October 31, 2024 • 31 mins
In this episode of “Inside the Oval” presented by Dignity Health, Max Kahn shared insights on how data drives the team's business decisions, spoke about his impressive hat collection, discussed enhancing the fan experience at Levi's® Stadium and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Inside the Oble podcast presented by Dignity Health.
I'm Brianna McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Noah Hammerman, and today.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We have Max as our special guest. Max con He
is a business intelligence senior analyst for the San Francisco
forty nine ers. So, Max, tell me how you're feeling today.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Oh, I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This has been a dream of mine for you know,
since the first day I started to be on this podcast.
I remember before I started here, I listened to my
who would become my boss on this podcast? You know,
prep for the interview, know who you're talking to. So
it's really a full circle moment for me here today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh my gosh. Ah cool.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So Max tell us what does it mean to be
a business intelligence senior analyst for the San Francisco forty
nine ers.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, it's a lot of words, but it really boils
down to one thing that I'm the data guy. So
no matter what questions the forty nine ers have about data,
I'm the person they come to. Now when we're talking
about business data, we're only talking about what's outside to
the white lines of the football field. I don't do
anything with player analytics or you know, when should we
go for it on fourth down. My job is about
(01:07):
you know, the other aspects of the forty nine ers,
the marketing, the ticketing, the partnerships, all of our.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Business data awesome. So we did do some LinkedIn stocking
before we got you on the podcast today. We know
that your journey starts at the University of Washington, but
tell us about that journey from you dub to San
Francisco totally.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
So when I went to college, I wasn't really sure
what I wanted to be when I grew up and
you know, had responsibilities in the adult world. So I
ended up majoring in geography like maps and stuff, which
isn't something that you would typically associate with sports, But
by that time in my life, sports was something that
I was really looking forward to. So I wanted to
find a way to marry that with sports, and I
(01:48):
did a lot of projects about sports and mapping things
like public transit, things like expansion franchises, finding a way
to tie that together. And I ended up going on
to pursue a master's degree in business intelligence and really
again you know, tying sports to data and figuring out,
you know what my path wanted to be here and
ultimately led me to working with data for a sports team.
(02:09):
So very thankful for that opportunity to kind of start
early in my career and building up projects for a
portfolio that ended up here.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Wonderful. Now we're going to backtrack from that day at
University of Washington, that period and go further back to
growing up in Chicago. Now, we had just talked previous
to the podcast recording about controversial food topics that we
could go over. So I have a few questions answered
them fittingly. We'll see how the Chicago people feel.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Great.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right, Is Deep Dish pizza?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
One hundred percent unequivocally yes, Deep Dish is pizza. There's
all those you know, alignment charts about what's a sandwich,
is a taco a sandwich?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
All those things?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Is pizza? Is Deep Dish pizza a pizza? Or is
it a cast role? It's firmly on the pizza side.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Firmly on the pizza side. All right, we'll skip ahead
to what do you put on your hot dog?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So Chicago wins would say, no ketchup on a hot dog.
That's like the cardinal sin in Chicago. I am, I'm
not as extreme as that position. I will put ketchup
on a hot dog, but you know, just my base
would be relish and onions would be what I would
go for.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Base of relish and onions wonderful. And then lastly, what
is your Portillo's order? Go to order at Portillo's.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yeah, another difficult question. It depends if I want to
be healthy or not. If I want to be healthy, choppsalad,
best dressing in the entire world. If I don't want
to be healthy, big beef, extra mozzarella, chocolate cake shake.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, okay, Max, have you found any Chicago style foods
that remind you of home here in the Bay Area?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know, I've been going on a quest to find
some stuff. Nothing that really matches the Chicago experience. I've
been to a few Giants games, and you know how
to do the dog from the city that is hosting.
So when the Cubs are in town against the San
Francisco Giants, they'll do a Chicago hot dog.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Really doesn't pass the sniff test. So I'm still trying
to find a slice of home out here.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, I want to dive more into your role here
at the Niners. So when you first got here. You
know you're searching for that Chicago dog still can't find it.
But what did you start out as here at the Niners.
What was your role looking like then and what does
it look like now? How have you evolved here?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So I've been in business intelligence the whole time, right,
It's my job to understand what data is coming in
from the business. But the actual specific data sets or
topics I've been working on have have changed a lot.
When I started here, we were really rolling out the
member inclusive menu for the first time, so a lot
of my work focused on food and beverage, on concessions
on game day. I'm really understanding what that process looks like.
(04:41):
You know how many season ticket members are redeeming their
free hot dogs and their free bottles of water. I
also spent a lot of time working with our membership
services team on those kinds of issues.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But since then, I've found kind of a niche in
marketing analytics.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So I work closely with you guys as well as
everyone else on the marketing team social app, email, web,
push notification, SMS, fan engagement, you name it, and really
trying to understand what are we doing to not only
connect to the fans that make it to Levice Stadium
every year, but the millions of forty nine ers fans
that exist, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Throughout the US and throughout the world.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
So understanding what's going on with our marketing team and
trying to be smarter about the decisions we're making there.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Max, I can't wait for you to run the numbers
on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I've got some fun facts ready. We'll dive into them,
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, So curious about milestones or achievements that you might
be proud of at this moment. So far through your
professional career.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, I've had the opportunity to do so many cool things.
I've only been here, this is now my third season,
but even then, I feel like, you know, I continue
to do new things every day. That's really you know,
shaping up you know what I think about my role
in the organization and what I've done, you know, so
far in my career. I would say one of the
coolest things is being recognized by the league. At the
(05:57):
owners meeting this year, they talked about ways that clubs
are using data and one of my projects was featured
at the At the owners and President's meetings, they all
got to see some of the work that I've I've
done around visiting team analytics, so understanding for any given
game what percentage of fans are going to be supporting
the visiting team versus supporting the home team. So having
that presented to all the owners and the presidents of
(06:17):
the NFL clubs has been pretty cool. And then also,
you know, just understanding what changes have we made as
a marketing department at the forty nine ers based on
some of the insights. You know, We've We've changed up
some of our TikTok strategy based on recommendations. I've made
new ideas for SMS campaigns or for you know, app campaigns.
So seeing that come to light and really how the
(06:39):
faithful is connecting to those things has been I'm quite
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Have any team owners or presidents reached out to you
after that presentation.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
I wouldn't say that the team presidents reached out to me,
but definitely, you know, I feel like I've been a
pretty cool resource for some of the other clubs that
you know, there's a business strategy and analytics team at
every club in the NFL, so having those people reach
out to me understand why did you do.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It this way? What can we learn from that is
very rewarding.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
What we like to say is like, even though we
are competitors on the field with the other thirty one
teams in the NFL, off the field, you know, we're
not really competitors as.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
A forty nine Ers team.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It's our goal to turn non football fans into football fans,
and the other thirty one teams have the same goal.
So we're not trying to turn a Rams fan into
a forty nine Ers fan. For example, US and the
Rams have the same goal. So because of that, on
the business side, we're pretty cool about sharing data, what's
working well, best practices, so we regularly communicate with each
(07:39):
other and help to offer, you know, advice in those areas.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay, okay, cool, Enough about the other teams in the league.
