MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. (Rob Carr, Getty Images)
Every year since it began in 2007, the has drawn some of the biggest names and brightest minds in sports to discuss the increasing role of advanced stats and the latest technologies and developments in the industry.
Originally held at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Mass., and later moved to the Boston Convention Center because of its rapid growth, the multi-day event is packed to the brim with panels and presentations that have changed some of the day-to-day operations of leagues, teams and governing bodies.
This year’s event, held Friday and Saturday, was, of course, the biggest yet, with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, many other pro sports executives and media, past and present athletes and heads of startups among its long list of speakers.
Some highlights from the 2015 conference:
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Rob Manfred, MLB commissioner
Earlier this month, Manfred had introduced new rules to speed the and said he’d like to see a shorter schedule. Speaking at the Sloan Conference on Friday, Manfred offered his reasoning for wanting to cut the season by six games:
“I was asked whether I could ever see going to 154, and I said I could see that being something that could happen down the road. The main reason that I see the appeal to 154 is it’s a grueling season.”
He also touched on a range of topics, from legalized sports gambling …
“In terms of the ‘away from the field’ issues associated with the legalization of gambling – I think that enough has happened out there that it’s incumbent upon me and my staff to take to the owners the developments in this area, to have a conversation about some of the rules that go beyond the play of the game on the field that we’ve had traditionally in baseball and revisit those.”
… to the new pace-of-play rules:
“I think if you improve pace of play, you will see a downward trend in the absolute length of the game as well. We’re not so focused on that, because it is possible that a high-action, lot-of-runs-scored, 3:02 game may be fine from a pace perspective. There’s nothing wrong with that game. It’s the 1-0 game that goes 3:02 that concerns us.”
… to expansion of instant replay:
“You will see a continuing gradual expansion of the plays. We added the tag plays this year, which will be something new. We think we have the vast majority of the plays that are really susceptible to replay review right now, but there are a few at the margin I think we will continue to add as time goes by and we get more comfortable with the system.”
… to potentially expanding Major League Baseball outside of the United States:
“There is not a lot of conversation right now about additional teams. … We’ve got a couple of markets where we really do need to get new facilities built — really more focused on that issue than we are on expansion. …I am interested in the internationalization of the game. Canada is a big country and only has one Major League team. Mexico is certainly close enough that it would work in terms of having a team there. So I think over the longer horizon, the idea of having maybe two more teams maybe outside the United States is intriguing.”
… to the league’s embrace of advanced analytics. Manfred said MLB.com’s Statcast technology, which provides tracking data and video of plays in real-time, will be available in all 30 ballparks by the start of the 2015 season:
“I think that there will be three principal initial deployments. It will be available in the premium service on At Bat, it will be available on the website, and our thinking is, and we’re not finalized on these yet, a number of our RSNs (regional sports networks) will use Statcast in their broadcasts.”
Check out from the conference for more.
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NCAA reform
“If players are declared employees, then they’ll unionize. Difficult, nuanced problem.”
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
“It’s better for the player and for the team if an NBA player has at least a year in college. 2 years would better.”
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
Jim Phillips – only 23 of ~1100 schools turn a profit without any subsidies.
— Jimmy Karam (@AlwaysFirst2)
“I think we’ll see litigation if students are declared employees and are paid more than cost of attendance.”
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
“The next wave of litigation may be Olympic athletes and other ‘non-revenue generating’ sport athletes.”
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
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The Tommy John epidemic
Glenn Fleisig, the research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute, spoke about the rise of Tommy John surgeries (ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction) on Saturday.
While noting that there are multiple factors at play in the Tommy John epidemic, Fleisig said that many of today’s major-league pitchers deal with overuse and fatigue.
HS kids who pitched >80 pitches/game 4x more likely to need ; pitch fatigued – 36x more likely -Glenn Fleisig
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
What’s more: Fleisig said research doesn’t back the widely held the notion that throwing curveballs at a young age can cause elbow damage.
“We expected the curveball to have more torque than the fastball,” he said, “but it turns out it has less.”
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Don Garber, MLS commissioner
. Commissioner says 20 years is a good milestone but looking forward to 25 (new CBA, TV deal, etc)
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
. Commissioner “hopeful” season will start on time
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
There’s a special thing happening in US Soccer thanks to passionate owners, market plans, and the millennial fanbase –
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
“if you put a stadium downtown… that’s a pretty good forumula” – on creating markets for soccer to go viral
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
Monitoring players for health purposes is one thing while for fan engagement is another. We need fan engagement.
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
When Beckham’s ownership option was negotiated saw zero probability of it happening.
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
In the 1:1, says he is open to testing technologies, like offside detection, in the MLS
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
Check out for more from Garber’s panel.
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Adam Silver, NBA commissioner
Why doesn’t the NBA crack down on people ripping plays on YouTube? Adam Silver: “Highlights are marketing.”
— Matt Dollinger (@matt_dollinger)
Adam Silver says that the NBA has to provide fans with relevant content while they’re at games.
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf)
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Shane Battier, ex-NBA player and current ESPN commentator
Battier, a 13-year NBA player and two-time champion, spoke on three panels at the Sloan Conference, addressing a number of topics from the NBA’s 82-game schedule, to guarding Carmelo Anthony.
There has been a lot of discussion over the years, and more so recently, about the NBA’s lengthy season. The 82-game slate with many back-to-backs and back-to-back-to-backs often lead to injury and, some say, a lesser product for fans. Proponents of keeping the 82-game schedule, however, see the money and marketing opportunities that come with it.
Battier is among the former, and would like to see the season shortened. Per :
“Personally, I think a 60-game season would be perfect,” Battier said. “Every game matters more. You can’t sleepwalk through a few weeks of the season — it does happen — and then all of a sudden wake up near the All-Star break and turn it on. Fans just want to see the best basketball players in the world at their highest level going head-to-head.
“Every team has a certain number of throwaway games. You just know. You just know you’re not winning tonight. You don’t have it. And then after the game, coach knows it, everybody knows it, coach comes in, says ‘Alright, bring it in guys. We’ll get ’em tomorrow. 1-2-3 team!'”
Battier has also long been a proponent on advanced analytics, and during his playing days, he would use the data to his advantage. Among the many star players he had to go up against during his time in the NBA, Battier said he was pleased with how he guarded Anthony.
“I had some success against him,” . “The numbers really play out with him, and as he’s gotten older, he has not been about reinvention. The last two years I played him, he did exactly what the scouting report said he was going to do, every single time.
“A lot of players will deviate — Kobe was so tough in his prime, or Durant or LeBron. But Carmelo, I knew what he was doing. He was on the left block, he’s going to dip his right shoulder and go to his left hand every single time — he travels every time, by the way; he travels every single time. But if I made him use his right hand and go over his left shoulder, he didn’t want to do that. And as a result, I was able to drain his efficiency.”
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Research papers
The Sloan Conference is known as much for its panels and speakers as it is for its research papers, and this year’s papers focused on four topics: basketball, baseball, other sports and the business of sports. The finalists vying for the $20,000 first-place prize and $10,000 second-place prize:
- Basketball: Counterpoints: (by Alexander Franks, Andrew Miller, Luke Bornn and Kirk Goldsberry
- Baseball: (by Joe Rosales and Scott Spratt)
- Other sports: (by Stephen Pettigrew)
- Business of sports: (by Clayton Graham)
