The young woman in the second row stumped me. While I was speaking to students at Clemson University in Amanda Cooper Fine’s sports marketing strategies class, Sara, a tennis player, asked, “What are possible challenges or changes in sports that leaders are overlooking?”
Like all the questions from the 20 students during our 75 minutes together, it was a smart, thoughtful one. I paused, credited her for stumping me and apologized for sharing a half-baked answer. I could have easily said the role and impact of AI in sports, but frankly, that would have been word salad; I have no idea about that. What I did offer was this: Are we overlooking consumers’ actual desire for sports?
Trust me, I want all sports entities to succeed, and a healthy sports business. But we are in a very bullish marketplace in which there are so many new leagues, events, offerings and startups, and we need to make sure we’re meeting consumer needs and wants, not just what the sports industry thinks they want. Everyone does their surveys and analyzes their data, but we can’t always be sure that if we build it, they will come. So, we can’t conflate investor desire with what the market wants. Second, don’t overlook the fans who helped make the sports business what it is today: the common fan who works, saves, yells, cheers, cares and yes, perhaps swears. We can’t price out those fans who have been the foundation of sports from the live event experience. I’m not saying these elements are necessarily being overlooked — fan studies run constantly, and pricing is always top of mind — but those were my off-the-cuff thoughts to a smart question. Please share your thoughts on what we may be overlooking.
IMPACT OF PREMIUM: If you’ve never been on the Clemson campus, I highly recommend it. That morning with the students had me on my mental toes, as the questions from the entire class were impressive. There was a surprising curiosity about how the focus on premium pricing and experiences affects the die-hard, cost-conscious fan. I shared that teams have major costs in funding new buildings and renovations, and they will use the long-term, secure revenue from premium sales to help pay for facility development. We talked about improving the experience for all fans, and how teams are focusing on giving a great experience to fans who are in the upper-level or corner areas of a facility to upsell them on the venue’s more premium areas. Teams will have to build out new products that fit different audiences.
PRIVATE EQUITY, GLOBAL EXPANSION AND MORE: I was surprised by the number of questions about the role of private equity in sports, and the “why” behind team owners selling a percentage of equity in their franchises, what they are doing with that money and whether fans will notice any changes in team operation.
There was a lot of discussion about how leagues are balancing their global strategies without alienating their local, core fan base by taking away home games, and the overall level of engagement of fans outside North America in the NFL, NHL and NBA, in particular. There were questions about possible expansion cities across the major sports, as we covered the NBA and Las Vegas/Seattle/Mexico City and the NHL and Houston/Austin/Atlanta.
On the NHL, it’s been interesting talking to insiders who believe Houston is the safer, stronger market, and one that could eventually be home to two major arenas; but there is definitely a push to have the NHL be “the show” in Austin, where local leaders are bullish on embracing such a franchise. We also discussed the number of markets interested in MLS (Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Detroit) and the WNBA (Boston, Charlotte, Nashville, Denver, Kansas City and Vancouver).
They wanted insight on the AUSL, women’s volleyball and where more women’s sports could play in nontraditional venues, such as the recent college volleyball matches at Wrigley Field.
COLLEGE SPORTS: As you would expect on a campus, there were questions about the state of college sports, ranging from if pro leagues are worried about talent staying in college longer due to NIL money, to eligibility rules and whether top schools will break away from the NCAA for football. They wanted insight into the expansion of the College Football Playoff. I leveled with them in that most people I speak with in the industry don’t support it, but commissioners, ADs and coaches certainly do because of the opportunity to make an expanded playoff, the amplification of their program and even more job security. An interesting fact: Not one question about the state of MLB or a possible work stoppage.
I ended by sharing some stock advice on interview preparation, dressing the part, in-person presentation skills, buying personal stationery, the value of thank-you notes, being interested and being interesting. But on the drive back to Charlotte, I kept coming back to Sara’s question about what we are possibly overlooking.
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
