Watch or listen to episode 319 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, in which Neil chatted with Alex Magleby, Co-President of Major League Rugby.
Alex discusses his journey from US national team rugby player and early sports analytics entrepreneur to co-founding the New England Free Jacks and now serving as Co-President of Strategy & Communications at Major League Rugby — and what it’s genuinely taken to build the sport in America from the ground up. He breaks down MLR’s entertainment-first model (live music, post-game field access, family of four for under $100), how the league thinks about fan development one block at a time, and why the 2031 Rugby World Cup is the north star for everything they’re building right now.
Both the NHL and MLS, and their growing women’s counterparts, namely the PWHL and NWSL, have had this year circled for a long time. A year they hope becomes the inflection point that raises the floor and ceiling for fandom and revenue for years to come.
Alex Silverman has been covering it all. As Sports Business Journal‘s lead hockey and soccer business reporter, Silverman is on top of all the hopes and dreams, the narratives, and how 2026 could represent a step-change for these sports or fall short of the sky-high generational expectations.
Soccer fandom has been growing in the US for years. MLS has expanded, and many markets are packing their stadiums. But not all that growth in soccer consumption has gone to MLS. There will be a spike in soccer interest from the World Cup, but Silverman said the jury is still out on how much the expected World Cup bump will benefit MLS.
“I think there will definitely be a bump in interest in soccer. It’s just a matter of — can MLS in particular capture it, or will that interest sort of just be funneled towards the [English Premier League] or [Mexico’s] Liga MX or [Spain’s] La Liga or [UEFA] Champions League?”…
More soccer fans, in any form, in the US is still a net positive, Silverman explained, but there needs to be specific interest in MLS.
“I think it’s important to get every soccer fan in the US to have at least some level of interest in MLS,” he said. “And this is maybe more my opinion than how they view it, but I don’t think it’s really sustainable to have a significant chunk of soccer fans in the US basically be indifferent to what’s happening in MLS and only want to focus on what’s happening in the European leagues.
“There are diehard soccer fans that aren’t interested in MLS, and I think they need to find a way to change that.”
MLS has been on an impressive growth trajectory for years. While their media rights deal with Apple TV has not lived up to the loftiest expectations, the last several years have seen significant spikes in awareness and attention as global stars like Thomas Müller, Son Heung-min, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and, of course, Lionel Messi. While MLS viewership on Apple TV remains a bit opaque, the success of clubs like Inter Miami, riding in Messi’s prodigious wake, increases the confidence that MLS and its clubs are massive businesses worthy of the nine and ten-figure valuations.
“Obviously, a lot of their marketing has focused on Lionel Messi over the last few years,” said Silverman, who has worked for Univision and Cablefax, in addition to his two stints with SBJ. “[Messi] has been front and center, with good reason. What you’ve seen Inter Miami do has really shattered what was previously thought possible for an MLS team. They’re generating over $200 million in revenue. So they’re showing that there is a path — and now granted, there’s only one Lionel Messi — but they’re showing that there is a path to being a major money-maker as a soccer team in the US.”
Inter Miami’s revenue growth is undeniable. But all of these major leagues eye the biggest prize: massive national media rights deals. That’s why the NBA is flying high after inking $77 billion worth of rights agreements across 11 years. Those deals are what drive multi-billion-dollar team valuations and allow leagues to command billions for expansion franchises.
So while Messi and the other stars, along with MLS’s largely excellent live game experience, are driving meaningful revenue streams, it all pales in comparison to what leagues like the NFL find in the figurative couch cushions of their broadcast agreements.
“I think Jimmy Haslam, the owner of the Columbus Crew [and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns], last year said at Leaders Week something like, ‘Our media revenue from the Browns is $400 million a year, and our media revenue from the Crew is $4 million a year.’ Right now it’s sort of an in-stadium product, and a lot of teams do well in terms of filling their buildings, but becoming a bigger business and doing more than just operating on thin margins will depend on creating broader appeal and becoming more of a media property.”
The NHL isn’t swimming in media rights revenue like its NFL and NBA counterparts, but the league is no doubt on a higher tier than MLS. And the NHL has benefited from some big national media numbers in the last year or two. Between the 4 Nationals Face-Off, with TV viewership that was higher than even the rosiest prognostications foresaw, and the big buzz and big numbers for the men’s and women’s Olympic teams’ run to the gold medal, there was a positive outlook as the league returned to play following the Winter Games.
