets to a catered suite experience at a Storm game, along with a signed Sue Bird bobblehead.

The NHL brought its third annual Technology Showcase event to Seattle this week, a stone’s throw from the global headquarters of Amazon. It was fitting, given the growing connections between the tech giant and pro hockey.

The league took over a private lounge Thursday evening at Climate Pledge Arena for the event, which featured a bevy of technology partners helping the NHL develop new statistics, increase fan engagement, and much more.

I checked out the action at Climate Pledge — named after Amazon’s carbon neutral initiative — and ran into Amazon Web Services chief Adam Selipsky.

“AWS has a great partnership with the NHL,” Selipsky told GeekWire. “We’ve been at it for a few years together and we really look forward to continue to expand it over time and most importantly to bring cutting edge experiences to fans that they’ve never been able to access before.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy did not appear to be in attendance — somewhat surprising given that Jassy is a part-owner of the Seattle Kraken, which beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Thursday.

Amazon has moved deeper into the sports world over the past several years. The company’s most high-profile partnership is with the NFL and its exclusive deal to stream Thursday Night Football games.

At the NHL showcase, AWS demoed a live cloud-based production of the game — a first for the NHL, and a new alternative to the traditional truck-based environment of live sports production. The demo was done with a remote team — graphics in Seattle; a technical director in Wisconsin; and replay operators in Toronto and Vancouver.

“There are a lot of benefits to producing a live game in the cloud — operational efficiencies, cost efficiencies,” said Dave Lehanski, NHL executive vice president of business development and innovation.

NHL technology leaders showed off a new “Opportunity Analysis” feature from AWS that analyzes real-time and historical data to assess the difficulty of a shot at the moment of release. The stat is expected to appear in live broadcasts later this month.

The NHL is also partnering with AWS for a product called Edge IQ that uses machine learning to predict the winner of a face-off.

Jassy, who previously led AWS before taking the CEO reins from Jeff Bezos in 2021, is “very involved” with the NHL partnership, according to Lehanski.

“It’s great for us,” he said.

Amazon is also working with racing league Formula 1 and Germany’s top soccer league Bundesliga, which is debuting new statistics this weekend from AWS.

Amazon is one of several tech giants teaming up with pro sports leagues and teams.

• Google recently beat out Amazon and Apple to secure a multi-year deal for NFL Sunday Ticket, giving the company exclusive rights to stream most NFL games via its growing YouTube TV platform starting with the 2023 season.
• Microsoft has had a longstanding deal with the NFL that includes the use of its Surface tablets by players and coaches on the sidelines during games, as well as other marketing agreements. It also inked a recent cloud deal with the NBA.
• Apple sponsored this year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
• Google Pixel was the presenting sponsor of the NBA playoffs last year.
• Amazon is installing its cashierless checkout technology in stadiums and arenas across the country, including Climate Pledge.

The sports deals give tech companies a way to market their brands in front of a giant and diverse audience, and also demonstrate case studies that could attract other enterprise customers.

The leagues and teams also know that to grow their fanbase and cater to evolving consumer demand, technology is playing a bigger and bigger role.

The NHL’s tech showcase demonstrated this — but the league is also adopting with caution.

“Technology keeps evolving. We’ve tried to make sure we’re on top of the evolution and not only stay current but be on the cutting edge,” said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking to reporters in Seattle before Thursday’s game. “We do that by using the technology around the game, not changing the game for the technology. And that’s been our mantra.”

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the other technology partners demoing at the event Thursday.

• SAP helped the league build an on-bench coaching app that provides coaches with real-time data, similar to Microsoft’s Surface tablets in the NFL. The latest version of SAP’s app generates a video playlist for every location-based statistic and new camera angles. SAP also powers NHL’s venue metrics platform that can analyze energy usage.
• Extreme Networks monitors network activity and connectivity in NHL arenas, including insights on usage during key plays.
• MLSE Digital Labs brought a physical tabletop overlaid with data from NHL EDGE, the league’s puck and player tracking technology. The plan is to bring the experience into NHL’s official app.

• Beyond Sports‘ virtualization technology is being used by the NHL to create alternate live broadcasts, such as the NHL Big City Greens Classic produced last month that featured animated characters mimicking players in a real game.
• Play Anywhere is working with the NHL to build apps that let fans engage with live game broadcasts, including free-to-play games.
• SMT helps provide player overlays, statistics, and other graphics for traditional media broadcasts.

Technology and tech culture are taking a permanent spot in the lineup at T-Mobile Park this season.

The Seattle Mariners have added three more food and beverage stores with Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology at the baseball stadium — and another food location is named with just emojis.

The three “Walk-Off Markets,” which will be operational on Opening Day this Thursday, join another that debuted last season. T-Mobile Park is the leading ballpark in the country when it comes to this style of concession service.

The new Market locations are in sections 141, 185 and 341. The flagship Market is in section 126.

According to the Mariners, the Walk Off Market on the main concourse behind home plate served the most fans out of any concession location at T-Mobile Park last season. The fastest shopping time last season was 20 seconds, and the average time shopping was 2 minutes and 3 seconds.

The goal of Just Walk Out tech at stadiums is to help fans avoid lines for food and drink and get them back in their seats as quickly as possible.

Just Walk Out first debuted in 2018 in Seattle with Amazon Go convenience stores. It’s now used in some larger Amazon grocery stores and has spread to a number of other locations, including sports and entertainment venues and airports. Lumen Field and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle both feature stores utilizing the technology, which relies on a number of cameras in the ceiling to track customers and what they pick up. Payment is tied to a credit card used to enter the stores.

Along with Just Walk Out, the new Markets will also feature Amazon One, the company’s palm-scanning technology that allows visitors to enter and pay with credit card information that is linked to a biometric reading of their hand. Fans can register for Amazon One at a kiosk on the spot. Amazon last week announced a deal to bring Amazon One to Panera stores.

The Markets in sections 141 and 126 will feature an assortment of snacks, beverages, value menu items and premium entrees from Seattle partners Just Poke and Din Tai Fung. A new “Ham Swaggerty” sandwich is named for utility infielder Sam Haggerty.

In sections 185 and 341, fans can use Walk-Off Brews to snag snacks and a variety of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages.

The Mariners announced more new food locations and menu items last week and among them is the first all-emoji food stand.

The ??? (Chick Chick Boom) chicken concept in right field will feature ?? ??(chicken tenders and waffle fries with bottled water) and a T-Mobile Park favorite, ??? (garlic waffle fries).

American football fans who use the Rec Room social gaming app can now grab their favorite team’s gear for their in-app avatars, just in time for the NFL playoffs.

Rec Room, the Seattle startup behind the eponymous app, announced Thursday that it partnered with the National Football League for a new “digital fan experience.”

In the Rec Room app, players can create and customize avatars, then use them to participate in a wide variety of user-created activities, such as sports, paintball, or simple social interaction.

Over the course of the last six years, both Rec Room and its player community have created thousands of pieces of virtual clothing for avatars to wear, such as hats, suits, T-shirts, and carried accessories.

