Menu
In-Depth

How are you rising to the fan experience challenge?

Keeping fans engaged with a sport, event or team begins long before the starting bell or whistle. We asked top executives across sports their No. 1 fan experience issue and how they were addressing it.

The Diamondbacks successfully introduced the PetSmart Patio in left field last season.Arizona diamondbacks

CONNECTING WITH THE OUTFIELD

Derrick Hall

President and CEO

Arizona Diamondbacks

Challenge: It has been a priority to connect center field activity to the rest of the ballpark. Secondly, we have been challenged by dated and faulty Wi-Fi that is imperative for our gates, in-seat service, Ballpark app users, and general phone and tablet use.

 

Solution: We are looking to populate, activate and enhance the experience with fans wanting to travel to center field freely. Last year, we introduced the PetSmart Patio in left field and it was a huge success. Now, we have vastly improved our virtual reality experience behind the batter’s eye as a bridge between left and right. Now in right, we have added cabanas to the Coors Light Strike Zone with attendants and bottle service, and have built a “20th Anniversary Experience” interactive display and museum, complete with historical mapping, images, baseballs signed by all Diamondbacks, and display of all our player awards, to name a few.

— Eric Fisher

 

Little Caesars Arena's deconstructed design pulls the building away from the seating bowl.rick osentoski / oz llc

SECURITY

Chris Granger

President

Ilitch Holdings, Sports
and Entertainment

Challenge: I’m not sure there is a bigger challenge facing our industry than making sure our fans are safe and secure. You don’t want the fans to have to worry about their safety and security when they are coming out to see an event, whether it’s a concert or an NHL or NBA game.

 

Solution: One of the core architectural features [of Little Caesars Arena] is what we’ve called the deconstructed design of the arena — essentially pulling the building away from the bowl. It essentially provides this setup that has a building on the outside, an office building, this amazing concourse that we call the Via that wraps around the building like a streetscape, and then the bowl. This deconstructed design creates this great fan experience, but also is very protective.

 — Ian Thomas

 

ENHANCE THE IN-STADIUM EXPERIENCE

Neil Glat

President

New York Jets

Challenge: Fans attend and watch Jets games and consume team-related content across numerous platforms and in many different ways. The fan experience today is multifaceted, and it includes the stadium, video, audio, stats, highlights, fantasy, social media, podcasts, short- and long-form content, and much more. Our No. 1 goal/opportunity/challenge is to ensure that the live in-stadium experience and multimedia experiences are optimized and perfect complements for each other.

 

Solution: We continue to invest in new fan offerings and technological improvements to enhance the in-stadium experience. Examples include increasing Wi-Fi bandwidth at MetLife Stadium, creating what we call “Pilot Vision” on our video boards (which provides stats, fantasy updates, game highlights from around the league, and other content in one area throughout the game), augmenting the official New York Jets app with interactive games and Jets 360 content, providing virtual reality offerings in our stadium plaza, and utilizing mobile ticketing and mobile payments.

— Daniel Kaplan

 

The Cardinals are building a second phase of Ballpark Village next to Busch Stadium.getty images

UNCONDITIONALLY ENJOYABLE

Bill DeWitt III

President

St. Louis Cardinals

Challenge: Since baseball is different from other sports in its length of season and large number of games, the challenge is to make being at the ballpark enjoyable under all circumstances — good and bad weather, good or bad team, etc. So it’s really making sure we execute well on all aspects — clean and innovative facilities, good and quick food and beverage, friendly and helpful staff, and technology enhancements of all sorts. I try not to isolate one of those and say it’s any more important than the others because if any one of them is bad you lose fans.

 

Solution: Current initiatives designed to bring us up to best-in-class in all areas include security enhancements, putting in a new concept called Budweiser Terrace for people to hang out and enjoy a different social experience at no additional charge, and upgrading our concessions offerings with new food and beverage concepts and stand upgrades. We are also building a second phase of Ballpark Village next door that will create a year-round community that will enhance the game-day atmosphere and provide the ability to connect with people 365 days a year.

— Eric Fisher

 

PERSONALIZE THE FAN EXPERIENCE

Jordan Solomon

Executive vice president

MSG Sports

Challenge: Providing a personalized experience for each fan and meeting their expectations. We have everyone from the world’s VIPs sitting courtside to a tourist from Latvia coming to see [Kristaps] Porzingas. So, how do we provide an experience to meet their needs?

