The state-of-the-art LIVESTRONG Sporting Park garnered recognition alongside venues on four different continents by winning Venue of the Year, awarded to the world’s best stadium, arena or sports venue—from the small local club to the mega-capacity national sports facilities, and the Community Award.

Robb Heineman, a Managing Partner of Sporting Innovation won the Executive of the Year Award. Additionally, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park was nominated for the Customer Experience Award and New Venue Award. For more information on TheStadiumBusiness Awards visit their website at www.stadiumbusinessawards.com.

TheStadiumBusiness also profiled the Sporting Innovations’ work at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.

Hundreds of nominations were whittled down to create the shortlist, judged by an independent panel of industry figures including:

• Ebru Köksal, General Secretary, Turkish Football Federation
• David Manica, President, MANICA Architecture, USA
• Pat Coyle, President, Coyle Media Inc, USA
• Michael Bolingbroke, COO, Manchester United FC
• Thierry Favre, Head of National Associations Development, UEFA
• Ian Nuttall (Chair), Founder, TheStadiumBusiness, Italy

Award categories featuring LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Heineman and FAN360 are listed below with a complete list of nominees with winners in bold.

PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD

FAN360 (Sporting Innovations), USA
SPS Terraces (Intelligent Engineering), UK
Texlon ETFE Cladding at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin (Vector Foiltec), Germany
VisionSOFT (ANC Sports Enterprises LLC), USA
MCG Smartphone App (MCG / NextDigital), Australia

VENUE OF THE YEAR AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Amway Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai, China
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, New Zealand
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Robb Heineman, CEO, Sporting KC, USA
Alex Martins, CEO, Orlando Magic, USA
Julian Jenkins, Director Of International Marketing & Special Projects, Cardiff City FC, UK
Lee Zeidman, SVP and GM STAPLES Center, Nokia Theatre and L.A. LIVE, USA
Martin Perry, Executive Director, Brighton & Hove Albion FC, UK

COMMUNITY AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada
City Square / Etihad Stadium, Manchester City FC, UK
Amway Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK

NEW VENUE AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK
Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy
Stadion Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland
Ulker Sports Arena, Istanbul, Turkey
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, New Zealand
Coface Arena, Mainz, Germany

Sporting Innovations is seeking a full-time Client Results Executive to join the team. The Client Results Executive (CRE) is responsible for establishing active and positive relationships between Sporting Innovations and its clients.  The CRE is also responsible for assisting in the growth of Sporting Innovations’ solutions and services.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Works with business development to secure clients during the sales process; creates proposals and cost analysis models; builds client relationships and finalizes contracts.
• Manages new client implementation and integration projects; provides clients with FAN360 product support and problem solving.
• Supports overall sales and revenue retention strategy; establishes and maintains long-term relationships with clients; ensures successful and optimum utilization of FAN360 solutions.
• Identifies new business and/or client opportunities.
• Initiates and participates in project planning sessions with key internal and client stakeholders.

Characteristics

• Exceptional oral and written communication skills and the ability to communicate with and relate to multiple levels of a client’s organization (staff, general counsel, C-Suite)
• High level of initiative and works well in a team environment
• Handles stressful situations and deadline pressures well
• Plans and carries out responsibilities with minimal direction
• Consultative and problem-solving skills
• Client service and solution oriented
• Strong business and financial acumen
• Ability to upsell FAN360 solutions and services
• Ability and willingness for occasional travel to client sites
• Basic understanding of technology and software systems
• Good organizational skills, including time management
• Ability to work non-traditional hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays and to work on-call on a rotating basis.

Skills & Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree and 2-5 years of experience in client relationship management at the corporate level; or, any combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential responsibilities of the position as listed above
• Proficiency with Microsoft applications is expected; familiarity with addition software programs is valued
• Experience in sports industry a plus.

Garber spent some of his time talking about Sporting Innovations while discussing Sporting Kansas City.

Here’s the quote from Garber:

“In Kansas City, I think there’s a great story for our league and our view about parity, our view about partnership, but also our view about what’s happening in our country. Because here’s a market that’s not really viewed as one of the ethnically diverse hotbeds in America. It’s a relatively small market, it has minimal sports competition compared to New York, and we have a team there that has new ownership, that’s built a brand new stadium and is arguably the story in town, and one of the great stories in Major League Soccer. Very, very innovative ownership, very technology oriented. …

Sporting Kansas City is, amongst all of us in the industry – not just those of us in the league, but speak to those in the stadium business – arguably one of the most high-tech stadiums of any size, in any league, in the world. Full panoramic cameras, fully wired for video. Google has Kansas City as one of their high-speed hubs, has a lot of their services based in and around the stadium. The team is partnering with Google to do a wide variety of things, as well as with Cisco, and has launched an innovation company to take all the technology in LIVESTRONG Sporting Park and try to take it out to the world.”