I want to know about your love for the Niners.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Who was your.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Childhood team growing up and how did you start growing
your love for the Niners here in the Bay.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, so, as.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
We've already talked about, you know, I grew up in
Chicago to be a Bears fan there they went to
a Super Bowl when I was growing up, and then
moving to Seattle unfortunately faithful.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I was supporting the.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Seattle Seahawks for a few years there, but ultimately, you know,
the NFL was never something that was the number one
priority to me, So it was very easy to switch
my allegiances to the Faithful once I moved down to
the Bay here, and they've welcomed me with open arms.
I remember when I posted on Instagram saying about the job,
I got flooded by comments of fans from the Bay
(08:29):
and around the world that are happy to have me
on the team.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And I was someone they're never going to interact with.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
They didn't know who I was before, But it really
even that first day, seeing how the Faithful welcomed me
with open arms was a really cool moment.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, and we're going to get to this in the
bit when we go over some fun facts about Max.
But approximately, how many Niners caps do you have?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Now?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I've got one hundred and forty forty nine ers hats,
different forty nine ers hats, officially licensed, the whole real
deal and official and everything. But I try to wear
a different hat work every single day. And hopefully you
all haven't seen me repeat a hat yet.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, for a person who wears many caps. I guess
this is a good transition into what you find most
interesting in your day to day work. Obviously you're working
with us in the marketing department quite a bit working
in other departments too, What do you find most interesting?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I would say the favorite part of my job is
that every single day is different. You know, a lot
of the work that we do in the Business Strategy
and Analytics department is very almost consultant, like we are
the internal consultants for the entire organization. So because of that,
a lot of our work is very project based. So
I could be working on something for two three weeks,
(09:40):
maybe it's two three months, but you know, over time,
I'm always working on something different. So to answer like
what's my day to day like is very hard. It
depends if you catch me in season, if you catch
me off season, if you catch me on game day.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
But ultimately it boils down to helping the forty nine
ers make data driven decisions. So whether that that's you know,
what should we price the concessions at? To what should
we be posting on TikTok? To how should we be
servicing our season ticket members? Anything's fair game at any point.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What stood out to you. So when you think about
your role on game days in season, out of season,
is there like a particular moment that stands out to
you where you're like, I can't believe I'm working on
this right now.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It's the stuff that I'm working on is cool, right.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
You know, recently in the last couple of weeks, we've
been talking about who's going to be the Fan of
the year. So we're pulling data on all the candidates
to figure out, you know, who should be the fan
of the year. And you know, that's not something that
I ever saw myself doing. I never saw myself helping
to advise social media strategy for you know, one of
the biggest NFL teams that that's out there, and you know,
(10:46):
as a consultant, there's a little bit of that fake
it till you make it energy. I'm not going to
tell you that when I showed up here, bright eyed
and bushy tailed, that I knew everything there was to
know about NFL social media marketing and you know, stadium concessions,
stands and season ticket member gifts. But you know, do
your research. Understand you know, there's thirty one other teams
(11:07):
out there that are doing similar things, and like I mentioned,
they're willing to share best practices as well, So I
kind of use that as my inspiration whenever we're, you know,
tackling a new project that I've never thought about before.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Fake it till you make it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Ye cool, Well, tell me about what your team looks
like and how do you guys work together, because I
know it's a business strategy analytics team you've got going
on here at the Niners.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Absolutely, we've got two halves to our team. Kind of
We've got the business strategy half. They're focused a lot
on strategic planning, long term goal setting, looking out five
years in the future, what is the forty nine ers
going to look like? And then we've got our business
intelligence team, which is kind of a subset of that,
and that's focused on much more day to day operational
analytics managing our data warehouse. So we all do similar things, right,
(11:56):
We're all helping to drive strategic decisions. But one of
the facts that I about our team, there's nine of us.
Each of the nine of us had a different major
in undergrad so we all come from very different backgrounds,
which means when we try to tackle problems as a team,
we're all coming at it from very different perspectives, and
it's almost like, you know, when we're here, we're still
have different majors, right, I'm the marketing major and you've
(12:18):
got the partnerships major and the ticketing major in the
parking major. So we're all solving our own different problems.
But in terms of working together, like we always try
to collaborate, whenever there's a tough idea, we'll get three
four heads on it and kind of just knock it
out until we come up with a workable solution. But
understanding that, like there's going to be a lot of iteration,
We're going to have an initial suspicion of what we
(12:38):
might want to do, and then we'll look at data
and kind of pivot to the left, and then we'll
talk to stakeholders and we'll pivot to the right. But
that's what strategic data driven decision making looks like, not
only in sports but in every industry. And I think
we've got a great team to do that.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Oh cool, y'all have a nickname? Is there like a
band name to you guys?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I don't think we've got a nickname, but if any
listeners out there have a recommendation, I would love to hear.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's the number, the number crunchers, the like data scientists
of the forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
We've got a cool logo.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
It's like the forty nine ers oval with kind of
like the the lines coming out of it, almost like
a light bulb turning on.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
So I really like our business strategy and analytics logo.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, a little light bulb turning on.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So after going through a lot of the marketing based numbers,
we talk a lot about experience and how fans experience
their time here at Levi Stadium. How do you see
data potentially enhancing the fan experience here within their time
at Levi's.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Oh, we have data experiencing every moment of a fans
experience at Levi Stadium. And that's my main role on
game day is we've got the Executive Huddle, which is
powered by SAP and that is kind of my home
on game day. We took one of the suites that
are on our press level. We converted it to a
data war room. So we've got ten data feeds that
are coming in there in real time with everything from
(13:54):
attendance data, parking, data concessions, retail, you know, wait times
at the concession and stands, survey results coming in live,
so we try to action on that, you know, in
real time. So when you talk about data and enhancing
the fan experience, we try to do it in ways
before you even notice.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That it's enhancing your fan experience.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
When we see that one line at the security is
too long, we're going to send staff from another line
to speed that up. If we see that parking is
slowing down, we're going to rearrange, you know, which way
fans enter the stadium the traffic flows in order to
fix that. If you fill out the survey on your
concession's receipt and said that you know you got the
(14:34):
wrong item, we're going to refund you.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Before you even leave the stadium.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So we're trying to find ways to use data that
are going to enhance your experience without you even knowing it.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
And I think we do one of the best jobs
in the league at doing that.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
That's so cool, and that's a lot to take in.
I'm imagining the data war room right now. You need
to be real with me. Do you ever get anxious
looking at all those numbers spread out across the entire
like stadium.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Well, there's two reasons to be anxious.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
The first one is it's a ton of data and
it's all coming in in real time.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The seventy thousand people that are here on game day,
every single one of them is ordering a hot dog
or scanning in their parking ticket or buying a jersey, right,
and all of those keep popping up, which is really intimidating.
But also like, we're doing this the entire game. So
there's also a TV in there that's showing the forty
nine ers game, So there's another reason.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
To be anxious.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
You've got that going on, You've got all the energy
and the excitement of game day. So it's a very
chaotic place to be on game day.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And how do you wind down after that? How do
you care for yourself after pouring into this team and
this fan base for an entire sunday? Pretty much?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Oh, when I get home, then I actually.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Watch the game, right, I catch glimpses, I know the score,
I know what's going on, but I don't get the
chance to really dive into football on home game day.
