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SBJ Unpacks

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SBJ Unpacks

Nearly three years after the public launch of ChatGPT catalyzed a groundswell of generative artificial intelligence adoption, levels of AI maturity within the sports industry vary widely.

Where most organizational leaders agree, however, is that reconciling this transformative and constantly evolving technology is a core business priority, particularly in investigating ways it can streamline operations. And this emphasis comes from the top down.

“One of [our five biggest company objectives] is master AI to boost efficiency and impact,” X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom recently told Sports Business Journal. “That is a leg on the stool, it’s not a peripheral goal or an afterthought.”

Internal efficiency-focused AI use cases are not always flashy, nor directly revenue generating. They run the gamut of areas such as segmenting fan data, drafting communications and employee onboarding, and are increasingly tapping agentic workflows, a class of artificial intelligence that is more autonomous — meaning minimal or no human intervention — and layered in its decision making than large language models, and can act on behalf of users.

The empirical benefits of AI in these contexts remain theoretical in some cases, but tech leaders center their efforts on increasing productivity and freeing understaffed departments to focus on big picture priorities, rather than mundane daily tasks.

Everyone is different

Enamored with the potential impact of AI on the sports industry, Josh Walker, co-founder and CEO of data firm Sports Innovation Lab, earlier this year launched a sports-focused AI education program called AI Advantage. With two of four planned sessions completed, the program has assembled hundreds of industry professionals — split evenly among teams/leagues, brands/agencies and media/technology companies, in Walker’s estimation — to learn more about AI and investigate potential use cases through presentations and product demos.

The biggest trend he has noticed with how sports teams and leagues are adopting AI?

“There is no pattern,” Walker said. “It would make perfect sense for the leagues to centralize the services that they are building for AI and roll it out to the teams. The teams never wait for that. You have some enterprising data science team or some enterprising CTO at the team level — they’re going to try stuff faster than the leagues do.”

Professional basketball is a hotbed of such enterprising teams.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, according to Michael Conley, the team’s executive vice president and chief information officer and president of Rock Entertainment Sports Network, began their generative AI discovery 3½ years ago. This started by consulting tech experts on the potential impact of generative AI and forming a cross-departmental generative AI committee. Eventually, they even transitioned one of their data quality analysts, Ben Levicki, into a full-time AI solutions architect, a first in the sports industry.

Cavs Rocket Arena
Ticket, food and beverage and retail data are among the areas the Cavaliers have deployed generative AI insights over the past 3 1/2 years. Cleveland Cavaliers

Since then, the Cavs have found success in initial use cases, such as building a semantic search function for the team’s basketball operations manual and a generative AI insights layer for their real-time ticket, food and beverage and retail data platform. At the direction of their C-suite, they are now focused on automating elements of their external communications, streamlining the processing of internal fan data and personalizing fan interaction.

During the NBA’s first Data Strategy Forum in July, the team presented the working prototype of a custom-built product that leverages a network of AI agents and fan information to distribute individualized emails to subscribers, down to details such as color scheme and emoji usage. After further testing using real fan profiles in September, the Cavs’ plan is for the product to be a part of email workflows by the start of the 2025-26 NBA season.

“Our goal is to be able to increase the amount of engagement that comes off a click action for those emails, to be able to eventually lead to better results down the funnel,” Conley said. “Is the messaging more effective, where we’re seeing greater open rates? Are we seeing greater engagement?”

Elsewhere, the Indiana Fever have seen potential in deploying AI agents (via Salesforce’s Agentforce platform) to comb through and segment internal fan data, which Joey Graziano, Pacers Sports & Entertainment executive vice president of strategy and new business ventures, said will help the team deliver personalized offers, content and experiences to fans and eventually be a resource for partners as well.

This is a massive potential use case in sports, given the multifaceted nature of fan data and ability for AI to scale the capabilities of understaffed data engineering departments.

“We are getting more sophisticated every day,” Graziano said. “And it’s not just the sophistication, it’s the speed and it’s the volume of segments you can create.”

The San Antonio Spurs, as a unique example, are using OpenAI to train models on previous years’ travel calendars (and other custom rules) to ingest the NBA’s overarching schedule and create deliverables such as team-specific master calendars, flight charters and email templates for outreach to preferred hotels and practice facilities on the road.

