Instant replay is one of the most polarizing concepts in sports. Every fan wants the right call to be made. Every player wants justice when a penalty goes the wrong way. Every coach, manager, and team executive wants a chance to fix things in the game if there is a questionable occurrence.
On the inverse side of that, people hate waiting. When officiating teams get together to discuss a play or take an additional look at replays, the patience wears thin quickly, and the groans follow.
Professional sports leagues have taken steps to ease this dissension by creating headquarters for all the replays across the league. While the NHL, NFL, NBA, and MLB all have their own respective strongholds, the concept is the same; watch every game, go over every questionable call, and let rule experts help the officials find the right call every time. The concept is logical and pretty necessary as sports and salaries continue to grow. The world of professional sports is a billion-dollar industry, so just like every Fortune 500 company out there, things need to be done right.
When talking about replay headquarters, there isn’t much choice when it comes to the starting point. While the idea may have been around for much longer, the NHL was the first league to put together a formidable command center to look at their games. The fact that they did this about 10 years before any other major sports league is also worth mentioning.
NHL – The Situation Room
The National Hockey League created “The Situation Room” as a focal point for officiating around the league, predicated on the fast pace of hockey, and the necessity for accuracy. In 2003, the league created this beast on the tenth floor of the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, mixed in with the other offices packing the halls, and made sure that every replayed call from every game made its way through the headquarters.
The Situation Room still stands today, over 12 years later, and serves as a benchmark for what other leagues should be looking to accomplish in regard to replays. In fact, when the NFL was pursuing a replay headquarters, extensive studying of the NHL’s headquarters was done to make the best decision. The Situation Room is the crown jewel for officiating headquarters in the world of sports.
NFL – Art McNally GameDay Central
While the NHL beat the NFL to the creation of a replay headquarters by over 10 years, the NFL has the coolest name for their facility of any league. Art McNally was a former Director of Officiating for the league, so naming the epicenter of the league’s officiating after him is a well-suited honor.
GameDay Central is a modest 42 feet by 36 feet building in Manhattan packed with screens and a pretty loose dress code, from reports. The NFL was not the next league to create a headquarters for replay after the NHL, but since its inception, the league has adapted their replay center smoothly into its operations and is using it with the most fluency, frequency, and fervor of the remaining leagues.
NBA – NBA Replay Center
Lacking a fancy name or a marquee locale, the NBA Replay Center located in Secaucus, New Jersey just wants to get the calls right. With the NBA being the sport where things move almost as fast as hockey all the time, a replay headquarters is nothing short of necessary. Since its creation before the 2014 season, it hasn’t been as present of a fixture during games as its counterparts in the NHL and NFL, but it has served as a tool for officials who are constantly making decisions based around milliseconds of information.
Taking the replay center out of a high profile area like the other leagues and giving it a bland name may not be best for publicity, but it keeps things low-key and out of the limelight, which is where most officials probably enjoy being. Focusing on accuracy rather than flash is a great representation of how NBA officiating acts as a counterweight to the style of play during games in the league.
MLB – Replay Operations Center
The MLB owns an office in the famed Chelsea Market building in New York. In this office, spread out over 900 square feet, Major League Baseball breaks down the pitches, hits, errors, and outs from across the country (and Toronto). The MLB’s headquarters might be in the most fancy area, but they certainly have not had the smoothest path.
Baseball purists were extremely reluctant to let any sort of replay technology into the game, and once it was finally in, the officials seemingly used it as little as possible. Now, when replays take place, they typically take much more time to resolve than any other league, which makes it easier for the people who didn’t want it in the first place to scoff at the troubles being had. Baseball has the most work to do of any league to get their fans on board with their Replay Operations Center.
Moving Forward
While replays add accuracy to the game, even a trained official looking at a replay can get something wrong. Instant replay headquarters serve as a needed failsafe for human error that can happen when a referee just wants to get back to the game. With the technology world improving and a group of people dedicated to getting the calls right, professional sports fans can rest easy as we approach what should be the most accurately judged period that we have ever seen in the world of sports.