As of Thursday, this now includes official NFL merch. A new pop-up shop in the Rec Room app lets users purchase licensed NFL hoodies and hats for their avatars to wear. All 32 teams in the NFL, which naturally includes the Seattle Seahawks, are currently represented in Rec Room.

Fans who’ve decked their avatars out in official NFL gear can then use the in-app photobooth in the Rec Center to snap pictures, which can then be shared on social media or hung on the wall in their player housing.

“Adding Rec Room as another virtual destination for the NFL will enhance our ability to reach existing fans while discovering new fans in their community of over 80 million users globally,” Ed Kiang, vice president for video gaming in the NFL, said in a statement.

The Rec Room/NFL partnership comes nearly six weeks after the debut of the NFL Zone, an officially-licensed “metaverse experience” built within Fortnite Creative that comes complete with its own sponsored minigames and a virtual tailgate party. At the time, Kiang described it as “a massive opportunity to bring NFL football to a new generation of fans.”

The NFL also recently inked a deal with Google for the streaming rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, which garnered interest from other tech giants including Amazon and Apple.

The NFL partnership with Rec Room comes after a two-year period of record growth for its game, which includes the recent debut of physical gift cards and a recent brand crossover with Mattel’s Masters of the Universe toy line. As of last month, Rec Room reported 640% year-over-year growth on mobile, with 29 million active users across all platforms in Q1 2022. 

The Seattle Seahawks took a loss against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, but fans at Lumen Field who are into cashierless concession stands can at least count the day as a win.

The Seahawks debuted three more stores at the stadium utilizing Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology, designed to eliminate checkout lines and get fans back to their seats faster.

The new locations are on the main stadium concourse in sections 103, 105 and 123. They are called District Market, just like the store that opened in section 323 at the start of the season. The stores serve beer, wine, seltzer and non-alcoholic beverages as well as chips, peanuts, popcorn and candy. The original location is the only one which serves hot food right now.

Fans can enter, shop, leave and pay without having to deal with any food handlers or cashiers. The retail tech, used in Amazon’s Go convenience stores and some of its full-size Fresh grocery stores, relies on overhead cameras and sensors to track what customers grab. Payment is facilitated automatically via a credit card scanned at entry or a card that’s linked to a biometric scan of a shopper’s palm, via Amazon One.

Professional sports franchises across the nation are rolling out checkout-free stores from Amazon and other competitors in a test of the nascent technology.

Amazon licenses its tech for use in such places as stadium and airport stores. In addition to Lumen Field, Seattle’s two other sports venues use Just Walk Out. It’s in use at four stores in Climate Pledge Arena, where the Seattle Kraken play, and at T-Mobile Park, home of the Mariners, where it was introduced in May at a new “Walk-Off Market.”

In September, GeekWire interviewed fans at Lumen Field as they tried the technology for the first time before the Seahawks took on the Denver Broncos. Watch the video below:

Football fans looking for a break from the holiday shopping rush will have some NFL action to watch next year as the league and Amazon announced plans for the first-ever “Black Friday” game.

Amazon will exclusively stream a game on Prime Video the day after Thanksgiving in 2023, adding another day of football to a holiday weekend already packed with games. It’s the latest addition to Amazon’s growing sports streaming catalog.

The game is expected to kick off at noon PT and participating teams will be announced when next year’s schedule is released, the NFL said in a news release on Tuesday.

“Black Friday is the unofficial start of the holiday season, and we’re thrilled to kick it off with a gift for football fans across the country with this new game,” said Jay Marine, global head of sports at Prime Video.

Prime Video became the first streaming service to serve as exclusive home to the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” with an 11-season deal that started this year. Through five games, “TNF” is averaging 10.8 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research.

Amazon reported the “biggest three hours for U.S. Prime signups ever” during the first game. Boosting signups for Prime is key for Amazon as the membership program is a crucial part of its business. Surveys have shown that Prime members spend considerably more than non-Prime members on Amazon.com.

A new streaming service unveiled by the LA Clippers this morning reflects the philosophy of the franchise’s chairman, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, about the role the NBA and its teams should play in shaping the digital viewing experience.

“We need to define the future of watching basketball,” Ballmer said in an interview with GeekWire. “We’ll always do a better job of that than any distribution partner. Whether we distribute directly or through an ESPN or a TNT or an Amazon, or whoever gets into the business of distributing these things, the experience that makes this the best basketball possible will come, I believe, from our league.”

Called ClipperVision, the new service costs $199.99 per year. Available only to viewers in the Los Angeles market, it will provide access to all the team’s games except those broadcast nationally.

The strategy is the sports equivalent of a retail brand selling directly to consumers as an alternative to traditional distribution channels, establishing a tighter connection to their customers, or fans.

However, the new Clippers’ service will also grapple with a growing trend of subscription fatigue as consumers become weary of all the monthly services needed to access different slices of content, from content aggretators like Netflix and Hulu to narrower streaming sites from entertainment brands and sports leagues.

Individual sports teams launching their own streaming services could take the sense of overload to a whole new level. Although the Clippers are the first in the NBA, other teams could follow suit in the future.

However, Ballmer said the approach reflects ongoing trends in media consumption.

“I think the world’s going to mass personalization, mass customization,” he said, explaining that he sees no reason to fight that trend. “Every other aspect of content is going that direction.”

The ability to stream games in the LA area is a major difference from the NBA’s $99.99/year League Pass, which doesn’t let fans watch games in their local markets due to restrictions built into regional TV deals.

Enabled by new TV contract

For the Clippers, Ballmer said, gaining the ability to launch the service was a “fundamental part” of the team’s recent contract renewal with Bally Sports, which distributes Clippers games and is also launching its own streaming service.

“Come hell or high water, I was going to offer the streaming service,” Ballmer said. But because the team was able to work out a deal, he added, “now it’s without compromise.”

ClipperVision is built on the NBA’s NextGen platform and other shared technologies, with a “clear path” for other teams to launch their own services if they wish, using their own variations on the approach, Ballmer said.

Bally Sports, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, also holds the television rights to more than 20 other teams as part of its regional sports networks. Ballmer declined to speculate when asked if other NBA teams would use the Clippers’ new contract as a blueprint for their own renegotations.

ClipperVision offers six viewing modes, including the team’s CourtVision augmented reality experience; Korean- and Spanish-language streams; and a live commentary mode called BallerVision, featuring former Clippers players such as Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis, and Paul Pierce, with guest appearances by Ballmer and celebrities.

At launch, ClipperVision also comes with a special perk, a limited edition-team jacket exclusive to subscribers. Ballmer said it was important to include something “physical and tangible” with the service.

One long-term goal is to unify user accounts across digital and in-person experiences.

“If you want to buy merchandise, or you’re coming into the arena, we already know you, and want to make your experience as personal as possible,” Ballmer said.

Like this year’s closely watched Clippers team, led by star players Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the organization’s new streaming service is many years in the making.

