“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou
Sports has always invoked a feeling, and a sense of belonging.
Lately though, our venues are facing an uphill battle to get fans back in the venues that elicit these feelings.
Partially the weight of the Covid era is making many fans question the necessity of live sports in their lives; partially the at-home experience has gotten too good.
The hill is steeper for premium. As every fan now wants an Instagram experience, those areas labeled non-premium are nearly as extravagant as those that are. Nose bleeds are no more, and everyone gets their perfect picture.
To differentiate premium experiences, it’s a journey to a peak. How do we reach it?
With some introspection, for starters.
ALSD recently solicited member feedback, outlined in the following pages, and three themes were consistently offered: staffing, technology, and the experience. The last is the focus of this article, with an underpinning of the two others, inevitably. What we discovered could to help our venues reach those peak premium experiences.
One ALSD member and known hospitality connoisseur, Simon Nash, Owner & GM of Ohana Towels, was called upon specifically to help set the stage on redefining experience and uncovering how our industry can overcome the impasse we’ve come to in delivering a truly premium experience.
We debated what constitutes a great experience, and if it changes for suites, loges, club seats. (It does.) We examined personas as well as stakeholders and if all define “best experience” the same way. (They don’t.) We defined those responsible for delivering a great experience, moments of truth, and the long-term impact of an experience.
In the end, what resulted from our conversations and member feedback is this, a mini-thesis on how we re-define experience and the questions we must ask to do so.
Photo credit: Spodek Arena courtesy ESL.