CASE STUDY | UNITED SOCCER LEAGUE
United Soccer League
Scores High on Fast and Scalable Analytics
INDUSTRY
Sports Entertainment
Data Strategy
Modern Data Architecture BI & Analytics Modernization Generative AI
SOLUTION AREA
AWS S3, Lambda, Amplify, Redshift & Glue
Amazon QuickSight, Q Business & Bedrock
Tableau
TECHNOLOGY
The Challenge
The United Soccer League, the largest and fastest-growing pre-professional and professional soccer organization in North America (200+ clubs across men’s, women’s, youth and development leagues), needed to modernize how it handled data.
Existing workflows were based on CSV files and Excel spreadsheets, which made it hard to deliver robust, data-driven insights such as optimal revenue/expense distributions, real-time performance metrics, or actionable analytics to support growth.
USL’s leadership realized they needed a streamlined, flexible, and scalable infrastructure - from data ingestion to integration with analytics tools, in order to support club-level decision making and league-wide growth.
The Data Elephant Difference
The United Soccer League partnered with Data Elephant to build a scalable, future-ready data platform on AWS that modernized how the league collects, validates, and analyzes its data. Over an initial eight-week project, Data Elephant designed a centralized warehouse using Amazon S3, AWS Glue, and Amazon Redshift to unify 17 data domains and deliver advanced, league-wide analytics. The team also developed intuitive AWS Amplify web apps and a custom validation engine, enabling clubs to easily upload accurate, high-quality data.
With Tableau layered on top for reporting, USL clubs now access reliable insights that accelerate decision-making and fuel revenue growth across ticketing, partnerships, and merchandise. Beyond modernizing current operations, the platform lays the foundation for machine learning and generative AI, with identified opportunities in predictive analytics, optimal pricing, and sponsorship valuation - positioning the USL to scale confidently and strengthen its competitive edge across the league.
“Our collaboration with Data Elephant and AWS has given our clubs the tools to compete confidently for fan engagement, growth, and revenue.”
ADAM SATZ - SVP OF DATA & TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY, UNITED SOCCER LEAGUE
A centralized data warehouse built in just 8 weeks, leveraging AWS-native tooling for cataloging/ETL and analytics, integrating 17 data domains.
Custom data-upload web applications built with AWS Amplify, enabling teams across clubs to upload data in a standardized way.
A custom data-validation engine to automate data quality checks, send correction notifications, and ensure high data integrity.
Analytics made accessible - integration with Tableau provided clubs with dashboards and reporting to guide decision-making at the club and league levels.
Readiness for future advanced analytics, ML & GenAI, including use case evaluation for predictive analytics, optimal ticket pricing, and sponsorship valuations.
Clubs gained confidence in their data, enabling them to drive revenue growth across ticketing, partnerships, and merchandise operations.
The Outcome
By investing in a modern, scalable data platform, USL transformed how clubs and the league operate: from slow, manual, and error-prone spreadsheets to a real-time, analytics-powered ecosystem. Clubs are now empowered with reliable data to support operational decisions, revenue strategies, and long-term growth - while USL gains a strong, future-ready foundation for advanced analytics, predictive insights, and potential adoption of AI-driven capabilities.
Results at a Glance
DATA QUALITY
Improved from 55% to over 90%, shrinking time-to-insight from days to hours
VISIBILITY & TRUST
End-to-end data lineage through Unity Catalog and Collibra
WEEKS, NOT MONTHS
8 weeks from architecture design to data foundation deployment
USER EXPERIENCE
8 custom data upload web applications to improve user experience
INTEGRATION
17 data domains integrated
