Emma Sheppard is a journalist specialising in business, technology, family and social affairs. As well as Canvas8, her work has appeared in The Guardian, Wired, BBC Worldwide, The Independent and more.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was unlike any previous international sports event. Delayed by a year thanks to the pandemic, athletes and teams had to take daily tests and isolate if they tested positive, alcohol sales were banned, and spectators were limited to 10,000 people per venue – some events, such as the closing ceremony, were held with no spectators at all. 

 Fans around the world were encouraged to interact via a 

, with cheer buttons and apps to upload videos that would be streamed via big screens in the stadiums. Plans for six in-person fan zones were scrapped after concerns about the pandemic, and bars and restaurants were asked to close at 8pm (although many said they would ignore the request). 

Corporate sponsors such as Toyota, Asahi, and Samsung were left with few visitors to impress. 

The global sports market is worth an estimated $756 billion per year, but COVID-19 has changed much about the way fans interact with their favourite teams or sports. 

 Live sport was put on hold for months, with competitions cancelled, postponed, or held behind closed doors. But once restrictions eased, the fans came back. In Melbourne, a record-breaking crowd packed in to watch an Australian rules match, and UK football fans flocked to fan zones around the country to watch the summer 2021’s Euro 2020 tournament. 

 In London, the Football Village featured live music, cultural entertainment, football drills, and community activities, with every game screened on big screens. 

“I think COVID-19 will change sport forever,” says Dr. Jessica Richards, lecturer in sport management in the School of Business at Western Sydney University, and author of the paper 

‘Beers and blurred boundaries: The spatial and gendered organisation of pre-match venues for English football fans’

, an extended case study of Everton Football Club’s fans. “We’re going to see a reinvestment in technology within stadiums, which will change the match day experience for everyone.” 

 Dr. Richards’ research, conducted in 2019, focused on new spaces for fan experiences, many of which have been introduced as a consequence of the commercialisation of sport. Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Richards to discuss the cultural significance of fan engagement and how brands can best become involved with fan zones.

Why is this topic important to understand?

Fans all over the world are seeing local suburban stadiums being redeveloped into larger facilities to accommodate broader stakeholders and commercial interests. They’re creating new routines for fans to engage with, but also opportunities for corporate sponsors to tap into and use that space. What this means is that fans have new expectations around what match day is like. It’s no longer just a 90-minute game anymore. Fans expect to be entertained before, during, and after the fixture. These spaces provide the location for this to take place, but there needs to be more understanding and community engagement in relation to how those spaces can best serve the community. The concourse of the fan precinct is probably one of the most innovative new spaces that we’re seeing in sport consumption.

When we think of fan zones, we often think of the football tournaments like the Euros and the World Cup. But the fan zone within a domestic league is very different to that. It has a different purpose and a different value for fans. One of the new changes that sparked my interest is how space actually changes fans’ behaviour. If you look at many of the new stadiums, they’re adding pubs inside the concourse, which goes against the traditional match day routine of going to your local pub on the way. What they’re trying to do is to get fans into the stadium earlier so they’ll spend more. But fans aren’t connecting with those spaces as well as clubs would like.

A lot of the existing research that’s been done, particularly on football fans, has been focused on young men, which really hinders our ability to understand the diverse nature of the football crowd. To be honest, I was disappointed when I first went to Goodison [Park, Everton’s stadium]. I thought, where are all these sassy stories I’m hearing about fighting and things like that? That just wasn’t the reality for me. I went to nearly every home game over four years and travelled away as well. I found the football community was mostly framed around fans’ commitment to the club, treating other fans as family, drinking in pubs, and having fun. There are family fans, there are corporate fans, and a large percentage of older males attending fixtures. My motivation was to tell their stories and to provide Everton Football Club with a more accurate representation of the match day crowd.

The 2020 Olympics challenged normal fandom

How did you go about conducting your study?

I did 25 interviews with fans, which also involved shadowing them on match day. Originally I was focused on understanding fan behaviour and then, as I began doing my research, space and location just kept coming up. I got participants to draw me their match day routine [on maps]. What’s really interesting about those maps is when you look at what’s been drawn, it’s landmarks, it’s the pub. Sometimes the stadium is actually outside of the match day routine.

What I did in the design of my study was actually to meet fans at their house or the location where their match day began and I would walk with them. They would point out spaces that meant something to them. The hypothesis then became, ‘well what happens to space when it changes or is lost?’ We walked past people’s grandparents’ houses that were no longer there, had been knocked down and a new house built, but they would always go that route anyway.

I became fascinated with how space actually changed people’s behaviour. Walking with a family, for example, we’d go to Country Road [the long road that leads to Goodison Park], have a couple of beers there, and the behaviour there was quite boisterous. But walking into the stadium and the fan-zone areas, there was a stronger police presence, more surveillance, and more family fans around, and people’s behaviour changed. That behaviour was not tolerated. And fans actually moderated each other’s behaviours in different spaces. I really wanted to get an understanding of whether or not fans recognised diversity in the crowd.