While the NHL (as well as the PWHL) each enjoyed the increased interest and engagement, Silverman is still watching to see how much effect the Olympic jolt can have for the NHL — and whether the league missed an opportunity to make the Olympic moment mean even more.
“I don’t necessarily think that a lot of teams had strong plans going into [The Olympics] about how they were going to capitalize on it,” said Silverman, who, in addition to covering the NHL, is a longtime fan of the New York Islanders. “But I think in some markets where there was available seating inventory, you’ve seen some attendance bumps. And they have seen some slight viewership upticks in the weeks coming out of the games. So I’m curious to see how the playoffs this year do on TV.”
That’s the reality. The Olympics are a glorified marketing vehicle for the NHL. A powerful one, to be sure, but big TV ratings for Team USA games and big sales of Team USA jerseys don’t do much directly for the league’s coffers. That’s why the attendance and viewership bumps are nice to see, but, as Silverman noted, the hope is that the league’s biggest and most valuable games, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, see increased national interest, reflected in viewership.
But there’s another shining beacon on the horizon for the NHL, a big best-on-best international tournament that they own, control, and can reap considerable revenue — The World Cup of Hockey (as well as last year’s 4 Nations). Every international game is another supporting point for the NHL when it comes to selling and marketing the World Cup. That’s all part of the calculus for the NHL to disrupt its season and put its players at risk of injury in the middle of the league’s regular season, Silverman explained.
“I definitely think it’s good for the league to participate in these things,” he said; 2026 was, after all, the first time NHL players participated in the Olympics since 2014. “But I think they’re obviously a lot more incentivized to do so when they’re able to get direct revenue upside out of it in addition to building the fans of the future, which is why I think they’re super excited about how the 4 Nations did last year, which is a tournament that they control, and why they’re bringing back the World Cup of Hockey in 2028.
Silverman continued: “I think the biggest opportunity for them to see direct upside from this Olympics is now they’re going to be selling sponsorship for that World Cup of Hockey in 2028 [and] they’re going to be selling the media rights for that tournament. And the league will have good data points to point to from the last two years of international competition to say there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily always watch the NHL who are interested in watching international hockey, and now [they’re] selling international hockey…”
Hockey may have the benefit of Team USA competing for (and achieving) global supremacy in the world’s top tournaments, but soccer has a leg up on participation and barriers to entry. Virtually everybody in the US has played organized soccer or at least knows somebody who has. The same can’t be said for ice hockey. While there are plenty of NHL fans who have never played organized ice hockey (myself included!), the more sparse active exposure is just one more obstacle for hockey fans to be in awe of the athletes.
With less organic exposure to hockey, the NHL has to make the most of any chances to seize the spotlight. Silverman talked about this challenge for the NHL, and what they can do to capitalize when opportunities arise.
“The challenge with hockey has been the same challenge as always — participation in hockey is still fairly niche,” he said. “If you grew up playing hockey, you understand how incredible some of the things that these players are doing on the ice are, and you’re just more exposed to it. I think the Olympics went a long way in getting people that might not have necessarily been watching to watch.
“There’s been a lot of talk about whether something like [hit HBO show] Heated Rivalry will get more people interested in hockey. Anything that gets hockey more into the cultural zeitgeist is helpful. You’ve seen a little bit of a Heated Rivalry bump and an Olympic bump. So creating those kinds of moments where the players can break out beyond just the NHL media bubble is helpful.”
Both hockey and soccer are getting better at creating stories and moments that transcend their core audiences, and capitalizing when serendipity smiles upon them with something unexpected. They’re each chasing relevance; they’re seeking attention and engagement in an increasingly crowded ecosystem, full of endless feeds and infinite options, where the next thing is just tap or swipe away.
The question is what the results of these spikes really mean. Going viral isn’t a strategy, but neither is virality, once achieved, a guarantee of business success. More exposure has to be funneled to more audience capture, consumption, conversion, and fan growth, which, ultimately, translates to dollars that can support short-term growth and develop new cohorts and generations of fans at every level. As Silverman reports on the business strategies, challenges, and opportunities for hockey and soccer, he’s looking at the surface-level metrics, but also scrutinizing and digging deeper into what lies beneath.
