General Sports Business – Digital and Social Media Sports

Why Brands Invest in Sports—and How it Explains the Women’s Sports Boom

Why is sports sponsorship valuable? What factors make it a premium asset for brands?

Sure, the ability to command large, broad, often live audiences plays a major role. But as marketing has matured, the unique value proposition for sports has only grown and has become better understood and appreciated.

Sara Toussaint has seen this play out throughout her career, with experience on all sides of the sports and athlete sponsorship complex. She’s seen fan affinities drive business outcomes through partnerships, she’s been part of tactics that activated partnerships during emotionally charged moments in live sports, and she’s seen new, once vastly undervalued opportunities emerge in women’s sports, which perhaps coalesce all of the above factors in driving the premium value of sports sponsorship.

Toussaint, who today is co-CEO of global women’s soccer-focused athlete management agency TMJ, spent nearly a decade at Wells Fargo driving the bank’s sports sponsorships. Partnerships in sports were not on an island; they were part of Wells Fargo’s overall marketing plans and expected to drive tangible, compounding cross-channel results. Standard wisdom suggests sports fans will support the partners of their favorite teams, especially when it enhances their own fandom. Toussaint explained how this played out for Wells Fargo’s sponsorships in pro and college sports.

“On the Wells Fargo side, it was how do we support the marketing initiatives that the CMO had set in place?” said Toussaint, who spent time at Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, among other stops, before her tenure at Wells Fargo. “We would use sponsorship as a way to augment the existing media plans and marketing strategies for everything from the websites and store, etc.

“Then, from the brand side, what the property really wanted [was for] Wells Fargo, especially around the Mexican national team and Major League Soccer, to promote those properties here in the US. So to have the Mexican national team debit card on every Wells Fargo ATM was a huge win…there’s a lot of data out there on consumer affinity to brands that support their favorite teams — and we definitely saw that in terms of the number of accounts that were opened, and we could tie that to a Mexican national team card, a Florida Gator card to a new account. Like, we could say on that account that was the card that they requested, and we can presume that we had done marketing there that had caused that demand.”

It’s not just about brand associations and tailing affinities, though. Part of the magic of sports sponsorships is the inherent preponderance of high-impact moments and campaigns. Times when fans are excited, their hearts racing, and their attention focused. That feature of sport is an opportunity for brand partners to make their sponsorships active, riding the wake of the emotional highs, augmented by the real-time nature and inherent connection of sports and social media.

Toussaint had a hand and a front-row view of these opportunities, with Wells Fargo’s partner, the national soccer team for Mexico, competing in the World Cup. She described a clever, provocative campaign that saw American soccer hero Landon Donovan expressing that he’d be cheering for Mexico, and also recounted how Wells Fargo made the most of their sponsorship during the matches and moments themselves.

“We did a lot of live social moments [during the World Cup],” she said. “Our social media team at Wells Fargo had a control room, and there were probably nine screens they could monitor, whether it’s Twitter or Facebook. We had the World Cup up while Mexico played, and we pre-programmed creative and copy as much as possible, so as things happened during a match, we were ready with a post, or we were ready to then supplement, like they just won, ‘Get your Wells Fargo Mexico debit card’ or whatever, and do that in real time. So that social media piece was a really big win for us around the World Cup.”

Social media wasn’t just a way for a brand like Wells Fargo to enter the conversation alongside the properties they were sponsoring, it also gave emerging sports, leagues, and athletes a more level, meritocratic playing field to fuel their rise. These catalyzing elements helped several new sports and leagues find footing, but the impact has been (and continues to be) most evident in women’s sports.

Toussaint recounted to me how a past colleague, at the time, saw the opportunity in women’s sports as a growing and undervalued asset. She looked at the rising National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), and it was the social and digital channels, in particular, which stood out.

“There were so many compelling reasons for sponsoring NWSL,” said Toussaint, who is also a co-owner of two pro soccer teams, the North Carolina Courage in the NWSL and Querétaro FC in Liga MX (Mexico’s top-flight men’s pro soccer league). “For me, the number one reason was the digital footprint and engagement footprint. I was like, Wow, this could be a really cost-effective way to get social media engagement.”

With more women’s sports and athletes commanding attention and audiences on social and digital media, the legacy media began catching up, with coverage going from 4% not long ago to around 15% today, Toussaint noted (citing reports from Sports Innovation Lab, among others). While the early sponsors have been followed by more brands, but the scope and scale of women’s sports still pales in comparison to most of the more mature, generations-old men’s sports properties and its traditional sponsorship assets.

That’s an opportunity, though, said Toussaint.

“With the women, aside from the data, we can also say, Look, it’s not as saturated as men’s sports, so you’re going to have a lot more awareness,” said Toussaint, who heads TMJ’s TMJ Catalyst, which focuses on connecting TMJ’s athletes with brands and business leaders for deals. “You have a lot more white space to play in. We talked about brand loyalty, you’re going to have a lot more of that. You’ve got new categories you can play with. You can try new things, and it becomes even more of a white space because you’re not competing against brands that are typically in this landscape. So that’s a big piece.”

The combination of more media coverage, more brand partnerships, bigger audiences, and more fan interest has turned women’s sports into an asset class that’s increasingly attracting institutional capital and high-net-worth individuals. That infusion and energy will only accelerate the flywheel, driving more growth and more capital in a virtuous cycle of value creation. The bigger fan bases, superstar athletes, and increased cross-channel footprint are all good signs for the continued rise of women’s sports — but it’s that investment that Toussaint cited as perhaps the most impactful factor showing the world, especially the business world, that women’s sports are far from the more charity-driven, corporate social responsibility play the properties may have been a generation ago.

“People follow wherever the money goes, and you’re seeing big money get into women’s sports, and you’re seeing billionaires buying [in],” she said. “And for whatever reason, people think billionaires are like the smartest folks in the room…That news is now on CNBC, and marketers are watching CNBC, right? So you’ve got exponential input that’s coming into the space, and that’s really important. Where the money goes, especially big money names, you’re going to have the media following, and you’re going to have the marketers follow, too.”

The marketers are here. The value proposition for women’s sports is undeniable. And the new paradigms in sports business will favor women’s sports, with its strong social and digital game. As sponsorship further appreciates elements beyond eyeballs, it’ll be the sports properties that can deliver activation and affinities, and the brands that can capitalize on sports’ special elements and emotions that will turn potential value into kinetic outcomes.

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH SARA TOUSSAINT

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General Sports Business

A Rodeo Review: A Day at the San Diego Rodeo Championships with a SportsBiz Perspective

I went to the Rodeo Championships at Petco Park in San Diego and took notes on the fan experience, content, and the event overall, with a sports business lens. There were probably ~ 10-12,000 attendees and some good takeaways + opportunities.

Check out some of the visuals below and quick hit nuggets and observations here:

🤠 There were protesters outside the main gates, chanting with a megaphone and handing out pamphlets, speaking against cruelty to animals. It was a small but vocal group (fewer than 10 people)

🤠 One of the highlights was the Kids Fest before the event, clearly positioning this as a family outing and trying to get kids excited about rodeo. The Kids Fest included limited sponsor presence, but a handful of activities, including:

(Padres-branded) bounce houses, a bandana station to decorate your bandana, bouncy horses to ride, a lasso station to teach kids, a cowboy on stilts, and, naturally, line dancing (some impromptu, some planned), not live music. There was also, notably, no beer or food on sale (let alone free food) at the Kids Fest — something like free snow cones or kettle corn would’ve been great

🤠 There seemed to be a good amount of VIP elements and upsells — get up close to the animals and competition area before the event, and premium seating right up next to it

🤠 In addition to the National Anthem, the pre-event ceremony included a prayer, addressing and thanking the lord, and also tinged with patriotism thanking the troops

🤠 The demographics of attendees — mostly white, multi-generational families, young kids, older couples, too, and also a good amount of young adults and college-aged females (who were excited to put on the cowboy gear, no doubt). Also some Hispanics (we are in San Diego, after all)

🤠 There was not much pre-event pageantry overall besides some brief intros and very little explanation of the events and scoring. But this is championship Sunday, so perhaps less necessary

🤠 It’s a competition more than a show, so the competitors did not display much personality. Though I’d love to see more distinct outfits, including their horses. There was also little interaction with competitors until the very end. These competitors have intriguing stories (video vignettes peppered through the event would be cool). Post-event meet and greets would be advisable, too. Have CTAs for their social media accounts…

🤠 There was limited audience interaction or digital CTAs during the event, though if you dug in enough, you could find a live scoreboard website. It would be good otherwise have more interaction, too — predictions, ETWs, merch promos

🤠 While there wasn’t much sponsored elements (the kiss cam, for example, was non-branded, there was solid title sponsorship of each competition with prolonged exposure across screens, including a brand flag ride around on a horse before starting each event

🤠 Some, not all, of the riders’ shirts were decked out in sponsor logos, not quite motorsports-esque in volume

🤠 The co-branding with the San Diego Padres was unmistakable – from the colors and even the paper numbers on the competitors ( a bit tacky like they’re marathon runners) having Padres on them. The staff had sweet baseball uniform jerseys with San Diego Rodeo — sell those! Or auction them autographed autographs

🤠 There was a sweepstakes promoted on the video board, a toolbox ETW — with QR code on the board to enter

🤠 There is a good amount of downtime between events, with ample space to fill with content. There was later some audience interaction with kiss cam, dance cam, trivia, and even a marriage proposal. Sponsorable assets there

Definitely more opportunity for unique camera views — POV of the riders cowboy, of the support staff often right next to the action, a camera on the animals, the accessory riders

🤠 The highlight of the day was an acrobatic trick rider, doing stands and holds while horse riding. Impressive! And the crowd seemed to enjoy it, good fodder for social

🤠 Other random observations:

– Officials throw flags during events to denote fouls like NFL refs

– I saw a couple of cowboys gear-wearing girls filming a TikTok on the side of the concourse

– They emptied the bazooka of singalong songs, with a medley of all of them together during a 3-4 minute break

– There were a couple of times when people were honored on the dirt (including youth rodeo). If they can go on the dirt between events, I’d love to see some simple fun games like a horseshoe toss or something

– It feels like the sport could do a lot in collecting and sharing data — torque of the bucking horse, speed off the horses, heart rates of the riders, height of bucking bulls, perceived difficulty of the moves, etc.

Western culture is having a moment in the US, and that’s part of why I was interested to check out this event. They didn’t invoke the pop culture popularity of cowboy culture and lifestyle, taking a serious approach to a world-class competition. The crowd was impressive and engaged, and the opportunity to grow through content, partnerships, and lifestyle is clear, too. In an increasingly digital, AI world, the timeless nature of rodeo offers something special, taking people back to simpler times.

General Sports Business, No Biz Like Sports Biz 2013 Early Thoughts

2026 Sportsbiz Reset: 20 Questions and Concepts to Stimulate Next-Level Conversations for the Year Ahead

The audiences are more accessible. The TAM has never been bigger. And the position of sports at or near the center of culture around the world is clear. In 2026, the aperture is wider than ever for sports and digital/social, so teams must focus on impact with the metrics. The ‘so what’ as a colleague of mine likes to say.

There was once a time when organic reach with one’s followers was 15-25%, but now no reach is guaranteed. But the path to reaching and engaging audiences is simple — create good content that your desired audience will enjoy.

That has changed the equation. Virality is a dime a dozen nowadays, relatively speaking (random accounts go viral on TikTok every day), but creating metrics that matter, building deep relationships, and cultivating (and participating in) engaging communities are where the strategy and the ‘so what’ lie.