Human oversight is required, of course, but Charlie Kurian, the team’s director of business strategy and innovation, said tests have shown that first iterations of the deliverables can be produced in about 20 minutes, with the end-to-end, manual process of inputting information into Excel block-by-block distilled from three weeks to, at worst, one. He anticipates a version of the technology will aid the Spurs’ schedule-making as early as this season.

“This came directly from our CEO,” Kurian said. “[The message was], ‘Our people need to be focused on the higher ROI items. How do we use AI to deal with some of these tasks we’re bogged down with?’”

Culture matters

Kurian, at the head of the Spurs’ AI adoption effort, often says the first step of building a company’s “AI muscle” is enabling an AI-empowered workforce.

“We still believe we are very, very early on in the AI revolution. It’s hard to tell who is going to win, and what is going to stick,” Kurian said, comparing the current marketplace of competing AI platforms to the early days of social networking. “But what we can undoubtedly say is this technology will absolutely stick for the foreseeable future. [We’re] making sure we have invested in the most important thing we have — which is our people — so that, agnostic of what tool it comes to, we will still win.”

The team put this focus into action last year by piloting a generative AI learning program using ChatGPT, which has led to 90% of the 150 participants adopting the technology on a week-to-week basis, according to Kurian.

“We’ve crossed a threshold in people broadly using AI tools,” he said. “Now we’re doing discovery across every single department in our organization, understanding workflows, and, in the most positive way, blowing up the workflows to be able to integrate where AI can add value so that the real human beings can focus on the best use of their resources.”

Across its properties, TKO also is undertaking a hands-on approach to AI discovery and education, according to Alon Cohen, executive vice president of innovation. He and Melanie Hildebrandt, TKO and WME Group’s CIO, brought in an advanced prompt engineer for hands-on AI training with “natural early adopters” (e.g., TKO’s innovation and IT teams), and are now looking for other areas the technology can provide business value.

“The next version of almost every business application that we use has a heavy AI component to it,” Cohen said. “So, every team is identifying places where they think they can be successful, and when they go through their next upgrade cycle — or we consolidate to a new tool that’s also a good moment for an upgrade cycle — those tools become available.”

Jeremy Bloom X Games
X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom said the property’s employees are encouraged to spend 10% of their working hours experimenting with AI tools that could increase productivity. AP Images

X Games encourages its staff to dedicate 10% of their working hours to experiment with AI tools that could boost productivity, Bloom said. One particularly effective use case has been in training a model on droves of internal data to be a resource for new hires on everything from finding sales deck templates to signing up for benefits.

“The company that I founded before [joining X Games], we had 600 employees, so we had really big and built-out functions across all these specific areas,” Bloom said, referring to the software startup Integrate. “[At] X Games, we have like 30 full-time employees. Necessity is the mother of invention for us.”

Reason for optimism

Across virtually all corporate industries, there is palpable and understandable anxiety about the potential for AI to replace certain job functions.

Bloom, for one, noted that the AI startup he recently launched, Owl AI — which offers AI-powered competition judging, data processing and broadcast commentary capabilities, including for X Games — is leveraging AI agents for market research, effectively substituting for an internal team or expensive third-party consulting firm.

However, he views live sports as not just insulated from automation, but potentially a benefactor of it.

“AI is going to disrupt so many jobs and so many industries,” Bloom said. “But I think the tailwind for us, and for any sport, is humans are still going to want to watch humans play football, and not want to watch robots play football. I think that is a huge tailwind for X Games, for the NFL, for Major League Baseball, basketball. I think it’s one of the big reasons we’re seeing so much private equity want to get into sports.”

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2025 All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year: Cissna Park’s Josh Landon | Sports

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December 20, 2025

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Cissna Park volleyball coach Josh Landon guided the Timberwolves to a Class 1A state championship on Nov. 15, and he stopped by The News-Gazette in Champaign this past Sunday with three of his biggest supporters: from left, his 14-year-old daughter Kate, his wife Sarah and his 11-year-old daughter Annalise.




