Fans are increasingly demanding a personalized experience from sports organizations that may be more like the services offered by Amazon and Netflix. Some might even be willing to jump ship to a new team if their wishes aren’t met.
Not every sports organization has begun to heed this warning, though many are paying attention. San Francisco 49ers President Al Guido, for example, has called his football franchise a media and entertainment company. And some of the most valuable leagues and teams in sports—the Dallas Cowboys, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and FC Barcelona—now all market products to a global audience, reaching new fans who might not ever make it to a live game with innovative alternatives.
Angela Ruggiero, a four-time Olympic medalist who spent 15 years with the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team, believes sports organizations should be looking at technology no longer as a novelty, but as a necessity to stay relevant. Ruggiero is a member of the International Olympic Committee and a co-founder of Sports Innovation Lab, which published a report this week focused on how fans are evolving.
“I am hoping this is a wakeup call for the industry—to not just say ‘Oh tech is nice to have,’ but really a call to action to keep the industry relevant at a time when kids are turning to Fortnite, adults are turning to Netflix, and sports is almost a laggard,” Ruggiero said.
Oracle also published a similar report this week, centered specifically on concessions in order to promote its Simphony point-of-sale software. In an interview, Jeff Pinc, an assistant vice president within Oracle’s sports, entertainment and food service management business, stressed companies must evolve the in-game experience. More than half of the respondents in Oracle’s study said they’d be willing to spend more on concessions if wait times were shorter and there were in-seat delivery options.
“They want to order food and beverage and not have it interrupt the reason why they’re there,” Pinc said. “They’re really attuned to the digital presence of quick service brands and restaurants brands and feel when they visit a stadium it shouldn’t be any different.”
This fan desire expands far beyond just the stadium experience and into the many touch points fans have with teams, leagues, and athletes. They are no longer as loyal as they once were. Fans may bounce around between teams for a variety of factors. Perhaps they have another interest (esports, say), or follow specific athletes more than teams, and may switch their loyalty based on where a player is traded.
The new era for sports is being defined by what the Sports Innovation Lab has dubbed the “fluid fan,” those who are continuously evolving, open to change, and have been empowered by other modern technologies to choose and demand personalization. This is putting an impetus on sports organizations to ramp up original content production and distribute that widely via OTT platforms across the globe.
“The fan of the future wants to have the same seamless experience that they have outside of sports,” Ruggiero said. “If you’re going to make it really cumbersome for them to experience content, sports content, they’re much more likely to stay home.”
The sports industry is facing significant challenges from on-demand forms of entertainment. To compete, sports needs to leverage the same technology; engaging fans in multiple ways across multiple platforms with sophisticated levels of personalization.
These efforts have been buoyed with the recent adoption of mobile ticketing that give teams valuable information about the individuals attending games live in person. Some teams, such as the Golden State Warriors, have even partnered with esports organizations to reach new fans and learn from the video game industry’s interactive content model. Still, Ruggiero believes these efforts must be actively and continuously managed for sports to maintain their relevancy in an increasingly crowded entertainment market.
“If you know your fan today, you won’t know them tomorrow. Fans are much more demanding and more willing to jump ship,” she said. “They’re constantly changing and, as a result, we have to respond as a market.”
