4. Enhance the live experience
For now at least, the live experience is at the core of the value proposition for sports clubs. Empty stands lead to a flat atmosphere for the players and those watching at home. Therefore, this must remain the cornerstone of a clubs fan engagement activities.
For many sports clubs, fan engagement rightly begins with understanding the fan journey and ensuring “pain points” are addressed.
Live entertainment before the match and at half time, including dedicated fan zone
areas with live music, football games etc., can add significant value to the match day experience.
Manchester City’s “City Square”, a fixture in the match day ritual for city fans, is an award-winning example of how to build such a concept.
Providing behind-the-scenes content and serving this exclusively to fans at the game is a valuable way to reward those that have come to the stadium (Manchester City do this particularly well at home games in the EPL).
In 2014, the Sacramento Kings teamed up with Google to equip mascots, reporters and dancers with Google Glass and enabled fans to stream the resulting intimate courtside views through their mobile devices.
www.seatconsortium.com / @SEATconference
The Miami Dolphins, leveraging IBM’s Intelligent Operations Centre technology, smooth the fan journey by monitoring and reacting to weather forecasts, parking delays and even concessions shortages at specific stands in the Sun Life Stadium.