Access to Capital
“Most of the leagues, except for the NFL, have opened their doors to allow institutional investors to invest in teams. This has provided many benefits to teams and leagues by opening entirely new sources of capital, but also presents questions, such as what happens when a fund invests in multiple teams? How much should they be permitted to invest in a team? What rights should they be allowed to have?” —Daniel Render, ’12
Artificial Intelligence
“AI is creating a similar excitement to what we saw around the early days of the internet and has the potential to be just as transformational around every aspect of the game and fan experience . . . The possibilities are endless for the NBA to take advantage of the growth and advancements in AI technology. We are already using AI in a variety of ways, whether to improve officiating, generate automated high-lights in real time, translate play-by-play commentary into multiple languages, or track every on-court movement of the players.” —Adam Silver, ’88
Customized Fan Experience
“A huge trend is using technology to make the fan experience better. That might involve improving a processto make it go smoother, such as mobile ordering things to your seats. That might involve biometrics to pay . . . It may evolve to virtual reality headsets, where you don’t even have to go to the stadium to attend the game.” —Chauntell Bobo, ’11
Student Athletes’ Employment Status
“We certainly believe that student athletes do better as a whole without employee status—without having to clock in and out or without having to be transferred or fired for dropping too many passes or missing field goals. But these are ongoing debates, and a variety of constituents have a seat at the table.” —Anil Gollahalli, ’00
Social Media Use
“People consume a lot more and do so in shorter periods. So, our focus goes not just into broadcasting games, but also on short-form content. How do we grab and keep people’s attention on social media when they have so many different options? How do we balance being creative with IP laws?” —Shelby Klose, ’17
Sponsorship Evolutions
“There is a lot more splicing and dicing of different categories of sponsorship so that teams can increase their revenues. Where you might once have had the official fitness water of the White Sox, now you might have the official electrolyte-infused water and the official alkaline water. It’s much more specific and creative.”—Daniel Render, ’12
Sports Betting
“With legal sports betting becoming more widespread, there are fair questions being raised around whether there should be a stronger regulatory framework in place to further protect the integrity of the competition, the well-being of the participants, and the problematic aspects for bettors.” —Adam Silver, ’88
Stadium Modernization
“There is big movement in Chicago with respect to where people are playing and what kind of facilities they want. There have been some great stadium projects nationally, and people in other cities want to emulate those projects and have that kind of experience for their fans. So, I foresee a lot of changes in this space as people want to modernize the stadiums in their areas to drive traffic and revenue.” —Shelby Klose, ’17
Streaming Shifts
“In the media space, we’ve seen a shift from over-the-air broadcast to the cable bundle, to the dissolution of the cable bundle, and now moving to streaming and disaggregation of rights to new technologies and new entrants into the marketplace. I think we’ll be seeing some pretty significant impacts of virtual reality.” —Anil Gollahalli, ’00
Technology in Marketing
“From a marketing perspective, technology is changing how teams reach fans: from tailoring content and customizing a fan’s experience, to getting as much data as possible so that they can reach the fans they currently have, to using technology to figure out ways to reach fans they haven’t been reaching.” —Chauntell Bobo, ’11
Original source can be found here.