(Remote) Sports Fan Experience of the Future
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We’re about halfway through the 2020 NFL season, and fans are starting to get used to the “adjustments” the league has made during the pandemic. For the stadiums that are not yet allowing fans inside on gameday, cardboard cutouts are found in their place as artificial audience noise is pumped through the speaker system. For the stadiums that have invited fans back inside, there are strict capacity limitations and social distancing measures in place. Either way, the energy feels very different from what we’re used to. For those of us watching at home, as grateful as we are to have sports at all, we can’t help but feel like something is missing.
This begs the question: Now that we’re back to having games again but with no fans in seats, how can the NFL, and all sports leagues, recreate that feeling of excitement? Just like every other industry, the sports industry finds itself with an urgent need to reimagine their customer experience in this new reality.
Jaguars fans sit in socially distant pods at a sold-out game in TIAA Bank Field, New York Times
The pandemic is accelerating a trend that we were observing pre-pandemic, similar to retail and e-commerce trends. The affordability of gigantic HD flatscreens and the ease of finding every major sports game at home has left many teams battling declining attendance and looking for ways to bring people to the stadium. Now, sports leagues find themselves doubling down on building the best remote fan experience possible. This is especially true as sports is facing a globalization moment. It used to be that franchises had to be experts on their local markets. Now and in the future, they need to adapt to engaging with a growing global fanbase thanks to steadily increasing migration, sports tourism and universal access to broadcasts.
Technology is going to be obviously very critical to the future remote fan experience. But rather than focus on the technologies that will enable the experience, I’d like to think about what a comprehensive set of offerings would look like based on two criteria:
Interactivity: Offering the most dynamic remote fan experience requires a wide range of offerings that allow fans to engage passively or more actively.
Time: Gamedays are a discrete part of the fan’s relationship with a sport. Leagues need to understand how to engage fans both on gameday and on an ongoing basis (non-gamedays and off-season).
After some research, lurking on Reddit, and speaking to a few sports fans in my own life (thanks Dad!), there were a few themes I heard that may shed some light on how the sports industry should approach the future of the remote fan experience.
Future of Remote Fan Experience, Julia Rodenas
“I need access to the game anywhere, at any time, from any device."
Time: Gameday | Interaction: Passive
People are accustomed to consuming their entertainment in many ways, and it will be key for sports leagues to make their games widely available across a variety of platforms and devices.
24% of US households with a head of the household at the age between 18 and 34 have never subscribed to cable or satellite TV. These young “cord-never” sports fans typically have to search through trial and error to find a high-quality, reliable source to stream the game. But recently, more mainstream options are becoming available to stream through more trusted channels. Take the recent release of a sports channel on Twitch (which streams Thursday Night Football for free to anyone, FYI) as an example, which allows users to interact and engage with each other while streaming a game. The new platform’s focus on sports programming gives fans exclusive access to their favorite teams. Twitch has been growing a community of avid sports fans over the last couple of years, and now leagues can take advantage of the platform to engage with a younger audience. “This new category and focus on sports programming will give fans exclusive access to their favorite teams and athletes as they make their return to courts and fields,” says Jane Weedon, director of new verticals at Twitch.
“I want to feel connected with my favorite teams on a personal level.”
Time: Ongoing | Interaction: Passive
It’s no secret that now more than ever, consumers demand to be shown content that is relevant to them, in the right channels, and at the right time. It’s no less true for sports – and focusing content efforts only around games or in-season won’t be enough to earn the loyalty of the modern sports fan. Sharing footage and stories that carry more emotional weight can build stronger connections between teams and fans. This is not unlike what we observe in the Instagram influencer world – Research shows that when consumers perceive influencers as being more sincere or authentic, they view product endorsements more favorably.
For example, ESPN’s popular docuseries “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls aired in April and averaged 6.1 million viewers for episodes 1 and 2 across ESPN and ESPN2. Across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, ESPN posts related to the series accounted for a combined 9 million engagements. This type of content attracted a diverse audience, from die-hard bball nerds to relatively inexperienced sports watchers. The series was a great example of how storytelling content can be both a great engagement tool for existing fans, and a draw for new fans.
