ben valenta

@tim_bays sports are *how* we spend time with friends and family; the "third thing" that facilitates friend and family interaction.

NFL's war on spending time with your friends and family continues

Could not be prouder of this new initiative between Fox Sports and Harvard to better understand how sports brings us all together and contributes to a stronger social fabric. Big congrats to @ben_valenta who made it happen on our side.

News: Harvard is studying why fans become so obsessed with sports. sportico.com/business/media…

@BradWilcoxIFS An important reframing in the context of youth sports. The trip to and from practice/game is a feature, not a bug.

Assumption here is that chauffeuring is an obstacle to flourishing for moms (& dads). But, to be honest, many of our best parent-child conversations happen when we’re chauffeuring!

@njh287 And to think, the simplest possible solution would be to schedule more games in windows where kids can watch with their parents...

STRATEGIES IN SPORTS TO REACH KIDS — Sports organizations know they need to engage kids under 10 as they discover their interests and passions. I was encouraged during the pandemic when sports teams and leagues recognized they could help parents keep kids entertained and stimulated with coloring books and interactive games. But then things slowed. In the years since, more initiatives have emerged to turn these coveted demos into fans: 🟣 Tottenham did a recent merch collab with Peppa Pig: This merch collab is smart. Parents love dressing kids in team gear, and partnering with major kids' brands offers huge potential for content, games, and books. 🟣 MLB started the MLB Clubhouse channel this season, and they've uploaded over 100+ videos (incl. one with 1M+ views) celebrating the game from new angles. For older kids and nostalgic adults, they revived 'This Week In Baseball' as a weekly Twitter-only show. 🟣 Last year, the NBA introduced the animated 'Alley & Oop' show, which looked neat but seems short-lived, with no new posts since June. They also invested in kid-focuse short-form social platform Zigazoo (the NBA profile has ~158k subs), but they've only posted a handful of times and it appears dormant. 🟣 NFL teams are working with Future Fans, using interactive games to teach the rules (and the fun) of football so families can "sweat out" a 4th and 1 together on Sundays. In addition to the investments in flag and creators, et al. 🟣 The NHL does great with creator collabs, and they also have their 'Power Players' youth board, which acts as a focus group to drive strategy for younger demos and teens. Most suggest that around ages 8-10 is when hearts are captured for prospective fans (though today’s fleeting trends may shift that). Some things never change: parents want easy ways to entertain kids, children obsess over IP, and families want novel experiences and photo ops. It's great to see a continued influx of ideas in this arena. If those key truths are followed, we're headed in the right direction. But the nature of fandom is changing, and fan development must change with it. There are many ways to be a sports fan; tactics and strategies need to adjust accordingly. The median sports fan is old. We know this. That's why there is no more important work being done than encouraging and welcoming kids into these rich fan communities!

@willystaley @MattZeitlin Or what about the classic kiwi response of “yeah nah”???

@MattZeitlin Just be glad you don’t have the notorious California “no yeah” in your arsenal

how do you train yourself not to answer ever question with "yeah" "yes" or "yeah, so"

@mdotbrown except, it's not an entertainment product. all sports are entertaining, but they are not entertainment. sports is the business of belonging.

The NBA made rule changes to increase scoring because its an entertainment product. The results paid off. But now the game is moving too fast for players bodies to keep up. The answer isnt cutting games. Change the rules to slow things back down. Because its an entertainment prod

@JESnowden Sports are the simplest way to engage other people. Sports solve social coordination and decrease friction for simply hanging out. Fandom improves connections among family members. Cutting sports out of your life will undoubtedly make you lonelier.

Every televised sport you let drop out of your life opens up so much free time for other things. I highly recommend it.

@JimmyTraina @AndrewMarchand “escape” has always been the wrong framing of consumer motivation in the media space. Viewers aren’t running from despair, they are running toward their passions.

I think you can still use those things to escape the madness if you stay off social media. Sports/movies/music isn’t the problem. Social media is the problem. Every single person I know who doesn’t use social media is much happier and unaware of culture war nonsense.

@lauren_wilford This is the case for sports!

I’m reading Bowling Alone and I’m laughing at the fact that every single one of the things Putnam lists a frequent point of “informal connection” is going (or has already gone) extinct drinks after work coffee with regulars at the diner poker night gossip with neighbors etc

@texasrunnerDFW @zarathustra5150

@zarathustra5150 Is a grown man parked on the couch all Saturday staring at TikTok or gaming not bleakly absurd? I would be all for this if the data showed in lieu of watching sports, Gen Z was *playing* more sports, going out places, dating, working But all the data shows they’re not

Another Gen Z white pill. White America’s relationship with sportsball-watching has gotten genuinely pathological. There’s something bleakly absurd, subservient and pathetic about a grown man spending his entire weekend wearing another man’s jersey, parked on the couch all Saturday watching college football, and all Sunday watching NFL. But millions and millions of White American men do just that every weekend.