Evolution of sports viewing

Ballmer said he has been thinking about the potential for bringing new levels of interactivity to sports viewing since he was Microsoft CEO. He pointed out that the Microsoft Surface sponsorship deal with the NFL had its origins in talks about interactive Xbox viewing experiences that didn’t pan out at the time.

He was able to explore his ideas further after buying the Clippers for $2 billion in 2014. Ballmer and the Clippers worked with tech company Second Spectrum to launch the CourtVision experience four years ago, with stats, animations and other graphics overlayed on screen in near real-time.

One advantage of the new direct-to-consumer streaming service, Ballmer said, will be the ability to add new capabilities in the future. He cited the hypothetical example of gamifying the experience as something that would be harder in a distribution scenario.

At the same time, the Clippers are still investing heavily in the future of in-person viewing. The team’s new 18,000-person arena, the Intuit Dome, is set to launch for the 2024-25 season in Inglewood, Calif.

Ballmer, who has become a fixture at Clippers games, cheering from his baseline seats, said he believes the magic of the in-person basketball experience will endure, even as technology progresses.

“There’s still something special in being in the arena,” he said, “with the energy and the sense of community.”

In the long run, Ballmer said ClipperVision could become a meaningful source of income for the team, but the bigger priority for now is to control its own destiny in the distribution of content.

“Over time, I do see it as a way to make money, but we don’t know how the whole world of distribution of content is going to evolve,” he said. In the meantime, he explained, “this lets us be light on our feet.”

It was a bit of a throwback scene here in Seattle on Monday evening: Steve Ballmer revving up the crowd at the top of his lungs, and NBA hoops back on the hardwood.

The former Microsoft CEO had Climate Pledge Arena roaring as he took the microphone at midcourt just before a preseason game between the Los Angeles Clippers, which Ballmer owns, and the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I am so excited to have a game in my hometown of Seattle, Washington!” Ballmer yelled, pumping his fist and pacing around in his trademark energetic fashion.

The game represented the first NBA action at the redeveloped arena, which was home to the Seattle Supersonics until 2008 when the team left town for Oklahoma City.

The departure left a large void in the city — one that Ballmer nearly helped fill while he was running Microsoft, headquartered in nearby Redmond, Wash.

Before he purchased the Clippers for $2 billion in 2014, Ballmer was part of an ownership group that tried to keep the Sonics in Seattle in 2008. He then became a part of an investment team that tried to build a new arena south of downtown.

Since buying the Clippers, Ballmer has made it clear from the beginning that he will not move the team to Seattle. However, when it comes time for NBA expansion, he said he will be in a position to make the case for Seattle to the rest of the league.

In his 75-second speech on Monday, Ballmer thanked the Blazers, owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen since 1988 before he passed in 2018. He said Allen “got me interested in basketball.”

Paul Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, is managing The Paul G. Allen Trust, which still maintains ownership of Portland’s team. Jody Allen was sitting courtside at the game Monday.

Ballmer closed out the speech by asking the crowd: “If this is a basketball city, damn it, let’s hear it!”

Approached by GeekWire on the court during pre-game warmups, Ballmer greeted us warmly but said he wasn’t able to comment for this story.

Ballmer sat courtside during the game with his wife, Connie, and displayed a full range of emotion, locked into the action until the final seconds, even at a preseason matchup.

The game had a who’s-who in attendance, including Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who is a part-owner of the Seattle Kraken, the city’s NHL team that debuted last year. Seattle-based tech giant Amazon bought the naming rights to the building in 2020 and changed its name from KeyArena to Climate Pledge Arena.

Government leaders came out to the event, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, and King County Executive Dow Constantine.

And of course, Sonics legends showed up: Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Lenny Wilkens, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf. Former head coach George Karl was also in the crowd. They were all honored on the court during the game.

“I don’t think we have to prove anything to the NBA,” Schrempf told GeekWire before Monday’s game. “They understand we have a great fanbase; we have an amazing facility; and we have enough wealth in this city that can support a team and pay for all the stuff that’s needed.

“It’s great for people to see this,” Schrempf said of the game, “and keep our hopes alive.”

The NBA called out its partnership with Microsoft as it unveiled a redesigned app on Tuesday.

The new app has content recommendation and personalization features “powered by Microsoft Azure and Azure AI,” according to a news release.

The app will have live streaming of games for NBA League Pass subscribers with higher video quality and lower streaming latency, according to the league. It also includes access to hundreds of past games from the “NBA vault,” as well as other video content. There is a new membership program called NBA ID.

The partnership with Microsoft, first announced in 2020, “will help us redefine the way our fans experience NBA basketball,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the time.

Microsoft is the league’s official cloud and AI partner. Last year the two organizations unveiled NBA CourtOptix Powered by Microsoft Azure, which uses Microsoft’s artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to track and analyze action on the court and turn it into insightful video about how well players perform in various situations and how that data stacks up against league averages.

The deal with the NBA follows other sports partnerships the tech giant has landed, including providing Microsoft Surface tablets on NFL sidelines.

Microsoft’s cloud arm continues to power its overall business. The company said Microsoft Cloud revenue grew to $25 billion, up 28% year-over-year, in its most recent quarterly financial report.

Amazon is already seeing some fruits from its massive investment in live NFL streaming.

The company reported the “biggest three hours for U.S. Prime signups ever” during last week’s Thursday Night Football game, according to an internal memo sent by Amazon exec Jay Marine, obtained by GeekWire.

The Chargers vs. Chiefs game was the first of Amazon’s reported $11 billion, 11-year exclusive streaming rights deal with the NFL.

Amazon aired Thursday Night Football games for the past several years but this was the first exclusive stream, meaning the only place to watch the game was via Amazon. That requires fans, for the most part, to have a $139/year (or $14.99/month) Prime subscription.

Boosting signups for Prime is key for Amazon as the membership program is a crucial part of its business. Surveys have shown that Prime members spend considerably more than non-Prime members on Amazon.com.

Adding more subscribers is also timely as competitors such as Walmart and Target roll out or bolster their own membership programs. Even companies like Disney, which has invested heavily in streaming, are reportedly looking to offer similar programs.

Amazon certainly used the game as an advertising vehicle for Prime, promoting the program and content such as Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings show with advertisements.

The company increased the annual cost of a U.S. Prime membership by $20 to $139 earlier this year to help offset increased costs due to labor supply shortages, higher wages, supply chain issues, and additional shipping expense. That sparked The Washington Post to roll out an interactive quiz, helping customers figure out if the membership is worth it or not.

In addition to streaming live sports and other video content, Prime benefits include free shipping, cloud storage, discounts at Whole Foods, and more.

Amazon reported $8.7 billion in subscription service revenue in the second quarter, up 10% year-over-year. There are more than 200 million Amazon Prime members worldwide.

Marine’s memo also noted that the Thursday Night Football broadcast was the “most watched night of primetime in the U.S. in the history of Prime Video,” and that viewership exceeded expectations. He also called the stream a “huge technical achievement” given that it streamed without major outages or delays.