So once I get home, then I wind down by
you know, just rewatching the broadcast, listening to what the
commentators had to say, because you know, there's so much
that we're focusing on game day to make the fans
that are in the building have that fan experience and
enjoy watching the forty nine Ers. So when I get home,
(15:59):
then I get my chain to watch the forty nine ers.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Cool. Well, with so much going on, can you tell
us about a memorable project or analysis that had a
significant impact on the team or the business side of
the forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
One of the things that I finished up recently was
what we call our faithful takeover, Right, we want to
try to understand what are all the marketing channels that
we're currently reaching our fans at. You're familiar with social media,
our forty nine Ers app, SMS, email, but also you
know other ways that we interact with our fans, our broadcast,
our TV and radio, our fan clubs. So kind of
combining all of that into one metric that shows how
(16:34):
are the forty nine Ers performing across every marketing channel
we have?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And that wasn't something we had before.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know, previously we'd have to look at every single
individual data source to see how is our app doing,
how are our podcasts performing? How many members are there
of the forty nine ers, you know, women of the
Niners fan club. And this was kind of a project
that took every single marketing channel and combined it together.
And especially for executives, you know, they get one look
at this, at this spreadsheet. It's not a spreadsheet, it's
(17:00):
a dashboard that gets updated every single week and they
can understand, you know, how are we doing in our
goal to you know, increase forty nine ers faithful around
the globe.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, and that's an impactful innovation that you talk about.
I mean trying to put this together as a dashboard
for people to have a quick look at and understand
that that's something that has never been done before and
having that built out is really impactful. Now, speaking of innovation,
I want to ask you about potential innovations of data
analytics that you think could you know, be really interesting
(17:30):
within the sports you know business future.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Absolutely, And this is a hot topic that I'm sure
every podcast is talking about these days.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
AI.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Right, everybody is going to start using AI to understand
both more about their fans and increasing the fan experience,
including here at Levi stadium. We've got our Intelligent Stadium
initiative going on, you know, our goal to continue to
be the best of the best over the next couple
of years, so continuing to find ways to use AI
is really important. Also say, historically, the forty nine ers
(18:01):
have been one of the thought leaders in this space.
You know, about ten years ago, we were one of
the first NFL teams to kind of build out a
business strategy and analytics team, and many other teams have
followed suit since. And now we're at a point in
twenty twenty four that almost every team, not only in
the NFL but across professional sports has people whose function
is data analysis, data science, machine learning, AI, making sure
(18:27):
that the decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That are being made are being made with data.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
So it'll only continue to become more important as we
venture into the next ten years, and I'm sure I'll
be here to support it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I know you just mentioned a lot of things
about Levi Stadium. Curious on if there's any fun numbers
that have been crunched, fun facts, fun analytics that are
based around the stadium's history here.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Totally, I mean, even not even just the history looking
back to a few weeks ago. Is we had the
hottest game in Levi Stadium history, right. I think it
reached one hundred and one degrees. So, you know, we
were looking at all this data in real time and
we're seeing, oh, the top retail item that we sold
in the team stories, those cooling towels and a lot of.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Hats to get the sun out of your eyes.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
We also set the Levi Stadium water bottle record, right,
So just looking at cool things like that, we can
also kind of you know, we like to describe it
as like a gatorade versus a hot chocolate game. So
going into a game, we'll know, oh, this is a
big hot chocolate game, or oh this is a big
Gatorade game, you know, based on the weather. So seeing
those trends come to fruition, I think is really cool.
(19:29):
We'll also look at something like last year we played
the Ravens on Christmas Day.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
A lot of people come to that.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Game with their family, so things like alcohol consumption is
going to be at its lowest all season for those
kinds of games. So being able to kind of dissect
those trends and understand why they're happening is a cool
application of the data. There's also you know, less useful
applications of the data. As you may know, we had
the eras tour here at Levi.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Stadium last year, the Taylor Swift concert.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And as a SWIFTYE, it was really cool to be
able to analyze that data.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And underst and what was happening in our concert.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
So we looked at each of the eras that Taylor
goes through in her concert and I mapped that up
to when in real time that happened, map to the
concessions data, so I know at any time how many
people kind of got up from their seats and went
to go get a snack or get a drink, So
we know, you know what the popular eras were and
what the not so popular eras were. I don't think
Taylor or the Swifties would appreciate me sharing that data,
(20:24):
but it's definitely some of the cool things that we
have the power to do with all these numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, pretty cool. Well, you mentioned it at the top
of the podcast that you listened to Inside the Oval
when you were interested in joining the forty nine ers.
So if you were to talk to younger Max, what
advice did you give someone looking to enter the field
of sports analytics.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, I would say the misconception of you know, the
analytics world is that it's very numbers based. You know,
it's a science, but it's also an art. I think
that that gets lost in translation a lot of times.
So my advice would be kind of, show me what
you can do, Show me projects that you've done, a
portfolio if you have one. You know, the art of
(21:06):
how to present data and how to explain it to
people that don't understand it as easily is just as
important as the science behind the data. So I would say, yeah,
the biggest piece of advice is show me what you
can do.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I know you have mentioned at least to me in
private conversations that cooperation and you know, instituting yourself with
other teams is a valuable thing. You mentioned other you
mentioned earlier getting together with the thirty one, other clubs
within the NFL at different meetings and speaking to other folks.
(21:40):
You've also talked about going to Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and many
more cities across the country to meet teams from you know,
different sports. How do you think that experience going there
meeting those people has impacted our BSA team here with
the forty nine Ers.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Yeah, I love the opportunity to go visit, you know,
whether we're on the road for an away game, getting
to visit both a football team that's in that city,
or for example, when we visited the Eagles last season,
we also had the chance to speak with you know,
the Phillies and the Flyers while we were there. So
understanding both what's happening on the ground in other venues
really helps us to strike up inspiration about what's happening here.
(22:20):
Football isn't always comparable to what happens in baseball. Right,
We've got ten home games a season, baseball's got eighty one,
so a lot of the economics are very different, but
that doesn't mean that we can't take inspiration from what's
going on in other teams. And not only that, it
helps to build your network. Right, Just talking about your
work and what you do helps you to be more confident,
(22:40):
you know, helps you to find ways to hold a
conversation and you know, certainly allows you to continue to
kind of brand yourself as a professional.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well. Work life balance is super important and we talk
about it a lot amongst us, but working in sports,
that could be hard. And you just said earlier that
after a game, you go home and you watch the
game again. So I want to know, how do you
have a life outside of sports. How do you keep
your mental good so that when you come into work
you're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah. I try to do what I can to unplug.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I don't have one of those jobs that's significantly busier
in season versu out of season. We're kind of just
always busy, as a lot of people in sports would say.
But you know, I do my best to find other
things that I'm passionate about. I love to travel sometimes,
I you know, add that to the starter the end
of an away game trip.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
You know, big fan of gaming.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
You know I love watching other sports too, not just football,
big baseball fan, big Formula one fan. So I try
to find ways to kind of decompress from work when
I can.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Waking up at three four in the morning to watch
Formula one or what's up with that?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Luckily this weekend's race is in Austin, Texas, so it's a.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Very reasonable noon.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
But definitely when they're in the European season, a lot
of six am race starts from the West coast here.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah. Well, I think Max is a friend of mine,
and I also think of him as the king of
fun facts. There's all these little tidbits you got to
know about Max. One of them is his hat collection.