 

Sporting Innovations is seeking a full-time Functional Writer/Quality Assurance Specialist with the skills to excel in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment. The ideal candidate will have experience writing technical documents and be familiar with the software development process. The Functional Writer/Quality Assurance Specialist is responsible for documenting requirements for the FAN360 platform and associated applications, in addition to following test procedures associated with our software development life cycle. This position will work closely in all stages of software development, from conception, strategy, requirements documentation, development, testing and deployment.

Characteristics

• High creativity
• Excellent written and verbal skills
• Detail oriented
• Ability to be flexible and adaptive
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills
• Able to work in a team environment
• Must like interacting with people
• Positive attitude & open to learning
• Excellent leadership abilities
• Strong work ethic & willingness to go the extra mile to ensure duties are accomplished
• Tech savvy
• Ability to allocate time effectively

Experience & Education

• Technical writing experience
• Experience with testing and designing test cases
• Knowledgeable of trends within the technology sphere, specifically social media and mobile applications
• Knowledgeable of computer systems and proficiency with both Windows and Mac, as well as all major browser types
• Strong understanding of the software process and knowledge of the fundamentals associated with developing software
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred; or, experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the position as listed above

Submit your resume to: Contact@Sporting-Innovations.com

No purchase necessary to enter. Open to legal residents of the United States. You must be at least 14 years old to enter. To submit your entry, visit SportingMembership.com/AppContest and complete the online application form at the bottom of the page. The deadline to submit your entries is 12:00am on Monday, June 3. You may enter as often as you like.

All entries will be reviewed by a panel (comprised of Sporting Kansas City front office personnel) to determine up to four finalists.  Finalists will be determined by Monday, June 25. Each finalist will then have the opportunity to pitch their idea in person to this panel.  The winner will be announced at the July 21 Sporting KC match vs. New England Revolution.

Judging for the contest will be based on the following criteria

•Engaging:  connects people to soccer
•Feasible:  realistic to be done/built/implemented
•Distinctiveness:  similar idea has not been executed previously in sports
•Versatility:  ability to resonate with fans both inside and outside the stadium, is compelling to all levels of affinity for the sport
•Ease of Use:  easy for folks of varying levels of competency to play and enjoy
•Appeal:  creates interest among a wide range of fans, from die-hard to casual
•Marketable:  game or app has the potential to generate revenue for participation

DISCLAIMERS:

As soon as you hit the “send” button, any ideas, concepts, inventions, communications, or any other data or information, provided by applicants to Sporting Kansas City related to this contest shall become, upon receipt by Sporting Kansas City, the sole property of Sporting Kansas City.  Applicants acknowledge that Sporting Kansas City has the sole and exclusive right to all intellectual property as well as the sole and exclusive right to commercially exploit the same.

All taxes and expenses related to acceptance and use of prizes, including sales and income tax, are winners’ sole responsibility.

The state-of-the-art LIVESTRONG Sporting Park garnered recognition alongside venues on four different continents with its consideration for Venue of the Year, awarded to the world’s best stadium, arena or sports venue—from the small local club to the mega-capacity national sports facilities.

Additionally, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park was nominated for the Customer Experience Award, Community Award and New Venue Award while Sporting KC CEO Robb Heineman (also a Managing Partner of Sporting Innovations) was nominated for the Executive of the Year Award.

The winners will be announced live at the TheStadiumBusiness Awards gala, to be held in Turin on May 15. Award categories featuring LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Heineman and FAN360 are listed below with a complete list of nominees.

PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD

FAN360 (Sporting Innovations), USA
SPS Terraces (Intelligent Engineering), UK
Texlon ETFE Cladding at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin (Vector Foiltec), Germany
VisionSOFT (ANC Sports Enterprises LLC), USA
MCG Smartphone App (MCG / NextDigital), Australia

VENUE OF THE YEAR AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Amway Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
Mercedes-Benz Arena, Shanghai, China
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, New Zealand
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Robb Heineman, CEO, Sporting KC, USA
Alex Martins, CEO, Orlando Magic, USA
Julian Jenkins, Director Of International Marketing & Special Projects, Cardiff City FC, UK
Lee Zeidman, SVP and GM STAPLES Center, Nokia Theatre and L.A. LIVE, USA
Martin Perry, Executive Director, Brighton & Hove Albion FC, UK