Amazon’s NFL deal is the latest example of live sports moving online and away from traditional cable TV, with tech giants including Apple bidding for lucrative streaming rights.

Amazon took center stage in the sports universe Thursday as the tech giant streamed its first exclusive NFL game — and for the most part, it passed the test.

The game streamed without any major hiccups or outages. Some fans reported glitches and poor sound quality, but Amazon’s cloud technology seemed to hold up overall, a baseline requirement for any live sports game being streamed on the internet.

Amazon’s high-profile NFL deal — which will cost a reported $11 billion over the next 11 years — is part of the company’s bid to grow its content library, bolster its advertising arm, and add more Prime subscribers, among other strategies. It’s the latest example of live sports moving online and away from traditional cable TV, with tech giants including Amazon and Apple bidding for lucrative streaming rights.

Thursday wasn’t Amazon’s first rodeo, as the Seattle company has streamed Thursday Night Football games for the past several years, in addition to its other live sports endeavors.

But this was the first exclusive NFL stream, meaning fans — except those in team markets and at some bars, or those using Amazon’s Twitch platform — had to watch via Amazon and have a Prime subscription.

The company is adding its own flair to live sports, including enhanced data and alternative commentary streams. But watching Thursday’s stream really just felt like watching another NFL game, theme music and all — and perhaps that’s good enough for Amazon, for now.

Here are some other key takeaways from Amazon’s big night in Prime time.

Jeff Bezos soaks up the spotlight

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was in attendance at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to watch the Chiefs take on the Los Angeles Chargers. Bezos posed with the owners of both teams, high-fived some Chiefs fans, wowed players, and watched the game with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Lead play-by-play man Al Michaels jabbed Bezos during the broadcast for apparently not knowing how to play craps.

“One of the great mathematical minds in history can’t figure that out?” Michaels said of Bezos.

Figuring out streaming video

There were plenty of jokes at the expense of viewers who might be new to the notion of television that doesn’t air over a traditional cable or broadcast station. We saw a lot of tweets making fun of parents calling kids looking for help finding the game.

Enhanced broadcast

If you’re into multiple camera angles and stats available at the click of a button throughout the game, Amazon’s stream was right for you. In addition to the traditional stream featuring Michaels and color commentator Kirk Herbstreit, Amazon offered a “Prime Vision” feed that included advanced statistics and more — perfect for the NFL geeks.

Some complaints

While some praised the quality of the stream, others voiced their frustration. It seemed to depend on internet connection and device — a much different experience than traditional TV, and one that will become more common as live sports increasingly moves into streaming.

One big ad for Prime

The company certainly used the game as an advertising vehicle for its own products and content — perhaps a bit too much. Many of the in-game advertisements were used to promote Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings show.

Dude, no. And, yes?

Other TV giants have started giving fans alternative commentary when watching live sports online, such as “ManningCast” on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” where ex-pros Peyton and Eli Manning dissect the game on an alternate broadcast.

Amazon is trying the same with the guys from Dude Perfect, which hosted their own stream during Thursday’s game. The viral content creators are definitely intended to appeal to a younger crowd, and some tweets defended the effort as great for kids like these, and these. Others were not so convinced Amazon had found the perfect recipe.

On a night when Russell Wilson returned to Seattle and received mostly boos from Seahawks faithful, fans were cheering for a new high-tech concession stand at the team’s stadium.

Lumen Field became the third professional sports venue in Seattle to feature Amazon’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology in a food and beverage store. The new District Market, located across from the Fan Deck at the south end of the stadium, also utilizes Amazon One, the company’s palm-scanning technology, making Lumen Field the first and only venue in the NFL to feature both innovations.

Just Walk Out is billed as a frictionless way for fans to avoid concession lines and get back to their seats faster. Professional sports franchises across the nation are rolling out checkout-free stores from Amazon and other competitors in a test of the nascent technology.

Fans can enter, shop, leave and pay without having to deal with any food handlers or cashiers. The retail tech, used in Amazon’s Go convenience stores and some of its full-size Fresh grocery stores, relies on overhead cameras and sensors to track what customers grab. Payment is facilitated automatically via a credit card scanned at entry or linked to a biometric scan of their palm via Amazon One.

The new store was so popular on Monday that a line did form at times inside because of a bottleneck of people waiting to get out. Fans are required to pop the top on any alcoholic beverages they are grabbing, and many appeared to not know that yet.

But that line was minimal in size and time spent compared to lines at other concession stands where people waited to do things the old-fashioned way. We counted 30-to-40 fans coming out of the store per minute at peak times, just before kickoff — a rate that would be difficult to match at a traditional stadium concession.

The first game of the season for the Seahawks was already going to be a rowdy affair, in primetime on “Monday Night Football.” But with the return of Wilson and his new team, the Denver Broncos, fans were especially fired up before the kickoff as they loaded up on beer and food.

A steady stream of orange Broncos jerseys — many with Wilson’s name and No. 3 on the back — filed in and out of the District Market. Two guys wearing chef’s hats were all about the “Let Russ Cook” mantra, started in Seattle as a call to let Wilson take control of games.

But the majority of the 68,000 fans in attendance sported Seahawks colors, including a guy with a chef hat of his own and a sign that read “Let’s Cook Russ.”

There is some cooking, or warming, going on in the District market, but most of the space in the store is dedicated to a wall of coolers for beer, wine, seltzer and non-alcoholic beverages. There are a few shelves for chips, peanuts, popcorn and candy and a self-serve hot food bar has selections inspired by the stadium’s neighbors in Seattle’s International District — char siu BBQ pork ($10.49); crab rangoon ($11); bulgogi hot dog ($13.99); and hot & sour soup ($9.49).

Amazon licenses its tech for use in such places as stadium and airport stores. Lumen Field join Seattle’s two other Seattle sports venues using Just Walk Out. It’s in use at three stores in Climate Pledge Arena, where the Seattle Kraken play, and at T-Mobile Park, home of the Mariners, where it was introduced in May at a new “Walk-Off Market.”

The Mariners have been “thrilled” with the cashierless tech test, Sports Business Journal reported last month, with substantial increases in transactions and other benefits like freeing up space in the concourse, where long lines of people waiting to buy food and drink typically crowd the area.

Football fans we spoke with on Monday mostly expressed excitement about their experience in the store. Some wondered if they were even charged for their items, or how exactly Amazon tracked their movements. But the efficiency of the process seemed to trump any privacy concerns.

In addition to the new retail experience, the Seahawks and Lumen Field rolled out some other new tech for the season opener.