 

Solution: We spend a lot of time focusing on getting in and out of the building. That sets the tone for the experience. We have opened additional entrances and opened entrances on the back side of the arena.

 — John Lombardo

 

Dave Jolette

Senior vice president, 

venue operations

Kroenke Sports Enterprises

Challenge: It’s continuing to develop opportunities for fans to truly feel a part of the team versus just watching the team. It’s personalizing the fan experience by creating individual memories in our building. It’s getting to know our fans and understand what they like. We want to surprise and delight fans beyond the expected.

 

Solution: We’re changing the physical environment to keep up with renovations and modernizations that match local changes and trends in consumer entertainment desires. [And we want to increase] fan interaction into the physical event via vast social media and interactive.

Bruce Goldberg

 

KEEPING THEIR ATTENTION

Mark Lamping

President

Jacksonville Jaguars

Challenge: Keeping fans engaged … attention spans have changed.

 

Solution: Trying to provide more relevant and customized experiences … providing exclusive content and access, for example.

— Daniel Kaplan

 

The Treehouse is a new gathering place in left field.Oakland A's

COMMUNAL SPACES

Dave Kaval

President

Oakland A’s

Challenge: Our No. 1 challenge is attracting younger fans who do not want to sit in the same seat for nine innings. They want communal experiences and fun areas to explore in the ballpark.

 

Solution: We are refreshing spaces in the Coliseum like The Treehouse, Championship Plaza with food trucks, and Shibe Park Tavern. We are also launching ticket offerings specifically geared toward these younger fans.

— Eric Fisher

 

MOVING INTO NEW ARENA

Rick Welts

President and COO

Golden State Warriors

Challenge: I call it an opportunity but for us, it’s a challenge in transforming from a team that leases its building to becoming a sports and entertainment company that assumes the responsibility for everything. The NBA is the most collaborative of any sports organizations and we have relied heavily on that.

 

Solution: We’ve hired our first key positions from other organizations. We look at all current projects. It is a good road map for the best fan experiences in terms of amenities that people will experience when they attend an event or given that it is a 365-day business.

— John Lombardo

 

Peter Feigin

President

Milwaukee Bucks

Challenge: The No. 1 challenge for us is behavioral. We are changing the fan experience in a dramatic way with the new arena. From ticketing, to access to the building, to all points of contact we are going to change, so it is how do we educate so there is a seamless transition? It’s the complete opposite from the Bradley Center. We have open concourses. There is the ability to explore the arena. There will be a big learning curve.

 

Solution: It’s communication and immersion. Technology and social media will help us. It’s allowing people to experience the building before it is finished.

— John Lombardo

 

A green screen at Bridgestone Arena lets Predators fans customize their social media posts.nashville predators

OLDER FACILITY

Sean Henry

Chief executive officer

Nashville Predators

Challenge: Our building is 21 years old now, so as anything that was designed 21 years ago, the way people consume the normal game-day experience has evolved. It’s always harder to take a 21-year-old building, or even a 5-year-old building, and lift it up to a different consumption level, so that takes up a lot of our time. That means everything from the sheer number of point-of-sale locations versus 20 years ago and the way that it’s offered, things like grab and go and how is that managed, evolving our team retail offerings so it’s not just kiosks.

 

Solution: We have to add enhancements to keep up, and that has to be all-year-round, not just in the offseason. Bigger projects have to take longer, like what we’re looking to do with our expansion of Bridgestone Arena, but it can be as simple as offering different experiences. This year, we added an interactive social green-screen board where people can pick a backdrop and take some photos with their friends and it gets sent to their social media accounts. We just dropped a giant Preds head logo and watched how they engaged with that. We presented the bones that were found that led to the name of the team. The key for us is that any time we add anything new to the building, we don’t do it with any fanfare or big announcement, so that when people walk around they say “What the heck is going on here?” As strange as that may sound, it encourages them to walk around the building and engage with everything to see what else is there, whether it’s new or old.