“It’s great if you have a lot of people watching your highlights on social media,” he said, “but the revenue associated with that isn’t the same as the revenue associated with live rights. And as we’re seeing media companies be more selective with where they’re spending their revenue, you’re starting to see more properties popping up.
“The main revenue streams for any sports property are basically media, ticketing, and sponsorship. And in a lot of cases, there’s just not really media revenue to be had. I think that’s the challenge with people saying, ‘Oh, well, that’s not really the best way to evaluate our property,’ it helps to try and get a sense of what their business model is, how much of their revenue comes from media versus sponsorship versus ticketing and game-day revenue. There are a lot of things to consider there.”
It all has to result in something of substance. Regardless of the makeup of the revenue pie — and the next era of sports business models may indeed look different than the current one — the pie has to be big to get where these teams, leagues, and sports entities want to go.
“A year from now, 2026 will have told us a lot — not just whether a World Cup creates lasting soccer converts or a gold medal drives new hockey households, but whether the business infrastructure behind these leagues is sophisticated enough to capture the moment when it arrives. As Silverman put it, ‘the verdict is still out on whether it’ll increase interest in the core product.’ That’s the question the whole industry is watching.”
On episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Alex Silverman, Reporter for Sports Business Journal, covering hockey and soccer business.
Watch or listen to episode 318 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast in which Neil chatted with Alex Silverman, Reporter for Sports Business Journal covering hockey and soccer business.
Alex discusses why 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for both hockey and soccer in the US — from the NHL’s push to develop its next generation of stars and the excitement around the World Cup this summer to MLS navigating its calendar to align more with the global football calendar. He also shares his perspective on where each league stands in the broader American sports media landscape, and what it will take for both to capitalize on the moment.
On episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Jaelyn Arndt, Associate Director of Communications – Social Media for the NCAA.
The NCAA has been around since 1906. Social media has not. Bridging that gap, and doing so across 1,100+ schools, three very different divisions, and more than half a million student-athletes who come and go every year, is a unique challenge for Jaelyn Arndt and her team.
The NCAA has a broad mission, encompassing the support of countless past, present, and future student-athletes. And social media is undeniably one of the most powerful tools in the quiver now — but it’s only impactful if wielded to the fullest extent, efficiently and effectively. So how do you help usher a century-old institution into the social media age? Start with the basics.
“We have evolved and we’re being social on social, we’re doing best practices,” said Arndt, a former NCAA Division III volleyball player in her days as a student-athlete. “We have really dove into each platform, but now we are maturing in the way of that maybe not every piece of content needs to hit every platform. Or hey, if we’re going to post on Instagram but we also need it on Facebook, we’re building that content for the platform. So it may not be the same piece of media, but it’s the same story because we know what works on each platform. And I think that just came with maturity. It came with having boundaries and being able to say no, being able to say yes.”
Developing platform-specific packaging and approaches was step one. As Arndt noted, too, getting the NCAA to be more thoughtful about content production and distribution was an integral step; she added later that the organization has a lot of room to grow on TikTok, for example, but needs to dedicate the appropriate time and effort there to make sure they do it right. Alongside getting the content right, there’s the ever-important voice and tone.
In the earliest days of social media, voice, most often conveyed in copy, was mostly staid; then, through memes, GIFs, replies, and just pure content vibes, which gave way to eras of snark, absurdity, and everything in between. The NCAA has to be thoughtful, but intentional; careful but convicted. Arndt and her team appreciate the challenge of speaking and posting on behalf of an organization that wants to celebrate the joy and inspiration of college sports and student-athletes, but also leave room for straightforward and serious explanations of the rules and regulations the NCAA oversees and communicates. Arndt described the NCAA’s voice and presence on social.
“We kind of gave ourselves a character of the proud auntie,” said Arndt, who said the strategy is centered around ‘cultivating community.’ “So the NCAA is here to uplift you, support you. We are your biggest cheerleaders, but we’re also going to keep it real with you when there are new rules or new legislation that passes.
“We’re going to not talk at you, we’re talking with you. And those are things that come from comments. It’s engaging with the student athletes. It’s sharing their content. It’s doing social first. It’s being able to take a structured in-venue video and then creating a social-first piece that’s going to hit with our target audience, which is always the student athletes.”