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Meet the 2025 All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year: Cissna Park’s Josh Landon

Why he’s Coach of the Year

Cissna Park’s third consecutive time in the Class 1A state tournament was the charm, as the Timberwolves capped a 40-1 season with their first-ever state championship. Coach Josh Landon stopped by The News-Gazette with players Addison Lucht, Josie Neukomm and Sophie Duis to chat with staff writer Joey Wright about the program’s sustained success:

How do you put this season into words?

➜ Landon: It’s honestly still tough to put into words. The more we talk about it, now that we’ve had a month since being state champs, it’s kind of setting in what we were able to accomplish. And that’s the thing, it was the expectations coming in on paper. You have everything back and only replacing two seniors.

It was the challenge of making sure that everybody stayed focused on one goal, and that was trying to be their best every single day. But man, what a run that they were able to put together. Looking at the postseason and not losing a set, it’s just remarkable what they were able to accomplish.

And you didn’t call a timeout.

➜ Landon: I did not. I wasn’t keeping track of that, but some of the girls did let me know that.

How do you approach a season like this one, where you have all those expectations both from the outside and within?

➜ Landon: It was a challenge. I shared with our assistant coach, Nicole Trumble, and I shared with my wife, Sarah that this is going to be one of the harder years to coach just because of those expectations and things. But it was one of those for us as a staff, we started looking outside the box on different things. We looked for different drills to help motivate, different ways that we could challenge the team every day in practice, and setting small, little goals.

We were fortunate enough that Gabby Wessels was coming back to the area, and she was able to volunteer with us as an alum, bringing some of the mindfulness, so to speak, from her time being at Chattanooga, where she got her master’s. That was a different side of the game that we were able to present to the girls.

For the players, has it set in for you that you are state champions?

➜ Lucht: Having a month now to reflect on it, it really is beginning to set in how big of a thing it was that we just accomplished. Right after we were really happy. But then obviously we had to get right into basketball, but now that we’ve kind of had time to reflect on it, I think it just keeps getting cooler and cooler by the day just being able to think that we did that, and to be able to know that I ended my last game of my volleyball career with a win on the biggest stage as a state champ.

➜ Duis: It’s been really cool, definitely. It’s set in a little bit, but I think it’s still a little surreal for me. Just super exciting. We’re just so proud of each other and grateful we got to do it together. And I just think we wouldn’t have asked for anything else to end the season

➜ Neukomm: I’m going have to agree with Addie.

Like she said, we want to win on the biggest stage, but more importantly, with all the girls that we’ve been working through blood, sweat and tears on this season.

We’re leaving, but there’s still a big group of girls coming up after us that’s extremely talented. And I think it was amazing that we all were able to hone on one mission, and we were all able to get done together.

As an athletic director as well as being the coach, how do you balance everything that comes along with a busy season?

➜ Landon: I’m thankful for a 15-minute drive to and from work every day to get my mind right. But it’s the planning part of it, right? You wear different hats, but honestly, I think that’s what helps it maintain its course.

It allows you to become a little bit easier, so to speak. I’m not just focused on coaching volleyball in that particular moment. We’ve also got to make sure that we have things ready for the junior high basketball season, junior high baseball, where are the golfers going this particular day through my AD role. It doesn’t allow me to sit there and dwell on certain aspects. It allows me to stay fresh, so to speak.

What’s it like playing for Josh?

➜ Duis: It’s really nice that we’ve gotten to have him as a coach for so long and to have that relationship. I think we know them well, and I think likewise, they know us really well, and they know what we respond to and what helps us the most.

I think having that connection made it a lot easier just to connect with each other and to get us pushing farther.

➜ Neukomm: I don’t know if I can put it into words, but I mean, not only him, but our assistant coaches in Coach Trumble and Coach Wessels, they’ve all put their heart and soul into this team, and I think they expect nothing but the best from us.

Not only on the court, but off the court, they expect us to be in the classroom, trying our hardest and then coming after school every day with a focus and a fresh mind ready just to pound out new drills or whether it’s old stuff that we just need to focus on the little things to become better players.

➜ Lucht: It really helped us having that connection since we’ve been practicing since fourth grade, and they know how we play, and they know how we respond to things, so they know how to coach us and what gets us motivated.