Last year, I wrote about a variety of subjects for the sports industry to consider in 2025 (in-game social, community management, micro-communities, niche content, creator strategy 3.0, content franchises, +Experiences, generative AI, games, drops, Live, and much more. Many of those topics and concepts covered last year remain relevant a year later.

But as 2026 kicks off, I want to try something different, quick-hitting sparks that’ll hopefully provoke internal or external conversations or new approaches. The so what and the opportunities in plain sight, if developed intelligently.

Pulling from my day job, I’ll start with ten tips about how to approach data analysis, data-driven strategy, and storytelling more effectively. Then, I’ll highlight ten areas ripe with opportunity, building on behaviors and paradigm shifts playing out as the new year begins.

I’m no expert, and I’m hopeful any prognostications will not be 100% correct (you’re not taking bold swings then!). But the value of these columns is to think about what you’re not thinking about, ask the next-level questions, and stimulate compelling conversations to strive for greatness in 2026 and beyond.

Mean/Median/Max

You might remember those terms from middle school (elementary school?) math class, but it’s important in any job these days to understand and appreciate the difference between the three. Each tells a distinct, data-based story about performance over time and benchmarking, and each can be spun or misconstrued if not dealt with objectively and comprehensively.

Mean is the good ‘ole average. You may think about average reach, average engagement, average engagement rate, etc. — and that’s fine. But don’t be blind to the fact that the same average can be achieved in a lot of ways, and tells a different story. One super-viral post can frost over weeks of subpar performance, or evenly distributed base hits can add up. Which brings us to…

Median. You remember median? The middle number. This is only useful (imo) across a large enough data set. If your median is significantly different than your mean, it means you may be bottom-heavy or top-heavy. It may obfuscate your big home runs (or vice-versa), though (which average an account for), which brings us to…

Max. What does peak performance look like? Is it getting higher every year? All of this stats talk is why I’m a fan of a moneyball approach to metrics. Would you rather be Luis Arraez or Kyle Schwarber? You can end up at the same average engagement/reach, but I’d rather have a higher slugging percentage, even if the batting average is dicey. This all leads to…

Ask the hard questions

Celebrate your increases. Rally around the stories that put performance in the best light. But don’t run away from the hard questions — run towards them. Is that high engagement rate because of lower reach? Did the metrics go up mainly because of a record-breaking performance or something out of your control? That’s fine! But acknowledge it and maybe even compare it to the last analogous predictably high performer. Red team your best data performance stories — what are the factors that drove it besides you and your staff being great at your job? And vice-versa, where was incremental value created where it would be unexpected?

It’s not always easy to be honest and ask the hard questions, but it’ll present a clearer picture and uncover greater insights. Which brings us to…

Ask the next questions

Your numbers are crushing it. Benchmarks are getting surpassed, the highs are higher and the lows are, well, higher. That’s great, but so what? Do the five whys (originated at Toyota) or something like that. Ask why — why did performance improve, why will that ‘success’ matter, etc. etc. This isn’t just about retrospective, but forward-looking, too. It forces one to get deeper into the heart of the matter and think beyond the silo of the day-to-day tasks or departmental job. Don’t turn every finding and insight into something bigger than it is, but ask those next questions about what it means, why it matters, and what action could or should be taken next. And always keep in mind…

Context matters

Nothing happens in a vacuum. There are factors that can enhance, diminish, or dilute performance. Metrics for success, in definition and scale, can differ depending on resources, circumstances, and even vibes. The team with engagement metrics through the roof can get there from the team being unexpectedly great (yay!) or unexpectedly awful (fans are pissed) — that fans are actively interacting is almost always a good sign, but there’s a different story playing out in each case, and, for some brands and businesses, that can mean everything. Similarly, be careful with comparison. An organization with endless resources is probably going to be able to churn out more and bigger metrics than one operating super-lean (but not always, and that’s why context matters and can tell a richer story!). A player receiving thousands of photos from his/her team may end up posting team content more often than another player receiving only a few pics throughout the year. A month-over-month comparison may look different if the team played X more games in that month compared to another month, or one season had a huge trade and free agent signing and one didn’t. This isn’t about excuses, it’s about understanding the full context and not leaning into vanity metrics with no meaning, which leads to…

The Thing About Views

‘View’ counts can be deceiving. Or, at least, they tell only partial stories. In sports ticketing, the industry often talks about FSEs (full season equivalents). You could get to 5 FSEs through sundry paths. One full season ticket and eight half-seasons, a few quarter seasons and a hodgepodge of miniplans, etc. etc., you get the idea. Similarly, there are innumerable ways to think about, say, a six-minute video. The viewers that watch only a quarter of the video matter, so do those who watch the whole thing, and everything beyond and in between. But here’s to taking an FSE-approach to videos to more effectively understand success (among many other ways to slice and dice watch time and trends!). There’s another level to this, too, which is…

Audience matters

Sometimes, oftentimes, who you reach matters as much, if not more, than how many. Audience goals go beyond the highest numbers and once you understand, you can operate on a higher level of strategy. I’d rather my podcast reach the 100 thought leaders in sports business than 1000 random people, for example. The goal of every post, every platform, every strategy is not always to reach the biggest audience, but the biggest right audience. Sometimes that means everybody. Super Bowl ads are valuable for a reason. But some businesses and brands may only care about reaching parents, high wealth individuals, students, Hispanic audiences, subsscribers, non-subscribers, etc. etc. Your audience goals require more nuanced measurement and thinking. As do…

The Unmeasurables

Some of the most valuable impact is simply not measurable. And that’s okay. We can’t measure how often a fan randomly thinks about the team or brings them up in casual conversation. It’s difficult to measure content driving someone from liking to loving a team or player, the degree of emotion and identity one feels. It’s hard to measure a fan or partner perceiving a team’s dedication to a community initiative or project, even if they don’t engage with your content about it. This list can go on and on — and I’d say it’s well worth your time to brain dump and document all the things you cannot (or believe you cannot) measure, and in turn understand the correlations for those meaningful unmeasurables. But also have your eyes open to…

The forgotten measurables

We’re drowning in data, but it’s helpful to consider what you’re not measuring, too. One of the most useful analysis sessions to do periodically is to consider what things you know that you don’t know (as confusing as that sounds). That content that’s flopping on organic social media may be crushing in your app, on paid social, or email. How is the growth and/or virality of your athletes or even your sponsors (especially endemic sponsors) being considered, if at all? Are you keeping track of the composition of your audience over time and across platforms and posts? What’s happening to your contests and sweepstakes when it comes to clicks, conversions, and down-funnel activities and revenue? We can, and do, measure a lot, but there’s also a lot we cannot or do not. But that also ties a bit into…

Compounding measures

We talk a lot about connecting dots and stacking wins. But don’t just talk about it, put it into practice when evaluating results and drawing out actionable insights and plans. When you’re growing or succeeding in one area, it can (and, really, should) lead to success in connected areas. Organic content strategy can success can inform and improve paid strategy. Growth rates beget growth rates — don’t just focus on the growth percentage of X metric, but compare it to the rate of growth from last year, are you accelerating or decelerating in a given area? Are you connecting metrics and tactics so that crushing it one area will lead to crushing it another? Ask more questions about where and how you’re compounding; there are outsized wins and more comprehensive stories toe realize. And that very much leads to…

Know the real goals

The goal is not to rack up engagements. The objective is not reach for the sake of reach. It’s about engagement rate or driving views and shares. That’s all great, but it is critical to understand what we’re trying to do here. That’s how to advance a career, too, learning about revenue streams, data-driven decision-making, and identifying opportunities to drive short-term (and long-term!) goals that are meaningful to the business. Ticket sales (and the various types of ticket sales and ticket buyers), merch revenue (and all its tentacles and variations), sponsorships (again, all the nuances and categories and impact results), community initiatives, new fan development, brand goals, and the list goes on and on. That’s why it’s not about being a sports fan (though that can help!)), but a fan of the business of sports. A student of the ‘so what’ of it all.

A bonus # 11 — Follower counts

Having seen multiple thought leaders and columns all talking about the present and future of followership, it’s more important than ever to consider what follower count and a follower means in 2026. The number of followers for a given account still matters (many can’t quit those optics), but it’s also true that follower count has never mattered less. What can and should replace follower count? What matters more? We’ve talked about hte intangibles, but from a pure data perspective, what’s a good measure of the health and viability of a given account on a platform? Could you look at the aggregate reach or engagement of the last 15 posts, the rolling average or median engagement for the last 30 days or 90 days or 365 days, or perhaps the number of unique accounts, or number of accounts as a percentage of followers, etc. etc.? When you stumble upon an account whose content catches your eye or is growing (in whatever sense), what would you want to know beyond their follower count?

Okay, so that was the data geek part of this post. I’ll try to keep part two shorter. It’s more akin to a strategy, tactics, or (sigh) trends look at 2026. It’s good to see a lot of musings from 2025 come to fruition, or be mentioned now in 2026 trends and predictrions post I’ve seen. If nothing else, if you read the below, I hope it conjures up thoughts and ideas, and stimulates compelling conversations. So, consider:

A face for the team

Real people are more engaging than brands, in case you haven’t heard. And I’ve loved the idea of a team face or quasi-host for over three years, and got the chance to speak to one of the pioneers in this space, Aviv Levy Shoshan a couple of years ago (excellent interview!). Someone who is good on camera and can develop a relationship with fans/followers such that it feels like a friend, just one with incredible access to your favorite team. We’ve seen some teams make moves in this direction, and I hope to see more.

Next-level creators

Ngl, this was also mentioned, in some form, in last year’s column. First, it should be said that there are talented creators in-house everywhere right now, they’re just creating for the team or league’s channels (though some do some fun BTS on their own accounts, too). Most creator activations are one-offs (partly the nature of the maturing creator economy), working with a talented artist or someone who’s more an influencer, to invite them to a game or collaborate on a single content piece. What would it look like to make a creator strategy an all-in, year-round strategy? More teams can hire mature, growing creators full-time or near full-time to create for their own accounts and the team’s. Or, heck, identify or cultivate a young talent and foster their presence, through access and collabs. There’s something to be said for the growth of cross-pollinating partnerships, too (we’ve seen a little of this). I’m not a creator economy expert (I know a guy!), not even close, but there’s even more to be done in the space and I’ll be psyched to cheer it on. Speaking of….

Global local content correspondents

Teams are increasingly national and global brands. They’re trying to develop and engage fans around the country and around the world, growing the relationship with those alreayd coming into the fold organically and expanding the base further. I spoke in the last podcast interview of 2025 about localization with IMG’s digital leader Lewis Wiltshire (watch/listen!) and indeed some properties are working through agencies to help with localized content and accounts. Many European football clubs have native speakers living and working in the team’s home cities in Spain or England or Italy or Germany, etc. Others have seen fan clubs or supporters club pop up organically (or through the team officially). There’s opportunity to turn those flames into conflagrations, establishing more direct relationships with creators on the ground, providing them with content (where applicable), showcasing the fandom in their country, activating around exhibition tours, flying them to major domestic or international events, connecting them with athletes, athlete hometowns (where applicable), partners, and local influencers. There’s a lot that can be done by having boots on the ground part of the team’s operation and org chart officially, and I’ll be psyched to see what can happen in this area. A good segue to…

Co-creation to the nth degree and democratization of content

In conversations with experienced thought leaders in the greater sports space, the phrase ‘democratization of content’ or something like it has come up several times. It seems like every time we’ve seen a league or sport loosen the grip on content, to whatever degree, it has resulted in more engagement, more reach and views, more fandom, and more revenue. The number of eager, talented creators multiplies by the day; how can we open up the barriers (where possible, vis a vis media rights) to enable these creators to get their hands on content and do their thing with it. Remixes and edits, hype videos, commentary and analysis, etc. etc. There have been some agreements here and there, particularly for YouTube channels to create and disseminate endless compilations (‘Best alley-oop dunks of the 2024-25 season’ or something) in exchange for a revenue share or upfront fee. But there is a vast, growing ecosystem of creators who are eager to create and, in turn, grow your brand and fandom. We just have to harness it.