As the NCAA has been molding its social media strategy, a massive college athletics media complex has continued to grow. Schools, as well as student-athletes themselves, are telling their own stories and creating their own content — and lots of it. Let alone all of the players in the larger media ecosystem, ESPN, Yahoo, Bleacher Report, FOX Sports, The Athletic, and tons of others. So where does that leave the NCAA? In an ocean of content, where and when should the NCAA surface?
“Where we sit, it’s really being strategic because we have access to footage that not everybody else does,” said Arndt, who also spoke about being mindful of covering and amplifying stories across all three divisions and across all sports, as much as possible. “Especially if someone has already been at a championship or we have all this footage that hasn’t even seen the light of day. So that’s a really easy way for us to come in on the story with our assets that no one else has.”
Arndt also spoke about this approach as it pertains to the biggest annual NCAA properties: men’s and women’s March Madness.
“You have to take advantage of where your credential gets you because these are our championships. We have the access and everyone is already seeing where the ESPN camera is, but are you back-of-house or are you getting locker room? Are you getting the legacy court drop? Where can we be that not everybody else can see? And that’s where you’re going to have those breakthrough moments.”
The NCAA can also come at stories with a unique lens. Because while most media outlets will skew toward athletic feats and storylines, the NCAA has a bigger picture frame and more diverse content buckets. As much focus as there is on the incredible achievements in pools, arenas, and stadiums (and the NCAA elevates those stories, too), the student-athlete experience is unique. The NCAA seeks to capture that, always ready with the story and the next level or two beyond, too.
“It’s a lot — you have to be knowledgeable of this story or this athlete,” Arndt explained. “Were they at a national championship? Do they hold an NCAA record? Were they a Woman of the Year or an elite scholar? Any awards that we give out, that’s kind of where we can chime in with our own storytelling effort, if ESPN or someone else jumped in there.
Arndt continued: “For us, it’s really about diversifying the feeds, getting different stories out there that hit different pillars for us. And then to me, it’s using our platforms to help continue to build the student athletes’ brands. You see these people and their amazing stories, and they’re trying to build out their followers. A lot of these athletes don’t become professional athletes, and so if they want to talk about what they want to do post-sport — yeah, let’s get that on our account because I’m sure someone here would love to hire you after you graduate.”
It always comes back to the student-athletes. They’re the main characters in these stories; they’re the humans whose achievements get immortalized in highlights and headlines, and whose emotions fans can’t help but feel viscerally and vicariously. So, one of the most important jobs for Arndt and her team with the NCAA is to study up on the student-athletes. They have to know about the stories out there worth telling, who could fit a certain structure or category that’ll resonate with fans and followers, and how best to work with the student-athletes who find themselves in the spotlight.
“Pre-production and research will always be your best friend, and I think people sleep on that a little bit in the social space,” said Arndt, who has been with the NCAA since 2022. “There’s just so much that goes into it. If you do your research on an athlete, you’re going to know which one is a social person and who’s not. So when you’re reaching out to make the ask to do a ‘get ready with me,’ I would hope you did your research, and you find that this person has done a ‘get ready with me’ once a week for the past five months, and you’re like, that’s the best candidate.”
The dedication to research and preparation came to a head in early 2026, as the NCAA had the opportunity to travel to Italy to work the Olympics and Paralympics, which were chock full of current and former NCAA student-athletes. The operation in Milan was a great microcosm of how the NCAA serves its mission, its members, and its past, present, and future student-athletes. Arndt described what the NCAA sought to do in Italy and the incredible output and success they were able to send and bring back home.
“Our goal was to, one, create content for the membership and conferences, schools back home,” said Arndt, who expressed excitement and anticipation about what the NCAA will be able to do when the Olympic Games come to LA in 2028. “So we would ask questions, upload it to a Google Drive, send an email out, notify them, and then [schools and conferences] could create, edit whatever content we got and post on their accounts. Second was creating content for the NCAA channels. And that was a huge success. We got to sit down with 63 athletes who came through and do interviews with them. It was literally insane.
Arndt elaborated further: “Diving into all of their stories, we made combo pieces, personality pieces. But it’s unreal to think about. For us, it’s really telling the pipeline of the Olympic athletes that start at the NCAA. Winter Games is fun because you have athletes who were track and field or a swimmer, and now they’re on the Team USA bobsled team. And you’re like, how in the world did you end up here? Tell us about that.”
