• Loading stock data...
Monday, July 14, 2025

How The Pandemic Will Shape Sports Fans

  • Ticket sales leads acquired from e-commerce channels have seen 147.6% growth since the pandemic hit.
  • Sports teams must make it easy for fans to buy and level up experiences.
Feb 28, 2020; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; A Vegas Golden Knights fan bats the glass during the third period of a game between the Golden Knights and the Buffalo Sabres at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the sports industry on its head and the changes are just getting started. Recent events will cause an acceleration of many trends and behaviors that were already occurring, but at levels now that were not previously expected until 2025. 

Here’s what sports marketers, ticket sales representatives, and other sports industry professionals should expect from fans as a result of the pandemic.

The Pandemic Will Cause Further Dispersion in Fan Engagement 

It will be more important than ever to have the ability to understand how fans are interacting with your brand. Some fans will have more pent-up demand to see their favorite teams live while some will be less comfortable than ever in venues or will initially prefer to stay home and consume content. But who’s who and how will those feelings change over time? Having a single customer view that is accessible to everyone in an organization will be a requirement, not a luxury anymore. Teams must be able to understand, identify, and personalize outreaches for these fans in order to keep them and are beginning to invest in new tools that help them better activate on these insights.

Fans Will Become More Reliant On and Active in Digital Channels, At Least in the Short Term

Web traffic, e-commerce, and other digital channels have seen huge growth since March. Leads acquired from e-commerce channels have seen 147.6% growth since the pandemic hit. Even when live events return, these digital engagement points will remain essential to understanding how best to connect with fans. Teams who excel will use digital touch points to better focus their creative activations within the right channels in order to retain and grow revenues. This doesn’t mean traditional ticket sales methods will go away, but in order to maximize revenues, teams will need to have a strong command of their digital ecosystems. 

Using a customer data platform to combine online and offline sources to enhance the knowledge of a fan’s likeliness to engage in different types of content based on their historical interactions will make for a stronger digital engagement strategy.

There Will Be a Flight to Value and Quality

The pandemic is having a major economic impact on the spending habits of both fans and sponsors which means we’ll see fans be more selective about how and where they invest their discretionary dollars. As a result, sports teams must make it easy for fans to buy and level up experiences so that they are considered impactful and worthwhile.

When fans inevitably return to venues, teams will immensely benefit from using technology that allows them to focus on reaching out to prospective ticket buyers in the channels where they’re more likely to be receptive to the sales message. For sales teams, this means becoming more efficient at identifying who is best to contact, for what product, and when. StellarAlgo’s Lead Recommender & Customer Lifecycle functions help sales teams with these prioritization efforts by using highly accurate, behavior-based predictive modeling. For marketing and analytics teams, it will be more important than ever to be able to accurately attribute ROI to campaigns and other top of the funnel efforts. StellarAlgo’s Cohort builder and Cohort Analyzer will become increasingly essential tools as smart marketers look for no-code fan segmentation and attribution capabilities.

In-Venue Fan Expectations Will Force a Shift in Budgets and Create Opportunities

As mentioned previously, fans’ comfort levels in returning to sports venues varies. In a recent FOS Newsletter poll, 67% of respondents would not be comfortable going to an NFL preseason game in August. This poses a risk to teams who will need to invest in additional health and safety measures in order to safely operate events and comply with local legislation. Reduced capacity events are a likely reality for the time being but done right, new venue will actually unlock additional fan insights. Many of these opportunities reside with cashless and touchless systems which can unlock data points that have historically been challenging for properties to collect and incorporate into fan data ecosystems.

These additional in-venue data points will become extremely important since historical behavioral data will be less valuable than ever, and teams will need to relearn what makes their fans tick.

It’s apparent that understanding and nurturing fans will become even more essential in the post-pandemic world. The fan-team relationship is changing, and teams need to be ready to win back, nurture and grow lifelong fans. For more information on how StellarAlgo can help, visit www.stellaralgo.com.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Tigers Have MLB’s Best Record, Second-Largest Attendance Jump

Detroit’s home attendance surges as it becomes MLB’s best team.
August 31, 2024; Columbus, Ohio, USA; The Goodyear blimp flies over Ohio Stadium during the first half of Saturday’s NCAA Division I football game between the Akron Zips and the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Why the Goodyear Blimp Is at Every Major Sports Event

The airship wasn’t built to cover sports. Now it’s a regular presence.

Caitlin Clark Injury Is Speed Bump Early in WNBA Season

Clark will miss at least four games based on the timeline.
Sponsored

Hottest Matchups Following NFL Schedule Release

The NFL released the 2025 regular-season schedule, and anticipation is already building in the ticket marketplace with four months to go.

Featured Today

May 31, 2025; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Sydney McLaughin-Levrone (USA) reacts before the women's 100m hurdles during the Grand Slam Track Philadelphia at Franklin Field
exclusive

Track’s New Money Is Running Into Old Problems

The sport’s big-money era has hit some speed bumps in 2025.
Bobbleheads are seen at Vintage Indy Sports, Tuesday, April 29, 2025 in Speedway. The local sports memorabilia store opened recently.
July 12, 2025

Baseball’s Bobbleheads Are the Center of the Collectibles Universe

Baseball’s most important keepsake drives long lines—and big business.
Rimouski, QC - JUNE 1: Final Game of the 2025 Memorial Cup between the Medicine Hats Tigers and the London Knights on June 1, 2025, at the Colisée Financière Sun Life in Rimouski, Qc.
July 11, 2025

CHL Is Facing a ‘Pandora’s Box’ of Questions Amid NCAA Talent Departure

As players defect to college, the Canadian Hockey League won’t cede ground.
Jun 28, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29) bats during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field.
July 9, 2025

The Torpedo Bat Business Is Still Going Strong: ‘Here to Stay’

Demand for the oddly shaped bats has stayed strong across the sport.
Sponsored

Game the Green: Transforming Fan Experiences at TPC Sawgrass

As fans gather at THE PLAYERS Championship, Comcast Business will be keeping spectators and the PGA TOUR connected like never before.
October 8, 2024

NBA GMs Rank Salary-Cap Apron As Rule That Needs to Change Most

Schedule changes finished second with 17% of the vote.
February 3, 2025

Super Bowl Ticket Prices Crash As Hotel Rooms See Historic Rate Hike

Prices sink by about 30%, due in part to a lodging crunch.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

Dealmaker Jeffrey Kaplan maps the evolution of sports as an asset class
September 8, 2024

US Open Breaks Attendance Record

Top-seeded Jannik Sinner beat No. 12 Taylor Fritz in straight sets Sunday.
Sponsored

Mastercard’s Foodies & Fairways: Where Golf Meets Gourmet at the TOUR Championship

This year’s TOUR Championship in Atlanta isn’t just about world-class golf—it’s also a celebration of local flavors.
July 18, 2024

Loyal WNBA Fans Hit With Enormous Season-Ticket Price Hikes

Some season-ticket holders are seeing their prices doubled.
July 16, 2024

CONMEBOL, Hard Rock Stadium Continue Trading Blame Over Copa Disaster

Each blames the other for the security madness at Sunday’s final.