Lab rats

We're not really sure exactly how the newly born ESPN Innovation lab is going to function (envision the sporting version of scientists at work on fossils behind plexiglass walls at museums). But given their commitment to info-graphics and other color analysis in a "virtual environment" this bears watching. Details are scant (ESPN will not provide the cost nor size of the lab, and we only know it employs five people as of now) but we'll continue to keep an eye on any developments.

More on the roof at Wimbledon

Follow up to the post from last week: here is some audio from NPR about the 'grand' opening event.

Here come the Roofs

Yes, that's roofs, plural. The French Tennis Federation determined the architect for roof over Phillipe Chatrier, aka Centre Court. The roof will be in place by 2011.

Wimbledon, as you know, has their sparkling invention in place and it will be unveiled this weekend officially with a charity match. BBC has video here and here. While I'm still skeptical it will move the tournament along at the pace they want, the key (obviously) is the the gem matches will not be delayed and won't disrupt television schedules, etc.

This leaves the U.S Open as the only Grand Slam event without a lid on it. Given the loud, rowdy crowds at the Open and it's assorted ubiquitous qualities (night play, flight patterns into LaGuardia airport, etc.) I'm quite fine with that. Let it be.

Stadium Lament

It's hard to make any salient points in 300 words or less regarding stadium design (lord knows we've tried and occasionally crashed miserably). Mark Lamster takes the new NYC stadiums to task, among others, in the latest issue of I.D. Magazine. His point well-meaning and in an ideal world (hell, even in a reasonable one) his points about inspiring stadiums that actually function as great public spaces would be applauded and put into action.

Sadly, I don't agree that stadiums serve the role they once did. The grand palaces and functional mudholes that served both as 'escape vehicles' from blue collar life and as a nexus of social activity have now moved in a different direction. They are all about "experience", and often that experience involves isolating one from their fellow fans. This occurs primarily through the use of skyboxes that destroy seating bowls, but also involve everything from the distracting (Jumbotrons full of data) to the inane (Bank One Ballpark's swimming pool in the outfield). The 'stadiums mimic society' argument isn't a new one and I'm not going to fly that proverbial flag in depth here, but there is some truth in it.

Lamster loses me again with the line "baseball fans don’t really care much about design or styling, retro or otherwise. They demand only one thing—a good ballgame" is disproved about two blocks from my house every day, where thousands of Bleacher-goers stream through the outfield at Wrigley field and really don't give a damn what the outcome of the game is, so long as there is some sunshine and beer, and the seeminly requisite three hours of post-game drinking in the streets of Wrigleyville.

I'm of the opinion that the larger struggle stadium designers face is to strike a balance between the demands for wider seats, aisles and concourses dotted with shopping and 'info-tainment' experiences, while still somehow keeping the fans close to the field of play, rather than stashing them behind glass boxes or putting them in a third deck that requires oxygen to reach. The days of going to the ballpark "just to watch the game" are dwindling fast.

Some Upgrades Ought To Come Standard

The ISC has partnered with a firm called the ISS (confused yet?) to implement a texting service for all fans at ISC tracks. Spectators will now be able to communicate directly with the racing operations center. This is a huge win for any fans who find themselves in a situation of distress, or worse. More here.

The NFL Draft and Social Media

Here's a nice article on cnet. Regarding the live Draft App however, we have to respectfully call 'BS' on the lack of an iPhone deployment. Sprint is tight with the league and therefore gets the jump on all other mobile providers, so just call it what it is fellas.

Closet sports analysts, take heart.

You've got a new tool at your disposal for editing / splicing / mashing up your favorite web videos, and adding telestrator-like commentary. It's here courtesy of Markup Video. Extra points for using the 'pee wee football' clips as a product demo.

HOK Sport becomes Populous

Populous, the 'break-away' nucleus of people formerly known as HOK Sport, have officially rebranded and launched. My initial reaction is that this is a great thing-- sometimes ventures become so successful and popular that they interfere with the mission of the parent company (not sure thats the right word to use, but so be it). Basically, there comes a time when the kids have to leave the house and go it alone, so good luck to them. We'll be watching.

F1 starts down under

The talk all week has been the speed of the newly named Brawn GP Racing (formerly Honda). Watching qualifying this morning, however, I was struck more by the lap times, which are stunningly fast considering the FIA has been trying to get the overall speeds down. So much for making the cars more generic by truncating development, eh? Soon the 'Schumacher-esque' speeds will become the norm it seems.

But for now it will be all about Brawn and Williams, at least until the FIA have their say about the 'diffuser row' in Paris in a few weeks. Here's a good bit on Ross Brawn, someone I've always admired.