• Two new giant video boards are now on display at the north end of the stadium, on either side of the Hawks Nest seating area. The “Mitsubishi Pixel Pitch Diamond Vision displays are 39.90 feet high by 70.34 feet wide — more than double the size of the stadium’s previous video boards.
• Fans are able to see themselves on those screens thanks to a “12 Cam powered by Verizon.” Fans can scan a QR code on the big screen and then shoot selfie video that goes into a queue to be shown live in the stadium.
• New photo-op kiosks in the stadium called Lumen Lens will feature augmented reality tech that makes it look like fans are getting their picture taken with a favorite player. They’re located in Touchdown City, Section 103 and 331.
• Players are entering the field through a new team tunnel that replaces the old “Hawk Head” with a fancy LED-enhanced archway that flashes on the outside and features immersive tech on the inside that reacts to player movements.

Sitting in the stands down the first base line Thursday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, I was feeling like a real fan, in my white Mariners jersey with GEEKWIRE on the back, Louisville Slugger baseball glove, Mariners spring training hat circa 2007, white Felix Hernandez socks, and noise-canceling headphones attached via cord to my portable AM-FM radio, perched between the seats in front of me for optimal reception.

That’s when the guy a few seats to my left turned my way and made a humbling observation … he wondered if I was cosplaying as Steve Bartman.

You may remember Bartman as the unfortunate Cubs fan in the hat and headphones at the 2003 National League Championship Series, who deflected a ball that might otherwise have been caught by Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou. If you’ve seen the video or a picture or watched the documentary, you’ll have a sense for what I looked like in the stands at the Mariners game this week.

But this was not cosplay. This was a tech test.

On this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we pit old-fashioned terrestrial radio against smartphone audio streams for play-by-play in the stands. Then, we debate pros and cons of baseball analytics and robot umpires. And finally, we experience the highs and lows of Amazon’s retail technology at its hometown stadium.

Listen above, and continue reading for more.

Radio vs. smartphone: I like baseball, but I’m a real fan of multi-sensory experiences, especially seeing something live and simultaneously having somebody talking in your ears, pointing things out that you might otherwise miss.

At a modern-day baseball game, there’s so much happening in the stands, on the scoreboard, and among the people around you, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening on the field.

Longtime baseball fans know the solution: bring a transistor radio to the game, maybe with some headphones, and follow along with the help of the play-by-play announcer and color commentator up in the booth.

Nowadays, there are several apps that offer the ability to stream the audio of a game on your smartphone. In an ideal world, the experience of listening to the game via your phone in the stands would be perfectly in sync.

But in reality, anyone streaming the audio from the MLB app, TuneIn, or the 710 Seattle Sports radio app wouldn’t hear a home run call or any other play-by-play in their ears until at least 30 seconds after it happens on the field, given a significant delay in the audio stream.

This has annoyed me for a while. My ideal scenario would be to go to the game with a family member or buddy who also wanted to have the play-by-play going. Sitting next to each other, we could each have an Airpod in one ear, listening to the live stream from our phones and chatting in between pitches, almost like we were sitting on the couch together, except the game would be live in real life in front of us.

But the delay makes the phrase “live stream” a misnomer, and renders this scenario laughable. Testing it out during the game on Thursday, the stream from my phone was typically about two pitches behind the live action, at least.

I had a similar experience the last time I tried this at the ballpark, a few years ago, so this time I was prepared. I brought an AM FM portable digital transistor radio, purchased from Amazon the day before for $21.99.

Sure enough, good old-fashioned terrestrial radio saved the day. There was a slight delay, but only a few seconds, between the action on the field and the broadcast.

It was certainly workable, and an interesting example of old technology beating new.

I have a few theories about the reasons for the difference — including network latency, extra advertising in the live stream, or maybe an MLB policy or media rights issue — but I wasn’t able to get an answer in time for this episode. I’ll see if I can find out, and feel free let me know your ideas and theories at todd@geekwire.com.

In the meantime, I’ll be perfecting my Steve Bartman cosplay in the stands. Anybody who appreciates listening to the play-by-play while watching a game is OK by me.

Tech at the ballpark: In the second segment, my colleague John Cook and I discuss and debate ways to make the game faster, the potential for augmented reality in the stands, the benefits and drawbacks of replacing umpires with robots, and John’s surprising misgivings about T-Mobile Park’s retractable roof.

Amazon One and “Just Walk Out” at the game: Of course, one of the worst parts of going to any professional sports game is waiting in line for a beverage or a snack and missing a pivotal play on the field.

But this is one of the locations where Amazon offers its Just Walk Out Technology, at a grab-and-go food and beverage store called the “Walk-Off Market,” which opened at T-Mobile Park earlier this year near Section 126 behind home plate.

You can enter either by swiping a credit card or scanning your palm if you’ve already registered with the Amazon One system. The overhead cameras and sensors track you through the store to see what you take, and automatically charge your card.

Since I had already registered my palm and credit card with Amazon One at the Amazon Go store at the company’s headquarters back in 2020, I was able to enter the store at T-Mobile Park just by hovering my palm over the sensor, and the gate swung open. I headed straight for the large refrigerators in the back … but was stopped by a worker who asked to see my ID.

I understand that there are liquor laws governing this, but if I’m going to give Amazon my biometrics, it would be great if the system could know that I’m well over the age of 21, and somehow allow me to pass into the beer section without needing to produce my ID. Consider that customer feedback for the folks over in the Day One Tower.

At any rate, after pondering the large selection of beer, I made my selection and grabbed a Mariner Dog from the hot case. Before exiting, I opened my beer can per another worker’s instructions — they don’t want fans to be able to use an unopened beer can as a projectile from the stand. Even with that, and getting carded, the whole experience took about two-and-minutes. It easily could have been less than a minute if I’d spent less time selecting the beer.

My colleagues Kurt Schlosser and Taylor Soper put together a full video and story when the “Walk-Off Market” opened.

But I do have an important postscript to add about that hot dog, which Taylor and I discussed when we were back in the stands on Thursday afternoon. The hot dog was lukewarm, and the bun was stale. As Taylor observed, I had run into one of the downsides of grab-and-go food service.

OK podcast fans, that’s the ballgame. Thanks for listening (and reading).

Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Acumatica is hitting the gas on its marketing initiatives.

The Kirkland, Wash.-based maker of cloud-based enterprise resource planning software is the primary sponsor of an IndyCar run by Paretta Autosport, the company and the team announced Tuesday.

Paretta Autosport is the only woman-owned, woman-driven and woman-forward team competing in the NTT INDYCAR Series, and will race this weekend at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tenn.

More than 62% of the team is comprised of women across all roles, including driver Simona De Silvestro. Founded in 2021, Detroit-based Paretta Autosport says its aim is to “shine a bright light on diversity and inclusion for all while developing talent to feed the STEM workforce pipeline well beyond motorsports.”

Team CEO Beth Paretta called Acumatica the “perfect company” to sponsor its car.

“Like us, Acumatica is passionate about deepening its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. We’re proud to manifest those efforts on the racetrack to inspire others,” Paretta said in a news release.

For its part, Acumatica said it continues to invest in diversity and prioritize hiring women. Founded in 2008, the company has more than 500 employees. In 2021, 40% of Acumatica’s new hires were female.