Content production houses for athletes

It was something of a throwaway comment, but certainly revelatory, at the late 2025 Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum when South Carolina Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati loosely estimated that 50% of the Gamecocks in-house content team’s work could go toward NIL activities for athletes. That’s not even a trend, but more likely just the new paradigm in major college athletics. What could this look like in the pro space? There’s been some activity around letting athletes use podcast studios, or the like, for their content production needs. But what’s the next phase of this, the next level? The partnerships and contracts likely need to evolve a bit to put in-house content teams to work for athletes content for the athletes’ own channels and partners, but there is a ton of value to give and take there. It may not get there in 2026, but it’s an interesting space to watch as the majority of athletes will soon have some content strategy (and one beyond posting Getty Images or AP photos)

Background content

A couple of mindblowing stats to kick off this section — the number of hours that podcasts on YouTube were watched on TVs hit 700 million hours in October 2025, an increase from 400 million hours October 2024. 300 million more monthly hours of video podcasts on TVs in a year! The second stat is from a YouTube video (one of many) that just shows a burning fireplace for 10 hours straight — now has nearly 200M views, growing about ~ 50M views per year (with a rising growth rate)! There’s a demand for background content or background noise for TV sets, whether to accompany someone while they’re working at home or just hanging out or engaging in household chores or reading or whatever. Those are a lot of hours up for grabs. Podcasts are one route that many are already investing in (including Netflix!), but it’s also intriguing to consider what your version of fireplace 10 hours or 3+-hour podcast could be. I’ll save my long list of ideas for another post, but this is a fun one to brainstorm, and the data seems to suggest there’s some smoke here.

More social events (and places?)

We’re all looking for social outings. For experiences to post about on social media, and opportunities to get together IRL. The games are one attraction and event, but teams have vast databases from event attendees (most often attending with friends or family) with disposable incomes, and also have expertise in event production, promotion, and monetization. Sports teams are ultimately entertainment companies; the biggest ticket is the media rights of the show, of course, but they also host millions of event attendees every year. What other events, within but also beyond the game days, can teams host, co-lead, or collaborate on (with partners, influeners, creators, etc.)? This could lean in a more premium direction — wine and cheese and speciality food tastings, art exhibitions, and the like, but the opportunity is vast — local collectibles showcases (collectibles are all the rage!), fashion shows, speed dating, student events, more frequent casino nights and carnivals, pop-up coffee houses, TED-like talks, concerts of varying size, live action shows or plays, and the list goes on. They’re of course renting out their huge venues for traveling shows, but the opportunity in events can be those meant for groups in the hundreds or low thousands, supplementing the games and major events meant a packed stadium or arena.

More mascot, owned IP and character building

The rising value of mascots has been a trend for a few years now. There are mascots who generate massive value and even direct sponsorships, and new teams are making the mascot reveal a big part of the brand building. We’re seeing more mascot collaborations, whether special events across a city or league, or celebrating a mascot’s “birthday.” Mascots are, generally, truly team-owned IP, less shackled and more flexible than most potential content initiatives. What could the next level look like for mascot-led content, including but beyond TikTok skits? Could a team create (or collaborate on) kids-first content that could be the first choice on the iPad and YouTube for parents over Ms. Rachel or Cocomelon or another rewatch of the same episode of Bluey? How can teams leverage their IP, their powerful brands (including parents who want to create mini fans out of their kids), built-in distribution channels and partnership networks, and creative production capabilities to build content and characters and original music/songs? It could be kids-first, it could be adult animation (or non-animation, it could be anime — with AI and recommendation-driven feeds making experimentation less resource-intensive and faster and easier, the opportunity is there.

More prediction-style platforms and games

One of the earliest easy wins in sports social media was the start of the prediction contest. For the hockey world (where I came up), it wasn’t long before pretty much everybody had some variation of a prediction contest, most often guessing which player would score the first goal. (We also tried a ‘Beat The Streak’ game to predict an anytime goal scorer for consecutive games, a la the ESPN contest of the same name). Now, it’s clear 2026 is the year of the prediction, with prediction markets continuing to penetrate sports (and well beyond sports). Many teams have already continued to stand up some sort of prediction games, as they make for good sponsor assets for sports gaming and wagering partners, so expect 2026 to only offer more growth and more opportunity and even innovation in the prediction space, by and in partnership with teams and leagues. Could we go from first goal scorer to also, leveraging some advanced data, top MPH speed of the game? Or funny money-based parlays outside of the $$ wins and losses for the actual gaming platforms and prediction markets? It’s a slippery moral slope, but there’s no doubt prediction platforms, in some form, will be ubiquitous in 2026.

Interest group ambassadors

The internet is shrinking. Well, kinda. There are places for the most esoteric of micro-communities and fan segments everywhere, not to mention the bigger, less esoteric communities. Reddit continues to find new life, while Meta’s Threads (as I was anticipating!) seems to be evolving to something more like Reddit, with its expansion of communities-based features (but, noting that Threads still wants to be somewhat timely). A lot of teams are finding success in activating within these communities, whether through content, collabs, or even mini events and theme nights. How can teams and leagues identify and create ambassadors within these interest groups — power users, moderators, influencers, et al. who can be active liaisons and open up opportunities for unique, value-add content, collaborations, and conversations? This also goes along with another mini trend (not called out in the list above) of elevating and creating content with day-to-day employees within an organization — have the lead grass maintenance person talk about their job with a horticulture community, the team’s nutritionist talk food, the organization’s massage therapist demonstrate what you could do at home — and work with leaders within these interest groups to make these collaborations a success (and potentially cross-sponsorship opportunities). A theme of this column, like localized ambassadors and more ongoing creator relationships, can play out with interest-driven communities and groups, too.

If you made it all the way to end, good on you! You have the same energy and enthusiasm for this space as I do. Message me and let’s connect if we haven’t met before. Let’s have a great 2026!

Analytics and Data, Digital, Fan Development, General Sports Business, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships

From Front Door to Bottom Line: An Insider’s Look at Sports Marketing Leadership and the Power of Fan Identity

The view from a sports team’s social media seat offers a unique perspective. Social touches just about everything. The person at the helm of the social media practice needs to know everything going on with the team, by necessity. From gameday presentations to sponsor activations, community events, and fan development initiatives, ticket promotions, and team transactions — the list goes on. Meanwhile, social has more fan touchpoints than any other part of the organization, is their finger on the pulse of an admittedly small but mighty sample of the fan base, and has a better picture of fans’ psychographics than perhaps any other department or person within the team.

From his early days managing social media with the Carolina Panthers, Dan LaTorraca appreciated the unique position that social media occupied and the diverse ways it could provide value. He eventually ascended to a role overseeing marketing with the Carolina Hurricanes, taking lessons from years of experience to help in building an industry-leading organization at the Canes. Today, he leads marketing at media measurement and tracking platform Zoomph, where he uses learnings from nearly two decades in sports business to continue to help push the industry forward.

I recently sat down with LaTorraca for a wide-ranging interview, packed with insights and anecdotes from throughout his career. Read on for just a few of the key points touched on in our chat. There is so much more in the full interview, and I highly recommend watching or listening! Check it out here

Social Media Is Part of the Larger Organization

It’s easy to become a little myopic in any job function or role. The social media operation wants to nail its KPIs and surpass them, hitting highs in metrics like views, impressions, reach, and engagement rate. But social media is ultimately one cog, an important and arguably the most front-facing cog, of the team and its business. The power of social media lies in its connectivity to every organizational goal, and therefore its ability to play offense, finding opportunities to capitalize on and problems to solve.

LaTorraca talked about his understanding of the pivotal position in which social media sat, and the mindset of weaponizing it, in a good way, to affect the bottom line, while maintaining and developing the long-term brand and connection with fans essential to any sports team.

“Social obviously was a powerful tool for engagement, for revenue driving, but also it’s like, Well, how are we driving [website] traffic with it? How are we driving leads with it? How is it feeding these other pieces here? How does the mobile app fit in with all this other stuff? How does email fit in? Ultimately, it wasn’t just about social; it was about building a strong digital ecosystem. And social may be the most valuable, impactful, and engaging part of that, especially in that era when everything was social…Social has been that front door, that front porch for teams in a lot of ways, so a lot of the resources and strategy started there, but it had to fit together with everything else, and to ultimately drive value and figure out where those value opportunities are.

“In the Panthers’ case, they were doing really well with ticket sales. They didn’t have a lot [of tickets] to offer because of the PSL [personal seat license] system they had there. So it was like, where are we going to make money elsewhere? Where are we going to drive value elsewhere? And is it with driving tune in for our broadcast network? Is it with retail and merchandise sales? Sponsorship integration ended up being the biggest piece for us. So, really having that perspective of, we have to see how this fits together with everything else, and also understand compromise. A lot of times it’s tough, and it was tough for me at first, too; it was almost like, you have to maintain the purity of social. Like, there’s a way to do this, and we can’t have other departments influencing or implementing our strategy and decision making here with another ticket deal or this or that. But I realized early on that, while it is an important marketing tool, it has to fit within the boundaries and the needs and goals of the organization.”

Developing a Voice and Brand That Draw Fans In

When LaTorraca was early in his tenure with the Panthers, the concept of a team with personality was just emerging in sports social media. But he knew that developing intimate relationships with fans was going to be the most effective way to punch above their weight in the Carolina and national sports hierarchy.

“The first thing that I picked up on was just like answering fans a lot more. Remember Zappos? That was one of the focal points of their social strategy was that they actually responded. We were still in an era in 2011 or so where if a brand responded to you on social, you were like, Alright, it’s either an automated customer service thing or it’s a mistake. The responses didn’t have personality or uniqueness. And you know, where we are now, it’s like, Oh man, this brand actually cursed at me. So we’ve evolved a whole lot. But back then, it was new, and that was something the Panthers could do differently.

“So building those 1-to-1 relationships, and I even kept a list of, like, certain things fans were passionate about, and we built authentic relationships there. I think that really helped us not only understand what mattered to them, but also the language they were using and how to craft and build our content strategy. So it was a mix of best practices and understanding what worked and what didn’t, and what we liked and what we were capable of, as well as what was going to resonate with our fans. We didn’t have the creative resources, we didn’t have a lot of other stuff that other teams had, but we were able to at least strategize our way into driving value both internally and externally.”

But, especially during a time when you’re trying to transform the strategy, you have to be able to show why this shift, this personality pivot, is working. Some things are immediately and easily measurable, some aren’t. But LaTorraca sought to prove why and how things were working and resonating. Those transformative moves can have compound effects, too, increasing fan avidity and evangelism, strengthening identities, and creating a fan base whole that’s greater than the sum of its individuals.