Miami Marine Stadium

I get wrapped up in the 'new' and the 'future', but it's always good to stop and remember what came before. Flipping through Dwell magazine I came across a stunning little bit of design still standing, at least for now: Commodore Munroe Stadium in Miami, more commonly known as Miami Marine Stadium. Used primarily for boat races and the like, it eventually felt the punch of Hurricane Andrew.

The Friends of MMS can use your help, so I encourage you to take a few minutes on their site.

MLS pushes forward

18 teams. That's how many MLS franchises will be in place by 2011. Be careful guys, the air is thin up there and we wish you well.

Portland was awarded the last 'available' franchise this week, and work will begin on renovating PGE Park, presumably sooner than later. They will have their work cut out for them, as PGE currently doesn't have much expansion room and it seems inconceivable that the facility would continue to house both a soccer team and a baseball team. Add the inevitable drama that surrounds a stadium involving public financing and its going to be a tight timeline for them. (See the March 1st post for more of that).

Truth in 24

Just one last Audi mention on the weekend- I had the chance to see Truth In 24, the documentary on the Audi R10 this week and it is fascinating from start to finish, both for technical and 'project management' standpoints. OH yes... a bit of facing goes on as well. Catch it on ESPN Friday March 20, or look for it to appear at a special event near you. Great stuff. Intersport and NFL Films did a very nice job visually on the film as well, this was no small production.

Mcnish to Appear on Wind Tunnel

Wow, where did the week go?! Like an R10 TDI, it left us in the dust. Which leads us to... the LeMans series. Again. Americans can catch Allan McNish on the fantastic Wind Tunnel, hosted by Dave Despain, this Sunday evening. I'll be interested to hear McNish's thoughts on the new R15 TDI.

The ALS series kicks off at Sebring next weekend. Sebring is fun precisely because you get to see some new things unveiled. To that point, look for the new Acura proto-types slated to appear.

Update: Some great information and a picture of the new R15 can be found on the Formula1Blog here.

'Green Racing'

Yep, it's gaining credibility. Audi ran a car in the American LeMans series last year that ran on biodiesel...KERS, not exactly green but still a step in the right direction, is now embedding itself in Formula One. And the U.S. EPA is apparently paying attention and giving a tip of the cap to the American LeMans Series.

The Friday Numbers

As its Friday March 6th, we thought we'd have a little fun with Six Nations Rugby. Apologies for the lack of posts this week... reality crashed our party and this weekend it's a trek to Lincoln Nebraska (Husker baseball on the agenda). Regular posting should resume then.

Getting on with it already:

- The Six Nations Championship was known before 2000 as the Five Nations Championship. (Italy was added in 2000.) For those unaware, Six Nations is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The winner is considered ‘the rugby champion of Europe’ despite the lack of the official title.

- Despite the second-most wins (34) since the start of Six Nations, Ireland has not won the trophy in 23 years, the longest current drought.

- In 2007 Ireland was dealt a cruel blow. For the second time on the final day of the Six Nations rugby union tournament, a game was decided by a video replay. This time it decided the champion, as France beat Scotland on the replay decision, consequently giving them the tournament win over Ireland.

- The Championship trophy has 15 side panels, representing the 15 members of the team. There are three handles to represent the three referees.

- Each team plays the other teams in the pool one time. In 1972, all five teams finished in a tie, the only time it has happened since the inception of the tournament in 1883.

The coming decade: Design meets economic reality

The last 20 years in the U.S. have been some of the most prolific in terms of innovation and build-out in stadium design. Those days are gone for now. But what happens to those projects that are underway, when the budget money has been spent, the public is over-taxed and frustrated...and community icons are still at risk of fleeing? Ask Minnesota. The citizens of greater Minneapolis have no less than three facilities underway or or in discussion* and the state flagship Vikings will probably have to rent from the local University while permanent digs get hammered out under the Metrodome Next initiative.

*Target Ballpark
*TCF Bank Stadium
*Minnesota Vikings Stadium, TBD.

Public stadium financing is a nasty issue, with valid and invalid points on all sides, and not the point of this blog per se. (See other resourceful blogs and books for that.) But we're wondering aloud this morning whether a prolonged economic downturn might see the return of the days of the dreaded "multi-use facility" or just the end of new facility construction period. The latter portends bad things, and when the order of the day is to spend our way out of this mess with public works it becomes a high-stakes gamble. The former produced some of the most hideous and controversial stadium design in our lifetimes. (Ex: Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, below). Sidenote- love the good people of Cincinnati, and I know you have fond memories of Riverfront, but...eeek.








Perhaps, in this age of streaming, updates, and video on demand, we'll find that smaller, more fiscally responsible settings will be the order of the day. More people will follow their teams from a venue other than the old ballpark, especially if the corporate sugar-daddies aren't there to foot the bill. I'll be sure to think about it when I'm eating my $10 hot dog at the New Yankee Stadium later this year.