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada
City Square / Etihad Stadium, Manchester City FC, UK
Amway Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK

COMMUNITY AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland
Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

NEW VENUE AWARD

LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, Kansas City, USA
The American Express Community Stadium, Brighton, UK
Juventus Stadium, Turin, Italy
Stadion Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
National Stadium, Warsaw, Poland
Ulker Sports Arena, Istanbul, Turkey
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, New Zealand
Coface Arena, Mainz, Germany

LSP joined the Amway Center, Mercedez-Benz Superdome and Salt River Field as the four nominees for the award

Also, Sporting Kansas City was nominated for Sports Team of the Year. Kansas City joined the Boston Bruins, Dayton Dragons, Stewart-Haas Racing and the Texas Rangers.

The winners will be announced on May 23rd in New York City.

Welcome to “Silicon Prairie.”

Kansas City, straddling the Kansas and Missouri state line, is home to tech giants likeSprint Nextel Corp. S -5.02% and Cerner Corp., CERN -0.38% but its industry ranks have been swelling with smaller firms. In 2009, the number of tech companies rose by 5% to 2,900, trumping the growth rates of well-known hubs like Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin, Texas, according to a 2010 study published by the TechAmerica Foundation.

Part of what attracts entrepreneurs to Kansas City is a high-speed fiber network from Google, which chose the city over 1,100 others to set up the service.

Part of the lure for entrepreneurs: a high-speed fiber network from Google Inc.,GOOG +1.33% which chose Kansas City over 1,100 other cities to set up the service. Expected to roll out next year, the network will run 100 times faster than current broadband, which will likely bolster cloud-based technologies and pave the way for high-definition streaming services that will be hard to find elsewhere.

The Google initiative will be “an excellent platform for innovation,” says Bryan Richard, founder of iCode Inc., a Web start-up that posts profiles of software developers. “Everyone in the technology business is talking about it here in town, and everyone wants to do something with it and maximize it.”

Entrepreneurs who have relocated from the coasts also tout the friendly business environment. It’s far less expensive to build a firm and develop technology, they say, and there are fewer state and city regulations to worry about. And, as in other hubs, many entrepreneurs are helping each other. “Numerous times people have asked me for things I have expertise in and there are times where I call competitors…for specific problems,” says Donald Rossberg, president of Dataworks Inc., a technology-support and consulting start-up. “In the end, we all benefit.”

More on this story in the Kansas City Business Journal.

This week, FastCompany.com named Sporting Kansas City the fourth most innovative sports company in the world.

“For enhancing the stadium experience with digital amenities. This Major League Soccer team’s new LIVESTRONG Sporting Park sets a new standard with a reliable network for surfing, a rarity in parks and stadiums, along with individual access to replays and clever apps and features to get fans involved (predicting the action, tweeting messages to the Jumbotron). The club, the first to name its venue after a nonprofit, launched a business consulting other teams on making their venues more tech-enabled.”

Sporting Kansas City joined companies such as ESPN (#5), MLB Advanced Media (#2), and the National Football League (#1). The only other sports team on the list was the Dallas Mavericks (#6).

FastCompany.com wrote a feature piece on Sporting Innovations in January detailing the many features of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park that enhance the fans’ experience at a soccer match.

Sporting Innovations is seeking a full-time Quality Assurance Analyst with the skills to excel in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment. The ideal candidate will have experience with testing and designing test cases and a working knowledge of data models and the relationships between data elements. The Quality Assurance Analyst is responsible for enhancing and maintaining our software solutions by following test procedures associated with our software development life cycle processes. Quality Assurance analysts will work with the software development team to insure that a workable solution is delivered to our clients and eliminate the possibility for errors

Characteristics

• Detail oriented
• Ability to be flexible and adaptive
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills
• Able to work in a team environment
• Excellent written and verbal skills
• Must like interacting with people
• Positive attitude & open to learning
• Excellent leadership abilities
• Strong work ethic & willingness to go the extra mile to ensure duties are accomplished
• Ability to get along with diverse personalities; tactful and mature
• Ability to use time efficiently and to prioritize and plan work activities while avoiding or minimizing personal distractions
• Tech savvy
• Ability to allocate time effectively

Experience & Education

• Experience with testing and designing test cases
• Working knowledge of data models and the relationships between data elements
• Knowledgeable of computer systems and proficiency with both Windows and Mac, as well as all major browser types
• Strong understanding of the software process and knowledge of the fundamentals associated with developing software
• Working knowledge of HTML and CSS
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred; or, experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the position as listed above