Sporting clubs and leagues are used to competing for fans and chasing ticket sales, however in the COVID-19 era a new race is on as the sports industry seeks to adapt to competition without fan attendance.
For sports in some parts of the world, such as the AFL in Australia, lower COVID-19 case numbers have allowed leagues to proceed with fixtures with a limited number of fans, which has given club members, ticket holders and TV viewers something at least close to normality.
Other sports are less reliant on the atmosphere created by fans, such as combat sports. The UFC was one of the first major sports businesses in the US to return to fixtures by having fighters compete in empty areas and relying entirely on pay-per-view revenues. They also built a new arena in Abu Dhabi so that international fighters can meet and compete despite the travel restrictions currently imposed by many countries.
For most fans of competitive sports, the atmosphere created in packed stadiums is one of the central elements to their enjoyment of sport, whether they are attending in person or watching a broadcast.
Fan attendance is also a crucial pillar in the business models of sporting clubs and leagues. The average gate receipt alone for an NBA game is $1 million to $1.5 million. The absence of fans also impacts teams and leagues ability to sell packages to advertisers and sponsors.
As with any major disruption, the need for fan engagement has created opportunities for innovative businesses. New app Hear Me Cheer is addressing the lack of atmosphere at sporting fixtures by inviting its users to record themselves watching a sports event, combining the recording with that of all others using the app and playing the sound back, allowing fans to hear themselves and thousands of other fans cheering along to the action in real time.
There are also opportunities in the visualisation and presentation of player stats and data as a means of driving greater fan engagement when other elements of their normal experience may be missing or lacking.
Clubs, teams and leagues are also turning to technology to help drive fan engagement in other ways.
The NBA has been trialling a new technology in collaboration with Microsoft that enables fans to attend games ‘virtually’ via a live stream. Fans seated in front of cameras at home are beamed on to screens court-side so they appear to be attending in person. It boosts the atmosphere for TV viewers, and also for players, who can see family, friends, and diehard fans cheering them on. The NBA also brought forward the release of their 2K esports league to whet the appetites of fans while the season was suspended.
Pro cycling teams are also using technology to stay in touch with their fans, even when races are not taking place.
Doug Ryder, the Team Principal for the NTT pro cycling team, said riders have been connecting with fans through the virtual cycling platform Zwift.
“(Through Zwift) teams have been able to connect with an audience in a third dimensional way, because the audience can actually ask them questions,” Doug said on The Stanley St. Social Podcast (in collaboration with Lumin).
“We understand the power of that platform where you can engage with people from all cultures around the world and bring them into a team like ours.
“I think now going forward, those teams that continue to embrace the platform, even though we are able to get out, those are the teams that are going to benefit from it and offer something uniquely different.”
Despite the challenges, technology is providing enormous opportunities for sporting teams and leagues at all levels. Lumin Sports builds technology to advance high performance teams all over the world. Find out more about Lumin products here.