The NCAA has been dealing with changes for generations. The internet gave way to social media, giving all schools and student-athletes a platform. NIL augmented the already-growing student-athlete brands. The NCAA had to adapt, pick up new tools, develop modern approaches, and figure out how to keep making an impact — for the student-athletes who compete and the fans who live and die with their schools. It’s an ongoing evolution that Arndt continues to shepherd today.
But even amidst all the billions in media rights deals and the millions in NIL deals and revenue sharing, there remains a special purity in college athletics. And yet, with all the humanizing stories and lifestyle content pieces in pro sports, it’s still hard to see ourselves in those larger-than-life athletes. But with student-athletes, it’s never been only about sports. For four years, they earn the admiration and attention of fans, but it’s just a short time in their lives and one part of their story. Arndt and her team will continue to showcase all of it. They’ll be the proud auntie cheering on the student-athletes, making the most of those years on campus. While for each of them, their time as a collegiate athlete is but a short chapter in their lives, their stories can inspire and have an impact forever.
Watch or listen to episode 317 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast in which Neil chatted with Jaelyn Arndt, Associate Director of Communications – Social Media for the NCAA.
Jaelyn discusses the NCAA’s social media strategy and how she and her team are building and evolving the brand across platforms. She breaks down the NCAA’s brand voice, the challenge and opportunity of storytelling across all three divisions, what she looks for when hiring for social media roles, how she approaches measuring success beyond the traditional metrics, and what goes into covering marquee moments like March Madness.
Comprehensive insights into the San Diego Mojo volleyball match, covering fan engagement, venue setup, merchandise, player interactions, and in-game entertainment at Viejas Arena in March 2026.
Geoff discusses the strategic blueprint for building a lasting sports organization, sharing insights from his work across 104 countries around the world, including consulting work with FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, Sport England, Irish Football, and more. He breaks down the “Fans vs. Guests” philosophy, the importance of a team’s values and brand, the critical role of grassroots development, and why the most successful teams prioritize product and community.
Sure, the competition and the games are the vehicle; highlights drive reach and engagement, the best in the world at their sport putting on a show.
But the modern-day nature of social media allows for more. Modern-day fandom demands more. It’s not enough to just cheer on laundry and stitched-on jersey numbers. When you feel like you know the athletes, then it’s not just watching elite athletes compete live; it’s more akin to watching a friend or family member do their thing. The power of parasocial relationships in action.
The most successful leagues, teams, and athletes are working to develop such relationships with fans; there’s a premium added to every game and play when fans are cheering on players who feel like friends. Paige Y. Price, MPS is among the wave of team social media creators charged with not just promoting ticket sales and driving engagement, but fostering such meaningful connections between players and fans. Working with the Washington Spirit of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), Price has seen simple and playful bits like asking Spirit players a ‘question of the day’ upon their arrival, playing rock-paper-scissors, or autographing photos of themselves as young kids drive the kind of engagement that transcends performance on the pitch. For Price, it requires a thoughtful and open approach with players.
“I always told them, you never have to answer the question for me. Like, if you don’t want to, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you don’t have to, because I know there’s a select group of girls that I can always count on that will,” said Price, who has been in her role with the Washington Spirit since early 2024 (her second stint with the team). “Obviously, they didn’t know me at the time, so they were a little — not hesitant but just kind of aware that I’m a new person — and feeling me out, I’m feeling them out, too. And I took my surveys from that, and then also my mental surveys from that, and as I got to know them. And I did have a lot of help from Amie and Cecily (from social media production company Hat Trip, which works with the NWSL), who hired me, just letting me in on certain player personalities.
“But it’s also reading body language and reading the room…[Also], I think trying to get to know them outside of soccer, like if we have just the slightest bit of anything in common…trying to have those small things in common that can help me engage in conversation with them that doesn’t involve work for either of us; I think that was huge as well…”
Building such relationships and producing group participation-style content helps every player (who wants to) get some screen time and a chance for fans to get to know them. But the Spirit also happen to have arguably the most well-known individual women’s soccer player in the world, Trinity Rodman, on their roster, and she was at the center of one of the biggest sports stories in the world earlier this year.