And we were talking about it earlier. It was what
one hundred and forty different Niners hats. Walk us through it, like,
where did this hat collection journey start? And where are
you at right now?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I started wearing hats. I was not wearing hats, right.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I was, you know, told growing up that, like by
my grandmother, like if you wear hats, you're gonna start
losing your hair a lot earlier.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Turns out, so, so I never wore.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Hats until you know, high school, college. Turns out, I
started losing my hair even you know, without wearing the hats.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I was like, well, at that point, I'm just going
to start wearing hats.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I started, you know, collecting hats when I was
in college, but I wasn't working for the Niners yet,
So I was just finding hats that I really liked.
And I'm not a fan of the you know, normal
color ways. Like if I got a Giant's hat, it
wouldn't be a black and orange hat, right.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
It's always the funky colors.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
The funky designs and I started collecting, right, I had
a lot almost all the baseball teams, a lot of basketball,
a lot of hockey, a few NFL And then when
I started here at the Night, I was like, well,
I work for a sports team.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Now I can just I just wear hats every day.
So that was two and a half years ago.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I bought my first forty nine ers hat, and since
you know the in the two and a half years since,
I've accumulated about one hundred and forty other hats. And
you know, I try to tell my interns on the
first day, like, You're never gonna see me wear the
same hat twice while I'm here.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And so far I've stuck up to that promise.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And you know, maybe one day I'll get an official
sponsorship for it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That would be cool.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yeah, do you have a favorite? Favorite? Is tough?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know, we had the awesome opportunity last year to
go to the Super Bowl, and I was like, all right,
the hat that I wear to.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
The Super Bowl has gotta be an important hat.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
And I spent like an hour like writing down a
pros cod list everything about which hat I was gonna
wear to the Super Bowl, and I ended up between
a few, like like one of them was like my
first forty nine ers hat. I'm like, oh, it's going
to be a full circle moment. I'm gonna wear the
first forty nine ers hat to the super Bowl. Or
one of them was you know those those fancy gold
jackets that everyone wears, the sat and jackets, And I
(26:00):
have a hat that's made out of that satin material
from one of the jackets and new hat. I'm like, wow,
that's that's a good hat to win to the to
wear to the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
One of them is.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Lined with satin of all the logos of the super
Bowls we've won. I was like, oh, maybe that's that's
a good luck omen for the super Bowl. I ended
up wearing the satin jacket hat to the Super Bowl,
and I think it was a good choice. So I
think I have to go with that as my favorite hat.
But it's it's almost like choosing a favorite child, like it.
I don't want to make the other one hundred and
thirty nine hats feel bad.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's so funny. How do you use your data and
analytics skills into your hat collection? I know they tie together.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, this is embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I do have a spreadsheet of all the forty nine
ers hats that I own, you know, sorted by when
I got it, how much I paid for it, what
color is the visor, the undervisor, the logo, what the
side patches, and it's all, you know, very meticulously sorted.
There's a picture of every hat in the spreadsheet, so
that if I'm at the store and I see one
that I don't have yet, I just you know, scroll
through the pictures and make sure.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So that quite embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I've been talking about maybe a predictive model to figure out,
based on all these parameters if I will like a
hat or not, I mean, if I should add to
the collection. So that might be coming soon. But it
is definitely one of the nerdiest things about me, is
my my collection of hats is all in a spreadsheet.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
No, but I love it. Max, I mean Max, Noah.
Do you have a favorite fun fact about Max?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, one of my favorite fun facts about Max, and
this is a you know, an interest that he may
potentially have but NRG, which is a magic the gathering
competitive you know item. I suppose what is that?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Totally?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You know, I've always been involved in competition, but never
as a competitor. Right when I was little, I was
a little league baseball umpire. I was the manager of
my school's basketball team. In high school, I was involved
in the live broadcast. So I've always been like a
behind the scenes person, but I was I was an
avid player of the card game Magic the Gathering, which
(27:57):
if you've heard this, if you're familiar with that game
and you're listening to this podcast, kudos for quite the
overlap there. But I ended up starting up a tournament
series because I wanted a tournament series in my backyard
in Chicago. So that was called the Energy Series that
started in twenty sixteen and kind of grown into what
is now the largest independent tournament series in North America,
(28:19):
which is really cool to start something from the ground
up and have it build up there. But certainly you
know that a lot of my roots in how do
we do marketing or how do we put on events
came from running thirty person events in a little card
store in Illinois where I grew up. And seeing those
kinds of things translated to what I do now at
(28:39):
the forty nine ers has been quite the journey.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
So I know we mentioned a bunch of fun facts here.
As we near Halloween, I've noticed you have really enjoyed
dressing up. This is due to stocking your Instagram page.
You've gone as a bowl of pasta, a bedside dresser,
and a Domino's pizza delivery man. So what should we
expect this year? And do you have a favorite one
that you've dressed as in your past?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I think the favorite one I've dressed as is the
old Man from Up So I put myself in a
giant cardboard box and I had like a thirty foot
tall balloon attached to me, which was really cool. I
think my dad stole it from a trade show he
was at or something. And it was a little problematic
because I couldn't walk up to the doors when I
was trick or treating right. I had to kind of
stand on the driveway and wave at them, and then
one of my friends would run up and get the
(29:23):
candy for me. So I do have a history of,
you know, a lot of homemade Halloween costumes in my past,
and shout out to my family for helping me do
all those.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
As you look back on your career, or even look
back to your journey starting in sports, analytics or just
going into college and wanting to foster the stream. Who
do you think of that's gotten you to this place,
and who are some shout outs you want to give
out to.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, I mean shout out. Shout out to my parents
and my brother. You know, they've been really supportive and
everything that I wanted to do. As I mentioned, I
kind of waffled. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I was computer science, I was geography. At one point,
I was going to be a first responder. So really,
you know, waffled a lot, and they've been really supportive
to me, and I appreciate them. And then all the
all the friends and family you know along the way,
(30:10):
my friends in Chicago, Seattle and you two and the
friends that I've made here. Really really appreciate everyone's support
and I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah. Well, to get back to the last real question
about work, now that we've diverted on and off, we
always ask this. This is a ceremonial question here and
inside the oval. What are in other duties as assigned
type of project that you've completed here with the forty
nine ers.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, that's that's my favorite question.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
You know, and in every job description, other duties is assigned,
and especially in the sports industry, like as.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I mentioned, every day is different.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I've gone from taking orders at the concession stands when
we're in a rush and we need we need extra
bodies out there, which is not something that I had
thought I had signed up for when I got a data.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Job working in sports, or you know.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Helping out at media day, helping to escort players between
you know, the forty nine ers social station and then
our broadcast and our video production and all the networks
that are out there filming there Sunday night football intro
videos like that is not something that was in my
job description that I ended up having a great time
with and getting to interact with the players.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
In that way.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And then also some of the volunteer opportunities we get
here right working with the employee resource groups. We also
have a lot of field trips that come into the stadium,
So getting to talk to a bunch of kids about
you know, what I do on a day to day
basis and why data is important, especially in the sports world,
are not things that I thought I'd have the opportunity
to do here that I'm very grateful for.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
You're amazing, Max. Thank you so so much for joining
us today. Faithful, thanks for listening. Subscribe to Inside the
Ovel for more from the staff of the San Francisco
forty nine ers. We'll catch you next time.