Photo credits:
HHH Metrodome by Tim Wilson
Riverfront Stadium by Brent

Adidas.tv

If 2008 was the Year of the Widget, 2009 will be the Year of Rebranding the Widget. In this case we're talking about Adidas TV. My first thought was that Adidas was merely skinning their Youtube videos which is a fairly common but stale tactic. It turns out they've created a cagey little gadget that you can put on your web pages (Facebook, Blogger, et al.), send via email, and upload to your mobile phone. But why take my word for it? Scroll down and you'll see a sample install of it on the right rail.

The install took all of :30 seconds, and resizing it is simple if you know even a thimble-full of javascript. People who say Social Media isn't trackable completely miss one point, which is that Social Media apps are just part of a larger initiative and that larger initiative always includes some kind of tracking mechanism. The 'rising tide floats all boats' theory in action. In this case they've done a great job and created a nice little add-on for people who want to spice up their pages with some video without any fuss.

The Friday Numbers

Sorry, most of you are probably at the bar already, I didn't get to post the numbers this morning. So without further ado...here's your Friday diversion. We're celebrating February only having 28 days (I'll drink to that) and that means spring is around the corner.

- At Age 28, Adam Dunn has more home runs, runs, and walks than Reggie Jackson, Darryl Strawberry, Jose Canseco and Harmon Killebrew all did at the same age.

- Legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt has averaged 28 victories a year for 35+ years...and a typical NCAA women's basketball season is about 35 games. Over the last four seasons the New York Knicks have averaged just 28 victories per year out of a possible 82.

- Pitcher Tim Wakefield has 164 victories in a Red Sox uniform, leaving him 28 short of the two club record holders: legends Cy Young and Roger Clemens.

- Darrell Greene, a Washington Redskins Hall-of-Famer, was a first round pick by Washington, in 1983. He was the 28th overall pick. He also wore the jersey number 28.

- Legendary basketball coach Dean Smith was born on February 28th, 1931.

- Last year Amateur UK horse jockey Anthony Knott won his first ever race. It took him 28 years to do it.

- There were a total of 28 sports at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

See you in March!

mi adidas

In a surprise that can only be called serendipitous, I found a sweet email from Adidas in my inbox two nights ago announcing the launch of mi adidas (clever wordplay there), a site for customizing one-off sets of shoes... straight on the heels of my NIKEiD post a day earlier. I love my Adidas shoes, but there can only be one 'smartest kid in the online class' and we're reserving that for Nike at the moment. Here's why:

1. Interface. While mi adidas is certainly navigable, its got the plot a bit wrong. I want to choose my colors and know my options straight away. I dont want to be asked my gender / shoe size / shoe width first. That's what happened when mom took me to the store right before school was back in session. I'm going to assume you can figure out a way to make these shoes for me regardless of those details. While Adidas sports a more classic and clean interface, certain UI options were overlooked as well: it's great to show me the timeless Stan Smith on the homepage and let me customize it, but let me select it right there. I want to do the customizing without being required to jump through several categories to get there. (eds note: tried this on Safari and Firefox for Mac; perhaps it is clickable via Internet Explorer but I can't verify that.)

2. Urgency. Nike are the masters of imploring you to get on with the matter. Just Do It, right? The contest is always the context-- the Royale32 tournament, or the Euro2008 ID soccer campaign-- giving you the impression that time is limited. Those contests are satellites of the main NIKEiD site to be sure, but even hitting the iD site through your generic login, you'll see terms such as 'Spring Collection' and a display presentation like you'd find at the local boutique. Translation: you're out shoe shopping, be impulsive, have some fun. If you're not feeling it yet, maybe you oughtta click on the Nike Sportswear Music widget in the corner (yep, you can buy the music you're listening to via itunes or visit the artist's site).

So while I'll applaud mi adidas for the efforts so far, I'd say its a bit more like shopping for shoes at the suburban mall, while NikeiD is hangin' somewhere in fashionable mid-town.

NIKEiD throwdown

Nike iD and the Nike iD Studio are all about specialization; a brilliant concept to involve customers in unique "one-offs" if you will. I've never really believed Nike makes a ton of money off the iD concept, but it plays well with the younger crowd and keeps them true to their street roots.

So what better way to play up those roots than an old-school East vs. West throwdown. Enter NIKEiD Royale 32, a design contest where people are required to create their entries at the NYC Mercer location or the LA Montalban location, and voting occurs online. 32 contenders, 4 weeks, and one winner. Very cool, and painless... vote and get on with it. Purchase your choice if you want. No hassle, no commitment. Nicely executed, with the one exception...Nike are masters of the Inbox but terribly frustrating for passing links along to friends or mining for yourself. Meaning, you'll get something cool via email and Nike will dial you in straight away, but good look stumbling along through their site(s) and finding the unexpected treasure.