United Soccer League Scores High on Fast and Scalable Analytics with AWS and Data Elephant

While the USL excelled in offering its clubs generalized benchmarks for revenue targets and organizational health, it lacked the ability to provide the robust, data-driven insights needed to deeply understand business performance. Outdated systems that captured data in CSV files and stored it in Excel spreadsheets were unable to deliver essential metrics such as optimal revenue and expense distributions or support the real-time insights, curated evaluations, or sustainable growth models needed for clubs and the league to scale.

Adam Satz, SVP of technology and data strategy for USL, said, “To position our league and clubs for success, we needed a system that was flexible, customizable, and streamlined—from data ingest to certification and integration with other tools. In establishing a foundation for managing our own data, optimizing the process at each point of interaction was paramount and provided the basis for strategic refinement as our operations evolve.”

To succeed both on and off the field, the league needed a partner who could not only address the immediate need to empower clubs with data-driven insights, but also build a scalable, bespoke, and future-ready infrastructure to support growth.

The USL chose to work with Data Elephant based on the recommendation of existing AWS Partner StellarAlgo, a fan engagement platform product company. Data Elephant selected AWS to build a custom infrastructure to meet the league’s requirements and modernize its capabilities. The data platform solution needed to support analytics on team, league, and operational levels—all while positioning the USL for the future. The cloud data platform was implemented in phases, beginning with an eight-week design and setup of a centralized data warehouse built using Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Redshift, and AWS Glue. Amazon S3 stores data from various sources and in different formats, and that data is then extracted by AWS Glue and loaded into Amazon Redshift to support advanced queries and analytics.

This data foundation spanning 17 data domains was enhanced to meet the need for new and more impactful analytics, with an eye toward the future of data and analytics at USL. “Our goal as a partner to the USL was to design and build a fit-for-purpose data platform that serves both current and future needs,” explained Mathew Duffy, CTO and co-founder at Data Elephant. “The USL’s data foundation also unlocks new opportunities for potential game-changing technology like generative AI to create a competitive advantage as the USL looks to grow the league.”

Additionally, to ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience, Data Elephant leveraged AWS Amplify to create intuitive web applications, simplifying data input and management so teams in the league can regularly upload data with quality control checks to the central data warehouse. The team also implemented a custom data validation engine across targeted uploader applications using AWS Step Functions and AWS Lambda to automate data checks, send correction notifications, and maintain high data quality. Tableau was integrated as the analytics tool off the Redshift data warehouse, providing clubs with powerful insights to drive decision-making and allowing the USL to deliver data-driven guidance.

Since migrating to the new data platform, the USL has seen data quality increase from 55 percent to over 90 percent accuracy, with continuing improvements. The platform’s improved systems provide more complete and reliable data, improving accuracy and trust in the data the league uses to generate meaningful club-specific insights. These insights empower clubs to make confident, informed decisions, directly driving revenue growth in ticketing, partnerships, and merchandise operations. Satz added, “Now we have functional and actionable outputs that our clubs are seeing and benefiting from. Thanks to this solution, we no longer have to chase down or cleanse the data manually. The time to insights has also been significantly reduced from days to hours.”

The successful data warehouse implementation didn’t just modernize the USL’s capabilities—it also laid the groundwork for experimentation with machine learning and generative AI. Data Elephant conducted a readiness assessment that identified several high-value opportunities, including predictive analytics to forecast trends, optimal ticket pricing strategies, and partnership asset valuations to ensure clubs maximize their revenue potential and overall performance. This forward-thinking approach positions the USL to continue evolving as a leader in a data-driven and competitive sports ecosystem.

"Our collaboration with Data Elephant and AWS has given our clubs the tools to compete confidently for fan engagement, growth, and revenue," noted Satz. "These modern capabilities allow clubs to excel in conversations about sponsorships and discretionary spending—achievements that wouldn’t have been possible without this partnership." They also position the league to provide tailored guidance to its clubs as they scale and set the stage for integrating additional professional clubs in the coming years.