National Hockey League Embraces Sun's End-to-End Architecture for Enhanced Fan Experience and Competitive Business Advantage

The National Hockey League (NHL) and Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), today announced details of an exclusive agreement that makes Sun the official technology partner of the NHL and NHL Players' Association. The technology and marketing agreement touches all areas of the NHL's business and enhances the online fan experience for the 8 million visitors per month to NHL.com, the official Website of the National Hockey League and one of the most trafficked sports Websites in the world, as well as NHL team Websites.

The relationship will enable the League to extend its brand, and grow its current and future fan base while driving revenue by streamlining communications and business processes. The technology partnership will ultimately expand the NHL's Website audience to new users through the delivery of real-time game data and scores to wireless devices and interactive TV users. The NHL's tech-savvy fan base ranks first among professional sports leagues in use of the Internet, broadband access, PC ownership and buying power on the Internet.


Additionally, the NHL's business processes will be greatly enhanced by the new ability to communicate and conduct business more securely online with its 30 club members regarding contract information, transactions, scheduling, waivers, scouting reports and statistics.

The solution from Sun will leverage the success of NHL.com by building its online presence for the NHL's tens of millions of fans both in North America and worldwide. It is expected to improve the online fan experience via instantaneous access to real-time statistical coverage of more than 1,200 games, historical data, merchandising and video highlights. With more than 30 percent of the League's players coming from outside North America, the League's global fan base relies on the NHL.com Network for up-to-date information on their favorite players and teams.

Under the agreement, Sun will also have exclusive marketing rights in its category of League premier events such as NHL All-Star Weekend and the NHL Entry Draft, and a substantial media presence with the League's broadcast partners.

"This is an exciting partnership between two companies with similar brand identities -- fast, powerful and aggressive," said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. "This alliance will allow the NHL to provide faster, deeper content to all its fans and expand our business. In turn, it will allow Sun to showcase its technology and innovation through the game of hockey."

"Besides its brand, one of the NHL's most important assets is its data," said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc. "Sun's open end-to-end technology infrastructure -- hardware, software, storage, and professional services -- will enable the NHL to derive the maximum revenue benefits from its wealth of detailed operational data and statistics. Sun is a leader in implementing and maintaining high-availability, mission-critical data center environments for customers all over the world and is pleased to work with the NHL on its next generation Internet presence."

The planned projects start by building out a platform leveraging the iPlanet(TM) Portal Server to aggregate content and present information in a personalized and customizable interface to both internal NHL users as well as fans. In addition, Sun will help the NHL rewrite its Real Time Scoring System (RTSS) using Java(TM) technology, enabling real-time game data to be fed into other applications such as alerts, fantasy leagues, games, in-arena kiosks. For example, a hockey fan will be able to receive real-time scoring updates involving their favorite teams or players via wireless devices such as Nextel cell phones. Local broadcasters covering a Boston-Montreal game will have access to the same systems, providing insight to the current performance of former Boston or Montreal players and other data, improving the depth and quality of NHL coverage.

As the official technology provider for the NHL, Sun will offer the entire Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) software portfolio for services on demand, specifically the Solaris(TM) 8 Operating Environment, the iPlanet Portal Server, iPlanet Portal Server: Mobile Access Pack, iPlanet Application Server, iPlanet Web Server, iPlanet Directory Server, and iPlanet Messaging Server. The implementation is planned on a wide range of Sun's hardware and storage systems, including Sun Fire(TM) 4800, Sun Fire V880, and Sun Fire 280R servers, Sun Ray(TM) 150 thin clients, Sun StorEdge(TM) storage products, and Java Card(TM) APIs. The entire site platform infrastructure will be architected by Sun professional services with the NHL.

About the NHL

The National Hockey League, founded November 22, 1917, is the second oldest of the four major team sports leagues in North America. Today, the NHL consists of 30 Member Clubs, with each Club reflecting the League's diverse, international makeup (NHL players come from 17 different countries around the world). As a testament to the League's international scope, six world-class teams at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, including Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and USA, will be comprised mostly of NHL players.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The Computer(TM) -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com .

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