“Certain things like those 1-to-1 interactions aren’t measurable; technically, Zoomph can track those, and you can actually see social value if some kind of response actually catches fire. There is a way, but there’s so much more in those particular instances of measuring the sentiment. It’s not measurable in the traditional sense…

“However, the social voice was a key there, and that was something we were able to have data on that I used to validate the direction we wanted to go…This was at the time when you had the LA Kings starting to show a little more personality on social. I started seeing that and I was like, ‘This is what we need to be doing.’ We tried it in the comments a whole lot, and that was the way to test it. But we would occasionally put stuff out there that I felt was more human and had a bit more personality and sass and spunk to it. And what I would do is track the data and performance of that one and start kind of planting those seeds with my boss and his boss and ultimately their boss, who is the owner of, like, Look, this is working and this performs better than the average post, and clearly this type of of language and messaging and approach is resonating with our fans.

“I think it was built on those 1-to-1interactions, warming people up, and then eventually having actual personality and catching people off guard with some of the stuff that we put out there is going to be really good for growing our brand, engaging our fans, creating pride and sentiment there, and we backed it up with data. We were able to show, like, Hey, this is working, and get that buy-in to the point where in 2014 or so, we started having a lot more personality, and then I was able to share a lot more data. Then, 2015 was the Panthers’ Super Bowl season, and that’s when the gloves came off because it was where the team won 15 or 16 games in a row in the regular season, and a lot of people were doubting the team. And they were upset with Cam Newton for dancing in the end zone, and it was a lot of like, Oh, you guys are good, you’re probably the worst 10-0 team though, and everything was just ripe for me to dunk on on social. Almost like every week, we had something else that would go viral, because nothing galvanizes a fan base like when you’re successful, the team is good, the players are good, you’re winning, and the media or other narratives are coming at you. It puts a chip on the shoulder.”

The Value of Fandom

In its most fully developed state, sports fandom seeps deeply into hearts and minds, and it’s contagious throughout a snowballing mass that grows stronger with each addition and display. The strength, appeal, and spread of a brand create immeasurable value in ways both tangible and intangible. It all leads to arrows and trendlines pointing up, making every activation and strategy that much more meaningful and effective. It’s not always easy to measure linearly, because fandom drives success exponentially.

“I firmly believe that sports fandom can be boiled down to a desire for connection and community, and it’s fueled by identity. Those three pillars, to me, are the things that you have to engage in some way, because that’s what we are at the core of our identity or our kind of essence of sports fandom and sports consumerism. And I think finding ways to engage and leverage those, or build some brand pillars that help kind of convey those…In the Canes case, we defined it as fun, bold, and regional, but those were still lenses we could operate through. Like, regional is a great one, because we can talk about local community engagement and building a Canes bar network, or authentic brand positioning campaigns that were like murals or things like that. So, ultimately, the essence of those things, it’s not directly measurable in a traditional sense; it can be in a bunch of different ways of like, alright, how do we attribute this to that? But if you’re seeing certain things in your tracking, how retail sales of certain items are going up and trying to understand the psychology behind that, or certain types of social content or campaign or messaging or email pieces or other activations, whatever it may be, events or or ticket offers or promotional theme nights — all that stuff is measurable in a sense, but you have to also be able to tie it back to that human element in order to kind of have both sides there. You got to have the tactics you can measure, the activations you can measure and then refine and optimize, and you got to have well, this is how we tie it back to affinity or passion or community or belonging, or these other less tangible and measurable things that are really at the core and essence of what it means to be a sports fan…

“We had all these little ways we were going to try to get [the Canes] logo out there authentically. And it was like, alright, high-quality decals in every online order from our e-commerce shop and working with local businesses to distribute flags and all these little ways to influence the visual positioning of our brand, because that creates more passion. People see that and they say, I want to be part of that, or that’s something, or they’re already a fan, they’re like, I love that. This is that piece of their identity hanging on a flag outside their local bar, and that’s an important piece there. Well, yeah, it’s not as measurable, but it’s so important for growing a brand and creating that sense of pride and that regional sort of connection there, that sports really is.”

Making Big Moments Bigger

Sports are unpredictably predictable. There is a whole lot you can plan for (more on that in the next section), and a whole lot of extemporaneous opportunities that’ll present high ceilings of upside, even if you can’t foresee the details. It’s part art, part science, to enlist a well-worn but apt cliche, and a social media sixth sense of sorts to spot an opportunity to seize — provided the preparation and systems are in place to make seizing said opportunity possible in the first place. LaTorraca recounted one of the many examples of the Canes being ready to execute when an unexpected moment struck (and this excerpt doesn’t even capture all the ways the Canes capitalized):

“The last big piece we had with Twitter Amplify was the David Ayres game, which I’m sure you remember, was the emergency backup goalie comes in for an extended period, not just a couple of seconds, and essentially wins the game against the Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada. And he was the team Zamboni driver. It was this whole wild story. And that video, I remember texting our video producer at the time and was like, Dude, you glue yourself to him, get as much as you can, because we didn’t have video people traveling prior to my first season there. But [revenue via] Twitter Amplify helped me make the case of being like, look at all the money we’re making, we need more video. Thank God somebody was there, and it wasn’t just a PR person with their cell phone getting something. We had one of our best video producers there, and he got some iconic footage that was later used in ESPN commercials and all sorts of stuff. But that one video where, if anybody listening goes and Googles David Ayres, of him walking into the locker room after the game, and all the Canes players are spraying him with water and all that, that one video made like $80,000 for us, and it was insane.”

Building and Activating a Well-Oiled Machine

Just like some of the best athletes make impressive plays look easy, some of the sports organizations make agile execution look smooth, too — like they had it planned all along. Both the athlete and the team can make it look easy because they’ve prepared and planned. They’ve been proactive in setting up the systems that need to operate together when the moment comes and have plans ready to go for every scenario, many of which can be anticipated, to whatever degree of precision. One of the most memorable initiatives from LaTorraca’s time with the Canes was when well-known hockey commentator in Canada, Don Cherry, called the Canes ‘A bunch of jerks.’ And the rest is history, as that line was molded into a revenue stream and a galvanizing force for Canes fans everywhere. LaTorraca explained how executing around that campaign and initiative was just one example of the importance of ‘proactive planning.’

“Creating a culture that prioritizes that proactive planning really is the key to being able to have the runway to capitalize when crazy stuff happens. And it always does. Lightning struck us two times in a year at the Canes, and that was great, and then it didn’t strike the same way for a while. But we had that Bunch of Jerks thing, and we were able to capitalize on it and build a shirt. And people are important, too; we had the right relationships. I can still remember sitting in my office after that game, after we sort of concocted this plan, and Mike Foreman is texting Don Waddell and Tom [Dundon], being like, Hey, we’ve talked, we’re making shirts about this. You know, like, I pitched this idea to him and I was like, we can use this company here, because at the time, Breaking T was just kind of getting big, and I was like, I think they can turn it around for us quickly, because I don’t want to wait here for this one. It was also President’s Day weekend, and a lot of other shirt distributors were closed. Mike got the approval and basically was like, Alright, if Dan can show what a shirt model will look like by the next morning, we’ll go…

“If you give yourself more time, it just leads to so much more opportunity for creativity and doing stuff that’s a higher quality. Whether it is planning out the promotional giveaway item or a Star Wars night idea. Our Whalers night is another great example of like, Hey, you really want to plan that out, that was a Super Bowl for us, in a way, to capitalize on that, whether it was retail or activation, it was a a chance for our creative team to flex, and you want to be able to plan that out far away in advance…Whatever you can do, give yourself the runway to do it for the things you can control. It goes back to what I tell my kids all the time, You can’t control what’s going to happen to you, but you can control how you react. And if you have the right system in place and process in place and plan and people and all that, and you can come up with the right ideas and creative solutions, you can really turn a tough situation into a win, or you can turn a win into a bigger win, but you gotta have a lot of things in place to do it. It doesn’t just happen like that, and if you don’t have the runway to do it, it’s not going to happen. So that’s what really separates the good from the great is those cultures that prioritize people first above all else, but process and proactive planning, and that’s how you really win time and time again when these things happen. Because they always will. It might not be as big as every other situation, but even capitalizing on the smaller ones can still drive value in the end.”

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WATCH/LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DAN LATORRACA

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Fan Development, General Marketing, General Sports Business, Social Media ROI, Sponsorships

How Sports Properties and Their Partners Build for Mutual Success: An Insider’s View

How do you define a good sports sponsorship?

There are plenty of definitions, and no shortage of software tools and measurement businesses to answer that question. But, for the consumers — the actual sports fans — there is a bit of you know it when you see it. Part of it is longevity, with brand-sport associations that have been together so long, it feels like they go together like peanut butter and jelly. The activations aren’t interruptive but additive or complementary.

For the brands, they’re getting the proverbial bang for their buck. But that ‘bang for the buck’ can mean a lot of things, as anyone who has worked on the brand or property side can attest. The roots of sports sponsorships may have been outfield signs and facsimiles of newspaper ads, but the options are more varied and solution-oriented in modern times.

For the teams and leagues, it’s more than just a paycheck. The revenue is key, to be sure, but other elements come into play — brand associations that can elevate their own, better experiences and content for their fans supported by willing partners, and putting their stamp of approval or endorsement on products and services that help them and can help their fans, too.

Nick Kelly has been on all sides of the sponsorship equation. He witnessed the religious-like fealty with which fans treated their favorite drivers’ partners in NASCAR early in his career, he’s walked around a stadium seeing product get poured (usually!) with AB InBev, he was in the middle of deals that saw the sponsor selling service back to the property at Verizon, and he’s been at the helm of a major pro sports league as CEO of then-expansion Major League Soccer club Charlotte FC. He talked about the diversity of sponsorship ‘ROI’ and approaches for different brands, a departure from the ‘cookie-cutter’ paradigms that may have persisted at a less enlightened time.

“On the AB (AB InBev) side, it was very marketing-heavy,” said Kelly, who today has taken his years of experience and insights to help others as CEO of Encore Sports and Entertainment. “Like, we could never really tie it to direct sales: one, because it was super complicated, and two, it was illegal. I could never walk into Yankee Stadium and say, ‘Well, only 70% of the beer you’re selling here is mine, but I’m paying you 100% of the sponsorship revenue. What gives?’

“On the Verizon side, you could be very black and white,” he said. “So a lot of it was very marketing ROI driven, brand lift, social media engagements, a lot of the soft metrics, but they mattered. And look, sports still are probably the number one, if not the biggest marketing pillar or marketing channel you can have to drive brand awareness. On the Verizon side, for us, a lot of it was business back. A lot of it was ‘What is the value I can pass to our 130 million consumers?’ I’ve got 130 million consumers; what do they get as a Verizon customer and a Washington Commanders fan? [For example], is there 10% off the team store? Is there early access to tickets? We didn’t really even take into consideration a lot of the soft metrics. They were there, but that wasn’t really driving the immediate value back to us.”

The sponsorship paradigms have undergone more shifts than ever in the last couple of decades, too, as sports teams have adopted new platforms that allow them to reach more fans than ever, and with often wildly unpredictable swings in audience. New signage and new naming rights were easy enough to adapt, but then Facebook posts and tweets and Stories came along, and, more recently, TikTok, where a post could reach hundreds or millions, with even social media managers not always quite sure which posts will hit.

Kelly provided insight from his perch, as he was right in the thick of this rapid evolution in sponsorships, full of opportunities and uncertainties.