I don’t think it even gets recognized how much they put into us as as girls and just as a team, because like you were saying, Coach Landon has lots of hats that he has to wear, being the athletic director, and also having two daughters, and just trying to balance all that during the busy time of the fall when there’s multiple sports going on.

So I think that could sometimes go unnoticed, but it’s really appreciated.





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Kentucky ‘playing with joy’ heading into NCAA volleyball title match

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December 20, 2025

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Dec. 20, 2025, 2:35 p.m. ET



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2025 AVCA All-American | First Team At the AVCA Major League Volleyball All-America / Players of the Year Banquet presented by Nike, Elia Rubin was recognized as a 2025 AVCA All-American First Team selection. Reflecting on the honor, Rubin shared: “It’s such a huge honor. Being surrounded by so many amazing people makes it even more special. We were a young team, and every day brought a different challenge—but that’s what made it so much fun.” Rubin emphasized the importance of enjoying the journey and credited her teammates and coaches for creating a season defined by growth, connection, and joy. Congratulations to Elia Rubin on an outstanding season and First Team All-American recognition.

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2025 AVCA All-American | First Team</p> <p>At the AVCA Major League Volleyball All-America / Players of the Year Banquet presented by Nike, Elia Rubin was recognized as a 2025 AVCA All-American First Team selection.</p> <p>Reflecting on the honor, Rubin shared:</p> <p>“It’s such a huge honor. Being surrounded by so many amazing people makes it even more special. We were a young team, and every day brought a different challenge—but that’s what made it so much fun.”</p> <p>Rubin emphasized the importance of enjoying the journey and credited her teammates and coaches for creating a season defined by growth, connection, and joy.</p> <p>Congratulations to Elia Rubin on an outstanding season and First Team All-American recognition. | American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)



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2025 Mirror Girls Volleyball All-Stars | News, Sports, Jobs

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December 20, 2025

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FIRST TEAM

Delayni Baird, so., Hollidaysburg: Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A All-District first team. … Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association all-state selection. … Finished with a team-high 657 assists. … Had 69 aces and 157 digs.

Addi Basenback, sr., Hollidaysburg: Second-team Mirror all-star as a junior. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A All-District first team. … Recorded 251 kills and 35 aces. … Also contributed 161 digs for the District 6 champion Lady Tigers.

Erica Brouse, sr., Central Cambria: Mirror second-team all-star as a junior. … Helped Central Cambria win the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A All-District first team. … Led Central Cambria with 326 kills.

Kynlee Budny, so., Hollidaysburg: Second-team Mirror all-star as a freshman. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A All-District first team. … Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association all-state selection. … Had 260 kills and a 0.305 hitting percentage.

Rylan Crowell, sr., Tyrone: Mirror second-team all-star as a sophomore. … Helped Tyrone go 8-8 in the regular season and qualify for the District 6 playoffs. … Surpassed 500 career kills for her career this season. … Had 11 kills and 13 digs in a four-set win over Penns Valley. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A All-District second team.

Allie Dziabo, sr., Central Cambria: Mirror first-team all-star as a junior at Bishop Carroll. … Helped Central Cambria win the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship. … … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A All-District second team. … Led Central Cambria with 100 blocks and added 169 kills.

Lily Gergely, so., Penn Cambria: Finished with 275 kills and 49 aces. … Compiled 266 service points and 159 serves received. … Had 61 blocks and had 75 digs. … Helped Penn Cambria go 10-8 and qualify for the District 6 playoffs. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A All-District first team.

Olivia Gregg, jr., Bishop Carroll: Second-team Mirror all-star as both a sophomore and freshman. … Finished the year with 271 kills and a 0.365 hitting percentage. … Had 378 digs and 50 aces this season. … Helped Bishop Carroll finish 12-8 in the regular season and advance to the District 6 Class 1A quarterfinals.

Braelyn Hall, sr., Juniata Valley: Mirror first-team all-star as a junior. … Inter-County Conference first-team all-star. … Went over 1,000 career digs for her career during her senior season. … Helped Juniata Valley go 10-8 in the regular season and qualify for the District 6 playoffs. … For her career, she had 252 service points, 47 aces, 30 assists and 1,033 digs.

