There is a wide range of technologies that have come on the global sports scene in recent years that have had a significant impact on the ability to capture data used in sports management. Understanding how new technology continues to shape and change sports management is integral to sports management education and online sports management education.

One example would be wearable technology that athletes wear on their uniforms or on their bodies while they’re on the field to play. This would oftentimes be in a practice setting, but occasionally some of the leagues will allow it in an in-game setting as well. This device monitors biometric data information, such as health and fitness data and even fatigue. These are really important attributes when you’re trying to create a successful and team on the playing field.

Some of the other data that we’re beginning to use are things like eye-tracking data of fans sitting in an arena or a stadium. In doing so, we’re able to see where their eyes go over the course of the game. This means that we can tell sponsors who are advertising on either the large video screen, the outfield wall, or the sidelines how many eyeballs are on their signage. This is a way for us to value that and also give them a return on investment calculation for their sponsorship package, which includes signage.

Even concerning sports, you’ll hear the terms virtual reality, or VR, and augmented reality, AR, bandied about a bit. And just to clearly define the distinction between the two, augmented reality is taking something such as what an athlete’s performance is-and superimposing it on the screen, on the telecast that you’re getting, or the internet feed that you’re getting, and showing you while the game is happening live. So you’re still watching the game in two dimensions, but you’re getting all sorts of information that you didn’t use to have concerning what’s going on during the game.

Virtual reality is often delivered via headsets and will give you a three-dimensional experience as if you’re sitting in the arena. One of the exciting things about VR is the capability to sell a courtside center court seat to a game to someone who lives 6,000 miles away on the other side of the globe. It could happen with a virtual reality headset and the right camera set up so that that season ticket to a Golden State Warrior game or an LA Laker game can be sold to someone in Shanghai, China, or Berlin, where they could immerse themselves in the game by sitting in their living room, a restaurant, etc.

Perhaps someday this will be taught in online sports management education. How fascinating is it to imagine someone sitting in Berlin or Shanghai watching an LA Lakers game as if they’re sitting courtside? That’s what virtual reality can do. You’ll often hear the phrase MR, or mixed reality, which is taking a lot of the data and information we’ve been talking about, but overlaying it onto the field and players.

One of the ways in which the sports industry and sports management have changed and will continue to change has to do with integration, this almost perfect storm, of three factors.

The first is new technology for data-capture devices. Now we can capture data in so many different ways: wearable technology, high-speed cameras, radar that can do much more than it could ever do before. That is one factor.

The second factor is high-speed data processing technology. We’ve seen computers get faster and faster year after year. We’ve seen microchips get smaller. Therefore, processing power has dramatically increased compared to what it was even 5 or 10 years ago.

The third piece is inexpensive cloud data storage. The fact that we can capture more data, that we can store this data very inexpensively in the cloud, and that we can process this data quickly has not only led to an increase in sports data and analytics, but it’s also been a major factor in the technology and innovation aspects of global sports.

Online Sports Management Education

While pursuing a sports management education, you’ll receive extensive training related to this topic. Advances with data and technology have changed the game, so to speak, because they’ve changed almost every way in which we manage, promote, value and interact with the sports people love.

The New York Yankees logo is a classic example of sports licensing done right. It’s interesting. If you go all around New York City, there’s pretty good chance you’ll find a Yankees hat. The same thing is also true if you go to other places around the United States and even to some of the places around the world that observe global sports.

That logo, the interlocking NY, seems to be found everywhere, in big cities and in some of the farthest reaches. George Steinbrenner bought the ballclub for less than $10 million in the early 1970s, and it’s now worth, depending on whose numbers you’re looking at, about $4 billion. One of the things that he recognized was the power of the New York Yankees logo.

It was at a time where nobody was much thinking about taking that logo and putting it on all sorts of merchandise, promotions, and in as many places as possible in the right way, in the right context. Steinbrenner was able to not just put it out to everywhere, but put it out everywhere in the right way, at the right time, and with the right people. It’s a great example of sports management. Studying what he was able to do with that licensing is a key lesson to understand in sports management education and online sports management education.

One of the interesting areas of sports analytics is dynamic ticket pricing. Online sports management education explains this as a way that sales and marketing organizations within the front office of a professional sports team can impact revenues by pricing tickets dynamically. You may ask, “Well, what does that mean?” If you think back years ago, each ticket would have a static price. If the seat was in the 20th row at center ice or center court, or the middle of the football field, the 50-yard line, it essentially had one price for all games.

Today in many global sports, tickets are priced dynamically because we acknowledge that there’s different levels of demand based on the day of the week of the game. We also acknowledge the different levels based on the time of day that the game is being played and the opponent, including the star players that are coming in from the opposing teams. We even acknowledge the different levels if it’s an outdoor game based on the weather and the weather conditions.

