Pro sports teams for years have relied on technology to help players win on the field or court. Now more teams are using it on the fans in the stands.
After one of its most successful seasons in years, the Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team is investing in technology to better understand a resurging fan base.
The Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, the team's WNBA counterpart, entered a multiyear partnership with Massachusetts-based Kraft Analytics Group, or KAGR, last fall to better decipher data on ticket pricing, merchandise sales, events and fan engagement.
The two organizations were introduced by Alex Rodriguez, co-owner of the Timberwolves and former professional baseball player.
The Timberwolves reached the NBA playoffs this past season, the second time since 2004. The franchise had a record of 46-36 and won nearly 67% of its final 33 games of the season, a performance that attracted hundreds of thousands of new fans, said Jessica Gelman, KAGR's chief executive.
KAGR uses a team's existing data, ticket purchases for example, and data gathered from scrubbing the internet for publicly available information specific to a team's market, to determine patterns of fan engagement.
"Where we've helped organizations is when you have that uptick and how you maximize it and sustain it," Gelman said.
The team's on-court success, coupled with new analytical data, resulted in the Timberwolves renewing more than 90% of season ticket holders for next season, the most since 2004. The team also set a record in single-game ticket sales, said Ryan Tanke, the team's chief operating officer.