Welcome to the Inside the Oble podcast presented by Dignity Health.
I'm Brianna McDonald.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Noah Hammerman, and today.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We have Max as our special guest. Max con He
is a business intelligence senior analyst for the San Francisco
forty nine ers. So, Max, tell me how you're feeling today.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Oh, I'm really excited to be here.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
This has been a dream of mine for you know,
since the first day I started to be on this podcast.
I remember before I started here, I listened to my
who would become my boss on this podcast? You know,
prep for the interview, know who you're talking to. So
it's really a full circle moment for me here today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Oh my gosh. Ah cool.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So Max tell us what does it mean to be
a business intelligence senior analyst for the San Francisco forty
nine ers.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, it's a lot of words, but it really boils
down to one thing that I'm the data guy. So
no matter what questions the forty nine ers have about data,
I'm the person they come to. Now when we're talking
about business data, we're only talking about what's outside to
the white lines of the football field. I don't do
anything with player analytics or you know, when should we
go for it on fourth down. My job is about
(01:07):
you know, the other aspects of the forty nine ers,
the marketing, the ticketing, the partnerships, all of our.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Business data awesome. So we did do some LinkedIn stocking
before we got you on the podcast today. We know
that your journey starts at the University of Washington, but
tell us about that journey from you dub to San
Francisco totally.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
So when I went to college, I wasn't really sure
what I wanted to be when I grew up and
you know, had responsibilities in the adult world. So I
ended up majoring in geography like maps and stuff, which
isn't something that you would typically associate with sports, But
by that time in my life, sports was something that
I was really looking forward to. So I wanted to
find a way to marry that with sports, and I
(01:48):
did a lot of projects about sports and mapping things
like public transit, things like expansion franchises, finding a way
to tie that together. And I ended up going on
to pursue a master's degree in business intelligence and really
again you know, tying sports to data and figuring out,
you know what my path wanted to be here and
ultimately led me to working with data for a sports team.
(02:09):
So very thankful for that opportunity to kind of start
early in my career and building up projects for a
portfolio that ended up here.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Wonderful. Now we're going to backtrack from that day at
University of Washington, that period and go further back to
growing up in Chicago. Now, we had just talked previous
to the podcast recording about controversial food topics that we
could go over. So I have a few questions answered
them fittingly. We'll see how the Chicago people feel.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Great.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
All right, Is Deep Dish pizza?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
One hundred percent unequivocally yes, Deep Dish is pizza. There's
all those you know, alignment charts about what's a sandwich,
is a taco a sandwich?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
All those things?
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Is pizza? Is Deep Dish pizza a pizza? Or is
it a cast role? It's firmly on the pizza side.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Firmly on the pizza side. All right, we'll skip ahead
to what do you put on your hot dog?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
So Chicago wins would say, no ketchup on a hot dog.
That's like the cardinal sin in Chicago. I am, I'm
not as extreme as that position. I will put ketchup
on a hot dog, but you know, just my base
would be relish and onions would be what I would
go for.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Base of relish and onions wonderful. And then lastly, what
is your Portillo's order? Go to order at Portillo's.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Yeah, another difficult question. It depends if I want to
be healthy or not. If I want to be healthy, choppsalad,
best dressing in the entire world. If I don't want
to be healthy, big beef, extra mozzarella, chocolate cake shake.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Okay, okay, Max, have you found any Chicago style foods
that remind you of home here in the Bay Area?
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know, I've been going on a quest to find
some stuff. Nothing that really matches the Chicago experience. I've
been to a few Giants games, and you know how
to do the dog from the city that is hosting.
So when the Cubs are in town against the San
Francisco Giants, they'll do a Chicago hot dog.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Really doesn't pass the sniff test. So I'm still trying
to find a slice of home out here.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Okay, I want to dive more into your role here
at the Niners. So when you first got here. You
know you're searching for that Chicago dog still can't find it.
But what did you start out as here at the Niners.
What was your role looking like then and what does
it look like now? How have you evolved here?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So I've been in business intelligence the whole time, right,
It's my job to understand what data is coming in
from the business. But the actual specific data sets or
topics I've been working on have have changed a lot.
When I started here, we were really rolling out the
member inclusive menu for the first time, so a lot
of my work focused on food and beverage, on concessions
on game day. I'm really understanding what that process looks like.
(04:41):
You know how many season ticket members are redeeming their
free hot dogs and their free bottles of water. I
also spent a lot of time working with our membership
services team on those kinds of issues.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But since then, I've found kind of a niche in
marketing analytics.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
So I work closely with you guys as well as
everyone else on the marketing team social app, email, web,
push notification, SMS, fan engagement, you name it, and really
trying to understand what are we doing to not only
connect to the fans that make it to Levice Stadium
every year, but the millions of forty nine ers fans
that exist, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Throughout the US and throughout the world.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
So understanding what's going on with our marketing team and
trying to be smarter about the decisions we're making there.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Max, I can't wait for you to run the numbers
on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I've got some fun facts ready. We'll dive into them,
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, So curious about milestones or achievements that you might
be proud of at this moment. So far through your
professional career.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Yeah, I've had the opportunity to do so many cool things.
I've only been here, this is now my third season,
but even then, I feel like, you know, I continue
to do new things every day. That's really you know,
shaping up you know what I think about my role
in the organization and what I've done, you know, so
far in my career. I would say one of the
coolest things is being recognized by the league. At the
(05:57):
owners meeting this year, they talked about ways that clubs
are using data and one of my projects was featured
at the At the owners and President's meetings, they all
got to see some of the work that I've I've
done around visiting team analytics, so understanding for any given
game what percentage of fans are going to be supporting
the visiting team versus supporting the home team. So having
that presented to all the owners and the presidents of
(06:17):
the NFL clubs has been pretty cool. And then also,
you know, just understanding what changes have we made as
a marketing department at the forty nine ers based on
some of the insights. You know, We've We've changed up
some of our TikTok strategy based on recommendations. I've made
new ideas for SMS campaigns or for you know, app campaigns.
So seeing that come to light and really how the
(06:39):
faithful is connecting to those things has been I'm quite
proud of that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Have any team owners or presidents reached out to you
after that presentation.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
I wouldn't say that the team presidents reached out to me,
but definitely, you know, I feel like I've been a
pretty cool resource for some of the other clubs that
you know, there's a business strategy and analytics team at
every club in the NFL, so having those people reach
out to me understand why did you do.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It this way? What can we learn from that is
very rewarding.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
What we like to say is like, even though we
are competitors on the field with the other thirty one
teams in the NFL, off the field, you know, we're
not really competitors as.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
A forty nine Ers team.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
It's our goal to turn non football fans into football fans,
and the other thirty one teams have the same goal.
So we're not trying to turn a Rams fan into
a forty nine Ers fan. For example, US and the
Rams have the same goal. So because of that, on
the business side, we're pretty cool about sharing data, what's
working well, best practices, so we regularly communicate with each
(07:39):
other and help to offer, you know, advice in those areas.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Okay, okay, cool, Enough about the other teams in the league.
I want to know about your love for the Niners.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Who was your.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Childhood team growing up and how did you start growing
your love for the Niners here in the Bay.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah, so, as.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
We've already talked about, you know, I grew up in
Chicago to be a Bears fan there they went to
a Super Bowl when I was growing up, and then
moving to Seattle unfortunately faithful.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I was supporting the.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Seattle Seahawks for a few years there, but ultimately, you know,
the NFL was never something that was the number one
priority to me, So it was very easy to switch
my allegiances to the Faithful once I moved down to
the Bay here, and they've welcomed me with open arms.
