Author: Mark Silver

Have you met anyone who can tell you where things are headed with the digital side of the sports business? Anyone who knows where all this all going, and when anyone can see a real return on investment? If you have, please let me know who that is.

Don’t get me wrong; there are many amazing leagues, teams, broadcasters, sports properties and technology providers who are doing incredible things. The challenge I’ve been seeing over my career though is along the lines of the tail wagging the dog. We all know investing in digital is the right thing to do, but what many fail to see on an ongoing basis is that most sports organizations aren’t nimble enough to keep up with the pace of change nor continually implement the next big must have thing. For transparency, the company I run, Stadium Digital, is another one of those ‘next big things’, but I’ll get back to that later.

The challenge that most sports properties face is that their technology both back office and customer facing, has been built out in a hap hazard way over many years with several vendors and there simply is not sufficient in-house expertise and resources or capital budget available to fix the problem in a timeframe where the loss of further ground is not the end result. To be clear, my advice is not to fix the problem. Instead, focus on digital activities that support achievement of your short and long term business objectives. Determine where to invest smartly today, to get the most bang for your buck, so that every dollar leaves a sustainable legacy. In time, your problem should disappear, though please be patient and try to retain your top performers who can see the vision through.

At Stadium Digital, we are experts in all facets of the sports business, and our focus is in supporting our clients in realizing a return on their investments in content and engagement technologies.

For more on how we have helped our clients, here’s a recent case study.