Experts agree: when the pandemic is finally over, fans will return to the stadiums as motivated as they were before. Even more motivated, especially at the beginning, if they feel the need to regain their lost leisure time. The experience will not have big changes, but it will develop tendencies that have already been growing before coronavirus. Therefore, stadiums will not radically change. They will only move forward in their transformation.
In a Ypulse study on consumer habits in the United States after COVID-19, the results showed that basketball was the favorite sport and most followed by Generation Z and millennials. Older generations preferred the NFL, American football. Meanwhile, in what is known as the world’s second basketball center, the NBA is the most followed competition in China. Its penetration into the new generations through streaming, social networks, and local blogs is successful. Still, it is also that, according to studies of physical habits, after walking and running, basketball has become the most popular exercise across the country.
Any sports stadium has direct and indirect income. The most obvious is the first: ticket sales, rental of facilities, operation of food and drink areas, club shop, tour, and any other income dedicated to entertainment or marketing. The second and no less critical are retransmission rights, commercial rights, and sponsorship. Both are equally important, regardless of the money they generate, because they depend directly on each other. And if the business model is not well designed to exploit them, it will be useless to build the most spectacular stadium in the world.
Initially, the sport’s leading source of revenue was the sale of tickets for live events. Thanks to the technology development, when the television revolution began, broadcasting rights exponentially increased the profitability of these shows. However, the product remained in the same unaltered way.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will not only be remembered for the coronavirus pandemic. They have also been the most expensive in history, the ones with the lowest audience, and the ones that have increased the rejection of new cities to host them. Although what was new were the arduous negotiations to postpone or cancel them, which have continued to develop until the last minute. A whole lesson for Sports Governance has given more relevance, if possible, to the profiles needed among experts in the decision-making.
The Thai kings gave their enemies white elephants to lead them to financial ruin, an expensive animal to maintain. An animal that also did not produce anything. This is where the expression we apply today to sports facilities comes from, venues that become obsolete after a high initial investment. Or, in the best of cases, to have a deficient level of activity.
Different sales and marketing strategies to engage fans and consolidate fans into “super fans” have appeared throughout history and only very recently have changed radically in format by going digital, but not in essence.
The revenue from broadcasting rights of European football clubs has continued to decline. And they continue to decline since millennials are now grown up fans. That generation and those that follow it no longer sit in front of the television. They demand content through their platforms and channels of choice and emphasise the relationship between players and influencers. Thus, we see the recent example of the Spanish twitcher Ibai Llanos, who visited Leo Messi, while the player refused to speak on traditional television sports programs.
The increasing salaries of athletes and a short sporting career have made sports players think more about where to invest their money while competing. By investing early in their careers they can lay the foundation for their future interests. Investing in tech or brands is much more exciting than buying second homes, cars or art for a rising number of players.
Since the pandemic started, sport has been through unprecedented changes. With fans banned from stadiums, sports clubs have flocked to social media to engage with their supporters. Teams received their support on screen, not in person. Fans missed the atmosphere and excitement of being in the pitch and social media played an ever-increasing role to keep fans engaged.