“We are laser-focused on our AcumatiCares program, which aims to make the world a better, more inclusive place,” Acumatica CEO John Case said. “Paretta Autosport’s commitment to training the next generation of women in STEM resonates deeply with us as we seek to create opportunities for women in our industry.”

The race is scheduled for Sunday at noon PT, and will air on NBC.

A modest tee shot away from Boeing’s airplane assembly factory in Renton, Wash., golf balls are taking flight at a sprawling new Topgolf sports and entertainment venue that opened on Friday.

Topgolf Renton-Seattle is the company’s 78th location and first in Washington state, and golfers of all skill levels streamed into the place in the midst of a heat wave to smack golf balls, play games, eat, drink and take in the atmosphere.

Topgolf uses Toptracer, a ball-tracing technology which powers the tech-enabled driving range experience. Each ball hit from 102 different bays on three levels is tracked by cameras which instantly relay stats such as speed and distance back to video monitors. Golfers can plays such games as “Angry Birds” or “Jewel Jam,” or pretend to shoot on famous courses around the world.

But being a good golfer is not par for the course.

“Seventy-five percent of the people who come in here don’t consider themselves golfers or have never swung a golf club before,” Paul Howard, director of operations for the facility, told GeekWire during a tour. “It’s kind of a misconception that Topgolf is just about the golf. It’s more about having a good time, getting together with friends.

“And obviously all of this,” he added, gesturing to the more than 65,000 square feet of space that includes numerous bars, outdoor patios, lounge areas, private meeting rooms, an executive conference room, three indoor Swing Suite simulator bays, and more.

Topgolf arrives as tech-enabled golf culture is on the upswing in the Seattle area. Five Iron Golf, a high-tech indoor golf experience with 10 other locations in the U.S., opened in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in March. Hip-hop star Macklemore, who also owns a golf fashion store called Bogey Boys, took an ownership stake in Five Iron and will act as brand ambassador.

Renton is one of two “prime” Topgolf locations, meaning it comes with more bells and whistles than one of the company’s traditional venues.

The ground floor features a skylit central atrium architectural design and two massive video screens for broadcasting whatever big sporting event might be on TV. There’s a retail store, main bar, shuffleboard, air hockey and foosball tables. Outside there are more TVs, games and fire pits on patios at every level.

The space can hold hundreds of people and Howard expects them to get close this weekend, as the venue is already sold out on reservations for Saturday. While they take walk-ins, Topgolf also hosts special events.

“We consider an event everything from Johnny’s 10th birthday party, for two [hitting] bays, to Boeing buying out the entire building,” Howard said.

The location, 30 minutes south of Seattle, feels “centrally located,” Howard said, and Topgolf is confident it will draw from a number of different directions in the state as well as from the big tech companies in the Puget Sound region.

“In other locations, people will drive two to three hours just to get to Topgolf and have that experience,” Howard said. “We might be getting guests from Vancouver, B.C.”

Topgolf’s arrival in Renton is the latest sign of change for this suburb of Seattle rooted in manufacturing. GeekWire spent time here back in 2018, chronicling the city’s history and growth aspirations. Topgolf is a 3-minute drive from the new Southport complex, a sprawling property along Lake Washington that has more than 700,000 square-feet of office space available.

Topgolf Renton, which will employ approximately 500 associates, is also located near The Landing, a sprawling shopping and dining development that opened in 2007.

Phil Vannavong drove down to the new Topgolf from Marysville, Wash. The government engineer brought seven friends with him to play. He’s been to Topgolf previously in Austin and Las Vegas and was happy that he now had an option closer than Portland. He figured he might come to Renton once a month.

“They’re not working … or, they’re supposed to be!” he laughed as his friends rattled off their workplaces, including such companies as Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks and Compass.

Andrew Irvin of Puyallup, Wash., was playing with his wife Vanessa and young sons Jordan and Trey.

“This is a place where you don’t have to be a golfer to play,” Irvin said. “You can enjoy yourself without everybody criticizing your swing. You get your own bay and do whatever you want.”

I took my own swings (see tweet below) from a bay on the third level on Thursday. Using a driver from the selection of provided clubs, I hit 40 balls over the course of an hour and worked up a good sweat trying to reach the furthest targets on the range. I was intrigued by the ability to watch the trajectory of my ball on the nearby screen and get the distance for each shot.

I had a drink and bites of a sandwich and some tasty “cheesy mac bites” between swings as I watched golf balls fly from all directions.

Misty Skeeter of Kent, Wash., had never golfed, and brought along her three kids, Malaysia Myres, Jamaica Myres and Nekaylah Skeeter. Jamaica’s girlfriend, Jordyn Lewis, played golf at Garfield High School in Seattle.

Malaysia heard about Topgolf through Instagram and her mom booked a couple hours.

“It was fun,” Misty Skeeter said. “It was a little difficult, figuring out the right way to hit it or aiming at what you’re supposed to aim at. But it was fun.”

Joe Lynch of West Seattle and his friend Jon Blevins of Bothell, Wash., were “playing” Pebble Beach and enjoying some beers. Blevins has previously played Topgolf in Arizona, Las Vegas and at the “Lounge by Topgolf” indoor facility at Google’s Kirkland Urban campus east of Seattle.

“I drive hours for golf anyway,” Blevins said when asked if he’ll regularly make the trek to Renton. He’s drawn to the technology, drinks and food in one spot, and the party atmosphere for golfers and non-golfers. “It’s good for kids or for buddies on a day out.”

Asked whether Topgolf is a place where he might work on his golf game, Lynch said it was more for the fun.

“After a couple of these you’re not working on your game anymore,” he laughed, pointing at their pitcher of beer.

Keep scrolling for more photos:

FOLLOW-UP: Worth the drive: An inside look at Topgolf’s newest high-tech sports venue — within range of Seattle

Topgolf is ready to swing into action south of Seattle at its latest tech-enabled golf facility, with an opening planned for Friday in Renton, Wash.

The sports and entertainment company’s 78th venue is its first in Washington state and it will feature three levels and 102 open-air hitting bays. Topgolf is also bringing Toptracer, its ball-tracing technology which powers the high-tech driving range experience so golfers can play such games as “Angry Birds” and “Jewel Jam.”

Along with a mix of food, drink and music, the location will also have indoor Swing Suite simulator bays powered by Full Swing technology, for another way to play golf and other sports games.

“Bringing our technology-enabled golf experience to players across the greater Seattle area where tech is at the center of everything is something we have been looking forward to for many years,” Topgolf COO Genifer Gray said in a news release.

Topgolf is touting the company’s first skylit central atrium architectural design at the Renton location. With seating, yard games and a giant video wall, the atrium creates a hangout spot that connects the gaming experience to the patio, bars and roof terraces.

Topgolf Renton-Seattle, first announced in August 2021, will be located off Logan Avenue near Boeing’s factory and The Landing, a sprawling shopping and dining development that opened in 2007.