“The bigger challenge became as new assets came online, and we wanted to create them with teams; I think we both struggled to price them,” said Kelly. “It’s like, ‘Hey, we want to come up with a content series for TikTok; well, TikTok just started, we’ve never priced that out’. Or when we signed the deal, they only had 20,000 followers, and when the deal came up, they’ve got 3 million. And it’s fair. So I think it became a little bit more of like we do understand the rate card is a league-informed baseline of what teams charge, but not all teams are created equal. And honestly, the content that teams create isn’t all equal.” [Interesting to note that Kelly called out the Jacksonville Jaguars as being particularly good at content during his time working with AB InBev]

The often-volatile nature of sports teams’ audiences, especially on social platforms where the difference between a winning and a losing season could sometimes vastly inflate or deflate the metrics reached, led Kelly and his colleagues at AB InBev to create a new model, an incentives-laden sponsorship deal. The goal for both sides was for the team to crush it, to hit the highest of highs and receive the highest payout; that’s what AB InBev budgeted for, too. Teams can go on championship runs that deliver better and bigger audiences than expected; they can also find a new groove in content production that captures big numbers on social and digital platforms. The new deal structures ensured they could get rewarded for that success. Kelly explained the how and the why.

“In theory, we probably had 15 to $20 million a year at risk that was based in incentives,” he said,” but we fully expected to pay it. But it was very time-consuming and cumbersome to coach all the teams on how to get to that successful metric. It was based on everything from the social media side — we even did it off of attendance or championships — so they can just get paid their bonus now, so then when the renewal comes up, it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re more valuable.’ ‘[Well] I already paid you for that. We already paid you for winning a championship, but if you don’t go to the championship, if all of a sudden you go from winning the NBA Finals to not making the playoffs, it’s not like I have a chance to come back down. So it helped us in forecasting a lot.’”

There’s a sense of fairness and trust cultivated with deals like that. And even the notion of ‘coaching’ teams to those metrics caught my eye. Memories are long in professional relationships, and the sports industry is no exception. The importance of honest and open communication was a consistent throughline during my discussion with Kelly, and is no doubt a big part of how he has cultivated successful partnerships, activations, and initiatives over the years.

While you may walk with your head a little higher after buying a new car and feeling you got one over on the salesperson, the best partnerships are when both sides win. The individual on the brand side driving the sponsorship wants to ensure the company’s decision to invest in the partnership was the right one, while the property side wants to also show they more than justified the cost of the deal, and that renewal is an easy decision when the deal expires.

“Nobody on the brand side ever goes into a deal trying to think ‘I gotta get as much out of this as possible because we’re likely not going to renew’,” said Kelly. “The brand side is overly incentivized because they have probably fought to get this deal, so they need to make it look like it’s the smartest decision they have ever made or recommended to their CMO or CEO by getting a ton of value out of it and then ultimately renewing the deal because it was such a great investment.

“Most times when a partnership doesn’t work, it’s either, one, a change of strategy which the team can’t help, or two, the brand itself didn’t put the right resources to get the most out of the partnership. Very seldom is it that the team has not provided or been flexible enough for the brand to get the value out of it. Because, look, no team wants to take any category back to market. So I think a lot of the communication has to come from the brand and the agencies to get to success, because you having to justify why you spent X amount of dollars on a partnership and why that was a bad decision three years later, it’s tough, because it puts your job at jeopardy.”

Kelly continued, discussing why he understands the frustration that can come from each side, as both brand and property want to do right by the partnership, and can feel pressured to deliver and over-deliver on expectations.

“That’s the one thing that we’re counseling some of our clients on now is like, you fought for this, you fought for, or your CMO handed you this or your CEO, you need to make it work,” said Kelly, referencing the advising and work he and his team do today at Encore. “You’re not in a position, and the teams should know that, like, they’re in a position to make all of these deals work. And when they’re being a pain in the ass and they’re asking you for stuff, it’s not because they’re being selfish, and it’s not because they just are trying to get more than they want, they’re trying to justify the expense they made, period.”

These conversations are often framed around how the property (team/league) delivers sufficient value and results for the brand. But, in recent years, as more emerging sports leagues have entered the ecosystem and women’s sports leagues continue to command and demand attention and investment, the pollyannaish paradigm of partnerships are more viable and visible than ever. These are two-way relationships where the partner helps elevate the league/team as much, if not more, than the other way around.

Big brands, with deep pockets, haven’t just put their money where their mouth is, by betting on the growing women’s sports leagues, especially, they’ve also taken action to ensure the gatekeepers appreciate the consumer demand for women’s sports as much as the sponsors believe in them (and the data often dictates).

“They don’t just write the check and then walk away and hope the partners do it all,” said Kelly, discussing the partners of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), who’ve often been vocal about getting games more exposure on broadcast networks, with whom they’ve also invested. “They’re amplifying on their traditional, social media, above the line, everything; they’re there. They’ve done a great job of connecting the dots.

“They don’t just hand the NWSL a check and then say, I don’t have anything left for you, broadcast partners or players. They’ve been able to close the loop. They’re supporting the broadcast partners. Then they’re making demands in a very responsible way of like, ‘We need to see this more on linear [television]. We need to see this more in the right time slots.’ And it really takes somebody with the right vision and the right brand, with the right vision to pull it forward because the commissioners of these leagues are in a tough spot because they want to drive as much revenue as possible to the league to then disperse out to all the owners. Then obviously they want the teams driving their own revenue, too. But when you get a brand like Ally who does the full flywheel of every point, everybody gets a little piece, and everybody’s getting elevated.”

There’s a perception bump, too, that can come when a big-name brand signs on to partner with an emerging league. Pick your favorite upstart league and its trajectory can often be seen through its sponsor roster. The endemics typically come first; it makes sense for equipment manufacturers and apparel partners, for example, to sign up early and a lot of the early fans are participants in the sports, so fit a sweet spot segment of potential customers for brands endemic to the sport. As the fan base broadens, with more interest and engagement, so, too, does the list of partners.

Before long, well-known brands in the auto, insurance, beverage, quick-service restaurant, and other CPG and B2B brands seeking to reach a wide swath of fans. The day a league signs a blue-chip brand like AB InBev can be a signficant signpost — a big brand believes in the league, and the windfall that comes with such a sponsorship allows for further investment and growth. Kelly reflected on this idea, noting the big brands he represented were cognizant about what their investment could mean to a growing league.

“We weren’t naive to the influence we had when we were at either one of those companies I worked at, because, we knew that if we came on to a league early on, because we believed in it, it helped establish credibility for the league if you have, you know, a Budweiser or Verizon on board early,” he said. “And it was just very much a ‘Do we believe that this is, one, good for us because we’re hitting another audience?’ And two, ‘Do we believe they have the infrastructure in place to actually go and drive even incremental value for us than we actually are investing?’

“We saw hundreds of presentations over the years from esports teams. And, you know, we did Drone Racing League for a while, all these other ones where it was just like, you know, it meant a lot. For us, it became a little bit more we got on the sales tour with them promoting like, well, why did you invest? And they would just say, ‘Hey, can brand X call you and tell you about what you’re doing in our sport?’ And it’s like, sure. So, oftentimes in these emerging sports we became a little bit more of like an evangelist for why did you invest. And look, we felt that it was a privilege and also a responsibility of, if we were investing here, we got to see that it works.”

Sports sponsorships may have started out, decades ago, as advertising transactions and static assets, but they’ve since evolved into integrated relationships. The most successful deals today are no longer about merely buying access, but about engineering a dynamic where every stakeholder wins: the brand justifies its investment, the property elevates its value, the emerging league gains credibility, the fans receive better, more engaging experiences.

The modern sponsorship is a flywheel where both sides, and increasingly the fans, are fully invested in the other’s success. It requires honest communication, the flexibility to account for unpredictable growth, and the vision to see an investment not just as a cost, but as a commitment to the growth of the entire sport. The biggest win isn’t just a renewal, it’s a legacy of impact.

A good sports sponsorship is one that leaves all parties better off for the relationship. It’s not just a line item on the budget, but a statement of shared belief, proving that when partners rise together, everybody wins.

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH NICK KELLY

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Analytics and Data, Digital, General Sports Business

The New Revelation in Sports Business: Why the Fanbase Is More Valuable Than the Team

The sports industry is lagging.

Sports may capture an outsized part of the zeitgeist, increasingly prominent in pop culture, but when it comes to understanding and maximizing the lifetime value of their consumers, their peers in other fields are ahead.

That’s starting to change, thanks to an infusion of new leaders, strategic capital, and a convergence of technological developments positioning sports to reach new levels of sophistication and new heights of efficiency and effectiveness.

Shripal Shah has spent years in the sports industry, including a long stint with the then-Washington Redskins, ascending to Chief Strategy Officer. He’s also spent years out of the sports industry, highlighted by his time with shopping rewards platform Shop Your Way. He’s seen the way retail and hospitality analyze and engage customers, and the how those industries govern and operationalize data in ways that the sports industry is just starting to conceive. Shah is well-positioned to understand this inflection point at which sports finds itself, and the lucrative opportunities it presents.

“I think the one area [that] I think sports could adopt towards, is retail is much further ahead in this idea of true personalized marketing, like use of personas, segments, data enrichment,” said Shah, who today is Chief Digital Officer of Next League, a software development and technology solutions company specializing in sports and media. “And in retail, there’s a concept called RFM marketing…It’s an approach and a framework to drive people, based off this idea [of] how recently have they shopped with or interacted with you, how frequently and the monetization. And it really touches on this idea not just going from awareness, consideration to purchase, but this idea of how do you really create higher lifetime value from your customers? How do you create a higher share of wallet or a higher spend?”

The sports industry is built on long-term fandom. When the operation is working as expected, generational customers are cultivated, lifelong fans who aim to pass on their favorite sports and teams to their kids. And yet, while plenty of effort is put forth around season ticket renewals (though the traditional concept of season tickets has diminished appeal for younger generations), sports organizations are more often than not in pursuit of the next fan, the marginal fan and incremental dollar. There is merit in that, no doubt. When media rights deals are dictated by one more fan watching for at least a minute, it makes sense to chase increase the overall pool.

But there’s also untold riches to surface in the deeper end of the pool. There’s more value to mine among the diehard fans and those closer to the bottom of the funnel than the top. And the methods by which organizations learn more about, and activate, those fans compound in value. Shah has seen it play out with customers in the retail space.

“Once you’re at a real scalable retail, because at that point you could have — like at Shop Your Way we had over 50 million users — you don’t actually need to go acquire more users, you already have a lot of their info,” said Shah, whose recently published book, Unlocking Fan Loyalty: From Frequent Flyers to Fanatics in the Age of AI, breaks down how sports organizations transform ordinary customers into passionate fans by harnessing the power of data, personalization, and artificial intelligence. “You could always try to get more people in the funnel, but if you can also retain those users and convert more, [get people to] spend more, that can also drive not only your top line growth, but better bottom line profits. I think that nuance is starting to show up in sports, as you’re seeing the advent of these holding companies that are now cross-team, the insertion of private equity.

“And now with AI democratizing and bringing more of these mature marketing tools to the budget levels of sports teams, I think that’s going to also lend itself to really leverage those tools and those data sets and technology. It lends itself to another marketing approach that I think ultimately could lead to a higher lifetime value for the fan base.”

AI is everyone’s opportunity. As Shah told me, artificial intelligence can have a democratizing effect for marketing teams in sports and beyond. Every conversation about marketing tech stacks and roadmaps now includes myriad mentions of AI. There’s a sense of excitement, amplified by FOMO, as the sports world grapples with understanding how to implement AI into their systems. The interest is higher than ever, but there are some prerequisites for effective implementation of AI. And that’s part of this inflection point, as Shah sees it; more excitement than ever, coupled with a forcing factor requiring organizations to upend their old systems of thinking and do a deep audit, and deep cleaning, of their data.