Organizations can also better leverage customer data (i.e. who is watching the tournament, the interests they exhibit, other sports orgs they follow) to offer “hyper-personalized” content experiences. A deeper understanding of fan preferences can help sports organizations drive relevant marketing and advertising content through multiple channels.
“I need to feel immersed in the game.”
Time: Gameday | Interaction: Active
When gamedays roll around, it’s tough to recreate that special feeling of being in a stadium with your family of fellow fans. NFL is incorporating Microsoft Teams into their fan experience, by inviting fans to watch the game via Teams, and displaying their faces on the Fan Mosaic which is then streamed on LED screens in stadiums and on the TV broadcast. Fans interact with each other as they watch the game via Teams and hear augmented crowd noise customized for each stadium.
Remote Fan Mosaic, Microsoft
This can be taken a step further by turning to virtual or augmented reality to enable advanced replays or putting the fan virtually in the field. We’ve seen some one-off experiments with this technology, like the NBA's partnership with Facebook on the virtual courtside experience, but the quality has been less than stellar due to blurriness. With the expansion of 5G, the NBA is hopeful the quality will improve enough to begin selling VR season-ticket seats. As NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum suggests, “As bandwidth speeds get faster, as 5G gets faster, that experience is going to become more immersive, and I do think the opportunities will then grow for people to want to experience that and to adapt to virtual reality.” Of course, to scale the experience for a larger audience – increased accessibility of the technology is crucial.
How can sports create more immersive experiences for more people? Aside from hoping that tech firms will make VR/AR hardware more affordable (peek at the cheaper Oculus Quest 2 released on October 13), sports may need to rely on social media companies that are advancing their AR capabilities. NFL and Snap recently launched a special gameday augmented reality Lens that took fans from the Kansas City Chiefs’ locker room through the tunnel and into Arrowhead Stadium, where they were greeted by Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Houston’s Deshaun Watson. While we’ve seen small pockets of experimentation in this space, there’s no question that there is much more that can be done.
“I want to actively engage on a regular basis - not just game days”
Time: Ongoing | Interaction: Active
Once gameday is over, sports franchises need to extend that engaging experience to build loyalty with their fans over time. Fans don’t just want to consume gameday and non-game content about their favorite teams. They want to be actively involved with them. We already know this is an important part of the avid fan experience based on the raging popularity of fantasy leagues - nearly 60 million people now play fantasy sports, with 80% of those playing fantasy football, according to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association. The majority of those fantasy players report that they watch more live sports than they normally would because they are involved in fantasy. These people desire a rooting interest in the game, because it makes the game more exciting for them. “Fantasy took that core thing that people wanted, and it expanded it from their hometown team or their favorite player’s team, to have a rooting interest in almost every game,” says DraftKings CEO Jason Robins.
What are other interactive methods, besides fantasy, that leagues can use to build audience’s rooting interests? Perhaps one answer lies in the increasing prevalence of the smart home devices. Fans of the New Zealand Rugby team can use Amazon Alexa-enabled devices to obtain match information, access behind-the-scenes content, learn more the team’s history, and also play a quiz about the All Blacks team. Imagine entering a sports trivia tournament at home with friends and family, with Alexa as the trivia master.
It’s also important for fans to have a place they can connect socially, especially while many are no longer able to do so over a beer at their local watering hole. Teams may consider hosting virtual (or socially distanced) social events, where fans can meet each other and even team members.
A holistic approach to the remote fan experience
It may seem sexy, if slightly obvious, for sports leaders to invest heavily in AR/VR capabilities when considering how to build the best remote fan experience. But taking a holistic view of when and how fans wish to interact with their favorite leagues and teams will be critical for building the most comprehensive experience possible. These themes and opportunity areas will continue to exist as sports navigate their fan experience far beyond the pandemic. Moving forward, I’m looking forward to seeing how the sports industry will invest strategically across all four areas shown below.
Future of Remote Fan Experience, Julia Rodenas
The views in this article are purely my own. In no way is this article related to, informed by or endorsed by my employer.