The company first arrived in the Seattle area in January 2020 with its first-ever “Lounge by Topgolf” concept, an indoor facility that combines virtual sports with food and beverage offerings. The 9,200 square-foot lounge is located on the second floor at Kirkland Urban, a 1.2 million square-foot mixed use development just east of Seattle in Kirkland, Wash. Google purchased the site in September 2019.

Topgolf says it will employ approximately 500 associates at the Renton facility.

Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, is getting some upgrades to mark its 20th year, and it looks like the stadium will be catching up to Climate Pledge Arena and T-Mobile Park with a high-tech concession option.

The Seahawks and First & Goal Inc. announced a number of stadium enhancements on Wednesday under the label of “fanovation,” in which “fans and their experience are at the forefront” of decisions.

One such fanovation that caught our eye is the addition of a District Market on the upper level of the stadium behind the Toyota Fan Deck. The Seahawks said the area will offer “a more modern, open food and beverage experience with the opportunity for checkout-free transaction technologies.”

That sure sounds like a “Just Walk Out”-style store could be coming.

The technology from Amazon, used in its Go convenience stores and some of its full-size Fresh grocery stores, allows customers to enter, select items and leave without standing in line. Overhead cameras and sensors track what a customer grabs, and payment is facilitated automatically via a credit card scanned at entry. Customers can also link a credit card to a biometric scan of their palm via Amazon One technology.

Amazon licenses the tech for use in such places as stadium and airport stores. Just Walk Out is in use at three stores in Climate Pledge Arena, where the Seattle Kraken play, and at T-Mobile Park, home of the Mariners, where it was introduced in May at a new “Walk-Off Market.”

A closer look at the artist’s rendering of District Market (below) looks just like the experiences at the city’s other professional sports venues. Check out the very Amazon-looking entry gates (to the right of the gentleman who wore a sport coat over his 12 jersey on game day.)

We’ve reached out to the Seahawks to see if they’ll confirm that they’re working with Amazon and whether Just Walk Out is the “checkout-free transaction technologies” coming to Lumen Field.

In addition to fancy retail, the Seahawks are also adding some fancy new video boards. Two new north-end screens are planned for the start of the 2022 football season and intended to significantly improve the viewing experience for fans looking in that direction.

The team describes the screens as “Mitsubishi Pixel Pitch Diamond Vision displays — 39.90 feet high by 70.34 feet wide — which will more than double the size of the stadium’s previous video boards.”

“Fans can expect to see the full 16×9 game presentation highlighted by enhanced graphics and 4K pan and zoom for highlights and replay reviews,” the Seahawks said.

In addition to those tech-focused improvements, the Seahawks also said a new 6,300 square foot premium food and beverage area named Cityside Bars will be added in the north end of the stadium under the Hawks Nest seating area.

The Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers are not for sale and no discussions are currently happening to sell either professional sports franchise. That’s the word from Jody Allen, chair of both teams and trustee of her brother Paul G. Allen’s trust.

Allen issued a statement Tuesday saying that her long-term focus is on “building championship teams” — but both will eventually be sold.

Paul Allen, the late Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist who died in October 2018, bought the NBA’s Trail Blazers for $70 million in 1988, and he kept the Seahawks from moving to California in 1997 when he bought the NFL franchise for $194 million.

Jody Allen’s declaration comes a month after a report that Nike founder Phil Knight and Alan Smolinisky, an entrepreneur and a partial owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, had submitted a bid to purchase the Trail Blazers for more than $2 billion. A team spokesperson confirmed at the time that an offer had been made, but stated that “the team remains not for sale.”

In managing the Allen trust, Jody Allen has been engaged in the secretive process of carrying out her brother’s directives, which includes divesting many of his far-flung assets to maximize the value of the estate.

She said in her statement that a “time will come” when the teams will be put up for sale “given Paul’s plans to dedicate the vast majority of his wealth to philanthropy, but estates of this size and complexity can take 10 to 20 years to wind down. There is no pre-ordained timeline by which the teams must be sold.”

A signature piece in late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s vast collection of interests and properties could be headed for sale as a new report names potential buyers and a price tag for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers.

ESPN reported Thursday that Nike founder Phil Knight and Alan Smolinisky, an entrepreneur and a partial owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, have submitted a bid to purchase the Trail Blazers for more than $2 billion.

Knight’s deep ties to the region “reflect the prospective ownership group’s desire to keep the team in Portland for the long-term,” ESPN reported, citing anonymous sources. Nike is headquartered in the region, and Knight is famously loyal to his alma mater, the University of Oregon.

In a statement Thursday to ESPN, a Trail Blazers spokesperson said, “An offer was made by Phil Knight. The team remains not for sale.”

Forbes valued the Trail Blazers at $2.05 billion in its 2021 rankings, making it the 13th-most valuable franchise in the NBA, ESPN reported.

The move to sell is believed to be in accordance with wishes laid out by Allen, who died in October 2018.

The Paul G. Allen Trust is now managed by his sister Jody Allen, who has been engaged in the secretive process of carrying out her brother’s directives, which includes divesting many of his far-flung assets to maximize the value of the estate.

The Seattle Seahawks are also owned by the Allen Trust and also must be sold, although the timing of when that could happen is less certain.

“Paul directed that the trust be liquidated upon his death and the assets used to fund his passion projects,” a source told sports columnist John Canzano last week. “None of this is up in the air. The instructions are clear: The sports franchises and everything in the trust must be sold.”

In March, longtime Seattle sports columnist Art Thiel discussed on the GeekWire Podcast the likelihood that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could purchase the Seahawks — for as much as $4 billion or more.

Allen was 35 years old in 1988 when he bought the Blazers for $70 million. He kept the Seahawks from moving to California in 1997 when he bought the NFL franchise for $194 million.

Knight, 84, has a net worth of about $50 billion. Smolinisky joined the Dodgers as a limited partner in 2019, according to ESPN, and has been successful in commercial real estate and investing.

Before you take yet another mulligan, consider that the tool to improving your golf game might not be found in your bag of clubs.

The makers of an app that employs artificial intelligence and 3D motion analysis say they’ve created a revolutionary way to improve your golf swing through a video shot on your phone.

Sportsbox AI is a startup that launched in 2021 out of AI Thinktank, a Bellevue, Wash.-based incubator for AI ideas founded by tech veterans Mike Kennewick and Rich Kennewick. They’re the brothers who founded Voicebox Technologies, an early leader in speech recognition and natural language tech that sold in 2018.

Along with Samuel Menaker, former VP of engineering at Voicebox, AI Thinktank’s brain trust has been applying its experience and knowledge in voice AI and machine learning to visual understanding, and specifically how to translate 2D video into 3D information.

The golf expertise in the equation is provided by Sportsbox co-founder and CEO Jeehae Lee, who played more than five years on the LPGA tour before transitioning to a career in sports media entertainment. Lee led strategy and new business development at Topgolf, the high-tech golf and entertainment company.

Meeting Menaker and seeing what AI Thinktank was already working on changed her view of what was possible when it comes to teaching the game.

