Strategies to Reimagine the Stadium Experience

Abstract

Despite the challenges presented by seemingly limitless sports and entertainment options, increasing ticket cost, and transportation issues, Shields and Rein argue that the in-stadium sports experience is important and worth fighting for. To persuade fans to spend their time and money attending sporting events, they contend that sports organizations will need to rethink their core proposition. They offer four strategies to solve the problem of fan attendance in the future: First, introducing scarcity. Second, eventizing the sports calendar. The third and fourth strategies, making the stadium experience frictionless and utilizing satellite stadiums, respectively, will require integrating metaverse-related technologies including augmented reality and virtual reality. Embracing these strategies may not be easy, but they will be essential to preserving and reinvigorating stadium attendance going forward.