Super Bowl Security: Technology tracking NFL players
GPS devices show where team vehicles are during events leading to game
By PETE BARLAS
Investors Daily
The Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers won't be the only teams at the Super Bowl this year. A team from Big Brother is also there.
Taking a page from the George Orwell epic is US Fleet Tracking, a privately held Oklahoma City-based company hired by the National Football League to monitor all vehicles used by the teams and related NFL personnel around the Tampa, Fla., area leading up to the big game on Sunday.
Using US Fleet's service, the NFL can see on a computer screen the exact location of every vehicle that players and other league personnel are using. The service updates the locations every three seconds.
The goal is security, not to be Big Bro. It's the third year in a row the company has provided this Super Bowl service for the NFL, which didn't return calls seeking comment.
When it comes to the Super Bowl, security is paramount, says Jerry Hunter, chief executive of US Fleet.
"When you have an event like the Super Bowl, you have a major terrorist target," he said. "And with the NFL, you have million-dollar contracts with a lot of these players."
The US Fleet system works with a small transmitter and antenna installed under the dash of a vehicle for GPS tracking. Another company, KORE Telematics, provides the wireless network that makes the service work.
100-Vehicle Fleet
For the two weeks leading to the Super Bowl, the NFL is using 100 vehicles including 14 buses -- seven for each conference -- and several limousines to ferry players, the media and league personnel around the Tampa area, where the game will be held at Raymond James Stadium.
US Fleet and NFL personnel will monitor the vehicles on six 42-inch LCD TV screens in a special security pavilion near the stadium.
With the Super Bowl always attracting so much attention, the NFL wants nothing unchecked.
"The Super Bowl is known for having everything so flawlessly executed," Hunter said. "The system can tell them when the buses are about to make the last turn, so they can tell the reporters to get their cameras ready."
Ambulance companies and delivery services are among the biggest customers of such fleet management systems. US Fleet is bringing the service into the 21 st century, says Sam Lucero, an analyst at ABI Research.
"The technology is evolving," he said. "It's becoming more sophisticated."
Hunter says the service is just taking hold. He says US Fleet expects 2009 revenue of $12.5 million, up more than 70% from $7.2 million in 2008.
"We are thriving in spite of the economy," he said.
Born To . . . Be Tracked
Hunter says NFL players and other personnel use league-sponsored vehicles to get around Tampa. That includes the game's halftime entertainers. Last year, headliner Tom Petty's limo had a tracking device. This year, Bruce Springsteen will have the same.
While the NFL uses the US Fleet system as a safety net, some other clients use it as a traffic cop.
Most US Fleet customers are small businesses such as electrical and plumbing contractors, tow truck outfits and janitorial services.
In one case, a copy machine company hired US Fleet after it noted fuel costs for its fleet of 25 vehicles had been soaring in the previous months.
"Their fuel bill dropped by 25% in the first month because their employees were no longer driving 30 miles to go have lunch with each other," Hunter said.
US Fleet charges $29.95 a month per car, low enough to attract some individual customers. Some use the service to check up on sons, daughters and spouses.
"We had a case last year where a husband in New York suspected his wife was cheating," Hunter said. "It turns out the wife, a schoolteacher, was cheating with a 13- or 14-year-old student."
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