It’s really important that we recognize that certain tickets might be worth two or three times as much under favorable conditions. If the Boston Red Sox are coming to play the Kansas City Royals and they’re playing on a Sunday afternoon in July, that ticket is going to be worth a lot more than if the Miami Marlins are coming in to play the Kansas City Royals on a Tuesday night in April. Those are the kinds of things that we can now capture.

Sports management education teaches us that there are algorithms and methods through data analysis. Looking at history and past history sales as well as ticket sales and pricing, we can assess what the relative demand is going to be for each of those games. We have mechanisms much like the stock exchange does so that we can price those tickets at a variable level. Sometimes teams will impose certain rules so that the tickets don’t float freely, but nonetheless they will vary. They’ll vary according to whatever parameters the team wants to permit them to vary based on the demand.

There are really two things happening here in global sports. One is we’re talking about how people consume sports. The sports ecosystem is really all oriented toward how people consume sports. And some of it is “live” and “in person” in a traditional way: that’s going to the stadium, or in some ways, going to a bar or a restaurant, and hanging out with other people. Some of it is consuming it just on your own and much closer to home.

The future of the esports ecosystem really is in, let’s use a buzzword, connectivity — meaning that all the things that are out there that make up this sports ecosystem, whether it’s live at a venue, whether it’s on the way to the venue, if it’s in your home, wherever it is that you are consuming sports — that’s where the future of this ecosystem is.

It’s no longer just about being in one place. It’s about being in one place and having access to everything everywhere.

Online Sports Management Education

During your sports management education studies, you need to focus on connectivity whenever possible. It’s important because the sports organization that you work for some day will rely on the sports ecosystem to thrive.

Why is there a sports business program? Why can’t you just get a business degree or get an MBA and go into sports business? Why should there be a special sports business program? There better be a good answer for that question or else there shouldn’t be any sports management programs. And the way I teach sports management is to first understand the difference between sports and sports business.

The question you must answer is, “What is sports?” Why is this business different from any other business? Why won’t they pack a stadium of 50,000 people to watch two guys close an insurance deal? Why do people make irrational, disproportionate expenditures on sports, on their teams, on their sneakers, on Muscle Milk, on all these kinds of things? What is it about sports that requires a whole separate program because it’s a different thing?

And I will tell you. It’s because it is a different thing. Sports has specific properties. It’s a cultural form that didn’t start out as a business, but it’s become a whole ecosystem of business because of the cultural form. It’s not just sales, it’s not just marketing. It’s stemming from something that is intrinsically human.

Every one of us, believe it or not, by virtue of being here as this species of mammal, actually likes sports in a way that’s almost critical to our survival. That’s why we have a sports management program. If you think about it that way, you will be able to be successful at sports business. You won’t just be a person who thinks about business without understanding the underlying thing.

Fantasy sports have become a fascinating element of the global sports system, and it’s a big sports management business in and of itself. Interestingly, athletes are keenly aware that they are on different fantasy teams all over. In addition, some athletes play in fantasy sports leagues of their own. It’s sometimes with a league of the sport that they professionally play, and sometimes it’s with a league of a different sport. It’s an exciting dynamic for professional football players to know that when they score a touchdown, they are doing something for thousands of people worldwide who have them as a player on their fantasy team. These players are contributing to the fantasy participants all over. I’m not sure how much of an impact it has on people, but it is something that athletes are aware of. If you’d like to learn more about this, consider pursuing an online sports management education.

Vince Gennaro says that in the Columbia masters in sports management program they have “a very productive partnership” with FC Bayern Munich, where they’re able to take many of the broader lessons of the European sport-club model into the classroom and help the students really understand and appreciate all of the nuances of a global sports enterprise.

One of the things that Vince found interesting is in conversations with the executive board members, Rudolf Vidal, and others there’s been “a focus on bringing authenticity to the United States.” So it’s not just that they wanted to open up an office and do everything “the American way.” While there’s a level of adaptation and assimilation, Vince senses that FC Bayern Munich feels that it’s very important to have an authentic relationship back to the mothership, if you will, back in Munich.

Benno Ruwe totally agrees. He thinks that when you are going to a foreign market or when you want to engage people you are engaging people when you are telling your own story, when you are talking about your own heritage and not trying to be like any other franchise, or club, or any other brand in the United States, or just trying to replicate or duplicate whatever others are doing.

FC Bayern has got a unique story to tell. And it is a story that Ruwe feels is relevant to a lot of people in the United States and anywhere around the globe. But in order to get people to listen to you, or get them interested in your brand or what you’re doing, you have to talk to them in a language or in those little nuances so that they really understand what it is all about.

FC Bayern was founded in 1900, primarily as a football club and as a soccer club. But over time, they added a basketball team, they added a chess team, and they had a table tennis team. They had at the time a gymnastics team that they don’t have anymore, unfortunately. They have a handball team. So they’ve got a lot of different sport options that are beneficial to the community.

The nonprofit organization of the club was providing those sports to the community in and around Munich and really being active there. And soccer and football were always and are still the biggest parts of it, and they are the most important department that is being offered at FC Bayern Munich.