Rachel McClellan, sr., Glendale: Mirror first-team all-star as a junior. … Inter-County Conference first-team all-star. … Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association all-state selection. … Finished with 452 kills, as well as 237 digs, 144 service points, 48 aces and 10 blocks for the Lady Vikings.

Kenzi McLanahan, so., Hollidaysburg: Second-team Mirror all-star as a freshman. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 3A All-District first team. … Libero for the District 6 champions. … Had 232 digs and 50 aces. … Had a 2.08 SR rating.

Emily Olienyk, jr., Bishop Carroll: Mirror first-team all-star as a sophomore. … Helped Bishop Carroll finish 12-8 in the regular season and advance to the District 6 Class 1A quarterfinals. … Finished with 273 kills and a 0.311 hitting percentage. … Had 83 aces and 81 blocks for the Lady Huskies.

Rowyn Ruddek, jr., Central Cambria: Helped Central Cambria win the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship. … … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 2A All-District second team. … Led Central Cambria with 348 digs and 378 serves received. … Added 21 aces.

Annalyse Yost, sr., Altoona: First-team Mirror all-star as a junior. … Made the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association Class 4A All-District first team. … Second-team Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division all-star. … Finished with 163 kills, 47 blocks, 26 aces, 76 digs and 78 service points for the Lady Spikers. … For her career, she had 380 kills, 167 blocks, 31 aces, 109 service points and 117 digs.

SECOND TEAM

Raina Alexander, jr., Williamsburg

Abby Anthony, sr., Tyrone

Sophie Becquet, sr., Bishop Carroll

Maraya Bittner, sr., Altoona

Amberly Detterline, jr., Northern Bedford

Kate Eckenrode, so., Penn Cambria

Payton Hinish, sr., Claysburg-Kimmel

Riley Kauffman, jr., Central Cambria

Calla Miko, sr., Portage

Kerrie Mock, sr., Central

Kaitlyn Mortimore, fr., Claysburg-Kimmel

Mara Pablic, so., Central Cambria

Marina Petucci, sr., Altoona

Madi Skebeck, sr., Glendale

Carly Sowers, sr., Cambria Heights



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Wisconsin lands All-American middle blocker Jaela Auguste via portal

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December 20, 2025

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Dec. 20, 2025, 12:39 p.m. CT



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At the AVCA Major League Volleyball All-America / Players of the Year Banquet presented by Nike, Brooklyn DeLeye was recognized as a 2025 AVCA All-American First Team selection. Reflecting on the honor, DeLeye shared: “This is such a high honor. We talk about grit, competitiveness, and joy all the time. Playing alongside my teammates this year has been amazing—I wouldn’t be here without them, our staff, and my family.” DeLeye’s season was marked by resilience, connection, and a shared commitment to excellence. Congratulations to Brooklyn DeLeye on her First Team All-American recognition.

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December 20, 2025

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At the AVCA Major League Volleyball All-America / Players of the Year Banquet presented by Nike, Brooklyn DeLeye was recognized as a 2025 AVCA All-American First Team selection.</p> <p>Reflecting on the honor, DeLeye shared:</p> <p>“This is such a high honor. We talk about grit, competitiveness, and joy all the time. Playing alongside my teammates this year has been amazing—I wouldn’t be here without them, our staff, and my family.”</p> <p>DeLeye’s season was marked by resilience, connection, and a shared commitment to excellence.</p> <p>Congratulations to Brooklyn DeLeye on her First Team All-American recognition. | American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)



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2025 AVCA All-American | First Team At the AVCA Major League Volleyball All-America / Players of the Year Banquet presented by Nike, Elia Rubin was recognized as a 2025 AVCA All-American First Team selection. Reflecting on the honor, Rubin shared: “It’s such a huge honor. Being surrounded by so many amazing people makes it even more special. We were a young team, and every day brought a different challenge—but that’s what made it so much fun.” Rubin emphasized the importance of enjoying the journey and credited her teammates and coaches for creating a season defined by growth, connection, and joy. Congratulations to Elia Rubin on an outstanding season and First Team All-American recognition.
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