“I think AI just kind of came and became a thing,” said Shah, whose aforementioned book is part of a three-book series on AI in sports business. “I was talking with the major LLM providers and they said it was almost like what they called an awakening, that demand for an LLM [such as] ChatGPT and Copilot went up 1,000% this summer, which was more than the request to buy enterprise licenses the prior nine months or year combined. So that kind of came over the top.

“Before that, when I first rejoined Next League and I was talking with CMOs, this idea of creating a more mature marketing tech stack for personalization was really everyone’s number one priority…But now I think that some people are waiting to see how AI changes what their plan was for the marketing approach…it is about personalization, propensity, predictability, going from like, 40 personas to 400 to 4000 to to infinite…

“I think that’s going to ultimately lead towards more automation because what existed outside of sports was people already had marketing automation and workflow automation. That was the concept that no one ever invested in in sports, and AI is going to really force that. Because to really have good AI products and workflow, you need to have good data governance and you need to really focus on automation. And I think AI is going to sort of be the forcing mechanism that really should cause this level of maturity, because it’s going to force the data to get better.”

The move towards exponential automation is also disrupting decades-old paradigms in sports business, as org charts and team compositions evolve to make the most of new AI-infused capabilities. The days of armies of inside sales reps and smile and dial at high volumes aren’t completely gone, but they’re waning. When it comes to investing in the sales and marketing operation, the first thought goes to tech before headcount now, Shah explained, and that’s a marked change.

“Earlier on, I think there would have been a question like, ‘Well, why are we spending $400,000 on this tech stack when we could just hire 3 or 4 other ticket people? Alright, let’s go hire three, four ticket people at $35k each, fresh out of school, why are we going to spend half a million dollars [on tech]?’ Like you would run into that type of thinking as recently as a few years ago,” he said.

“I think the AI discussion is now throwing that out the window where it’s saying ‘No, what could be done with AI before you ask for headcount?’ AI is not replacing people, but it’s forcing a new conversation which is now forcing an investment into these other tool sets because the tools are going to help people do better, more impactful work, more deeper work.”

AI, and its forcing mechanisms vis-à-vis data infrastructure is just part of a greater transformation Shah sees taking place in sports business. In the same way that AI is not going to replace humans, but empower them to focus on deeper work, it’s allowing the content operations to maximize the value it gets out of each creator and manager. The future of content operations, he told me, can be likened to a ‘portfolio strategy,’ with some tasks and ‘baseline’ content work largely done by AI and the more complex work being done by humans.

But perhaps the most exciting future, and where the sports industry can most emulate the retail and hospitality industries, is in loyalty programs and more integrated and improved partnerships. As Shah described earlier, bringing in principles from the retail industry, like RFM marketing (recency, frequency, monetary value), coupled with the leap ahead in data governance ushers not just better, more nuanced understanding of fan profiles and consumption behaviors, but also allows them to tell a richer story. A well-oiled loyalty program that directly shows purchase behavior and funnel conversions to partners is among the holy grails in sports — and it’s more attainable than ever, fueled by multi-directional, open-loop loyalty programs.

“It gives the teams the ability to get real data points to then describe and demonstrate that fandom and the value of that to their brand sponsors, which then ultimately should lead to higher revenue,” said Shah. “Because by being able to have that data and the proof to be demonstrated, that’s going to ultimately lead towards more spend, because then the sponsors can look at this versus other media channels and say, ‘This is going to give me a much deeper connection that’s going to help me so that I’m not always having to reacquire my customers. I’m also building long-term customers at a much lower acquisition cost.’ It creates that flywheel effect.”

Shah lights up discussing the promise of open-loop loyalty programs making their way into the sports world. Such programs thrive in the retail and hospitality fields. Among the many examples Shah cited, the Marriott Bonvoy program is a shining beacon, where points are transferable from one partner program to another, where spending with Starbucks, Uber, and BetMGM can be redeemed for rewards with any of the aforementioned programs, and points can be transferred back and forth, including from credit card programs. The intermingling of earning and redeeming presents an incredible value proposition. The opportunity is even greater now, as sports organizations invest in multi-club ownership and retail ecosystems around their venues. Spending on sports remains a non-necessity, a luxury or entertainment expenditure, which only adds to the appeal for sports to more effectively integrate into the everyday purchases and journeys of its fans. Shah explained why open loyalty programs are such an exciting opportunity for sports and why he believes loyalty programs may become among the most valuable assets sports organizations hold, as the programs are for other businesses.

“[Open loop loyalty programs] work beyond just a single retailer or partner. They’re cross-currency,” he explained. “So what that’s done is it has driven more value to the currency because now it has value in multiple places, which then creates higher liquidity because now there are more people who are earning more. But then they’re also redeeming more, so therefore they’re spending more. Now, that drives higher potential frequency. The person who came twice a year somewhere might come three, four times a year without having to pay for acquisition costs. The person who came once a month might come one and a half times a month. And that is what everyone outside of sports is seeing.”

That’s the promise of RFM marketing in action, and why Shah is so excited about bringing those principles to sports. Shah continued, noting the significant value proposition this all represents, broadening the aperture for fan engagement and consumption capture.

“This idea of cross-industry collaboration is happening in industries and verticals that have much higher spend. People spend a lot more with their grocery stores and their gas, because they need it, than they do with their sports tickets,” he said. “People in some places could be spending more on travel, so they’re using it for personal and for work than they are for their sports tickets. So it’s just a matter of understanding market size and TAM, and I think it’s an education.

“I’ve had many conversations…That’s the premise of the book; this is a reality where, for airlines, their loyalty programs are considered more valuable assets than their entire fleet of airplanes. Full stop.”

The sports industry’s long-awaited business evolution is finally here. AI has emerged as the ‘forcing mechanism,’ compelling the data maturity and automation that organizations have long desired but deferred. This new foundation allows sports to adopt the proven playbooks of retail and hospitality, shifting focus from chasing the next marginal fan to maximizing the lifetime value of their most loyal fans through sophisticated, open-loop loyalty programs.

This transformation is more than an operational upgrade, it’s part of a grander vision. The goal is no longer simply to fill a stadium, but to build a powerful economic flywheel effect where a team is embedded in a fan’s daily life, capturing value far beyond the stadium or arena. The organizations that embrace this change are redefining their very identity, marking the final evolution from a sports team that has fans to a fan platform that has a team.

WATCH/LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH SHRIPAL SHAH

READ THE SNIPPETS

CHECK OUT SHRIPAL’S BOOKS ON SPORTS IN AI AND LOYALTY PROGRAMS

Analytics and Data, General Marketing, General Sports Business

What the Sports Industry Can Learn (and Adopt) from the Retail Business

On episode 305 of the Digital and Social Media Sports podcast, Neil chatted with Shripal Shah, Chief Digital Officer, Next League, and author of Unlocking Fan Loyalty: From Frequent Flyers to Fanatics in the Age of AI

What follows are some snippets from the episode. Click Here to listen to the full episode or check it out and subscribe to the podcast via Apple or listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Fan Development, General Sports Business

The Sports Fan Experience Through a Parent’s Eyes: What Marketers Should Know About Fans with Families

It’s easy to fall into a trap after years of working in sports (or any industry). It’s just difficult to see things from an objective point of view, taking on the perspective of the ‘normal’ fan or consumer.

That’s why I love peppering friends, family, and, heck, complete strangers with questions about their experience as sports fans. Avoiding an insular point of view is critical to effectively understand the fan experience — the motivations, challenges, and opportunities. And that’s why each year when my Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast hits a milestone (12 years this year!), I’ve had friends and family members appear on the pod to ask about their relationship to sports and experience as a fan. I learned from my brother, an avid fantasy player and diehard San Diego Padres fan, my mom, a non-sports fan who became one of the biggest Anaheim Ducks fans you’ll meet, and, this year, my brother-in-law, Richard Schulman.

Rich grew up a sports fan, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers. He became a big fan of Cal during his undergrad experience in Berkeley. For years, he’s always been aware of the sports zeitgeist, tuning into the biggest events and having enough knowledge to carry on a conversation about the sports news of the day or debate the biggest topics. Today, he’s a father of four, working (quite successfully!) in real estate, challenged for time to follow sports, but a season ticket holder for Angel City FC, because he’s raising girls who love to play soccer (and go to ACFC games with their friends).

I came away from my interview with Rich with a ton of insight about what it’s like to be a time-strapped father trying to balance keeping up with sports while keeping up with his kids, who adopted a team that didn’t exist when he was growing up, because it’s fun to do with his daughters. Here are some key lessons and takeaways:

Time is the Limiting Factor for Fandom

The days are still 24 hours as one starts to build a family, but the days are necessarily more managed and time feels more crunched. Rich can recall days in the past when he’d settle in to watch a day of sports or attend a game not knowing what time the game would end, but now such uncertainty is downright daunting. That’s part of the appeal for Angel City games (and Savannah Bananas games), he explained.

“Now I’m constrained on time. Like, I took my seven year-old to a Savannah Bananas game. I’m sure you’re familiar with them; and the same with soccer, it’s like you get there and you sit down and exactly two hours later you’re walking to the car.

“I can take my kids to an Angel City game, which is the women’s pro team in LA, it’s like on a schedule. It’s like 7:00 game; I like to go early with the kids, we can walk around; but I can leave my house at 6:00, I can sit down at 6:30, the game starts at 7:00, the game is over by 8:45, I’m home by 9:30. It’s a pretty tight time. And the kids like it…

“So sports now has to fit into a box. Like, I can watch playoffs. But you know, I used to watch college football Saturday all day, and I could just watch a random three-hour football game. You can’t do that anymore.”

Takeaway:

We’ve already seen Major League Baseball, in particular, take proactive steps to limit the duration of its games, introducing a clock to the sport that had been distinct by its lack of a countdown time function. Recognize that parents, in particular, are balancing mealtimes, naptimes, and school nights. Part of the appeal of sports is the escape, leaving worries and clock watching aside, but that’s often not realistic for busy parents (and many adults, in general). While we can’t build in assurances, we can be more proactive about helping fans fit in their sports, whether that’s providing average duration and end times, recognizing some fans won’t stay or watch the full game (in person or at home), and helping them still be fans and have enjoyable, stress-free experiences nonetheless.

Following Sports Closely Ain’t Easy

There are days when there’s an exciting buzzer beater or an unreal comeback, and it feels like everyone has to be aware of this, right? But the reality you are the minority if you’re refreshing the Twitter feed every few minutes or locked into notifications for Adam Schefter and Shams reports, and planning your weekends around sports. There are certain transcendent news stories that break through for Rich, however; I offered the Luka Doncic trade, as an example. And while Rich rarely finds time to sit down and watch most of ant game, the playoffs, especially when they involve his team, can be an exception to the rule.

“For something big like [the Luka Doncic trade], like that’ll show up on the regular news or my social feed will pop because I have friends who care more than me about it…But now it’s crazy that people would even think about spending that much time watching.

“You know, when the playoffs come around, I’ll get interested. I watched most of the Dodgers playoff games last year. Except, of course, the game they won the World Series, I was at soccer with the kids and they went down 5-0. I’m like, Well, I guess we’re not watching that game. We’ll just watch tomorrow’s game. And then on the drive home, they tied the game. But I watched the whole game one with the kids with the Freddie Freeman Grand Slam, so they all saw that.”

