I want to tie this idea of fandom and identity into one extremely popular, well-known, and foundational marketing theory in sports, which is called “basking in reflected glory.”

Robert Cialdini coined that phrase. He did two experiments. He went to eight Division I college football schools, and he observed students on the Monday and Sunday after a Saturday football game.

When the team won, around 70% of the students on Sunday or Monday wore school paraphernalia. If the team lost, the inverse happened; very few people wore the school paraphernalia.

He did a second experiment where he called Arizona State students on the Sunday or Monday after an Arizona State football game, and he pretended that he was giving them a quiz to see if they remembered the facts.

But what happened was that every time a student talked about the team after the team had won on Saturday, they used the pronoun “we.”

“We had a great game. We really are going to go win the division. We’re going to the Rose Bowl.” We, we, we.

They didn’t play. They didn’t make a tackle. They didn’t score a touchdown. But they said “we” as if they were part of the team.

When the team lost, they used the pronoun “they.”

“They really need to get it together. They’re not doing what they ought to do.”

From these experiments, he concluded that people who have not participated in a winning activity desperately want to associate themselves with the winning team and with the winning activity. He called this “basking in reflected glory,” and he said, conversely, that they want to distance themselves and cut off reflected failure when the team loses. This goes to the heart of sports management education.

He also concluded that it wasn’t really about the fan supporting the team. It wasn’t about the fans saying, “I’m behind these guys.” It’s about the fans saying, “Look at me, like me. Like me because I associate with the winner!”

Basking in reflected glory is one of the most powerful aspects in global sports and almost as close to a sure thing in sports marketing as there is. If you’ve ever watched the Super Bowl or the World Series or the NBA Championship, what’s the first commercial they run right after the champion is crowned?

It’s a low-production value commercial. They’ve cut two of them, one for each team. They’re imploring you to dial this 1-800 number and buy all this crappy gear for the official winner like a championship hat, T-shirt, CD, and whatever other merchandise they have.

Why did they run that commercial? They run it because it works, because everybody can’t wait to buy that stuff to wear tomorrow and be like, “See who I’m with? I’m with the winner.”

There are sporting goods stores that open at midnight to sell the World Series-winning jersey, the Super Bowl-winning jersey. And people will line up around the block at midnight to buy it.

Some sporting goods stores, like for the Super Bowl, don’t know who’s going to win. So you know what they do? They make T-shirts for both teams. Well, only one team wins. What do they do with the other T-shirts? They throw them out.

It’s called the burn rate. They throw them out because they know they’ll make so much money just on the winners that they can afford to print two runs.

The problem is that, well, not every team wins. There’s only going to be one Super Bowl champion. There’s only going to be one conference champion or division champion. You can take advantage of the winning wherever you can get it. Remember that as you continue your online sports management education.

But really, there’s only a small percentage of those. How do you take advantage of this principle when your team isn’t the winner?

Have you ever suffered from Linsanity? What I’m talking about is a phenomenon surrounding a basketball player named Jeremy Lin. Jeremy Lin was at the end of the bench. Jeremy Lin hadn’t gotten in for three different teams.

But the Knicks had gotten players injured, and they had to put somebody in. They put in Jeremy Lin, and he went on this unbelievable heroic tear. What a performance: 16 games, he dominated; he was wonderful. He showed that not only did he belong in the league, but that he was an excellent player.

Now, I know for a fact that in that first week of Linsanity, Modell’s Sporting Goods, which is the New York-based leading sporting goods store merchandiser in New York, sold a crazy amount of Jeremy Lin merchandise items in the first week. It was equivalent to the Yankees winning the World Series and selling that kind of merchandise, or the Giants winning the Super Bowl. In the next two weeks, they sold more Jeremy Lin items than the Super Bowl-winning team and World Series-winning team two years combined.

Now who was buying the Jeremy Lin merchandise? Jeremy Lin is from Northern California. He’s 6 foot 2, played for Harvard.

What this meant to that community is that they went out in droves and started buying those jerseys, and it wasn’t just the Asian-Americans like Lin, but it was Asians, it was people in China, it was pretty much everyone. That’s how people bask in reflected glory.

Many of the things talked about in sports management education and online sports management education courses have to do with the elite athlete, the professional athlete, or the commercial side of sports.

Additionally, though, is the idea that technology has made sports management possible for more than just professional athletes. One side of this is wearable devices that impact the everyday person. Each and every one of us can have a fitness monitor that allows us to get the same feedback that an athlete might get. It’s an opportunity to impact wellness and health for every individual.

