Belong Blog

There’s nothing that can top the stadium experience. While there are perks with the home experience; better camera angles, softer seats, free food, as well as the potential for augmented/virtual reality and multi-platform, multimedia experiences; nothing tops the roar of the crowd and the collective energy of the fans. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t pressure on stadiums to deliver an experience that the living room or pub won’t ever match. It needs to be about more than just atmosphere and loud chanting; there needs to be something magical about their in-person viewing. Thankfully, fans know what they want from their stadium experience, and clubs that can deliver can get the ultimate reward; loyal and engaged fans.

It’s been a long time coming, but finally, sports are back. It’s being played in empty stadiums, arenas and bubbles, but we can cheer on our teams again.

For a while there, it felt like watching live sports was a foregone conclusion. Sports fans were missing their go-to form of entertainment, and frankly, the uncertainty of saving, starting, or concluding a 2020 season was causing a fair bit of anxiety. On the other side, leagues and programmers were also feeling the pressure to feed the appetites of fans that need to feel connected to their teams and athletes. While the first quarter of this year seemed like the end of the world, it instead offered brands the perfect opportunity to forge deeper relationships with their fans, by reminding them that there’s more to sports than what you see on the field.

First thing's first: what makes a casual fan different from a hardcore fan? A casual fan is someone who cares about the sport and watches it but isn't too invested. They may tune in to the game once per week, or maybe once every few weeks when there's a big game, and other than that, football isn't a big part of their life. The casual fan probably (but not certainly) has a favorite team they root for, but it's a very superficial kind of support. They're unlikely to attend games in a stadium, and they might buy a jersey… maybe.

In-Game Data and Analytics

Data and analytics have been growing at an accelerating pace in sports. Ever since the notorious 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics, largely fuelled by the data-driven roster building and strategizing, sports franchises have been trying to implement their own “Moneyball” strategy to their own team and their own sport.