Takeaway:

When I worked on the team side, I often reminded myself that, as unlikely as it seems, some fans really were learning about big news for the first time from the team’s social posts or emails or text alerts. Don’t take for granted the median fan of the team is as informed as the top 1-5% who engage with every post and have their fandom listed in their IG bio. But do recognize, too, that less-engaged fans often still have avid, informed fangelists in their social circles or friend groups that are on top of things. They’re the ones pinging the group chat or whose posts make it to the Facebook feed of their friends and family; help those vocal fans be the messenger.

Sports are Social and Season Tickets are about Convenience as much as Benefits

There are lot of reasons fans decide to become season ticket holders across any professional or collegiate sport. Just as there are myriad reasons fans enjoy attending games. For Rich, going to Angel City games was not necessarily because his daughters, avid soccer players themselves, wanted to see professional soccer; it was a social outing with friends. For young kids, and by proxy their parents, sports are an early social vehicle (along with school, of course). Friendships are formed through playing sports, and attending sports events are great, novel ‘play dates,’ where friends can have new experiences and make memories together.

In addition, make special note of the difference Rich saw in the way his girls responded to Angel City (NWSL) and LAFC (MLS). It’s great that we tend to see both little girls AND little boys enjoy women’s sports, and interesting (and powerful) for little girls to be awestruck by seeing women as superstars, competing in front of big crowds at the highest level.

The decision to invest in season tickets ties together a lot of the aforementioned ideas in this piece — predictability, social, and convenience.

“We had gone to some LAFC games, me and the girls. We had friends that had tickets, so we would occasionally go with them on their tickets or buy tickets near them, and they liked it. I mean, it was neat for them. It was really interesting when Angel City came around, the same friend and another friend got season tickets and we thought, Oh, we’re not going to go to all the games, and then we went and the girls had a much better reaction to girls playing soccer than boys playing soccer, which to me, maybe it sounds obvious; I was surprised just because, like, I didn’t really ever think about it. We had pretty good seats. It’s a small stadium, it’s a nice, intimate venue, but you’re still like 100 feet away from a player. And if they do a throw in right underneath your seats; like, I can throw a baseball probably to the players that are closest to us.

“But [my daughters] really responded. So then we ended up getting [season tickets]…“There’s only like 10 or 12 home games, so it makes sense, once you start going to them. You can have your tickets that you want to have…We like to have the same seats, next to friends. The seats are good, it’s reliable, I don’t have to worry about going online. You know, Ticketmaster is still a poor experience to buy tickets. So it’s just nice to see, Okay. I have my tickets, I don’t have to think about it.”

Takeaway:

For many fans, sports events are a third place. It’s where you see or spend time with friends, sometimes it’s the only place you see certain friends. How can we better integrate this behavior into sports? Could purchasing tickets (especially directly from the team) be negineered to make it easy to be paired with another buyer or could we rethink what ‘group sales’ means when it’s 2-3 families instead of a company, church, or youth team? And while season ticket membership benefits are great (I spoje with Rich about some cool experiences on the field his girls get to have because of season ticket member or group sales benefits), don’t overlook the little things — the convenience, the reduction of stress, the reliability.

[Still thinking about the remark about the ‘different response’ his girls had to watching women play, too]

Accessibility is an Underrated Aspect for Kids Becoming Fans

Sports fandom has evolved in the last couple of decades, and many fans tend to follow athletes as much as teams. But, especially for kids at that vital age range (~ 8-11 years old, give or take), there is a greater correlation between proximity and their favorite players. There’s still a bit of magic for little kids to meet any professional athlete, they’re demigods even if kids don’t know their names. And while fans may follow stars like Messi or Ohtani or LeBron wherever they go, for little kids, it’s the star players they’re able to see IRL that have a higher likelihood of capturing their young hearts. With all that in mind, it’s worthwhile to note what Rich says about the flux nature of the Angel City roster and how that affects the propensity for the kdis to get to know players by name and, in turn, want to follow them (and the team) more avidly on and off the pitch.

“[The girls] don’t follow it like I used to follow sports, but they know the best players, like the main starting players. Angel City seems to have a constantly changing roster of players, so it’s been a little challenging to attach. But like, you know, let’s say Alyssa Thompson is their best or most notable player, like when we met her at the stadium after the game, they go down and try to get autographs, they’re really excited. Hannah recognized her and her sister at the mall, and we tracked down Alyssa Thompson at the mall…“But they probably couldn’t tell you 11 players on the team and we don’t really follow — like, Angel City has not been successful at winning soccer games. So we haven’t really been following their games that we don’t go to…

“[His daughters] get excited even when they meet [any] player. You know, they got an autograph last week at the game, and we don’t know who the person is. I have a picture of her, I have to figure out who it was. But she was excited, it was a former player who signed her jersey. So sometimes, if they go down to the field, they’ll get a signature from some of the other team, like the backup goalie from their team, but they’re still excited.”

Takeaway:

There’s not much we can do about the dynamic nature of rosters these days (incidentally, Rich also lamented his Cal fandom diminishing as the program’s top football players annually enter the transfer portal). The issue is a big one in sports — the dilution of unconditional love for a team, exacerbated by closer ties to individual players, the majority of whom won’t be on the team for their entire careers. But the good news is that because of that smaller world for young kids, when they’re at the age that their lifelong fandom can form, they’re more likely to latch onto the local team and its players. Make it easy for young fans to fall in love with the team, every last one of them. One of the best parts of women’s sports, especially, is before and after each game, a lot of the athletes (including the superstars) make time for kids, giving them lifelong memories and special moments that can form powerful connections. Give more kids more opportunities to make lifelong memories that involve the team, stories that’ll be etched in stone and in their hearts and minds for life.

A Couple More Quick Quotes

I wanted to include these additional quotes, but without extensive analysis.

The first represents the challenge of trying to balance sports participation for four kids. At a time when sports specialization is increasingly prevalent, and increasingly questioned, Rich’s girls have primarily stuck to soccer. Parents drive a lot of early exposure to sports and recreational participation, and it’s not easy when the kids and their social and sports and other obligations start to pile up. But also take note of another theme from my interview with Rich, how soccer has become a fulcrum for friendships. Specialization and playing club soccer and tournaments isn’t about just about playing more soccer, it’s spending more time with their friends.

“I don’t know how people do it with multiple sports. I mean, I know it’s probably better for the kids overall. It’s probably better for their sports. But at some point you have to say you gotta play soccer year round if you want to advance in soccer. Like, it’d be neat if you also had time to be like a swimmer and a volleyball player, but with four kids, it’s just not going to happen….It’s not really challenging because, you know, they are invited to play on an all star team and they get excited for that, and they generally tend to become friends with the other all stars. So it’s like you want to do more soccer with your friends? Of course.”

Rich has taken his kids to a handful of different sports events over the years, so we talked about the experience of being a parent and taking a young kid (or group of kids) to a game. What’s the right age to start taking them, how the kids experience it, and what their particular experience with Angel City is like.

“Probably around 6 or 7 [is the right age to start taking kids to games]. I mean, Leah will watch a whole game, but last game we went to, they wanted to go buy candy, and I’m like, there’s 20 minutes left in the game, you’re not going to go buy candy. You know, wander the stadium and go buy candy and miss the whole game. So you know, something like that…

“[Angel City] has a lot of stuff going on before the game, which is nice. The food options have dwindled as attendance has trailed off. They always have a local musical thing happening. They have some celebrity fans they highlight, which is neat. But they should focus on putting out a winning product on the field and that will kind of solve [things].”

Thank you again to my brother-in-law, Rich, for being a great dad to my nieces and nephew, and for helping us celebrate 12 years of the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast by offering his experiences and opinions as a fan and father!

WATCH OR LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD SCHULMAN

READ THE SNIPPETS

Fan Development, General Sports Business, Photos of sports biz

A Day at the Premier Lacrosse League: Notes and Review

HELPFUL RECAP AND REVIEW — I went to a Premier Lacrosse League game and captured the experience, fan engagement, activations, partnership, game presentation, and more. Scroll through to get a look at the fan zone and game day (in San Diego). Here are some top-level observations and insights:

🥍 A lot of touring teams (and teams in general) do fan zones and this one was particularly well-conceived. Backed by a QR code-led scavenger hunt, among other QR code CTAs, and fun, well thought-out partner activations, this was good for kids, experienced lax players and noobs, and to develop the brand, league, and further capture and cultivate fans.
🟢 This was only open to admitted fans, but I could also see them allowing any fans to come in (with pre-registrations if space is limited). With annual tour stops, the publicly-open fan zone could be a good way for fans to tell their extended network to come out.

🥍 Pretty much all the activations involved getting lacrosse sticks in hands, exposing the game. Though the vast majority of fans (I mean, probably 75% if not higher) appeared to have at least family or group member with experience playing lacrosse. The games were simple enough for a novice like me to give it a go with a stick and ball multiple times, one of the few times in my life I’ve had the opportunity to do so!
🟢 Despite the high concentration of experienced players, I was still surprised to not see local organizations onsite that could provide the answer to ‘How do I get started’ for an interested parent and child, such as a local youth lacrosse league, clinic, or camp (they do have a lot of resources on their website). There were a good amount of youth players and teams in attendance (and a youth team got recognized before the game on the field). Relatedly, the PLL could do better to engage noobs like me, such as explaining penalties when a power player is awarded, describing what’s being challenged in a review (I had to ask fans next to me), and doing more with stats with fans in general (face-offs, ground balls, power plays, even the two-point shots unique to PLL, etc.)

🥍 The PLL had plenty of data capture opportunities and much of their promotion was less about finding new fans than about getting fans to join PLL Nation, their premium membership platform (more details in the deck). They had the aforementioned QR codes posted with various CTAs, they handed out cards with QR codes for enter-to-win opportunities, and signage + in-game CTAs to scan a QR code to enter to win — solely open to PLL Nation members.
🟢 PLL Nation membership is similar to other team/league memberships — season tickets (but with their single annual stops that’s less of an incentive) along with merch discounts, the exclusive contests and sweepstakes, and exclusive content. It’s a good opportunity to identify and activate their biggest fans and something a lot of leagues and teams — with a surfeit of remote fans — are doing or exploring to monetize their fan base at a global level

🥍 The demographic was very very young. Most sports outside the big four leagues tend to skew younger, but the PLL even more so than others I’ve checked out seemed to be like 60% of the attendance was kids (mostly boys) in the 6-14 age range. The diversity was lacking a bit (an issue lacrosse in general and the PLL are aiming to improve), but the density of young kids excited to see pro lacrosse and looking up to these players is a great sign
🟢 The thing about young boys — it’s hard to get them to sit still too long. Not in a bad way, but from what I could tell there were a lot of kids in and out of their seats throughout the game (and the games move fast with lots of scoring!). The game presentation is often limited by the venues where the PLL plays, but there could be room for improvement here — just more opportunities for young kids to scream (literally, the WNBA and NWSL games I’ve been to do a good job of that). They did have a flex cam and some in-game contests and a t-shirt toss, but there could be more video board games (hat shuffles, et al.) and PA-led cheers.

