AerialSphere Case Study: Waste Management Phoenix Open
From marketing to public safety organizers find XP360 to be an invaluable tool.
Known as “The Greatest Show on Grass,” The Waste Management Phoenix Open (WMPO) is a PGA event held at TPC Scottsdale annually in early February. Managed by the Thunderbirds, the Waste Management Phoenix Open is the best attended golf tournament in the world with close to 700,000 fans in attendance every year. From the notorious 16th hole and star-studded Birds Nest music festival to the biggest names in professional golf, the WMPO has an annual economic impact of over $390 million.
The Challenge
Planning for an event of this magnitude is challenging to say the least – every year the planning committee is tasked with growing, improving and making the Waste Management Phoenix Open safer and more profitable. Typically, events such as the WMPO leverage vertical aerial imagery as a planning tool, which only gives them one vantage point of their course and surrounding area. The planning committee is always looking for ways to innovate and help them better understand, plan and develop the more than 200-acre TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course site. Even though most of the hospitality, concessions, grandstands and spectator areas don’t change year to year, there is always room for improvement to provide a more enjoyable experience for players, employees, volunteers and fans.
The Solution
Cheryl Hussey, the Assistant to the Tournament Chairman has been using XP360 from AerialSphere for a few years and can’t imagine planning another tournament without it. She uses the immersive experiences daily, along with others in her group, including the Thunderbirds, TPC, Marketing, Maintenance, and building/construction vendors. XP360 has given the group numerous vantage points of the tournament and surrounding areas, allowing them to zoom in and out, as well as pan and tilt to get the exact perspective they need for their specific tasks. One of the recent spectator concessions additions to the tournament – “The Ridge” was aided with new perspectives that XP360 was able to provide everyone – the planning group had a better feel for terrain, layout, and spectator traffic allowing for the best possible configuration of the 36,000 square foot hospitality platform. Not only does the WMPO leverage interactive experiences with XP360, they are also able to capture screenshots with precise perspectives that wouldn’t be available from still photography. This has been incredibly useful for their marketing of the tournament and promoting sponsorship opportunities.
“I honestly don’t know what we did before we started using XP360 from AerialSphere on a daily basis. It helps us with every facet of planning this tournament – every member of our team uses it for something different. XP360 has been a game-changer for us and we will use it every year to help make the Waste Management Phoenix Open the best stop on the PGA TOUR.”
– Cheryl Hussey, Assistant to the Tournament Chairman
