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- I spoke with Ben Ryan Shields, Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School about the return of sports in the era of COVID-19
- He believes that the current situation has likely accelerated the digital transformation of sports organisations and clubs
- Yet his central point is also that sports are competing against entertainment properties like Fortnite, as much as against rival sports
With a host of sporting competitions disrupted due to COVID-19, what does the future of the fan experience look like?
Certainly we’re living in unprecedented times (to borrow an oft used phrase from politicians currently), with the Champions League final being won by Bayern Munich behind closed doors. Meanwhile the NBA and NHL has created a player bubble to insulate their athletes from potential infection of COVID-19.
To make sense of where things might go, I spoke with Ben Ryan Shields, a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School.
He teaches MBA courses on communication and technology and his research focuses on the intersection of social media technologies, data analytics, and audience behavior in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. He served previously as the Director of Social Media and Marketing at ESPN.
The absence of live sports and its financial impact
The funny think about the complete absence of fans from stadiums currently, Ben feels, in general, even before the pandemic struck, “it was becoming increasingly more difficult to attract fans to stadiums, based on the amount of time and money – fans needed to invest to attend.”
But the “new reality” (as we’ve taken to calling it) of little to no fans in a stadium presents an even bigger problem.
As Ben explains it: “I think it’s hard to overstate the potential financial impact of the pandemic on the sport industry, the attendance revenue stream for smaller leagues and organisations is really their core business. If you take that away, there’s not a lot of money coming into the organisation.”
I think we’re in for a long haul when it comes to attending sporting events.”
Ben Ryan Shields, MIT Sloan School
The assumption might be that the bigger leagues will be able to remain unscathed but Ben still thinks that they will feel some pain from the absence of fans on gameday.
“Even for larger leagues, like the NFL or NBA that drive significant revenue from media rights, they still have pretty healthy attendance revenue streams. So, if you take that away, it’s a significant hit on the overall finances of the industry.”
“I’d love to think that we will all be able to pack our favourite stadiums, soon, but that just doesn’t seem realistic and I think we’re in for a long haul.”
What could try to replace the in-person sports experience?
Could a 100% virtual experience actually replace, monetarily, the in-person sports experience for fans? (Read more here on the stadium experience).
Ben thinks that this was someway off.
“I don’t know if yet whether the digital experience can make up for the significant revenues from attendance I just don’t see that happening in the short term, but it’s where we need to be focusing our efforts.”
Yet while sports tries to adapt to what has happened in 2020, the following years are the ones to watch out.
“What I’m really focused on is 2021 and 2022, and what the fan experience is going to be like and I believe that the digital transformation that was already underway in sports will need to be accelerated.”
The upcoming US Open gives a good indication of the new, but also immediate virtual-first fan experience (read more about how tech is also keeping athletes fit during this time too). “Fan Cam” allows tennis fans to submit video clips of encouragement for players to broadcast producers to use throughout matches. Yet the march to virtual also includes innovations aimed at the players also. A virtual player’s box has been created whereby up to 15 members of players’ supporters and staff, (who cannot attend on-site) are present. Previously, these people would have been in a private booth at Arthur Ashe stadium.
But what will the future innovations look like in 2021 and 2022, if fans are still unable to pack out stadiums?
“I’m thinking that sports media organisations will be experimenting with ways to make the experience more interactive and social. If you can get a social connection by attending an event if you can’t attend an event, and kind of get that feeling of social connection in the physical venue then how can you recreate some version of social connection and community digitally.”
A key part of future revenue, could come from the opening up of the US to sports betting also.
“I have no question that if betting continues to be legalised in states across the US, that sports leagues and media organisations will be aggressive in integrating it as part of the digital fan experience. That is a potential new source of revenue that again, may not make up for the attendance challenges that organisations are facing but could offer some opportunities for growth going forward.”
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A wider sea-change had also been underway well before COVID-19 hit in Ben’s mind also.
“There has often been this notion that you know we just need to put a winning team on the field and it will be good – I think what’s changed is. There’s more competition for fans’ time and money and fan expectations are higher. When you have those two factors at play, it’s incumbent upon the sports organisation to be more strategic and innovative to win as a business.”
“Sports are competing against Fortnite”
Ben Ryan Shields, MIT Sloan School
“It’s been driven by more and more games being broadcast now from every league across the world, but also mixed with the kind of access to organisations and sports that social media offers as well.”
As we all adapt to our new reality, it seems sports clubs and organisations will also need to, from finding to innovative solutions to the COVID-19 conundrum but also to shifting their mindsets in how they’re competing for fans’ time.
“Sports are competing against Fortnite,” Ben concluded.