I remember when I posted on Instagram saying about the job,
I got flooded by comments of fans from the Bay
(08:29):
and around the world that are happy to have me
on the team.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And I was someone they're never going to interact with.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
They didn't know who I was before, But it really
even that first day, seeing how the Faithful welcomed me
with open arms was a really cool moment.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, and we're going to get to this in the
bit when we go over some fun facts about Max.
But approximately, how many Niners caps do you have?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Now?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I've got one hundred and forty forty nine ers hats,
different forty nine ers hats, officially licensed, the whole real
deal and official and everything. But I try to wear
a different hat work every single day. And hopefully you
all haven't seen me repeat a hat yet.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, for a person who wears many caps. I guess
this is a good transition into what you find most
interesting in your day to day work. Obviously you're working
with us in the marketing department quite a bit working
in other departments too, What do you find most interesting?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
I would say the favorite part of my job is
that every single day is different. You know, a lot
of the work that we do in the Business Strategy
and Analytics department is very almost consultant, like we are
the internal consultants for the entire organization. So because of that,
a lot of our work is very project based. So
I could be working on something for two three weeks,
(09:40):
maybe it's two three months, but you know, over time,
I'm always working on something different. So to answer like
what's my day to day like is very hard. It
depends if you catch me in season, if you catch
me off season, if you catch me on game day.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
But ultimately it boils down to helping the forty nine
ers make data driven decisions. So whether that that's you know,
what should we price the concessions at? To what should
we be posting on TikTok? To how should we be
servicing our season ticket members? Anything's fair game at any point.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
What stood out to you. So when you think about
your role on game days in season, out of season,
is there like a particular moment that stands out to
you where you're like, I can't believe I'm working on
this right now.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It's the stuff that I'm working on is cool, right.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
You know, recently in the last couple of weeks, we've
been talking about who's going to be the Fan of
the year. So we're pulling data on all the candidates
to figure out, you know, who should be the fan
of the year. And you know, that's not something that
I ever saw myself doing. I never saw myself helping
to advise social media strategy for you know, one of
the biggest NFL teams that that's out there, and you know,
(10:46):
as a consultant, there's a little bit of that fake
it till you make it energy. I'm not going to
tell you that when I showed up here, bright eyed
and bushy tailed, that I knew everything there was to
know about NFL social media marketing and you know, stadium concessions,
stands and season ticket member gifts. But you know, do
your research. Understand you know, there's thirty one other teams
(11:07):
out there that are doing similar things, and like I mentioned,
they're willing to share best practices as well, So I
kind of use that as my inspiration whenever we're, you know,
tackling a new project that I've never thought about before.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Fake it till you make it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Ye cool, Well, tell me about what your team looks
like and how do you guys work together, because I
know it's a business strategy analytics team you've got going
on here at the Niners.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Absolutely, we've got two halves to our team. Kind of
We've got the business strategy half. They're focused a lot
on strategic planning, long term goal setting, looking out five
years in the future, what is the forty nine ers
going to look like? And then we've got our business
intelligence team, which is kind of a subset of that,
and that's focused on much more day to day operational
analytics managing our data warehouse. So we all do similar things, right,
(11:56):
We're all helping to drive strategic decisions. But one of
the facts that I about our team, there's nine of us.
Each of the nine of us had a different major
in undergrad so we all come from very different backgrounds,
which means when we try to tackle problems as a team,
we're all coming at it from very different perspectives, and
it's almost like, you know, when we're here, we're still
have different majors, right, I'm the marketing major and you've
(12:18):
got the partnerships major and the ticketing major in the
parking major. So we're all solving our own different problems.
But in terms of working together, like we always try
to collaborate, whenever there's a tough idea, we'll get three
four heads on it and kind of just knock it
out until we come up with a workable solution. But
understanding that, like there's going to be a lot of iteration,
We're going to have an initial suspicion of what we
(12:38):
might want to do, and then we'll look at data
and kind of pivot to the left, and then we'll
talk to stakeholders and we'll pivot to the right. But
that's what strategic data driven decision making looks like, not
only in sports but in every industry. And I think
we've got a great team to do that.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Oh cool, y'all have a nickname? Is there like a
band name to you guys?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I don't think we've got a nickname, but if any
listeners out there have a recommendation, I would love to hear.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It's the number, the number crunchers, the like data scientists
of the forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
We've got a cool logo.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
It's like the forty nine ers oval with kind of
like the the lines coming out of it, almost like
a light bulb turning on.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
So I really like our business strategy and analytics logo.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, a little light bulb turning on.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So after going through a lot of the marketing based numbers,
we talk a lot about experience and how fans experience
their time here at Levi Stadium. How do you see
data potentially enhancing the fan experience here within their time
at Levi's.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
Oh, we have data experiencing every moment of a fans
experience at Levi Stadium. And that's my main role on
game day is we've got the Executive Huddle, which is
powered by SAP and that is kind of my home
on game day. We took one of the suites that
are on our press level. We converted it to a
data war room. So we've got ten data feeds that
are coming in there in real time with everything from
(13:54):
attendance data, parking, data concessions, retail, you know, wait times
at the concession and stands, survey results coming in live,
so we try to action on that, you know, in
real time. So when you talk about data and enhancing
the fan experience, we try to do it in ways
before you even notice.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
That it's enhancing your fan experience.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
When we see that one line at the security is
too long, we're going to send staff from another line
to speed that up. If we see that parking is
slowing down, we're going to rearrange, you know, which way
fans enter the stadium the traffic flows in order to
fix that. If you fill out the survey on your
concession's receipt and said that you know you got the
(14:34):
wrong item, we're going to refund you.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Before you even leave the stadium.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
So we're trying to find ways to use data that
are going to enhance your experience without you even knowing it.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
And I think we do one of the best jobs
in the league at doing that.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
That's so cool, and that's a lot to take in.
I'm imagining the data war room right now. You need
to be real with me. Do you ever get anxious
looking at all those numbers spread out across the entire
like stadium.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Well, there's two reasons to be anxious.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
The first one is it's a ton of data and
it's all coming in in real time.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The seventy thousand people that are here on game day,
every single one of them is ordering a hot dog
or scanning in their parking ticket or buying a jersey, right,
and all of those keep popping up, which is really intimidating.
But also like, we're doing this the entire game. So
there's also a TV in there that's showing the forty
nine ers game, So there's another reason.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
To be anxious.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
You've got that going on, You've got all the energy
and the excitement of game day. So it's a very
chaotic place to be on game day.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And how do you wind down after that? How do
you care for yourself after pouring into this team and
this fan base for an entire sunday? Pretty much?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Oh, when I get home, then I actually.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Watch the game, right, I catch glimpses, I know the score,
I know what's going on, but I don't get the
chance to really dive into football on home game day.
