Creve Coeur Park Soccer Complex is using AI to live stream soccer games
With 29 players in the National Soccer Hall of Fame, St. Louis, Missouri, has a place among the United States’ leading producers of talent. Opened in 2018 to meet demand for soccer facilities in the city’s metro area, Creve Coeur Park Soccer Complex hopes to play a role in developing St. Louis’ next crop of stars.
“St. Louis has always been a great soccer market through the years,” Mike Hayes, CCP Soccer Complex’s Operations Manager, explains. “We’ve enjoyed success at the college, amateur, youth and professional levels, but one thing that was lacking in recent years was a large, modern youth facility.”
Spread across 110 acres, the CCP Soccer Complex boasts 15 fields, including 13 full size, all-weather synthetic turf fields and its natural grass Bluemuda Super Pitch. From the dense,thick fibers used to create an ideal synthetic turf playing surface, to ample concession areas in the complex’s Central Village, the entire CCP Soccer Complex has been designed to be the ‘best soccer complex in the country’.
It’s Championship Field, in particular, stands out. Designed to provide a ‘special atmosphere’ for the complex’s biggest games and tournaments, the Championship Field boasts a live PA sound system, electronic scoreboard with customizable team names, and permanent seating providing capacity for up to 500 spectators.
Now, the experience offered by CCP Soccer Complex’s Championship Field has been upgraded further with the installation of Spiideo’s automated camera system. Using Spiideo Play, Spiideo’s automatic live sports streaming solution, Hayes and his team will be able to live stream games over the web without the need for a human camera operator. Using CloudStudio, Spiideo’s broadcast production tool feeds can be enhanced with audio commentary, graphical elements, and overlays to create high-quality live streams with minimal input.
Sports live streaming: ‘Paramount to the future’
CCP Soccer Complex’s commitment to quality is helping to attract bigger and better clubs and competitions to its facilities. In June, the US Youth Soccer Midwest Regional Championships will be taking place at the complex, with 4,400 athletes from 13 different states set to compete for a place at the 2021 US Youth Soccer National Championship.
CCP Soccer Complex has also recently signed a new deal that will see games played on its Championship Field four days per week for 26 weeks each year, which will significantly increase the use of its showpiece pitch. Likewise, with the city’s newly formed Major League Soccer team, St. Louis City SC, is already using the complex to hold try-outs for its MLS Next youth teams. CCP Soccer Complex hopes to play a significant role in supporting the club as it finds its feet in the United States’ premier soccer competition.
To ensure that it could provide a top-level experience to its partner clubs, tournament hosts, and fans, the facility knew that it needed a high-quality recording and streaming setup.
“Without question, the expectation for a top-tier facility is to have dynamite technology. We knew that making games available to watch for viewing purposes, coaching and training purposes, and college recruitment purposes, was going to be paramount in the future”, says Mike Hayes, CCP Soccer Complex’ Operations Manager
After researching potential solutions, Hayes settled on Spiideo due to the simplicity of the setup, ease of use, and high quality footage that Spiideo cameras provide.
Sustainable soccer: Maintaining the fields at CCP Soccer Complex
For events like the Midwest Regional Championships, family members and friends from across the United States and further afield will undoubtedly be keen to spectate. With Spiideo Play, they can, no matter where they are in the world. Through a dedicated game page for each scheduled event, anybody can purchase a game and watch live over a desktop, tablet, or smartphone device.
Aside from providing clubs, organizers, and fans with a better viewing experience, Spiideo Play will also serve as a valuable revenue stream for the complex. With fans paying a set feeto access a game, any profits generated will be put into a field replacement fund. This will gotowards maintaining the facilities and, in turn, ensure that CCP Soccer Complex can continue to provide world-class soccer facilities in the St. Louis area.
“As time goes on our wonderful fields are going to need replacing. When we make money, that money is put back into a replacement fund for that rainy day,” Hayes explains.