@sportsrapport I literally wrote a book called fanshavemorefriends.com

Sports fans have more friends, this has been proven The haters are inconsolable

Mike Tirico’s lovely monologue to close out the epic gold medal game shows how the way we think about the core appeal of sports has changed, and for the better IMO. More than ever it’s about bringing people together and inspiring kids. Bring on the World Cup.

@mcuban Well said. Basketball is the business of belonging.

I made the point that “tanking” , IMO, is not as important an issue as affordability. I wanted to give some context. I think some in this discussion are underestimating the long term value, and importance of families changing from being committed to a team, to following players. When a family can afford to come to a game, they do. It’s a unique, bonding event, that creates incredible memories.  When they come as a family, they not only become a fan of a team, and the players, they become a “Mavs family”.   It’s this connection that makes sports different than every other business.  It’s a connection that drives an emotional link, hopefully for decades.    This is why the Mavs had $2 tickets for a while.  It’s why David Stern put in place $10 tickets after the lockout in the 90s.  It’s why every  Mavs game had 4k tickets under $19.   The math is the marginal revenue of an increased ticket price vs the incremental value of families committed as “Mavs families “.   I gave up probably $15per ticket or $60k per game.  $2.4m  a year.   That is a lot of money,  until you compare it to what it costs in marketing, advertising and promotions to try to connect to all the families you priced out of games.  And then add the cost of being able to watch games on streaming and legacy tv.  Also not cheap.  Which meant we delegated our connection to fans, our ability to connect to families for generations, to social media, streamers, podcasts, email newsletters and the declining influence of legacy media.  IMO, that’s a huge mistake.  If you look at only this year’s revenue , I was wrong in my approach.  If you look at it across decades, my goal was to make every family in Dallas a Mavs family.  Not to maximize this year’s P&L. I thought that would result in far more than just financial value. Nothing hurt me more than seeing fans in the other team’s jersey.  Or pricing our tickets so high that fans sold their tickets so they could afford season tickets, or would rather profit than go to the game.  Leading to the other team’s fans being louder than our fans.  IMO,  this was the greatest insult to an owner and to the players who take the court.  If your home game isn’t a home game, it’s a failure.  This is why i sat in the stands and not in the suites.  It’s why i made my email public. So I could connect. To ask. To listen.  One thing about Mavs games during my tenure,  we put affordability and game experience first.   We may not win every game, but we were going to find a way to make sure every parent got the joy of a lifetime,  watching their kids beam the whole game.  Or the couple on a date had plenty to talk and smile about.   The memories we can create, can last a lifetime.  And those memories create Mavs families.   Thats far more valuable to the team than anything. No player will play forever. But the pictures in homes of families together at a game, all in mavs gear, when the kids were in school. Then when they had kids. Then generations and extended families together, all connected by the Mavs. All in pictures around the house. What is possibly more valuable to an organization than that ? IMO, this made perfect financial sense as well. We live in an uncertain world. Every sport and league will have its ups and downs. Any sport, if it can sustain its connection to families, can survive whatever happens. If it becomes like any other business, maybe not

@CommonCards @mcuban Agreed. I think we’re saying the same thing.

@ben_valenta @mcuban Right but that experience is still and experience, whether it’s framed around “aw man we’re having a down season, let’s get a cheap ticket to a game and wonder who can we get next year to turn it around” or “let’s go to a playoff game”

Why the NBA should embrace tanking - The NBA has kate been misguided thinking that fans want to see their teams compete every night with a chance to win. It’s never been that way that way. When I got into the nba, they thought they were in the basketball business. They aren’t. They are in the business of creating experiences for fans. Few can remember the score from the last game they saw or went to. They can’t remember the dunks or shots. What they remember is who they were with. Their family, friends, a date. That’s what makes the experience special. Fans know their team can’t win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team’s record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring. The one way to get closer to that is via the draft. And trades. And cap room. You have a better chance of improving via all 3 , when you tank. We didn’t tank often. Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it. And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get Luka and improve our team. The nba should worry more about fan experience than tanking. It should worry more about pricing fans out of games than tanking. You know who cares the least about tanking , a parent who cant afford to bring their 3 kids to a game and buy their kids a jersey of their fave player Tanking isn’t the issue. Affordability and quality of game presentation are

Agreed. But framed as “experiences” the idea here is sterile (eg focused on concession quality, bathroom wait times, etc). Experience without emotion. Family time is an “experience” with deep emotional resonance. If you’re positioning a product to a consumer, deep emotional resonance is gold.

@ben_valenta @mcuban I am neutral to tanking but what you described here is 100% experience-based, that it’s about your dad and kids, not the product.

Sports are entertaining, but they are not entertainment. Sports are the business of belonging.