Connecting With Sports Fans In A Post-Pandemic World

Jose Antonio Cachaza Aug 25, 2021

Experts say that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated social and economic processes of change that were slowly happening, but are now in full force, especially everything related to online communications. Today, it is normal to meet someone through videoconference, but it wasn’t so widespread just 18 months ago. In the professional sports industry, everything that has happened since March 2020 has proven that broadcast, sponsorship and digital business are bringing in more money than stadium revenue today, that’s what allowed us to keep the ball rolling even in front of empty stands. On the other hand, the TV experience and the interaction with our fans through social media proved how odd, not to say sad, it is to have sports without fans living the game in the stands.

This is the biggest challenge ahead: to recover the human touch of sports, to make sure that fans are back to venues with even more excitement than before. With this, though, arises an important question. It is true that fans consume more sports than ever before through broadcast, digital and social media, although in different ways than before; not to forget the increasing relevance of e-sports, fantasy leagues, etc. However, do they want to experience it live, to support their heroes in the stadium? This can apply to football, cricket, or any other sport. The recent EURO 2020 proved that fans seem to want to be back. But, will they renew their season tickets or just keep watching it from their warm safe homes?

Watching sports at the stadium has been always much more than attending a show or a play. It’s not like going to the theatre, fans want to be part of the game, supporting their team, booing rivals and referees. They don’t want to be passive, they crave to be the protagonists as well. But the truth is that for the last year and a half, that’s been lost, you couldn’t even watch the games at the pub. Maybe some fans will choose the experience at home, but as the world, and sports, are slowly starting to go back to normal, there is hope that the emotions sports bring out in fans are still there.

For sports business managers, it is important to understand that we are dealing with people that love and live for the game, not only with consumers, digital contacts, or database registries. Yes, they are that too, we cannot forget we are managing a huge business, but we cannot lose touch with the ground.

So what are the challenges ahead? We can summarize them in five points:

1. Bring back fans to the stadia, ensuring they have an even better matchday experience.

2. Digital and social media is becoming the primary touchpoint with the fans and it’s not just communication anymore, it’s a two-way connection with them. But there is still work ahead in areas such as monetization of this media.

3. Real-time dialogue with fans has become more important than ever before, having a better understanding of their demands, desires and even complaints is the key. However we need to answer quicker to their changing demands.

4. Anticipate the ongoing changes in broadcast. We can no longer talk about just television coverage; it’s way more complex today as traditional and digital broadcast coexist; new entrants and new OTTs are coming in to stay.

5. Focus on international growth. The world is our market, and no top sport event can by so by living out of one country alone in this increasingly interconnected world.

At the end it’s all about the fans. Today, the fan is not only the little boy who goes to see Atlético de Madrid play at Metropolitano Stadium grabbing his grandfather’s hand, it’s also the young lady in Hyderabad who will watch the same match on MTV, sitting in India, wearing her Luis Suarez jersey, while discussing plays on social media with fellow fans from all over the world.

The author is Jose Antonio Cachaza, Managing Director – India, LaLiga