This is an area where global sports technology and innovation has really impacted the everyday athlete, not just the professional or elite athlete. This very much fits in with the quantified self-movement. We can measure our sleep behavior and our sleep patterns. We can measure our body temperature when we get up in the morning. We can measure our hydration levels throughout the day. We can measure what our workout is doing for us. How is it getting our heart rate up? What is it doing to other aspects of us?

As part of this, we can begin to create a whole system of measurements around our daily life. Now, that’s not for everyone. Some people may bristle at the thought of doing that. On the other hand, others love the idea of doing it. It’s a matter of whether your tastes are in line with this or not. The point is that the disruption we’ve seen through technology has allowed this to be possible.

One of the things we know about many of the English Premier League clubs, and this is true for a lot of the historic organizations across sports, is that there’s so much tradition, it’s tough to find a balance between the old and beloved, and the new and desired. One of the things that we know can be done, and done quite well, is to take parts of tradition, parts of history, and parts of values that are baked into these organizations, and the venues they play in and bring some modern amenities to them.

Sports Management and a Great Fan Experience

The idea is to build them in a thoughtful way. There are all sorts of examples of what we call great fan experiences in sport. One of the classic ones is Fenway Park in Boston, which was built and opened up in 1912. It’s a classic ballpark, and in a way, much of what was there at the beginning is still there. One of the interesting things that have happened over the past 10 to 15 years is that it’s been reconfigured. There’s a new ballpark where an old one still stands. It’s a real feat of sports business and engineering and city planning and so much else that goes into making these experiences happen.

Learning From the Past in Sports Management Education

At one point, there was this old ballpark, which ownership wanted to tear down to put a new one in its place. A better idea came around to keep the old one and build up all sorts of things in and around it. It’s a terrific example of keeping this old-time feel. These traditions that people cling to, and the values they hold dear, about sports but also bringing in modern amenities.

Some of the big changes that came to Fenway Park followed Larry Lucchino and the team he worked with when they came to Boston, after Baltimore. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, in the early 1990s, was the first new ballpark to be built with an old-style field. They transferred some of that knowledge at a stopover in San Diego, at what is now Petco Park. Then they brought that when new ownership took over in Boston and purchased the Red Sox.

Lessons for Students in Online Sports Management Education

What an opportunity to take an old ballpark that had all of this tradition, all of this history, and make it over. Even though there was a point at which it looked like it was time to just knock that one down and build a new one. Then came the idea to take what existed and innovate, to build some new things in and around it. One of the incredible things that happened is that it conserved what worked, and it got rid of what didn’t.

When you look at current-day sports, leagues and teams are facing new competition from streaming services that take niche sports directly to consumers. The World Surf League, karate, and other sports see OTT, or over the top, as the best way to reach out to fans and build their sport. The average fan of sporting events only has so much time that they can dedicate to them.

Even minor sporting events and leagues that are distributed over the top are cutting into the viewership pie. And they’re cutting it into many more pieces. When a sport brand or league goes OTT, it has many advantages, particularly for upstart leagues and sports: very low cost of production, low cost of distribution, and great data capturing that they get back from their viewers and fans. Additionally, fans can also get to interact with said brand.

This means that even if fans are sitting at home in front of a TV, they might prefer to watch it streamed. We’re also beginning to see the combination of live streaming with social media. Young fans, especially Generation Z, want to experience games in multiple ways, viewing a broadcast live from wherever they are and with their communities.

This means that they want to combine live streaming with social media platforms, where they can analyze, celebrate, or even commiserate with like-minded or rival fans. One interesting player in this OTT space is Endeavor. It bought sporting leagues, like UFC and PBR (Professional Bull-Riding), to build an OTT network. Endeavor also bought NeuLion, which was one of the OTT providers to many other sport properties.

Another thing happening is that to capitalize on the exciting fourth quarter of NBA games, and also possibly to capitalize on the legalization of sport betting in many states, the NBA has taken to selling the fourth quarter of games over the internet. These games will be sold at a discount to the NBA League Pass price of a full game, but it will also give fans a chance to tune in to the key finishes of games.

By exploring online sports management education, you’ll learn more about niche, major, and global sports, as well as lessons regarding careers in sports management and recent trends in the industry. Why not jump on the valuable opportunity to start your sports management education online right now?

Michael Shear informs us that there are a lot of data points fans hit when they attend a game. They are hitting data points when they use their mobile devices to buy tickets, enter the building or come in through a particular gate. Data points also track where the crowd goes once the game starts, whether they stay in their seats during halftime or leave, if they visit the concession stand and what their food and beverage choices are. This information is all pertinent.

He tells us that one of the first questions he was asked when he started was how many people turned left when they came into the main entrance of the building. This seemed like an off-the-wall question until he realized that Budweiser asked it. They were asking because they had signage to the left of the main bar and wanted to know how many impressions they were getting right out of the gate.

