Speaking before a packed crowd at the sports management panel for the State of Innovation, Kraft Group and Patriots president Jonathan Kraft and University of New Hampshire sports law professor Michael McCann explored how even NFL teams can operate with the same mentality of a startup. In particular, Kraft notably expanded on the plans the New England franchise has to improve their fans' in-game experience. This includes the somewhat controversial decision to remove certain seats near the end zones.
Essentially, Kraft described that the end zone expansions (slated to be complete in a year) were designed to give fans a chance to have something else to do, and was created in direct response to fan requests.
"People said, 'We want other places to go. We don't just want to be locked into our seats," Kraft noted.
And the Kraft Group president explained in detail:
We're taking out a bunch of our seats in our south end zone, right at the field level, and building a club. Club is the wrong word. It's a lounge, or something for our season tickets holders to go. You'll be able to watch the game at the field level, have TV's, be in an environment. I'd hate to go down there and watch a lot of the game at that level, because I think it's a bad perspective on the game, but that's one thing we're doing.
He also added the changes that will happen on the other end of the field for all fans, not just season ticket holders:
Then at the opposite end zone, at the bridge and lighthouse end zone, we're building a 20,000 square-foot pavilion. Think of it as just a monstrous sports bar, that during the game (before the game it would just be too crazy to have it as first come, first serve we'll probably do something with it), but 15 minutes before kickoff, it'll just be open to anybody in the building to come in out of it like a sports bar. Like if you want to spend a quarter, hanging out in that environment and moving around and walk out to the plaza that's by the end zone there, you'll be able to do it.
Kraft told the crowd that further plans were in the works for an upper level expansion, but as it was still undecided between two possibilities, he wouln't go into detail. Explaining the new developments, he told the innovation-oriented crowd that, "We don't need to do it, but we do need to do it for the long term. You have to evolve and innovate."
He then added an emphatic closing line on the Gillette expansion explanation, saying, "The day you look at this as just a cash cow that you just want to milk, is the day you need to sell that business or any business, because what fun is that?"
Kraft cited one of the team's most famous examples of Gillette innovation: Stadium Wi-Fi. He relayed the point by using an experience that he had with Mark Cuban, who he noted was a friend, but had disagreed with him on the possibility of Wi-Fi for 70,000 people at a stadium. The two had discussed it "at the MIT Sports Analytics Conference half a dozen years ago."
"At the time," Kraft explained, "he basically just looked at me and said 'Jonathan you're crazy, and you're not going to be able to do it, it doesn't exist." Yet the Patriots have managed to accomplish it with years to spare. Now fans can use the official Patriots app to get a more complete fan experience while attending the game.
