Happy Monday! This week's magazine features the final installment of SBJ's 2024 Class of Champions. My colleague Bret McCormick wrote a profile on recently retired AAC commissioner Mike Aresco, whose sports career started with a chance meeting in an Italian restaurant. - Ethan Joyce
In today's edition of Power Up:
- Cosm picks Detroit for fourth location
- Ōura buys Sparta Science, a third acquisition in two years
- Intuitive AI's Oscar Sort makes sense in sports
Cosm opening fourth shared reality venue in Detroit
Cosm and Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm Bedrock today announced plans to bring one of Cosm’s shared reality venues to downtown Detroit, the immersive technology company’s fourth such facility in the U.S.
Similar in size to existing venues in Los Angeles and north Dallas (and another planned for Atlanta), Cosm Detroit will sit in the city’s “Development at Cadillac Square,” a 1.5-million-square-foot mixed-use district adjacent to Campus Martius that Bedrock will break ground on in 2025.
“Once we got our feet on the ground and really dug into the DNA of the city, it’s hard to not to fall in love with it,” Cosm President and CEO Jeb Terry told SBJ in a recent interview. “You look at the broader demographic data – Detroit is a large city. A lot of people don’t understand the scope and scale of the demographic. And then the fandom there is hardcore.”
Gilbert participated in a more than $250M funding round Cosm closed this summer, which valued the company at over $1B.
“[Cosm’s] revolutionary technology complements Detroit’s entertainment offerings,” Bedrock CEO Kofi Bonner wrote to SBJ in an email. “Cosm will become a staple of the entertainment offerings downtown and will further enliven the city and augment the vibrancy of the area, and we can’t wait for everyone to experience it firsthand.”
Terry cited Detroit’s four professional sports teams, college sports interest and midwestern location as reasons he is bullish on the market for a Cosm venue. This is also Cosm’s first location in a state with legalized sports betting, which Terry said could lead to unique partnerships and content opportunities.
“We’re excited about going into that opportunity and working with partners to make sure it’s a great place for fans to ‘game,’ so to speak,” Terry said, adding Cosm’s back-end software can be used to integrate data into its dome and hall displays. “We will never be the [sportsbook]. That is not our business. But we will partner with those that want to lean in and take advantage of our space.”
The company’s rights portfolio includes leaguewide deals with the NBA, NFL and UFC, plus arrangements with ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports and TNT Sports, allowing them to show sports ranging from basketball, baseball and American football to Premier League soccer.
Detroit-based Rossetti is architecting Cosm Detroit, while Gensler is designing the venue in Atlanta’s Centennial Yards mixed-use district. HKS did the facilities in LA’s Hollywood Park and north Dallas’ Grandscape .
Financial terms of the Detroit project were not disclosed, but Terry said that, similar to Cosm’s other locations, there is “a lot of term” on its lease with Bedrock. Bedrock is also planning a multi-level market hall on the Cadillac Square development site.
“Our goal is to continue to help be the heartbeat of downtown, just like we say we’re the heartbeat of Hollywood Park or Grandscape,” Terry said. “The always-on, 24/7 action, that’s our goal, as you’re looking to make downtown more walkable, more 24/7, more mixed-use.”
Oura buys Sparta Science for third acquisition in two years
Ōura has made its third acquisition in the past two years, buying human performance data company Sparta Science. Founded by Dr. Phil Wagner, Sparta launched as an elite athlete training facility in 2007 before shifting its focus in 2013 to force plates used by pro teams and military special forces and then in 2019 to the creation of larger software platform which evolved recently into its most modern update, Trinsic.
Ōura, which is best known for its consumer product, the Oura Ring, also makes an enterprise data offering called Oura Teams, and Sparta’s Trinsic will be used to enhance that platform. Earlier this fall, the fourth generation of the Oura Ring launched. Since May 2023, Ōura has also acquired digital identity signal company Proxy and metabolic health company Veri .
Smart waste tech = a unique (and fun) engagement between teams and fans
If you need a visual of the startup hustle, consider Hassan Murad’s recent travel itinerary. The CEO of sustainability tech company Intuitive AI spoke to me from his Vancouver home after eight weeks on the road.
He bounced from the conference scene in Las Vegas -- hitting both Ai4 in mid-August and the 2024 National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show in early October -- to the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. Mixed in between those were two partnership announcements -- with PepsiCo and the Trail Blazers’ Moda Center -- as well as multiple client meetings in New York City. Such is the life when your flagship product -- in this case, Oscar -- could help varying industries that produce massive foot traffic and, as a result, trash.
Intuitive’s Oscar Sort station, which features a camera and display partnered with waste bins, uses AI to recognize various materials and objects to help people correctly dispose of their items. The product makes sense (and has thrived in) places such as hospitals, airports and college campuses. But sports venues provide another opening to address yet another garbage issue. As a reference point, in 2021, my colleague Bret McCormick highlighted that a single game at the Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium produces 35 tons of waste.
Besides the sorting help, the display lets Oscar Sort communicate -- give praise when the person follows the suggested protocol and get a little grouchy if an item hits the wrong receptacle -- and offers chances for branded activations and gamified experiences.
“We’ve tested all different demographics, and recycling increases to about 91% to 96%,” Murad said. “So it’s like alright, it’s changing the game. People are listening. People will do anything for a reward.”
So far, Intuitive has placed Oscar Sorts in four sports venues -- the Bruins’ and Celtics’ TD Garden, the Avalanches’ and Nuggets’ Ball Arena, the Canadiens’ Bell Centre and the Trail Blazers’ home venue.
TD Garden became its entrance to sports in February 2023, Murad said. He remembers initial client questions that Oscar Sort would be shifting from its typical corporate setup to an environment featuring the occasional frustrated fan fueled with liquid courage -- would an angry attendee punch a screen? Will those fans stop to actually interact with a smart waste system? Those worries were eased immediately.
“There was a specific concern that Bruins fans -- ‘You have not experienced Bruins fans.’” Murad said. “... The best fans to engage with actually were Bruins fans,” adding that they often could be more engaged and even prompt others to interact with Oscar, too.
Sustainability is mission-based in its essence, but Murad and co-founder Vivek Vyas saw the need for a solution firsthand while growing up in Pakistan and India, respectively. Helping to prompt the waste sorting upfront, Murad shared that Oscar Sort eliminates the timely alternative on the back end -- going through trash bags, item by item, to ensure proper shorting. The tech also comes with the benefit of a platform that shows key information for logistics planning. Oscar helps to monitor bins and how full they are, meaning trash bags are used efficiently, and also tracks the most frequent waste items. That insight can lead to cost-saving solutions, like the creation of a reusable cup program or the need for more bin options.
Throwing away trash is a forgettable, everyday action. Outside of the important primary mission, bins become another point of engagement for sports teams (and by proxy their corporate sponsors) to connect to gain more first-party information about their fans. Those partner activations become a quick connection to more purchases in the venue and beyond.
“Now I am getting impressions,” Murad said. “And those impressions we also convert by giving strategic QR codes that turn into sales. What does a stadium want? More concession dollars. And sponsors want their time with fans.”