Engaging younger sports fans: How today’s trends can inform tomorrow’s investments

Survey
9 minute read
July 29, 2024

As the 2024 Summer Olympics open in Paris this summer, the sports industry faces a pivotal moment. A PwC survey reveals that younger audiences, ages 18-34, engage differently: Attention spans grow ever shorter, while demand for unique experiences rises. As engagement patterns among Gen Z and younger millennials continue to shift significantly — due to technology, social dynamics and evolving preferences — sports executives and investors should take heed.

“The opportunity to grow sports over the next decade is going to come down to how the industry serves these fans. With so much money being invested, we wanted to know what the fans found most engaging.”

Mike Keenan -Sports Practice Leader, PwC US

PwC surveyed about 2,000 sports fans to better understand what drives younger fans and how they’re different from fans over 35. Fans responded to 50 questions about live experiences, at-home consumption, sport preferences and how they interact with sports. We performed a competitive analysis of the data between different generations of sports fans and then extracted insights into opportunities for growth, areas that are likely to remain flat and potential risks.

Overall, the findings suggest that younger fans’ shrinking attention spans may mark them as fundamentally different from earlier generations. Only 19% of younger fans say they watch an entire game when they tune in at home — and when they do, they’re almost always doing something else at the same time. More than two-thirds said they use social media during an event, 47% surf the web and 24% play video games while watching sports. Only 1% say they do nothing but watch.

At the same time, young fans are seeking unique experiences, which was the most frequently cited important characteristic for this demographic when attending a live sporting event — and they do attend live events. We found that younger sports fans are 1.4 times more likely than older fans to attend a live sports event at least once a month. They’re also relatively price insensitive, reporting on average to have spent $70 more on tickets than older counterparts.

Younger sports fans are contributing to reshaping the field. Executives and investors would be wise to recognize these trends now to help win the market.

Growth opportunities

Volleyball: Despite having a low profile in the United States, volleyball is more popular with younger survey respondents than other individual sports, including motorsports, golf and tennis. Volleyball over-indexes significantly — particularly among Latino audiences — as a sport younger fans watch on TV and may be on the cusp of significant growth.
Combat sports: These sports, such as martial arts and boxing, have long been competitive with such individual sports as golf and tennis, but younger fans may drive their popularity to new levels. This is another key area to watch.
Soccer: Long considered the next big thing, soccer remains more popular — 87% more popular — with younger fans than their older counterparts.
Basketball: As a spectator sport, basketball has staying power. It was the second most popular sport to watch live or on TV, with 62% percent of younger sports fans reporting that they watch at home or attend games in person. “Basketball has a long history of steady growth among US fans. There’s no reason to see that ascent slowing with the new generation, and in fact it may accelerate with the growth of women’s basketball combined with young fans’ love of the sport,” Keenan says.

Social media: A key, ingrained part of sports consumption habits, social media has become the top technology younger fans use during sports events — at home or in person. Nearly 70% of this demographic tell us they use social media while watching sports at home and 44% use it at live sports events. Younger fans are 81% more likely than older fans to interact on social media while attending a game.
Smart TVs: While younger fans thumb through social media during games, they’re just as likely as older fans to watch sports on bigger screens. And 80% of all fans use smart TVs to watch at home.
Mobile betting: Young fans love to bet. The survey indicates that younger fans over-index in frequency of betting (particularly in soccer) — so much so that betting may be what saves sports for future generations. Nearly 80% of this demographic were likely to watch a game if they’d bet on it. PwC research pegs North American sports betting and iGaming revenue at $20 billion and projects it to expand to as much as $50 billion by 2034, and our survey bolsters that projection.

Shorter games: As attention spans have diminished, younger sports fans are looking for shorter, more lively games. When citing factors that contribute to a negative experience at a game, younger fans were 3.5 times more likely than older fans to cite game length and 46% more likely than older fans to cite downtime.
Uniqueness: Sixty-two percent of younger fans in our survey say they want a unique and memorable experience when they attend a live game — significantly more than older fans. Younger fans are also 21% more likely to purchase souvenirs, a physical reminder of their experience. When considered alongside the total market for sports merchandise and memorabilia, this demographic’s purchasing habits offer a compelling potential for growth. In North America, sports-licensed merchandise is a $28 billion market, while sports and entertainment trading cards and memorabilia is a $13 billion market, according to PwC research.
Willingness to pay: Despite having a 20% lower average income, younger sports fans expect to pay $70 more on average on tickets and are significantly less likely to cite high prices as contributing to a negative experience (40% of younger fans versus 62% of older ones). While it’s possible that habits may change as younger fans age, these fans have disposable income to spend — and they’re willing to spend it on sports.

