Welcome to Cleveland, the capital of sports data science

Rendering of the Global Peak Performance Center (Populous)

What’s the best American sports city? You might start with cities with teams from each of the three major professional sports leagues: baseball, football, and basketball. But let’s take it one step further: if you think about the number of pro teams per capita in a given city, few–if any–compare to Cleveland. 

Here are the numbers. There are 3.1 million Americans in metropolitan regions for each team in the MLB, NFL, and NBA. Cleveland has a metropolitan region population of 1.8 million people supporting three pro teams. The City effectively has five times as many pro sports teams than expected—and that doesn’t even include our beloved Monsters of the American Hockey League.

It’s only logical that the best American sports city would also soon be the American capital of sports data science. 

In November 2023, University Hospitals (UH) announced a $20 million gift from Jimmy and Dee Haslam to found the UH Haslam Sports Innovation Center. This past March, the Cleveland Clinic revealed the renderings for their Global Peak Performance Center, a 210,000 square foot performance training center for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the community, and athletes from around the world.

This past week, the Cleveland Clinic announced its partnership with Sports Data Labs, Inc. (SDL). SDL is a leader in AI-based collection, analysis, and distribution of real-time human data. Their aim of the partnership is to create the largest compilation of sports health data. The Cleveland Clinic is also investing in SDL.

“This partnership with Sports Data Labs represents a significant advancement in our ability to discover the principal drivers and modifiable variables of human performance,” said Thomas Mroz, M.D., enterprise chair of the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at Cleveland Clinic. “Much of what sets athletes apart in performance at a granular level is still poorly understood. We intend to change that.”

The collaboration aims to optimize human performance and mitigate injuries for elite athletes and weekend warriors alike. Cleveland Clinic will support SDL’s health services and insights for their global partners and utilize SDL’s advanced technologies at the Cleveland Clinic Global Peak Performance Center (GPPC). The GPPC is expected to open in 2027. Its staff will offer state-of-the-art training and comprehensive care for athletes of all ages and abilities. The GPPC staff will include top-notch MDs and healthcare professionals from multiple specialties at the Cleveland Clinic.

Earlier this year, SDL was honored on Fast Company’s 2024 World Changing Ideas list for its consent-based exchange to buy, sell, and trade health data.

What It Means to Ohio 

SDL is relocating its headquarters from Cupertino, California, to Cleveland, in order to have its talent in close proximity to the doctors and other health professionals at Cleveland Clinic.

Since they are the owners of the Browns, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Columbus Crew (Major League Soccer), the Haslams have a vested interest in the sustained health of professional athletes. The greater goal of the Innovation Center, though, is to assemble a sports medicine team capable of—and receptive to—medtech and biotech innovation. They have already developed working relationships with regional companies in these fields. Likewise, the Cleveland Clinic and SDL are committed to harnessing the power of AI for health benefits. Both the Haslams and UH staff and Cleveland Clinic and SDL expect their discoveries to contribute to the health of individual athletes and community health, too.  

What They’re Saying

Mark Gorski, Co-Founder and CEO of Sports Data Labs:

"We are honored to partner with the Cleveland Clinic to build the most advanced understanding of human performance, functionality, and optimization in sports, providing best-in-class services and products to athletes at all levels . . . Long-term, we believe this collaboration will further our mission to help people live longer, healthier, and more productive lives through personalized health management and enable true autonomy over personal data."