Blog Posts by Sports Content Team

This post considers different ways to attract fans to your sports games. It's part of our series on sports engagement.

Every year, fans across the country get swept up in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby or the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest.

Modern sports marketing seems to be all about “the fan experience.” Though we don't like to acknowledge the truth in it, that expression suggests that the game itself isn’t enough of a draw anymore.

And for many fans, it isn’t.

To draw a broader audience and extend the shelf life of your events – whether it’s a conference tournament, rec league all-star game or even a league championship – you may want to consider creating fan-friendly attractions.

This post talks about ways you can make your games a better experience for fans. It's part of our series on sports engagement.

Anyone who’s in the sports industry knows it to be true: as more and more fans become complacent with the “at-home experience,” ticket revenue is in jeopardy.

Organizations aren’t losing money because there’s a lack of interest in sports. In fact, watching sports is more popular than ever: the average football television rating, for example, is up 15 percent from five seasons ago.

Still, there’s been a steady decrease in live game attendance, as 4.5 percent fewer fans are attending today’s games than they did five years ago.

There's no denying it - the continued decline of the newspaper business means it’s increasingly difficult to get media attention for your teams.

Round after round of layoffs are decimating newsrooms—sports departments included.

So unless you’re heading up a high-profile Division I college athletic department, with dedicated writers reporting, tweeting and dissecting every move the school's teams makes, it can be frustrating to tell your stories.   

Publicity is a challenge. But not impossible. Here are six ways to get your teams in the news:

The sense of pride when your child contributes to a team win is beyond description.

So is the gut-wrenching experience when it’s his or her error that costs the team a game.

If your kid screws up, it’s not the end of the world. But what’s the best way to approach them when they’re, at best, struggling with athletic self-confidence or, at worst, shattered behind the bedroom door in a pool of tears?

Remember the NFL’s toe dip into live video streaming in November 2015?

Well, now they are ready to dive headfirst into streaming.

Scoreboard: High school football $500,000, air-conditioning 0

Is there any doubt that high school sports programs are moving toward becoming big businesses like their college brethren? Take a glance at the end zone of the Norcross (Ga.) High School football field.   

Nothing determines an athletic program’s long-term success quite like talent evaluation. Not even a Hall of Fame coach can squeeze winning out of a talentless roster.

That means if you have a talented player on your team, scouts are looking for them. But finding the skillset they seek is not always such an easy task. As a coach or AD, you have to help your players get recruited.

The four newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame — Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz — were inducted last weekend, capping off a four-day celebration in Cooperstown, N.Y. And, it was all captured live on MLB Network.

Everybody loves a winner.

It’s how the New York Yankees became THE franchise. How the Dallas Cowboys evolved into “America’s Team.”

And how the USA’s 5-2 victory over Japan to win the Women’s World Cup Final drew the more than 25 million viewers (the largest American TV audience in history for any soccer match — men’s or women’s.)