“Premium experiences have been a critical part of sports’ growth over the last few years, and we expect them to only become more important going forward,” Keenan says. “These fans are very willing to pay, and smart teams will continue to develop more ways to serve them with high-value, once-in-a-lifetime experiences — and our data shows that they can charge accordingly.”

Holding steady

Football: As popular as ever, football remains the No. 1 US sport — and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
Motorsports: Racing continues to hold younger sports fans’ interest, suggesting motorsports will remain fairly popular.

Streaming: Major streaming services are slightly less popular among younger fans than older adults as a source of sports entertainment, suggesting broad adoption of streaming across all fan populations.
Augmented and virtual reality: Despite earlier buzz around AR and VR revolutionizing fan experience, younger fans don’t seem to be rushing to adopt it. Eighteen percent of younger fans report using AR or VR technologies at live games — a use rate that largely tracks with older fans. While these technologies may become important to the sports experience in the future — and many innovative companies continue to invest in them — they have not yet convinced this demographic to engage with immersive tech.

Logistics agnostic: Just as younger fans are willing to spend more on live sporting events, they’re also more willing to put up with more inconveniences, evidenced by logistics and proximity to home ranking sixth and seventh out of nine impediments to attending a live event. Older fans are 40% more likely to cite proximity as a barrier.

Potentially risky

Baseball: Given shorter attention spans and pace of the game, perhaps it’s no surprise that baseball is 33% less popular among younger sports fans than older fans. Soccer threatens to surpass its popularity as these fans age. Still, gambling may offer an entry as younger fans are 20% more likely to bet on baseball than older fans. That’s a larger increase than several other leading team sports, including football and hockey — on which younger fans actually bet less than older fans.
Hockey: Younger sports fans rank hockey sixth overall in a field of 15 sports, and it remains the fourth most popular team sport (combat sports and motorsports exceed it, but we consider them individual sports). Given its declining numbers and the rise of soccer and other popular team sports, it’s uncertain whether hockey will keep that position going forward. But even though only 19% of younger fans list hockey as a favorite sport, that fan base may be more loyal. While only 1% of older fans subscribe to NHL Network, 2.4% of younger fans do.
Golf: Although participation in golf events was up during the pandemic, interest has waned, and younger fans are less likely to watch or attend tournaments. Golf ranks 11^th out of 15 sports among this age group, trailing tennis, motorsports, swimming and diving. Younger fans are 46% less likely to consume golf content, but it’s possible this may shift as these fans age.

Sports-specific apps: Younger fans are not subscribing to sport-specific, direct-to-consumer offerings as much as their older counterparts. Most of these streaming platforms have adoption rates below 5% among younger fans. NFL Red Zone and NBA League Pass are outliers, with 15% and 9% adoption rates, respectively — likely reflecting the overall popularity of football and basketball. “Everyone wants to have their own app and channel for their sport — and it makes sense to own their customer interactions and data. But our research shows that the future generations of fans are not particularly interested in paying for all these individual apps,” cautions Keenan.

Teams and towns: Team loyalty — whether attachment to teams, star players or community — is less important to younger fans than to older ones. Thirty-four percent of younger fans cite a team or player as an important characteristic of a live game, versus 45% of older fans. Community building is the least important factor for these fans when going to an in-person event.

Implications for sports executives and investors

Consider the strong investment opportunities volleyball, combat sports, soccer and basketball may present. Their growing popularity among younger fans suggests potential for long-term growth and increased engagement.
Focus on enhancing fan experiences by shortening games and creating high-stakes, relevant matches. Invest in unique, memorable social experiences to cater to younger fans.
Invest in integrating social media and mobile betting into the sports experience. Carefully monitor developments in AR and VR to determine how it can be used to innovate and enhance engagement, with the awareness that it has not yet seen mass adoption, even among younger fans.
Evaluate whether high-cost experiences can offer significant value and tailor pricing models to reflect the willingness of younger fans to spend more on meaningful experiences.
Be cautious when considering investments in sport-specific streaming services and sports that may be declining in popularity among younger audiences. Be critical in assessing their potential. Be prepared to develop strategic pivots.

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