CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Trevor McOmber and his 14-year-old son, Tye, share a love for the Chicago Blackhawks. When Trevor was his son’s age, he watched the Blackhawks on TV, caught highlights on ESPN and read about the team in the newspaper.<\/p>\n
It’s a much different experience for Tye.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to YouTube with Snapchat, or Google something if I just have an idea that I want to know,\u201d Tye McOmber said while sitting next to his father at a recent Blackhawks game.<\/p>\n
Tye McOmber is on the border of Generation Z, born roughly between 1997 to 2012, and Generation Alpha, approximately 2012 to 2024 \u2014 a sprawling group of people with unique media habits and diverse attitudes on where sports fit into their lives.<\/p>\n
Together, they form \u2014 potentially, at least \u2014 the next generation of sports fans, an almost constant topic of conversation in the offices of every major sports organization. And they have proven to be a tricky target.<\/p>\n
According to a Morning Consult poll, 20% of Gen-Z adults identify as avid sports fans, compared to 33% of Millennials and 27% of Generation X. One-third of the Gen-Z respondents said they do not follow sports at all. Even among those who are fans, the touchpoints for teams and leagues are changing constantly.<\/p>\n
“Something that we might have done two or three years ago to capture this audience is changing based on how they consume, the way they consume, the way that content is packaged to them as well,\u201d said Uzma Rawn Dowler, the chief marketing officer for Major League Baseball. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re always constantly keeping up with the trends and of how we can continue to resonate with this audience in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tGen Z, Gen Alpha and sports<\/p>\n
Mark Beal, a communication professor at Rutgers University, shows an image of a Zamboni during his presentations on Gen Z and Gen Alpha. He asks his audience what the Zamboni is, and after a while, he provides his perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a Gen-Z dream right there,\u201d he says. \u201cYou put a Gen Z-er in that between period one and two of a game. By the time they get done … they\u2019ve live-streamed it, they\u2019ve shot it, they\u2019ve put it out on TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their own distinct voice, too, one that often appeals to a large audience. In the Jan. 28 poll, social media (53%) and streaming services (38%) were the top choices for the Gen-Z respondents when it comes to where they go the most for sports content.<\/p>\n
Media consumption for Gen Z and Gen Alpha \u201cis unprecedented,\u201d said Beal. The challenge is finding those eyes, and staying in front of them. Especially when it comes to casual sports fans who are perhaps more interested in the latest celebrity post than highlights from games.<\/p>\n
That means embracing unorthodox connections. Like kids celebrating basketball teams reaching 67 points as part of the \u201c6-7\u201d craze. Or the NFL’s Buffalo Bills posting a video of its rookies identifying characters from Italian brainrot \u2014 a popular group of internet memes.<\/p>\n
Gen Z and Gen Alpha gravitate toward personalities, so major sports organizations work with a group of creators to help spread their content.<\/p>\n
The NBA is hosting more than 200 creators with a collective footprint of more than 1 billion followers for its All-Star festivities this weekend in Los Angeles. They are slated to participate in live broadcasts, in-arena programming and fan experiences.<\/p>\n
Bob Carney, a senior vice president for digital and social content at the NBA, said the league uses an artificial intelligence-powered social media measurement platform to identify creators for its network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s only the first step,\u201d Carney said. “Once the technology flags someone, our team still evaluates their creativity, authenticity, tone and how naturally they fit into basketball culture. So, it\u2019s an AI-assisted process. The goal is to make sure we never overlook the next creator who is resonating with fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The players, who often have their own social media followings, serve as their own network for their sports. The prospective audience matters, Dowler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our growth audiences, we partner with influencers in relevant adjacent spaces,\u201d she said, \u201cwhether it\u2019s food, fashion, other culturally relevant sort of spaces to reach that casual perspective fan to bring them into the baseball ecosystem through the side door and feed them that adjacent baseball content through the lens of players or influencers to then ultimately have them convert to be that core fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tWhere it’s going<\/p>\n
Reaching and developing the next generation of sports fans is a collective endeavor.<\/p>\n
Partnerships play a role. The International Olympic Committee announced a collaboration with Roblox in 2024 that created Olympic World on the popular online gaming platform. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani are part of Fortnite, an online game. Major League Baseball also has a partnership with ABCmouse for baseball-themed learning activities for kids.<\/p>\n
Youth participation also is a vehicle for making new sports fans, and it’s a major reason why MLB has invested heavily in youth baseball and softball programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to fish where the fish are, quite honestly,\u201d Dowler said.<\/p>\n
The NBA has been experimenting with using generative AI to create more specialized content \u2014 think animation for a younger age group, something that wasn\u2019t practical before because of the cost \u2014 but it’s pursuing a particular look and feel on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our league-run social channels, we are very deliberate about keeping the content grounded in the same native tools and formats that fans and creators themselves use,\u201d Carney said. \u201cThat helps the ecosystem feel organic, authentic, and not overly produced. Where generative AI really comes into play for us is behind the scenes and in purpose-built experiences. We use it to solve problems at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL’s strategy for reaching younger fans leans at least in part on its NHL Power Players, a youth initiative that is in its seventh season.<\/p>\n
The league uses an application process to create an advisory board of approximately 25 members ranging in age from 13 to 17. There are two virtual meetings every month, in addition to other conversations between the league and the teenagers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had people from everywhere from Nova Scotia to Hawaii and everywhere in between,\u201d said Heidi Browning, the chief marketing officer for the NHL. \u201cThey\u2019re not necessarily all in hockey towns, which is really incredible for us. And they advise us on everything from marketing to content to technology to social to creators to fan engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL periodically revisits the insights it gleans from the youth board to see how attitudes and behaviors are shifting over time. Browning said she goes to all the meetings, underlying the importance of the program to the league.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We) are constantly thinking about how can we intentionally listen to the next generation of fans because they\u2019re not just younger versions of our previous fans,\u201d Browning said. \u201cThey\u2019re actually consuming and connecting and engaging differently than the generations that are older than they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 Trevor McOmber and his 14-year-old son, Tye, share a love for the Chicago Blackhawks. When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5115],"tags":[46165,37837,1251,521,37,96,5263,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-453558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-ap-business","9":"tag-ap-sports","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-blackhawks","12":"tag-chicago","13":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","14":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116048041339168611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}