— Ian Thomas

 

The Sharks try to balance traditional favorites — Sharks head entrance — with new technology.getty images

GENERATION GAP

Jonathan Becher

Co-president

Sharks Sports & Entertainment

Challenge: Bridging the gap between the current generation of fans and the next generation of fans who have very different expectations of what the fan experience should be. This gap is heightened in Silicon Valley, home of many of the leading-edge technology companies.

 

Solution: We are trying to maintain as many of the traditions that our long-standing fans love, like players skating out though the Sharks mouth, while embracing emerging technologies that appeal to a different demographic, like releasing the first ever bobblehead with augmented reality. For many items, we need to appeal to both audiences — while we’ve moved to digital ticketing only for the majority of our fans, we have a group who are uncomfortable with this technology and allow them to use paper tickets. Similarly, we’ve kept paper-based game-day programs, even though the articles/information are available digitally.

— Ian Thomas

 

CONSISTENCY IN CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Alex Martins

Chief executive officer

Orlando Magic

Challenge: Making sure that delivering the experience is consistent. Our partners do a great job of it, but when you have multiple partners delivering the fan experience; a food and beverage company, a security firm; in all we have 12 different partners with us and that is one of the greatest challenges.

 

Solution: We have been engaged with Disney for training to make sure we are delivering a consistent fan experience. Every year we bring back all our partners, it is some 2,000 total people for refresher training. Every month, we recognize one individual from each of our partners who has delivered a high level of service. At the end of the year, we select one individual who gets a big award with multiple prizes.

 — John Lombardo

 

EVERY STEP OF THE EXPERIENCE

Dennis Moore

Senior vice president of sales
and marketing

Denver Broncos

Challenge: We view any friction point as a major challenge to the fan experience. This includes parking, access, concessions, merchandise and restrooms, to name a few.

 

Solution: Using data to better understand our fans and what they want. Leveraging mobile, and specifically our app, to drive a personalized and convenient experience.

— Bruce Goldberg

 

Valerie Camillo

Chief revenue and marketing officer

Washington Nationals

Challenge: We look at it completely end to end, from the moment the fan leaves his or her house. We look at their traffic experience, their parking experience, their experience coming through the gates, the customer service experience once inside the gates, their shopping experience, their dining experience, game entertainment, all the way through the completion of the game and their departure. When we do our surveys, we ask about every step of that fan experience chain and we focus on any piece of that we find isn’t working. If any one of the steps along the way are a bad experience or not what you anticipated, that’s a problem for us.

 

Solution: We’re doing as much as we can to speed service at the lines and make the concessions experience easier. For example, we’re implementing a number of kiosks that will be able to handle your ordering and payment for food. We’re also testing some stands that do not accept cash with that same thought in mind. And long term, we want to have a cashless ballpark and we think that will be a faster and better experience for fans. … Fan experience is one of the top things that we can control that impact ticket sales, and we’re leaning into that more and more through data and analytics and by having a dialogue with our fans.

-— Eric Fisher

 

Dealing with breaks in the action is among the chief concerns cited by the Red Sox.getty images

PACE OF PLAY

Sam Kennedy

President and CEO

Boston Red Sox

Challenge: There is no doubt in my mind that the No. 1 challenge to the fan experience is pace of play. And while pace of play is an issue that affects all 30 clubs, it’s a topic we’ve given considerable attention to at the Red Sox over the past several years. Addressing the inaction and dead time within the game is critical to the fan experience both in the park and for viewers watching at home.

 

Solution: The commissioner is taking steps to address pace of play at the league level, and our chairman, Tom Werner, has been heavily involved in the discussions as a member of MLB’s Competition Committee for several years now. We’ve seen changes implemented by the league for the upcoming season, with the commissioner working with the players association to find common ground to do more.

— Eric Fisher

 

Churchill Downs has invested $32 million into parking and traffic infrastructure to handle crowds for Oaks and Derby Days.getty images

PARKING

Sarah Contardo

Vice president, ticket sales and strategy

Churchill Downs

Challenge: Over the last several years we have consistently heard that parking and traffic is a challenge for any of our major days, but especially Derby week and Oaks and Derby Day. … There are a multitude of problems. We are in a historic facility. So when you are 143 years old you don’t necessarily have the infrastructure surrounding the track and our parking lots were very fragmented. So we had lots out front and some dirt and some were paved. And up until this year we didn’t even own all of the land just outside of our venue. So oftentimes folks were parking in the neighborhoods; they were not even sure where to park. As much as we tried to encourage them in certain directions we really didn’t have a [plan of] here’s what you absolutely should do on Oaks and Derby Day.

