After staring at my convoluted stakeholder diagram from last night, I’ve simplified it a bit and the result is….surprisingly obvious. There are teams, and there are fans. If a fan wishes to access these teams, they must go through one of the two gatekeepers - they can either go to a stadium to watch their team, an incredibly fun & rewarding experience, but also costly, both in terms of time and money. The alternative is to follow you team through some form of media, whether thats listening on the radio, watching on television, or watching on the internet. This can be all be consumed live, but these medium also afford the ability to get caught up after the event, whether its through a summary such as an article, box score, photos, highlights, etc. This avenue also has its costs, however, in the form of access - cable, internet, subscriptions, etc.

The dotted line that passes over these Gatekeepers, linking fans and teams together has only recently emerged. Largely, its thanks to “social media”, which has given fans access into the minds of players, as well as the ability to serve as their own journalists, covering sports in an all new way. However, its my hypothesis that this is just the beginning of creating a stronger link between teams and their fans.

Posted at 12:10pm and tagged with: thesis, stakeholder,.