Having a collaborative, friendly relationship with players pays off in the day-to-day and certainly in the big moments. So when Rodman signed her new deal to remain in the NWSL with the Spirit, enabled by a rule change by the league that helped the Spirit approach the money she’d have on the table with European clubs, the effort to roll out a meaningful announcement to match the moment involved teamwork. The result was an authentic, effective, well-thought-out series of posts and productions that met the moment.
“Trinity was pretty hands-on in the content creation,” said Price, who also described the posting plan for her, Trinity, and the team, planned with precision. “A lot of it was her vision; [for] the video that she posted on her channel before we went live with our video, she was sending edits back and forth and was like, ‘This is the kind of feel that I want it to have.’ So it was a lot of fan interaction because we know that she spends a lot of time interacting with fans after games. That’s how she wanted it to look. And we were able to deliver.”
A lot of the Spirit’s best-performing content includes Trinity Rodman (shocker, I know!). But while including Rodman in every post and video may juice engagement, Price told me she’s cognizant of ensuring fans get to know every player on the team. Every player has a chance to be someone’s favorite player. This is a challenge every team faces, amplified by national media and marketing campaigns that often center around just a few star players.
Including players beyond Spirit stars like Rodman and Croix Bethune, among others, is no act of charity, however — it’s smart strategy. Sports leagues are so diverse nowadays, and the NWSL is no exception, boasting some of the best players in the world from countries around the world. Diversifying players in content helps diversify the appeal for fans, giving new and casual fans more avenues toward avidity. Price explained her thought process around varying the players who feature in the team’s content.
“If there’s a player that I’m looking through our feed and I’m like, we haven’t really seen them in a little bit, let me do something. The question of the day is our big thing for that,” she said. “You get to see everybody, and you get to hear from everybody, so I really like to do questions of the day for that purpose…Especially because we have international players. I don’t speak Spanish super well, but yeah, I never want anybody to feel excluded, so I always offer it up.
“And when I notice that we’re getting a little heavy [on certain players]… there are other people on our team that are like, oh, we haven’t posted this person in a while, let’s give them a little shout, let’s put them first in this carousel of photos, instead of either not including them or putting them at the back and putting Trinity in the front. Because, as special and as wonderful as Trinity is, we have other players on the team, and she knows that and she respects that. And, she has said, she loves her team so much, and we love the team as well. And we want to highlight the entire team, not just our star girls.”
There’s something else that’s been happening with Price and the Spirit, as well as her counterparts at other teams throughout sports, which greatly enhances that sense of relatability for fans with the players — Price herself is a minor character in the content. When the athletes play rock-paper-scissors, it’s Price’s hand they’re playing against. When players answer the question of the day, they’re often speaking to her, not staring into the abyss of a camera lens. There was even a viral video produced by the Spirit in 2025, where players who knew Price’s name got a piece of candy (over 202,000 likes on TikTok).
The ‘admin’ is a proxy for the fans, a vehicle through which fans get to interact with the players. Price recognizes the role she plays and the evolving opportunity for admins like her to enhance the storytelling and relationship building in the team’s content.
“For the most part, I have just been behind the camera, and I think, even though it was only two years ago and it’s still pretty recent, that’s what being an admin has been,” said Price. “But I have since seen a lot of different clubs and organizations have that frontward-facing social media personality, FC Barcelona being one of them. Their [version of] me, basically, does often turn the camera around and [says] like, ‘Hey guys, this is us at our Champions League game, and we’re here in Italy, and this is a really big game for us, so excited to walk you through it.’ Something like that.
“So that is something that I have thought about…I’m definitely cognizant about my voice and what my hands look like and how I’m presenting to our fans.”
We relate to people more than brands. That is unquestionable, and why it’s so essential to drive connections with athletes. And, at the same time, that’s also why humanizing the ‘admin’ makes so much sense. It’s not some faceless corporate logo behind the camera, engaging in the comments, and interacting with the players — it’s a person, a stand-in for the brand, and an opportuntiy for fans to form a more organic parasocial relationship.
It’s those relationships that drive fandom as much as anything that happens in the game. The organizations that embrace that aspect will be the ones that succeed going forward. The days of cheering for laundry aren’t gone, but there are generations of fans that need something more. Their love is harder-earned, but even more visceral, more lasting, and more powerful than any logo can hope to capture.
