Debunking millennial myths
Wide-ranging research is helping the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) buck a nationwide trend for declining student attendance — and, in doing so, dismantling some popular myths about what Millennials expect from sports events. Specialist sports researcher and analyst Emily Golembiewski explains
Anyone who has seen a college football or basketball game knows how important the student section can be — those free throw shots framed by densely packed students wildly waving their arms to distract, or football time-outs with students sporting body paint and dancing with the band.
Student sections are a point of pride for college athletic departments. Yet last summer, curious stories started appearing up in the mainstream American press about declining attendance at college games, mostly football, but at basketball and other sports as well. The decline has affected all sports, regions and types of school.
Commentators were quick to offer opinions for the reason for this decline. People prefer to stay at home and take advantage of the benefits televised sports offer, they said — replays, interviews, and exhaustive data about every play, goal and participant. Others suggested that sports events are too long for today’s distracted youth or that young people have lost interest in sports altogether.
Bucking the trend
The University of Texas at Austin (UTA) Athletic Department wanted to buck this trend by reversing the decline and building an exciting, compelling student section. If successful, this would elevate the mood of UTA’s entire arena, making game days more exciting and providing a better spectacle for televised shows, while also building a future donor base from current student attendees.
UTA asked AECOM Strategy+ and its sports team to help — a team that conducts user research around the world in order to build better sporting venues, museums, workplaces and cities.
Profiling your people
Working with UTA, we spent five months studying the problem, combining hands-on engagement with social media research to build a comprehensive picture of what students really want from sports events.
We hung out with students on game day, interviewing 200 of them as they arrived, watched the game and partied, and conducted exit gate interviews to find out why fans left early.
We also analyzed the demographics of UTA ticket purchases over the last four years to identify who bought tickets, who went to the game and how often. We investigated how fans used social media to discover, plan and share events. And we ran workshops where we encouraged students to create an ideal student seating section.
All this information helped us create ‘psychographic’ profiles of UTA audiences — detailed breakdowns of their preferences and attitudes, including what drives them, how they feel about sports, and what type of experience would appeal to them.
Analysis, not myths
Our research gave us and UTA lots to think about. And it shone a light on some of the enduring myths of student sports attendance in the U.S. today. No one had questioned these assumptions until now, but our in-depth analysis found that there was very little truth in them.
Our approach helped UTA get to the heart of the problem. Right now, we are working with the department to put some solid, actionable recommendations together, based on this research, to help UTA nurture a whole new generation of fans.
There is a wider application for this research too. Student attendances are declining in the U.S., in all sports. Every sport is different and every college is different, but by adopting a rational, evidence based method and a structured process, clubs and colleges will be in a good position to halt that decline.
UTA: Getting to the heart of the problem
Myth #1: The in-home viewing experience is the biggest competitor
The myth: There is a strong feeling in the press and the industry that the in-home viewing experience is the biggest competitor to the live event. Big screens and a constant stream of stats and data mean young people can get a thrilling fan experience from the comfort of their own homes.
The reality: Fans continually mentioned the experience of cheering with 100,000 other people, the energy and excitement of being at the live event. The social aspect of seeing friends and sharing the event with them is incredibly important, and the in-home viewing experience can’t compete with the immediacy and energy in the same way.
Recommendation: Rather than competing with the home viewing experience athletic departments should focus on what makes attending in person so exciting — the crowds, the live entertainment, in-stadium replays. Stadium designs should support that social environment.
Myth #2: In-stadium technology is an arms race
The myth: Many athletic departments believe super-fast Wi-Fi and other leading technology is essential to keep student fans interested during the game. Some are working very hard to improve wireless within stadiums and arenas, sometimes at significant cost and disruption.
The reality: Much of this is the result of previous, poorly designed research. Many ticket buyer surveys ask users if they would want better, faster wireless, and if it would influence their purchasing decision. It’s a leading question and the answer is almost always yes.
Yet more subtle, open-ended questions about what fans actually want revealed that better technology isn’t the significant differentiator everyone thought. For example, UTA’s stadium has a difficult wireless reception in the bowl, but, no students said that influenced their decision to attend or when to attend.
Recommendation: Don’t bust your budget installing the latest, fastest Wi-Fi. Decide on an acceptable level of connectivity and use it to drive grassroots marketing. Millennials love events that are ‘shareworthy’, so they can post photos and updates to social media. In essence, this is great, free advertising for your club or event.
Myth #3: Sporting events are too long
The myth: There is a fear that this generation just doesn’t like sports or can’t devote an entire day to a game, since they have so many other things competing for their time.
The reality: To test this hypothesis, we examined other events that are meaningful and popular with these students. In particular, the popularity of multi-day music festivals confounded our assumptions about attention span, physical comfort and spending. This generation does have time and money to spend, but what sets music festivals apart is the freedom to create an individual experience — they pick which bands to see, which friends to meet up with and how to spend their time.
Recommendation: Sports events should allow fans to enjoy things in different ways. For students that didn’t necessarily grow up loving American Football, this might include a ‘football 101’ class during the game or more statistics and information about the players and the plays. For socially driven students, this would include general admission seating sections, or sections without seats that would allow students to wander and mingle.
More experience: Less stuff
Percentage of groups who increasingly want novel experiences
IWT Intelligence, 2013<
Myth #4: Millenials just don’t care about sports
The myth: Not only are sports events too long, they’re not even very interesting, compared to the myriad of other distractions and entertainment available to Millennials. This is the biggest myth of all.
The reality: Throughout our research, students were very clear about the appeal of sports — it’s about identity, social connection, meaningful affiliation, fun, social sharing and excitement. They are far from disinterested — but there is a significant gap between their interests and the viewing experience currently offered by most sporting events.
Recommendations: A great thing about this generation is that they are more than willing to help bridge this gap, to help design solutions that create a better and more compelling experience, one that will turn them into lifelong, diehard fans.
More than giveaways or promotions, Millennials want their teams to provide access — to players, coaches and the field. For athletics departments, this process of asking provides that access while creating meaningful connections to student fans, which is critical.
Fewer Fanatics, more neophytes
Since 1994, 12.3 percent fewer 18-34 year old men consider themselves avid sports fans.*
*Source: Sports Business Daily, 2014