So once I get home, then I wind down by
you know, just rewatching the broadcast, listening to what the
commentators had to say, because you know, there's so much
that we're focusing on game day to make the fans
that are in the building have that fan experience and
enjoy watching the forty nine Ers. So when I get home,
(15:59):
then I get my chain to watch the forty nine ers.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Cool. Well, with so much going on, can you tell
us about a memorable project or analysis that had a
significant impact on the team or the business side of
the forty nine ers.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Totally.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
One of the things that I finished up recently was
what we call our faithful takeover, Right, we want to
try to understand what are all the marketing channels that
we're currently reaching our fans at. You're familiar with social media,
our forty nine Ers app, SMS, email, but also you
know other ways that we interact with our fans, our broadcast,
our TV and radio, our fan clubs. So kind of
combining all of that into one metric that shows how
(16:34):
are the forty nine Ers performing across every marketing channel
we have?
Speaker 3 (16:38):
And that wasn't something we had before.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know, previously we'd have to look at every single
individual data source to see how is our app doing,
how are our podcasts performing? How many members are there
of the forty nine ers, you know, women of the
Niners fan club. And this was kind of a project
that took every single marketing channel and combined it together.
And especially for executives, you know, they get one look
at this, at this spreadsheet. It's not a spreadsheet, it's
(17:00):
a dashboard that gets updated every single week and they
can understand, you know, how are we doing in our
goal to you know, increase forty nine ers faithful around
the globe.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, and that's an impactful innovation that you talk about.
I mean trying to put this together as a dashboard
for people to have a quick look at and understand
that that's something that has never been done before and
having that built out is really impactful. Now, speaking of innovation,
I want to ask you about potential innovations of data
analytics that you think could you know, be really interesting
(17:30):
within the sports you know business future.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Absolutely, And this is a hot topic that I'm sure
every podcast is talking about these days.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
AI.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Right, everybody is going to start using AI to understand
both more about their fans and increasing the fan experience,
including here at Levi stadium. We've got our Intelligent Stadium
initiative going on, you know, our goal to continue to
be the best of the best over the next couple
of years, so continuing to find ways to use AI
is really important. Also say, historically, the forty nine ers
(18:01):
have been one of the thought leaders in this space.
You know, about ten years ago, we were one of
the first NFL teams to kind of build out a
business strategy and analytics team, and many other teams have
followed suit since. And now we're at a point in
twenty twenty four that almost every team, not only in
the NFL but across professional sports has people whose function
is data analysis, data science, machine learning, AI, making sure
(18:27):
that the decisions.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That are being made are being made with data.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
So it'll only continue to become more important as we
venture into the next ten years, and I'm sure I'll
be here to support it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I know you just mentioned a lot of things
about Levi Stadium. Curious on if there's any fun numbers
that have been crunched, fun facts, fun analytics that are
based around the stadium's history here.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Totally, I mean, even not even just the history looking
back to a few weeks ago. Is we had the
hottest game in Levi Stadium history, right. I think it
reached one hundred and one degrees. So, you know, we
were looking at all this data in real time and
we're seeing, oh, the top retail item that we sold
in the team stories, those cooling towels and a lot of.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Hats to get the sun out of your eyes.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
We also set the Levi Stadium water bottle record, right,
So just looking at cool things like that, we can
also kind of you know, we like to describe it
as like a gatorade versus a hot chocolate game. So
going into a game, we'll know, oh, this is a
big hot chocolate game, or oh this is a big
Gatorade game, you know, based on the weather. So seeing
those trends come to fruition, I think is really cool.
(19:29):
We'll also look at something like last year we played
the Ravens on Christmas Day.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
A lot of people come to that.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Game with their family, so things like alcohol consumption is
going to be at its lowest all season for those
kinds of games. So being able to kind of dissect
those trends and understand why they're happening is a cool
application of the data. There's also you know, less useful
applications of the data. As you may know, we had
the eras tour here at Levi.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Stadium last year, the Taylor Swift concert.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And as a SWIFTYE, it was really cool to be
able to analyze that data.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And underst and what was happening in our concert.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
So we looked at each of the eras that Taylor
goes through in her concert and I mapped that up
to when in real time that happened, map to the
concessions data, so I know at any time how many
people kind of got up from their seats and went
to go get a snack or get a drink, So
we know, you know what the popular eras were and
what the not so popular eras were. I don't think
Taylor or the Swifties would appreciate me sharing that data,
(20:24):
but it's definitely some of the cool things that we
have the power to do with all these numbers.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, pretty cool. Well, you mentioned it at the top
of the podcast that you listened to Inside the Oval
when you were interested in joining the forty nine ers.
So if you were to talk to younger Max, what
advice did you give someone looking to enter the field
of sports analytics.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Yeah, I would say the misconception of you know, the
analytics world is that it's very numbers based. You know,
it's a science, but it's also an art. I think
that that gets lost in translation a lot of times.
So my advice would be kind of, show me what
you can do, Show me projects that you've done, a
portfolio if you have one. You know, the art of
(21:06):
how to present data and how to explain it to
people that don't understand it as easily is just as
important as the science behind the data. So I would say, yeah,
the biggest piece of advice is show me what you
can do.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I know you have mentioned at least to me in
private conversations that cooperation and you know, instituting yourself with
other teams is a valuable thing. You mentioned other you
mentioned earlier getting together with the thirty one, other clubs
within the NFL at different meetings and speaking to other folks.
(21:40):
You've also talked about going to Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and many
more cities across the country to meet teams from you know,
different sports. How do you think that experience going there
meeting those people has impacted our BSA team here with
the forty nine Ers.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Yeah, I love the opportunity to go visit, you know,
whether we're on the road for an away game, getting
to visit both a football team that's in that city,
or for example, when we visited the Eagles last season,
we also had the chance to speak with you know,
the Phillies and the Flyers while we were there. So
understanding both what's happening on the ground in other venues
really helps us to strike up inspiration about what's happening here.
(22:20):
Football isn't always comparable to what happens in baseball. Right,
We've got ten home games a season, baseball's got eighty one,
so a lot of the economics are very different, but
that doesn't mean that we can't take inspiration from what's
going on in other teams. And not only that, it
helps to build your network. Right, Just talking about your
work and what you do helps you to be more confident,
(22:40):
you know, helps you to find ways to hold a
conversation and you know, certainly allows you to continue to
kind of brand yourself as a professional.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Well. Work life balance is super important and we talk
about it a lot amongst us, but working in sports,
that could be hard. And you just said earlier that
after a game, you go home and you watch the
game again. So I want to know, how do you
have a life outside of sports. How do you keep
your mental good so that when you come into work
you're ready to go.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah. I try to do what I can to unplug.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
I don't have one of those jobs that's significantly busier
in season versu out of season. We're kind of just
always busy, as a lot of people in sports would say.
But you know, I do my best to find other
things that I'm passionate about. I love to travel sometimes,
I you know, add that to the starter the end
of an away game trip.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
You know, big fan of gaming.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
You know I love watching other sports too, not just football,
big baseball fan, big Formula one fan. So I try
to find ways to kind of decompress from work when
I can.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Waking up at three four in the morning to watch
Formula one or what's up with that?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Luckily this weekend's race is in Austin, Texas, so it's a.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Very reasonable noon.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
But definitely when they're in the European season, a lot
of six am race starts from the West coast here.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah. Well, I think Max is a friend of mine,
and I also think of him as the king of
fun facts. There's all these little tidbits you got to
know about Max. One of them is his hat collection.