 

Solution: We are investing $32 million into our parking and traffic infrastructure surrounding the track. … We are taking all of the lots around our facility — that we now own all the land for — and we are reconfiguring and paving all of those lots. In addition, there are some other benefits of it, but to stay on top of the consumer experience, we have clearly identified a better traffic flow that creates a four-lane road between one major artery and another through our property, in between our parking spaces. It also clearly lays out our parking lots so that they are safer not only for the cars, but also for pedestrians and we have walking lanes for the pedestrians, which has always been a challenge out front.

— Liz Mullen

 

Redevelopment of the area around Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., has created traffic and parking issues during the season.New York Red Bulls

Marc de Grandpre

General manager

New York Red Bulls

Challenge: We are unable to control both traffic and parking issues around Harrison, N.J. We are surrounded by a redevelopment zone with heavy construction happening throughout our nine-month season. While the population in Harrison has grown exponentially at a rapid pace, the infrastructure is currently in the process of catching up to that population growth. These challenges add stress and pressure on our organization to provide the best experience for our fans visiting the venue.

 

Solution: We are investing significant resources over the course of the season to minimize challenges our fans may experience with parking and traffic around Red Bull Arena. This year, we hired a new traffic management company to provide overall management; created new directional signage for our guests as they arrive near the venue; and improved our relationships with additional parking lots in the adjoining city of Newark to provide more parking options and convenience for our fans. In addition, we will be integrating our brand-new partner, Lyft, into the club’s new mobile application to provide fans the convenience of ridesharing. The app, launching this season, will also have integrated maps to help fans driving get to Red Bull Arena more efficiently.

— Ian Thomas

 

KNOWING THE FAN BASE

Mike Newquist

Vice president, marketing, event and ticket operations

UFC

Challenge: We don’t know every fan who attends our events around the world. We know the fan who purchases tickets to UFC events, but we don’t necessarily know the other two people who are attending with them. We look at the overall 360-degree experience of our fan base and right now, if we don’t know every fan, we don’t have the capability to customize our messaging to tailor to them specifically.

 

Solution: UFC is currently working with both our ticketing and venue partners around the world to increase the reach of technology. For example, one of our partners, Ticketmaster, is in the process of launching its Presence system, which we believe is a positive step in the right direction through mobile ticketing, that will identify every fan attending our events.

 — Liz Mullen

 

Mark Donovan

President

Kansas City Chiefs

Challenge: The challenges we face are technology and making sure you are applying technology correctly, understanding the segmentation of fans.

 

Solution: [Understanding] every single business decision [and] how does it apply to the segments. Trying to identify them and their drivers and using technology to do that.

 — Daniel Kaplan

 

CROWD MANAGEMENT

Jake Reid

President

Sporting Kansas City

Challenge: Soccer’s in-stadium experience is unique — we have two 45-minute halves with no commercial breaks and no stoppages. Because of that, we have two massive peaks in the stadium; there’s a huge rush right before kickoff when everything is slammed, and at halftime when essentially 20,000 people get up at once and go into the concourses to get food, drinks, use the bathroom or hang out. Other sports face that too, but not to the extent that soccer does.

 

Solution: We spend a lot of time figuring how to make that not a bad experience, because we don’t want someone getting up and wanting to get their kid a jersey and walking away because they’re frustrated. We look at it like a funnel, and at halftime there are 20,000 people going into that one funnel, so we try to chip away at that. Can we shave off 1,000 people who can order food and pay from their phone during the game? Can we shave off 1,500 people that can go in a fast lane and just grab the one item that they want? Our goal is to both speed up the transition time in the queue, but also provide you with a different way to achieve your goal as well. If you want to pick it up? Great. If you want us to deliver it to you? That’s great too. This offseason we’ve been working with Appetize to rework the food and beverage and point-of-sale experience in our entire stadium.

— Ian Thomas

 

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2018/03/19/In-Depth/Fan-experience.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2018/03/19/In-Depth/Fan-experience.aspx

CLOSE