Sport lovers want to feel like they’re part of the action

I went to 25 different football games with 25 very different people. I went with one person who has a very severe disability and that was a completely different experience, looking at the ways in which other fans aided and assisted her. I also went with a group of young women and their experience was completely different, being harassed and things like that. What was interesting was that social class came up a lot. There was quite a divide, between those going to Lower Gwladys, for example, or Bullens [different sections of Goodison Park] and to the corporate space. They felt like the culture of the corporate space wasn’t what Everton was about, being a working-class club. But still, diversity in the football crowd was probably the biggest finding for me and what I think, as a club, Everton needs to celebrate a bit more. I like to think of the sports setting as a microcosm of society.

The other finding was the importance of clubs investing in these fan zones, particularly for the sustainment and growth of the family network of fans. They’re the fans of the future, and we need to protect and invest in that. Inviting fans to partake in activities at the fan zone gives people a bit of certainty about what to do, and motivation to get there earlier. It sets up the day a lot more clearly and is really important, particularly for families. A lot of families want to rush the kids in because they don’t know what’s happening outside. Ultimately, it’s about allowing fans to co-create that atmosphere with you, rather than it being top-down. Fans want to be involved. They’re really proud to be an Everton fan.

The other thing I was interested in is what was important to them on match day, and overwhelmingly it was about seeing Everton in the Community, which is their charity organisation. Fans from all walks of life often spoke about being proud of that group and they wanted to know more. And it’s important for the club to align the space of match day with the values of the club, including in the fan zones. If there’s an organisation that feels a bit Londonish, for example, fans won’t feel like it belongs in the space and won’t respond well to that. Overall it’s just about creating meaning around the space and aligning that very much with the club values and the ethics of the organisation.

Fan rituals are a bit part of match day excitement

Sports fans are much more diverse than might be expected. Women, for example, are one of the fastest-growing fan communities – 80% say they watch live sports online or in person. 

 Some brands are tailoring their marketing accordingly. In 2020, for example, O2 featured players from both the England men’s and women’s rugby teams in its 

. Dr. Richards believes fan diversity will only increase post-pandemic and should be a focus of marketing campaigns. “People watched sports they wouldn’t necessarily watch [during the pandemic]. That will be an ongoing legacy,” she says. “Australia has a very aggressive marketing campaign towards America at the moment because of the uptake of the NRL [National Rugby League] by Americans while all of their sport was off.” 

 In Everton’s fan zones, Dr. Richards found that Instagram photo booths and filters appealed to families and female fans. In recognising the diversity of football fans, Scottish campaigners 

 convinced 109 clubs, including Celtic, Rangers, Liverpool, and LA Galaxy, to provide free period products on match day. 

Sports fans are proud of their clubs and want to participate in the cultural experiences that make them great. Dr. Richards expects to see much more personalisation around merchandise and sports marketing. “Everyone has a much better time when they feel they’re being heard and their presence is valued and acknowledged,” she says. 

 “These people feel like they’re supporting the club and their ticketing fee is going towards making sure the club remains sustainable. Co-creation is a way of rewarding fans for that.” During the pandemic, Premier League fans were invited to buy cardboard cutouts of themselves to take their place in the crowd, and F1 team Aston Martin Cognizant launched its ‘I/AM’ campaign with TikTok, which amplified user-generated content across its channels. 

Fans want sponsors to align with their club’s values

Since the onset of the pandemic, sports personalities, clubs, and sponsors are expected to live up to the values they promote even more than pre-COVID-19. Almost two-thirds (64%) of sports fans (and 73% of female football fans) say ‘brand purpose’ is an important expectation of sponsors. 

 “Fans know the values of the club, they know them back to front,” says Dr. Richards. “There are a few hit and misses in relation to businesses that are in that fan activation space that fans weren’t necessarily eager to engage with.” 

 Sometimes though, sponsorships tick the right boxes. In 2020, the Detroit Lions did a surprise collaboration with 

, with bespoke in-game activities. Fans loved it. 

Fans are more open to engaging via technology

While the pandemic has kept fans away from stadiums, they’ve been open to exploring opportunities to connect via technology. Dr. Richards believes there will be more innovation embedded into the match-day experience in future. “Being able to purchase things and have them delivered to your seat, for example. In America, there’s an app that tells you how crowded the bathroom is,” she says. “We’re going to have more digital tickets, or maybe even membership chips in your football shirt, which was trialled by the Giants in the Australian Football League. That’s completely contactless, there’s no engagement with anything, but it’s personalised.” 

 Among sports fans, 90% use another device as they watch TV, and half use social media and chat with friends on a second screen during matches. 

 Experts predict that opportunities will arise around 5G expansion into stadiums, such as virtual-reality apps that allow fans to experience live games virtually, and fan-controlled leagues. 

Jessica Richards is a trend forecaster based in New York and the founder of JMR Trend + Creative.

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South China Morning Post

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Marbella International University Centre

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Interview with Dr. Jessica Richards conducted by the author

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The Drum

Appreciation Engine

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Harvard Business School

Sports fans are returning to stadiums after many months of cheering on their teams from home. But how can teams and their sponsors best engage supporters? Canvas8 spoke to Dr. Jessica Richards about the importance of fan zones and creating the perfect match day experience.

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