The way that he figured out the answer to that question was by looking at the ticket scans. Out of all the people who had their tickets scanned at the main entrance, he could deduce how many of them went to the concession stands on the left-hand side. From there, he figured out the percentage.

Sports Management Improves With Technology

Years later, after gaining more advanced Wi-Fi systems and mobile ticketing devices, he and his colleagues were able to verify that the initial hypotheses and percentages they came up with were correct. This showed that things were only becoming more impactful. As we enter more of the mobile space, teams are now relying on these things. They include mobile ticketing, mobile transactions, cashless arenas and other items of that nature.

We’re talking about broader data sets and how to manage them. How are teams going to capitalize on that, whether it’s to drive ticket sales or sponsorship sales? These data sets are only getting more extensive and more complicated to manage. They continue to be a challenge because teams need to focus on the fan experience. In some instances, a data warehouse would be beneficial.

What separates going to a live event or game from watching it in the comfort of your own home? This is the challenge that teams have to figure out. The data helps to leverage the personalization aspect and help put fans in seats.

Michael Shear says that when he first started this job, he thinks it was right at the beginning of the trend of leveraging data and analytics in sports. For example, there weren’t many teams that even had an analytic team or an analysis department. He and his associates more or less acted as the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) for the team.

Some teams were just using their ticketing system as a CRM platform, so they didn’t really know that much about their buyers. They weren’t aware of who the ticket holder’s favorite players were or what size shirt they wore. These details can come into play as marketing tactics. Before mobile ticketing, it wasn’t possible to accurately know the fans. You could know who purchased the hard ticket, but you couldn’t know who they were bringing with them.

The Future of Global Sports Relies on CRM

Now, things are definitely more about the big data aspects. The advent of mobile technology has made a major difference. Teams now have entire departments devoted to analytics and business strategy. For example, the CRM of a sports team usually has to keep track of their fans. So, a fan buys a mobile ticket, and that sale goes into the CRM platform, which allows you to track that ticket’s behavior. For instance, you can follow what the fans are buying and what they like to buy, where they live, their geography, their demographics, if they’re married, if they have kids and things of that nature. This is a way for the service team to keep that line of communication open and try to either upscale the fan or personalize their experience.

There are so many parts of the sports ecosystem. We tend to think that it starts out with teams or players and fans. But it’s so much more. Sports touches so many different parts of our world. It touches business. It touches government. It touches the nonprofit sector.

Almost everywhere that you turn, there’s probably something that, in some way or another, is connected to sports and sports management. Maybe the drink that you have by your side right now is a company that sponsors something in sports, or sports sponsors something that the company is doing. Or, maybe it’s both.

This really speaks to where global sports is at today in our world. Sports is a reflection of society, and society is a reflection of sports. It’s really something that, in today’s world, in today’s day and age, the relationships of companies, of organizations, and institutions, really connect around sports. Sports, increasingly, is a way to develop all of those.

This is information provided in the sports management education course.

In sponsorship, an activation is what really brings that sponsorship to life. The sponsoring company and sports organization have come to an agreement. They’ve signed a contract, but then beyond that contract, there are these activities that we call activations. And that’s where the sports property and the sponsor will work together. They say, ‘OK, what can we do creatively to make our consumers aware that this sponsorship exists but also potentially to give our fans and our consumers a sample of the sponsor’s product or the sponsor’s service?

Some examples of that would be signage featuring a Coca-Cola logo that goes all around the entire stadium. Other examples might include names that come up on a board or ‘this is the Halftime show brought to you by AT&T.’ Some of the more intricate activations include Taco Bell’s “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion or when Lucas Oil Stadium had an in-arena store. Those are all examples of activations, and now that you understand that, take a look around the Barclays center and ask, ‘where are there opportunities to activate sponsorships?’ So if you had a sponsor, what would you do in this particular arena to activate it?

New Sports Management Promotional Opportunities

What makes Barclays Center a little bit more unique than any other arena here in the tri-state area is being in literally the center of Brooklyn. Brooklyn did not have a world-class global sports venue of that spectrum or of that size until five years ago when Barclays Center moved. We pick up markets similar to Madison Square Garden as well as a very new kind of Brooklyn market. So besides the shape, which is obviously a unique factor of Barclays Center, I think the location is important from a marketing perspective. From my understanding, the Oculus is supposed to be immediately eye-captivating. So you walk in, and you kind of feel like you’re in a big space even though you’re outdoors. And the Oculus within the circle is just a large LCD television displaying different videos and marketing pieces 24 hours a day, whether it’s the Nets or upcoming concerts. So, even if people are in the nearby mall, they still can glance over and see what’s coming up at Barclays Center.

