SBJ Power Up: Hologram production reviving the “Miracle on Ice”

Happy Monday! Today’s Power Up kicks off with two interesting tech stories in this week’s SBJ magazine: a hologram recreation of the “Miracle on Ice” and the innovation plans from Ticketmaster’s new global president. — Ethan Joyce

In today’s edition of Power Up:

• Recreating A Miracle: USA Hockey returns to Lake Placid with unique hologram production
• Ticketmaster’s Saumil Mehta focused on new products, enhancements, AI
• Al Michaels to return to Prime Video for 2026

Forty-six years ago this February, the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team inspired belief in miracles with its long-shot victory over the Soviet Union during the medal round of the 1980 Winter Games.

On Jan. 15, the key players will return to Lake Placid, N.Y., for a unique celebration — some in hologram form.

The event, called “Run Back the Miracle,” is being staged by Michelob Ultra with support from the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority, which owns and operates Herb Brooks Arena, the host of both this event and the “Miracle on Ice.”

It will include a large-scale, holographic recreation of highlights from the game — courtesy of a network of laser projectors shooting content onto a 180-by-20-foot “Hologauze” screen from hologram effects company Holotronica — and in-person appearances from legends associated with it, ranging from then-ABC commentator Al Michaels to former U.S. hockey players Jim Craig and Mike Eruzione.

For Michelob Ultra, which became the official beer sponsor of USA Hockey (which is not involved in this event) in December and has individual endorsement deals with American NHL stars Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, the project started with two questions.

“How can we celebrate one of the greatest moments in sport? How can we drive anticipation for the 2026 Winter Olympics, knowing that hockey will be front and center in the Winter Olympics this year?” said Ricardo Marques, Michelob Ultra’s senior vice president of marketing. “The answer to that was very clear: We need to go back to Lake Placid.”

Herb Brooks Arena will condense its typical capacity of 7,700 to 1,800 to optimize attendees’ vantage points and allow for the holographic illusion to extend into the stands as well as the ice. There is no entry fee for fans (age 21 and above) who register their name and email address with Michelob Ultra. With space limited, demand is high. More than a week in advance, Michelob Ultra said it had received more than 6,500 sign-ups, creating a lengthy waitlist. It also will produce a 30-minute special of the event to stream on Peacock after the fact, beginning Feb. 3.

Chadd Cassidy, ORDA’s vice president of legacy venues, called it a “first of its kind” event for the venue.

“The game in 1980 was something that changed the course of history for Lake Placid,” Cassidy said. “Along with the movie ‘Miracle,’ which gave us a bump in terms of people’s recognition of what happened here, we feel like this is the next step of putting it back on people’s radar in remembering and feeling what happened here in 1980.”

Michelob Ultra is no stranger to novel technology activations, having executed real-versus-virtual versions of a Formula 1 race (called “Lap of Legends”) and tennis match (which pitted John McEnroe against five avatars of his past self).

But this one is unique, Marques noted, because it will be part of a live event and commemorate what he and Cassidy agreed is the most iconic moment in sports history.

“We have all these amazing partnerships, but then the question is, what can you do to bring those to life beyond the traditional sponsorship assets every brand gets?” Marques said. “You inevitably land on great storytelling. … Great storytelling that fans will want to watch and be part of.”

Saumil Mehta planned for a personal sabbatical. A blog post changed that.

After almost a decade at Square, where he ultimately rose to chief product officer and head of business, the self-described creature of Silicon Valley eyed a break. And during the early phases of that, he penned a guest post for Lenny’s Newsletter, a career- and product-focused Substack with more than a million subscribers, on successfully managing your managers.

That post eventually caught the eye of someone at Ticketmaster, which reached out to start a conversation that ultimately led to his hiring in October. “I was going to take a year off,” said Mehta, the ticketer’s global president, ahead of the holidays. “But here we are, working on ticketing.”

Mehta replaced Mark Yovich, who shifted into the role of chairman. His first few months coincide with a time featuring more viable ticketing providers than before, while Ticketmaster and Live Nation march toward an impending March court date with the Department of Justice. Though Mehta couldn’t comment specifically on that antitrust case, he told SBJ that his goal since arriving has been maintaining a day-to-day focus on building — new products, new features and new enhancements for its stable of clients and their fans.

A significant part of that is a years-long focus on boosting everything AI — from developing the latest pipelines, such as its recent work with Google’s agentic capabilities, to building the technology out within its large-scale capabilities.

“It’s great that we have amazing foundational models,” Mehta said. “It’s great that we have new startups around AI every month. But the whole thing only works if large, at-scale global organizations like Ticketmaster implement AI, soup to nuts, and transform themselves and the way they vend experiences and products to their clients and to their consumers with AI.”

That focus, to grow internally with its AI capabilities, is something that Mehta sees as the next differentiator, helping Ticketmaster maintain its dominant position in the industry. AI can achieve much, he added, from creating content and products while doing so in a fraction of the time. But the human connection can’t be replaced or substituted, Mehta said, a flaw that boosts the value and importance of live events even more.

“The thing that remains very scarce and precious is in-person connection, human connection, being together, seeing the best artists, seeing the best sports team, seeing your favorite sports team,” Mehta said. “And to me, I was like, live events are going to become more — not less — valuable in an age of AI.”

Ethan Joyce can be reached at ejoyce@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

As he prepares to call his 31st NFL game at Soldier Field -- his first came in 1986 when the Bears were the defending NFL champions -- Al Michaels reflected on his good fortune. The NFL awarded Prime Video arguably the best Wild Card game of the upcoming three-day football palooza -- Green Bay at Chicago on Saturday night at 8pm ET -- and Michaels said he was pleasantly surprised to learn that his broadcast group would be calling such a significant playoff game. But it won’t be his last NFL game in the booth.

Prime Video management confirmed to SBJ late Thursday night that Michaels will return to call games for Prime Video for the 2026 NFL season. The 81-year-old has been the lead game-caller for the streamer’s “Thursday Night Football” package since 2022 and has called prime-time NFL football for the past 40 seasons.

“First of all, I feel great,” Michaels said. “Everyone at Amazon has been fantastic and I love working with this group. I’ve been looking at this year one year at a time and as long as I feel I’m at the top of my game, I’d like to continue.”

Michaels recalled for SBJ the last time he called a playoff game at Soldier Field, on January 6, 2019, an NFC Wild Card game between the Bears and the Eagles airing on NBC that memorably saw Chicago kicker Cody Parkey’s potential game-winning field goal hit the left upright, then the crossbar, before falling short with five seconds left. “As Cris Collinsworth called it, the double doink,” Michaels said.

Upon the conclusion of his NFL broadcasting duties for this season, Michaels said he will be heading to Lake Placid, N.Y., next week for an event that will celebrate the 1980 United States gold-medal winning hockey team. Michaels, of course, called the Miracle On Ice game against the Soviet Union, arguably the most famous sports broadcasting call in history.

“It will be especially meaningful to me because I’m going to take my two grandsons and meet up with Jim Craig, Mark Johnson and Mike Eruzione,” Michaels said.

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