At the urging of Rachel Abrams, I revisited the large complex stakeholder diagram I had created over Thanksgiving break. She suggested that I once again look it over, and see if anyone could be removed, and what that might do to the system. Previously, I had focused on stadiums and media as the gatekeepers, but then I wondered, isn’t it really the Owners of the teams, previously only a tiny blip on the diagram, who are controlling all of this?
I started by drawing the current system - A fan roots for their team, who is dictated by owner, through trading and signing, and how much $ they owner is willing to spend.
Often, fans find their teams mismanaged by the owners, who place the $ in front of winning. To supplement this, and give themselves a feeling of control over winning and losing, fans turn to fantasy football, where they are able to make similar decisions that directly impact the outcome of the game. But, this leaves us without the fundamentals of fandom, including the emotion of cheering for a team, and a tribe to cheer with.
So, as I left for Christmas break, I asked myself a simple question - what would the system look like if owner’s were removed from the stakeholder ecology and fans were given the ability to run their own teams?
Its a question thats certainly worth consideration over break.
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.
I thought the stakeholder ecology we did in Service Design was complicated….
I spent a good part of my Thanksgiving break working on a stakeholder ecology of the baseball fan experience. Its complicated and a bit ugly, it could definitely benefit from another take at some point, but for now, it does a great job of showing all the moving parts in the fan experience.
As I move forward and begin to create insights, opportunities, and concepts, I will use this model to map these and see how they might affect the current experience. Who can be eliminated? Whose role can be elevated?
