Team owners are asking their business operations executives where new revenue will be coming from beyond traditional sources such as gate attendance, sponsorship, and media rights.
They have no easy answers.
The huge payday of legalized betting in pro sports is certainly on the way, but not as soon as the chief financial officers would like.
Will teams and leagues allow corporate names on their uniforms? Yes, and the NBA is already collectively banking a reported $150m dollars on their patchwork of patches on uniforms throughout the league. Logos on NFL training camp and practice gear are also in place, as they also are on MLB uniforms and batting helmets when playing overseas. In fact, full logomania is likely right around the corner.
But the next significant new revenue source for professional sports could be Digital Immersive Sports Marketing (DISM).
Digi what?
Teams and event promoters now have the ability to package significant pieces of content inventory and experiential benefits into digitally immersive revenue platforms.
There are tens of millions of fans devoted to 147 teams (and seven more to come) that make up North America’s five professional leagues who will never set foot in their favorite team’s home venue.
Sports fans want more and more behind-the-curtain content and control over their game-watching experience, and the world of digital delivery is assisting in the continued growth of both the major, established leagues, as well as a cadre of upstart new players such as Big3 Basketball, XFL, Pacific Pro Football, the Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL), the Premier Lacrosse League, and the Historic Basketball League (HBL).
Think of all these leagues and events as beta-testing laboratories for DISM.
These enhancements in technological interactivity and immersion into sports venues around the world give fans the ability to be at the game without necessarily being at the game. Technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence help create the sense of attending a game without actually being there or spending thousands of dollars on tickets, travel and lodging.
And by creating a unique proprietary service and product offering through one-stop-shopping for fans, teams and leagues will be able to create a new funds that can help break the stagnating revenue trend in pro sports.
As an example, the FCFL empowers fan engagement during the ramp-up to games and the actual in-game plays. Via an interactive video overlay on Twitch or in the FCFL mobile app, fans will call all of the plays from scrimmage in real time for the eight teams in the new league. The outcome of each fan vote will be relayed to the quarterback and executed on the field.
The FCFL is also putting fans in the general manager’s role for the first time in sports, allowing them to determine each team’s name, logo, coach, and the players that make the roster via a fan-run draft. It’s essentially a video game brought to life.
Other leagues, teams and promoters are hard at work creating similar DISM opportunities to put their fans into the games. And ticketing plays a key role in this conversion. The day of the little piece of cardboard known as the ticket is slowly disappearing. The modern LPC is a little piece of carbon which helps run digital devices all over the globe.
A strong set of DISM products will enable teams to capture new fans, allowing for the collection and analysis of their prized demographic information, and provide a quantum leap in activating the virtual fan into a new revenue producer.