“I’m a student of the game first and foremost,” said Lee, who now coaches friends who are getting into golf. “I felt like a lot of what I know about learning the game and refining the game could translate to helping to build a better product.”

Key to that product is the data it collects, which is important for tracking progress and assessment.

“The main problem we want to solve is: how a single cell phone camera can let people accurately measure any activity in 3D from any reasonable angle, height and distance,” Menaker said. “We can calculate hundreds of different types of body movements (joints, limbs) in degrees, inches, velocities and accelerations. This can be applied to any activity.”

Sportsbox still relies on experienced coaches to translate what’s being captured and help students work through what’s being suggested as a fix. The company offers tiered subscription levels for those coaches.

“The core of what we want to stand for is 3D everywhere,” Lee said. “It’s accessible and not some motion-capture studio that requires eight cameras and $100,000 to set up, but it’s available on your phone.”

The company counts several leading instructors among its advisors including David Leadbetter, an investor who, according to Lee, said the app’s tech compared to current video practices is like “comparing an MRI to barely an X-ray.”

At Topgolf, Lee was involved with Toptracer, technology that tracks ball trajectory, speed, height and so on. At Sportsbox, the tech brings it all back to the body mechanics that made the ball do its thing.

“It’s almost like we’re completing the picture of the why,” Lee said. “We know what happened, but why?”

The company is working on partnerships with broadcasters and golf centers. And, after golf, the company envisions answering that question of why for a variety of sports such as tennis or baseball, as well as exercise such as yoga or for movements involved in physical therapy.

Sportsbox now employs about 15 people full time. Lee, who is based in San Francisco, joined Sportsbox at the urging of co-founder Stephanie Wei, the former “Wei Under Par” blogger who played golf with Lee at Yale University and serves as head of marketing. Dr. Phil Cheetham — the so-called “3D Guy” — was previously the director of Sports Technology and Innovation at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and is chief science officer at Sportsbox.

The startup is completing a seed funding round and investors include Elysian Park Ventures, PGA of America, Leadbetter, instructor Sean Foley and pro golfer Michelle Wie.

The team in Bellevue is working on ML models, AI and computer vision problems, application (cloud and mobile) and UI development, integration of all components, backend development and infrastructure, according to Menaker.

“We also built our own tools and infrastructure to generate and manage data to train our own ML models,” he said.

Asked whether his own golf game is improving thanks to Sportsbox, Menaker said “absolutely.”

“When we started I had no clue how to hit a golf ball, how to move my hands, shoulders. Now I know how to do it,” he said. “It does not mean I do it correctly all the time, but I am making good progress.”

The Seattle Mariners and their fans would certainly be happy to have a few more walk-off wins this season. Perhaps a new “Walk-Off Market,” complete with Amazon’s cashierless technology, will satisfy their appetites for now.

The new food and beverage store at T-Mobile Park debuted on Monday night, bringing Amazon’s Just Walk Out tech to another sports venue in the city and presenting customers with the chance to skip long concession stand lines and return to their seats quickly.

On a night when the struggling Mariners drew just over 14,000 fans for a game against the Oakland A’s, the Walk-Off Market wasn’t getting an exceptionally heavy workout. But fans were curious about it as they passed by and those who entered were enthusiastic about how easy it all was — if a little confused about how and if they paid.

“This is way cooler than standing in line,” said Joey Duckett, a regular Amazon Go user in Seattle who said that he comes to a lot of Mariners games and usually avoids lines because he “knows the secret spots to get a beer quickly.”

The Mariners and hospitality partner Sodexo Live! announced the partnership with Amazon in April. Along with Just Walk Out, the market also features Amazon One, the company’s palm-scanning technology that allows visitors to enter and pay with credit card information that is tied to a biometric reading of their hand. Fans can register for Amazon One at a kiosk on the spot.

It’s the first time both retail technologies will be utilized in a Major League Baseball ballpark. The Houston Astros will be using Just Walk Out in two stores at Minute Maid Park. In Seattle, Climate Pledge Arena features four stores using the technology. Amazon also sells the tech to third-party customers and currently has nine partners utilizing Just Walk Out in 19 stores located in such places as arenas and airports.

Malcolm Rogel was recently promoted to vice president of fan experience for the Mariners, more than 23 years after he started working for the team. He’s seen his fair share of concession stand lines.

“We’ve been searching for something like this for years,” Rogel said. “We need to do whatever we can to satisfy demand and this kind of process is really just perfect for us.”

Just Walk Out first debuted in 2018 in Seattle with Amazon Go convenience stores. It’s now used in some larger Amazon grocery stores and is spreading among sports and entertainment venues. Competitors are also getting in on the cashierless game at arenas in Boston, Dallas, Houston and San Francisco.

Just Walk Out relies on a number of cameras in the ceiling to track customers and what they pick up. The credit card a customer inserts upon entry or the one linked to their Amazon One ID is charged for the items the customer takes after they leave the store. Customers familiar with entering Go stores using a QR code in the Amazon app do not use that practice at this location.

Located near section 126 behind home plate, the brightly lit market does stand out compared to other food and beverage kiosks lining the concourse. The walls are covered in white subway tile and an array of coolers are stocked with beer, wine, ready-made cocktails and soft drinks. The place has a larger selection of drinks than any other spot in the park.

There’s also snacks, candy, a hot food selection featuring hot dogs, pretzels and nachos, and a small merchandise display with foam fingers, beer coozies and M’s hats.

Rogel called the new market a “learning lab” to better determine what fans want to grab in a hurry. And fan reaction could determine future placement in the park for more of the technology.

“I hope I didn’t steal this,” Patty O’Toole laughed as she held up a hot dog that she walked out of the market with.

“I don’t even know how it works!” said David White after walking out with a bottle of water. “That’s the first time we’ve done it. It’s better than waiting in line.”

“Walk in, walk out — it was kind of weird. How do they know it’s me walking out?” asked Sierra Jordan. “I have some qualms with Amazon, but I’m also constantly buying stuff off of Amazon. That’s the direction the world’s heading in.”

As fans moved in and out of the new market, others were still lining up for drinks and food at traditional kiosks, unaware that a faster alternative was now in place. One fan who was fifth or sixth in line told GeekWire he was using the kiosk across from the new market because he knew they had the big beer cans he liked. Those cans and many others were available at Walk-Off.

“It’s kind of nice because you can just come in and get what you like,” said Kristine Svehla-Brown, who uses a Go store regularly near her downtown office. She said ballpark concession lines can be a “deterrent” to getting out of your seat “if you know you’re going to be gone for a long time and you want to watch the game.”

Amazon had several ambassadors standing near the entry to the market, explaining what it was and how it worked. During the game, the Mariners played a big-screen promo letting fans know that Walk-Off was open and where it was located. The Mariner Moose was shown shopping at the market.

“Amazon wants to see this do well because they can roll this out to other venues,” Rogel said. “Sodexo Live! can sell more product. And for the Mariners it’s a way better fan experience to get in and out. Everybody has a lot of reasons to find success here.”