Ruew points out that Bayern’s story is also different from most United States franchises, which focus on one sport. A lot of players that won the World Cup in 2014 for Germany went through the Youth Academy–seven in fact–and that curriculum, that philosophy, and how they are teaching the kids at the headquarters in Germany how to play football is still present.

“This is a unique story that we want to bring to the United States. And we are trying to do it in an authentic way but still with a little adaptation to the local market. And this is what we are doing here in the United States,” explains Ruwe, “but this is also something that we are going to do in Shanghai and China, the other focus market.”

Gennaro says that when they first opened the Bayern Munich office in the US in 2014 they realized that the American market, or the American consumer, is engaging on digital media in a different way than expected and are used to in Germany and Europe. Twitter is a much bigger communication tool in the United States than it is in Germany. When they wanted to reach out to fans and fan groups in the United States, they realized that it’s not possible just to talk to them on Facebook or via a newsletter. That is not really where the engagement and the conversation are. It is really on Twitter, or nowadays, on Snapchat, and all those new social-media platforms that are popping up.

And so FC Bayern actually cut off their Facebook page from the global page and are now running their own autonomous Facebook page from the U.S. They’ve got a media department in the U.S. that is taking care of the American social media. And they also set up their own U.S. Twitter account for FC Bayern Munich and are now able to talk to fans all across the United States with this local voice in their own time zones, and picking up trends that are on social media–not only from the sports management side but also from pop culture–and really trying to engage in a conversation that is even broader than just FC Bayern Munich and sports but always referring back to FC Bayern Munich or linking FC Bayern Munich memes and themes to those trending topics.

The United States consumers expect a much more engaged approach on digital media than they do in Germany. In Germany or in Europe, it’s more like FC Bayern is reporting about FC Bayern Munich. And in the U.S., they are talking with their fans about FC Bayern Munich, and responding to tweets, and responding to Facebook posts, and really trying to get a very engaged community in the U.S. And, Gennaro states, that really is “the biggest difference when we are talking about Germany and the United States when it comes to our digital platforms.”

In the U.S., Bayern Munich still growing, and it’s getting bigger and bigger and more challenging to keep up with the conversations. But they have got a very capable team that is taking care of all of this. And it’s fun to see the interaction and the communication between the team and the fans out there. And they appreciate it.

They’ve even adapted their website in the U.S. and the app to be a U.S.-specific site. So it’s not simply the English translation of the German site. It’s specifically targeted at the U.S. market. And that’s another element of the customization that’s been acknowledged, retaining that authenticity.

Ruwe adds, “We saw a lot of even German teams picking up at this style of communication on Twitter, on social media, and a lot of fans really love it and are now following. Even if they’re from Germany, they’re more following our U.S. Twitter account than they are following the German ones, which makes us proud, obviously. But it also shows that opening the office was not only a one-way street, so it’s not only that FC Bayern is bringing something to the U.S. market, but it’s also bringing something back to the organization in Germany.” Ruwe continued to state that they are learning from the sports landscape here in the United States and from the sports audience in the United States and taking that back with us to the headquarters and discussing if it is adapted for the global audience as well.

And it’s necessary to speak in a U.S. voice on all your platforms, not only on Facebook and Twitter but also on the website, and use the platform website also to introduce FC Bayern to a not-so-knowledgeable audience. It should be kept that way. So there is also integrated information about the basketball team on it, on the women’s team, and created stories about the fan clubs in the United States.

There is actually a very engaged fanclub base in the United States, which is in constant exchange with FC Bayern. And they wanted to give them a platform where they were telling their stories, when they were founded, where they meet each other on the weekend to watch FC Bayern games. FC buying wasn’t always broadcast on major TV stations like it is right now on Fox Sports. It used to be on Gold TV or hidden on other smaller networks, and people really had to search for it, or even gather in bars and watch it.

So an entire culture really got together. And they wanted to give the fans a platform because they were promoting the FC Bayern brand long before they themselves were there. That is really what FC Bayern is doing with the website primarily nowadays. It was necessary to set up a U.S. website because the German content was not always relevant to their global audience, so this experiment in global branding and online sports management education has served them very well.

Innovation in global sports facilities happens in a number of ways. According to online sports management education, one of the ways that I think is really interesting is this concept of public-private partnerships. The cost of building sports facilities is enormous these days. We’re seeing arenas pushed between $500, $700, and even $800 million to build a first-class arena, and football stadiums in the NFL, over a billion and a half dollars. A more recent one in Las Vegas has been quoted as being $1.4 million.

The communities are participating. You might say sports and their respective sports management has got so much money, why do communities need to invest? The answer is that they are community assets and those community assets lend themselves to being public private partnerships. They’re not just used for sports, they’re used for meeting places. They’re almost like their 24-hour convention centers and this is a way that gets both the community, the developers, and the teams invested in an asset, which is transformative.