Sports Management Education and Next Generation Mobile Marketing

An activation is basically interactive marketing. A customer feels like they’re putting their hands on the brand a little bit. And so we have a number of partners, especially here in spirit partners, where a brand will put their name on the label of a bar. Most of our partnerships are on contract years, and as a contract year ends, we might rotate a new partner in. Most of our in-arena activation is constantly full because of a very high demand for the Brooklyn market. A lot of brands love associating themselves with Barclays Center so they can get their name out there. The LED lighting that we have at the arena-not just the Jumbotron, but all the LED lighting around the arena-is just additional marketing collateral. And for our brands, it’s another way for them to associate themselves with Barclays Center. I know a lot of our health partners put their ads on those LCD screens. It’s just a way to highlight a deal they have going on or get their name out there.

Measuring impressions is probably one of the most exciting new data studies I think arenas are doing. There’s so much constantly growing and changing with that. The most obvious is scan, so we know exactly how many people come into the arena. So if it’s something big like the center Jumbotron, we’ll do count scans. Chances are everyone that entered the arena saw the Jumbotron, but if we’re looking at an LED light on the suite level, then we’re only looking at specific suite buyers or specific suite scans. We also have different activations that are just temporary. American Express has their own little box on our concourse, and we’ll have video games and interactive material in that box, and we can actually measure how many people walk in and out. I know a number of arenas are doing other very interesting things with impressions. A lot of people have sensors on the ground so they can feel how hard people step if they’re getting really excited and measure impressions that way. It’s getting very interesting.

Everyone’s phone has a Mac address that’s unique to that cell phone. So, when someone uses their app, it allows us to provide them with a better experience. We can see the concession stands they visit more frequently. We can gauge sentiment off social media pages, and we can also remarket to them very specifically based on what they like. Because BSE is a brick franchise, we have a number of arenas and venues. If they’re simply just a Nets fan, we’ll only market Nets. If they’re just an Islanders fan that only goes to games in Nassau Coliseum, we’ll only market that material. Having Mac IDs and cell phone data makes that a lot easier than just through email. So what we’re doing with the Mac ID is really an immediate remarketing campaign. If you like something on Facebook that’s Nets Team specific, we will then promote a Nets package to you. So it’s a very, very targeted program that uses that cell phone data.

Wearable devices have become such a valuable tool for sports teams. Not only does it help us evaluate talent, but it can also help us develop and coach talent because it provides feedback to the athlete. By providing feedback to the athlete, it allows us to monitor his or her actions on a real-time basis. Wearable devices have become a valuable tool for global sports organizations and athletes, as well as sports management. Wearable devices can monitor athletes’ fitness and wellness. It can also monitor capability in different athletic movements.

It not only can be used to evaluate athletes, but it can also be used to develop, train, and provide real-time feedback. This is really important because athletes are often looking to succeed at the highest level and particularly elite athletes. Sports management education explains the evolving technology. It states that instead of just being used in an evaluative sense, we’re allowing wearables now to be employed as coaching devices.

How do teams make money? They make money now in almost any way you could imagine, as long as it touches on something related to sports. What does that mean? It means that in the past, we looked at team revenues in terms of ticket sales, then in terms of merchandise, and some of the other ways that we think about going to the game.

Sports Management Education Examines Added Revenue Streams

But over time, certainly, over the past 50 years, we’ve seen revenue come in major numbers, in billions of dollars through television rights. Now we increasingly see it coming through all the ways we get to watch our games. As if that’s not enough, enter sports betting and all sorts of things online, including E-sports.

Television Revenue in Sports Management

Television revenue for the past 30 or so years has been a major driver of revenue for sports clubs and franchises anywhere in the world. Now what we’re starting to see, of course, is that it’s not just about watching them on television. We also watch on a second screen, which is kind of interesting, because it’s now for many people become the first screen.

Global Sports Access

Anywhere and anyway people are accessing sports, whether it’s a game, a behind the scenes video, or a little piece of the action that you didn’t even know existed, all of that is worth many billions of dollars to teams and the players who play on those teams, plus the players we watch in individual sports, like golf or tennis.

The relationship between athletes and the media has changed significantly. Nowadays, athletes don’t necessarily need to rely on the news media to share their stories, successes, or activities. In addition to social media, sports organizations and sports management have the ability to share their own news now. In the past, they were reliant on traditional media, television stations, and newspapers for these things.

Social Media Is the Future of Global Sports

In some ways, social media has given athletes more power of their own. This freedom has empowered them to tell their stories. But, in another sense, this has made things more difficult for them because they have to stay on top of social media all the time. They have to constantly check on what people are saying and posting. As a result, we almost see the media reporting on what happens on social media now, rather than, just covering breaking news stories the way they used to.