And we were talking about it earlier. It was what
one hundred and forty different Niners hats. Walk us through it, like,
where did this hat collection journey start? And where are
you at right now?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, I started wearing hats. I was not wearing hats, right.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I was, you know, told growing up that, like by
my grandmother, like if you wear hats, you're gonna start
losing your hair a lot earlier.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Turns out, so, so I never wore.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Hats until you know, high school, college. Turns out, I
started losing my hair even you know, without wearing the hats.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I was like, well, at that point, I'm just going
to start wearing hats.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
So I started, you know, collecting hats when I was
in college, but I wasn't working for the Niners yet,
So I was just finding hats that I really liked.
And I'm not a fan of the you know, normal
color ways. Like if I got a Giant's hat, it
wouldn't be a black and orange hat, right.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
It's always the funky colors.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
The funky designs and I started collecting, right, I had
a lot almost all the baseball teams, a lot of basketball,
a lot of hockey, a few NFL And then when
I started here at the Night, I was like, well,
I work for a sports team.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Now I can just I just wear hats every day.
So that was two and a half years ago.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I bought my first forty nine ers hat, and since
you know the in the two and a half years since,
I've accumulated about one hundred and forty other hats. And
you know, I try to tell my interns on the
first day, like, You're never gonna see me wear the
same hat twice while I'm here.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And so far I've stuck up to that promise.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
And you know, maybe one day I'll get an official
sponsorship for it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That would be cool.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yeah, do you have a favorite? Favorite? Is tough?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know, we had the awesome opportunity last year to
go to the Super Bowl, and I was like, all right,
the hat that I wear to.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
The Super Bowl has gotta be an important hat.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
And I spent like an hour like writing down a
pros cod list everything about which hat I was gonna
wear to the Super Bowl, and I ended up between
a few, like like one of them was like my
first forty nine ers hat. I'm like, oh, it's going
to be a full circle moment. I'm gonna wear the
first forty nine ers hat to the super Bowl. Or
one of them was you know those those fancy gold
jackets that everyone wears, the sat and jackets, And I
(26:00):
have a hat that's made out of that satin material
from one of the jackets and new hat. I'm like, wow,
that's that's a good hat to win to the to
wear to the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
One of them is.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Lined with satin of all the logos of the super
Bowls we've won. I was like, oh, maybe that's that's
a good luck omen for the super Bowl. I ended
up wearing the satin jacket hat to the Super Bowl,
and I think it was a good choice. So I
think I have to go with that as my favorite hat.
But it's it's almost like choosing a favorite child, like it.
I don't want to make the other one hundred and
thirty nine hats feel bad.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
That's so funny. How do you use your data and
analytics skills into your hat collection? I know they tie together.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, this is embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
I do have a spreadsheet of all the forty nine
ers hats that I own, you know, sorted by when
I got it, how much I paid for it, what
color is the visor, the undervisor, the logo, what the
side patches, and it's all, you know, very meticulously sorted.
There's a picture of every hat in the spreadsheet, so
that if I'm at the store and I see one
that I don't have yet, I just you know, scroll
through the pictures and make sure.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
So that quite embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I've been talking about maybe a predictive model to figure out,
based on all these parameters if I will like a
hat or not, I mean, if I should add to
the collection. So that might be coming soon. But it
is definitely one of the nerdiest things about me, is
my my collection of hats is all in a spreadsheet.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
No, but I love it. Max, I mean Max, Noah.
Do you have a favorite fun fact about Max?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, one of my favorite fun facts about Max, and
this is a you know, an interest that he may
potentially have but NRG, which is a magic the gathering
competitive you know item. I suppose what is that?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Totally?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You know, I've always been involved in competition, but never
as a competitor. Right when I was little, I was
a little league baseball umpire. I was the manager of
my school's basketball team. In high school, I was involved
in the live broadcast. So I've always been like a
behind the scenes person, but I was I was an
avid player of the card game Magic the Gathering, which
(27:57):
if you've heard this, if you're familiar with that game
and you're listening to this podcast, kudos for quite the
overlap there. But I ended up starting up a tournament
series because I wanted a tournament series in my backyard
in Chicago. So that was called the Energy Series that
started in twenty sixteen and kind of grown into what
is now the largest independent tournament series in North America,
(28:19):
which is really cool to start something from the ground
up and have it build up there. But certainly you
know that a lot of my roots in how do
we do marketing or how do we put on events
came from running thirty person events in a little card
store in Illinois where I grew up. And seeing those
kinds of things translated to what I do now at
(28:39):
the forty nine ers has been quite the journey.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
So I know we mentioned a bunch of fun facts here.
As we near Halloween, I've noticed you have really enjoyed
dressing up. This is due to stocking your Instagram page.
You've gone as a bowl of pasta, a bedside dresser,
and a Domino's pizza delivery man. So what should we
expect this year? And do you have a favorite one
that you've dressed as in your past?
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I think the favorite one I've dressed as is the
old Man from Up So I put myself in a
giant cardboard box and I had like a thirty foot
tall balloon attached to me, which was really cool. I
think my dad stole it from a trade show he
was at or something. And it was a little problematic
because I couldn't walk up to the doors when I
was trick or treating right. I had to kind of
stand on the driveway and wave at them, and then
one of my friends would run up and get the
(29:23):
candy for me. So I do have a history of,
you know, a lot of homemade Halloween costumes in my past,
and shout out to my family for helping me do
all those.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
As you look back on your career, or even look
back to your journey starting in sports, analytics or just
going into college and wanting to foster the stream. Who
do you think of that's gotten you to this place,
and who are some shout outs you want to give
out to.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yeah, I mean shout out. Shout out to my parents
and my brother. You know, they've been really supportive and
everything that I wanted to do. As I mentioned, I
kind of waffled. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I was computer science, I was geography. At one point,
I was going to be a first responder. So really,
you know, waffled a lot, and they've been really supportive
to me, and I appreciate them. And then all the
all the friends and family you know along the way,
(30:10):
my friends in Chicago, Seattle and you two and the
friends that I've made here. Really really appreciate everyone's support
and I'm just happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah. Well, to get back to the last real question
about work, now that we've diverted on and off, we
always ask this. This is a ceremonial question here and
inside the oval. What are in other duties as assigned
type of project that you've completed here with the forty
nine ers.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, that's that's my favorite question.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
You know, and in every job description, other duties is assigned,
and especially in the sports industry, like as.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I mentioned, every day is different.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I've gone from taking orders at the concession stands when
we're in a rush and we need we need extra
bodies out there, which is not something that I had
thought I had signed up for when I got a data.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Job working in sports, or you know.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
Helping out at media day, helping to escort players between
you know, the forty nine ers social station and then
our broadcast and our video production and all the networks
that are out there filming there Sunday night football intro
videos like that is not something that was in my
job description that I ended up having a great time
with and getting to interact with the players.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
In that way.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
And then also some of the volunteer opportunities we get
here right working with the employee resource groups. We also
have a lot of field trips that come into the stadium,
So getting to talk to a bunch of kids about
you know, what I do on a day to day
basis and why data is important, especially in the sports world,
are not things that I thought I'd have the opportunity
to do here that I'm very grateful for.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
You're amazing, Max. Thank you so so much for joining
us today. Faithful, thanks for listening. Subscribe to Inside the
Ovel for more from the staff of the San Francisco
forty nine ers. We'll catch you next time.
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