🥍 The PLL does a good job of carving out revenue opportunities at their games. You’ll see in the photos below the way they create premium in a way agnostic to the venues and offer various upgraded experiences fans can purchase while at the game. They also had a nice traveling pop-up merch tent with diverse offerings (more so than you see at most merch kiosks at sporting events)
🟢 They also had a nice display showcasing the team jerseys (and team brands in general) around the merch tent as they aim to continue to drive forth the team branding. (Go California Redwoods!) The player-specific posters, jerseys, and bobbleheads also help promote their star players. I could also see a mini pop-up ode to the sport and the PLL, a mini pop-up museum or Hall of Fame of sorts, honoring the sport’s native origins and the upstart league’s history (and the Rabil brothers who founded it)

🥍 The game experience overall felt ‘big league’ — they had instant replays, in-game animations, and even custom songs for each PLL team (Like, for real, a California Redwoods song?!? This should be even more feasible in the age of gen AI )
🟢 Perhaps limited by the venue (and alluded to earlier), there seemed to be a dearth of stats available to fans in-stadium. Little things like shots, let alone more advanced stats like caused turnovers, ground balls, face-off percentage, two-point attempts, etc.) and no promotion of their PLL Fantasy game that I caught. Getting fans more engrossed in the stats will only help with engagement and more ways to gamify the event opens up the opportunities for those juicy partnerships with sports gaming companies

I could go all day on this stuff, but hopefully if you skimmed through all of that you learned something! It was a great day out and, as you can see in the slideshow below, full of great engagement, fun, and value for fans and partners. The Premier Lacrosse League is a remarkable story and they continue to grow as a league and brand, and in turn lift up the sport of lacrosse with it. They had a great All-Star weekend on ESPN/ABC this past weekend and lots more gamed to play this summer. (The WLL, too, though there was surprisingly limited mention of them onsite). Cheers to the PLL!

Fan Development, General Sports Business

Why Storytelling and Community Drive the Real Value in Collecting in Sports and Beyond

What creates a community?

Consider all the diverse things that can unite groups of people — a favorite sports team, a beloved musical artist, a story (aka ‘IP’), a shared hobby, and the list goes on.

Everyone is passionate about something. And in our instinctual yearning for connection, there’s a powerful feeling when we encounter others who share that passion. Mutual interests become conversations, which evolve into meaningful relationships, and over time, a collection of individuals coalesces into a united community. They may take on other monikers — a fan base, a subreddit, a Tok (i.e. BookTok), a BeyHive, but these are powerful collectives that, together, can drive moments and propel culture (and commerce) forward.

Evan Parker learned the power of community early on in his career, coming up in roles at Edelman, where he worked with XBox 360 (among other brands), and at NASCAR. Businesses spend so much time, effort, and resources trying to propagate their message and build their brands, but there are people already out there with a passion for the areas in which brands play. To harness that passion is more effective and efficient than any PR campaign or advertisement.

“There’s only so much reach that any brand has,” said Parker, “but if you can talk to the right people and they talk to their friends, they talk to their communities, you’re able to expand that way. And it’s a lot easier to go pitch somebody who already loves what you’re doing, or is already interested in what you’re doing, than it is to go pitch The New York Times and try to get them to write the article that you wish that they would write that’s going to get read by all these people…

“Before social media was really a thing, community was the best way to go build a business. And if you could get people to love what you were doing and be evangelistic about what you’re trying to build, you have a shot at doing something pretty special.”

Parker is working to do something special now. Last year, he, along with Alexis Ohanian and Brent Montgomery, launched Mantel, a social network and content platform for collectors. The three individuals had been part of the fragmented coterie of collectors for years, with investor and Reddit co-founder Ohanian boasting an impressive sports collection, Montgomery, whose Wheelhouse is behind such shows like King of Collectibles and Pawn Stars, and Parker a collector himself and veteran of the sports space — and they saw an opportunity to bring all these collectors together, to give them a place to call home.

The collectibles space is booming, in case you haven’t noticed. There are countless creators, and platforms dedicated to ‘breaks,’ auctions and sales making headlines every day, it seems like, and a still-evolving paradigm for digital collectibles. Regardless of whether someone is moved by history, a hope for a financial return, or some sentimental value, collectors all appreciate the stories behind the items. That’s what Parker sees in Mantel, and the promise ahead as the platform continues to grow and brings together the items, the stories, and the people telling them.

“All of these people are in it for their own motivation,” said Parker who is CEO of Mantel, which launched publicly in December 2024. “I think what connects people, though, is the excitement of it, and the feeling that it brings; the nostalgia or the connection to these athletes, the stories behind it. We really are trying as much as we can to make sure that people are not just saying, ‘Here’s a card that I pulled’, but ‘Here’s a card that I pulled, and this is why it’s interesting to me’, or ‘this is what I’m thinking about’, or here’s a question I have about it.’ Like, can we get one level deeper?…

“How do we just break it down to the reason why people are interested in this, or if you’re not interested in it, what’s the thing that we can get you interested in?”

Parker continued, noting that while some may collect baseball cards, others seek stamps, and still others love movie memorabilia or comic books. Mantel is a place for all of them.

“I really believe that [for] everything that exists, every physical item, every digital item, there are communities that collect it, there are people who are interested in it,” said Parker, “and if the story is interesting — there are people who might not care about that topic at all, but because you told an interesting story, it’s like, ‘Okay, I don’t want to go collect that myself, but I really respect that you do. I’m really excited that I learned about that. I know more now than I did yesterday.'”

It’s the stories and collective interest that make certain collectibles so valuable. There are plenty of 1-of-1 or otherwise extremely rare items and cards that are worth pennies, while others are worth millions. Take a moment and consider the logic and rationale behind that. Why is a mint-condition Michael Jordan rookie card worth so much? Where does a Mickey Mantle card derive its value, or even a hat once worn by Abraham Lincoln, as opposed to any other 19th-century stovepipe? These are values that render any economic models meaningless. Supply and demand are part of the picture, to be sure, but some special forces are driving that demand.

It was revelatory and thought-provoking to consider this overarching question as Parker and I talked through the most famous collectible in sports, the T206 Honus Wagner card. Honus Wagner was one of the best shortstops of all-time, but he wasn’t Babe Ruth or Willie Mays or otherwise all that important to history. And yet it’s his 1909 card that has commanded small fortunes every time it has passed hands over the years.

“You hear all these reasons why [the T206 Honus Wagner] was [so well-known], the one that Wayne Gretzky bought, and the one that was altered and the one that was sold for this amount of money and that had this grade and that,” Parker described. “You know, every year [at] the National Sports Card Collectors Convention, there are dinners that get put together [and] the only way you get to go is if you own a T206, and all this stuff sort of builds this intrigue. And now this card, more than 100 years after it debuted, is a card that people who never watched sports, who don’t really care about baseball, they know that this card is interesting. And I think that’s sort of the magic of collecting.

“But it comes down to storytelling and community. Because the community decided that this was the card, not other cards from the T206 series…that [card] helps kind of illustrate to me why what we’re building at Mantel has the chance to be something really powerful, because we can bring people together and to tell stories and to build community that can then transcend in the same way that that card has.”

The best collectibles are imbued with meaning. They’re something collectors are proud to display (and post on Mantel), they’re conversation starters, relationship accelerants, identity enhancers. These traits are where sports teams can take heed, said Parker, when I asked him what sports leagues and teams can learn from the community and industry of sports collectors. They have no shortage of items — t-shirts and caps, bobbleheads and rally towels, and of course every piece of equipment and apparel associated with milestone achievements gets marked and pulled for posterity.

But the vast majority of things teams give away and sell don’t accrue more value over time, they rarely carry grander and broadly accessible narratives.

“I think that teams need to be spending more time thinking about how to create things that have interests beyond when it gets handed to you,” said Parker, who, like many collectors, laments the gradual disappearance of physical tickets in sports. “You know, a team will spend a lot of money putting towels on every seat for a playoff game, and at the end of the playoff game, half of them are still in their seats. Somebody will bring it home and it’ll end up as a dish rag. Somebody else will put it on their wall, but it kind of loses its appeal at that point.

“But if you can create something that has lasting value, that somebody wants to show their friends, wants to post on Mantel or another social network, that might have monetary value down the line, I think it just kind of anchors you to those moments, to those teams, to those athletes in important ways.”

The paradigm that assigns monetary value in the sports card and collectibles space has persisted for generations. There’s no set date when all of a sudden the value of sports cards increased exponentially, but the industry has been around for several decades now, with ebbs and flows throughout. Few really question the model that propels the space, just like we all accept that rare works of art (only by specific artists) are worth a lot more than others.

Well, then digital collectibles came along and the paradigm fell apart. Consensus gave way to speculative bubbles and discord about where digital collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) fit. Should the value of tokens come from exclusive community, not too far off from the T206 owners and their get-together at the National Sports Card Convention each year? If the value is in the eye of the beholder, there’s a certain trust and belief that the beholders comprising the collectible community will persist, if not grow, over time. Parker isn’t taking a hard stance on digital collectibles, watching the space with curiosity and the context of being immersed in a diverse community of collectors every day.

“It’s hard to discount what happens over time,” he said. “You know, we care about certain baseball cards that have been around for more than 100 years now. We grow up, and it’s something, before we [have] money, we’re liking it because our parents liked it, their parents liked it, we ended up liking it, [so did] our friends. Now we’re older and we have this connection of more than 100 years worth of this history. It’s rare.

“NFTs didn’t exist, and then all of a sudden they existed. We’re older, we could say, does this make sense? I just think that maybe had you and I been around in 1909, we would have had a different perspective of the T206 [Honus Wagner card]. ‘This is stupid. You could go buy a pack of smokes and get this card. Honus Wagner was good, but who cares? There’s all these other players.’ Walter Johnson was in that set. But we weren’t there then. So we’re now just inheriting these stories that took place before we were alive that have helped shape our worldview. Whereas with NFTs, we got to make it ourselves…

Parker continued, offering a balanced take on the uncertainty of where NFTs will go and the most important element to track as the space evolves.

“I just think the world is changing at such a high pace, and people are skeptical of it because they want to say, ‘Okay, is this thing going to be around? Am I just going to buy it because it’s a get-rich-quick [scheme]? Or is there a chance that I’m going to really care about this in 5 to 10 years?’

“If you’re building a brand in the NFT space, I would be thinking about how do I make sure that this is something that people are still going to care about down the line, versus how do I make sure that people are going to just go buy and trade these really quickly, I make my money, I disappear, and all these people are now left with something worthless.”

There’s no pyramid scheme at play when the beliefs of the community are driven by passion. The value of collectibles, in whatever form, persists (and grows, through scarcity and demand) because a critical mass of people believe in the meaning, the stories, and the connection these otherwise worthless items convey.

There are billion-dollar industries fueled by otherwise worthless endeavors, held up by stories and ancillary businesses that develop around them, which further buttress and grow said industry. That emotion you feel screaming at your TV because you’re watching a group of men or women playing a child’s game, the pride you feel in having a home run ball hit by your favorite player, the intangible mystique and aura surrounding a bank receipt stained with blood from Bonnie and Clyde (a real item posted by a user on Mantel!) — that’s all real and why the community of collectors is so strong. Parker lives in it every day, endlessly astonished by the treasures that collectors share on Mantel. And it’s why he and his team are so excited to keep building and engaging, bringing these people together and surfacing and amplifying more stories. The hunt, he reminds me, is just as important as the treasure one’s hunting. We’re all looking for a good story to tell. It’s about the exhibition, sure, but it’s about all the stories that live within it.

“The stuff that really gets me excited is seeing the things that get the community excited, because that’s why I’m into it,” said Parker. “I love to go to a museum. I love to go to shops and see things that I’ve never seen before. I get to sit at my desk all day and just see this endless stream of content of people showing me their personal museums, the things that get them excited. I don’t have to leave my desk.

“It’s like Cooperstown, the Smithsonian, all these things that exist on my screen 24 hours a day because the community is so passionate about the things that they’re interested in.”

Photo source: Sports Collectors Daily

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