Information Technology and the Sports World

I think back upon my childhood and it's interesting to see how technological advances have changed the sports industry.  Growing up I loved the Atlanta Braves, but I do remember the hassle it was for my parents when they would buy tickets to a game.  You either had to find a Ticketmaster outlet near your (which may be easy or may not) or actually stand in line the day of the game at the stadium's box office and wait to buy tickets. Don't forget places only took cash and there were not ATMs, so if it was a weekend game you had to make sure that you took enough cash out of the bank on Friday to cover the cost of everything.  If the game was sold out, then it was sold out and unless you wanted to track down a scalper there was nothing you could do to go see it.  Now, ticket purchases are made online with a few clicks of a mouse or even with a few pushes of a button on a smartphone.  Thanks to websites like Stubhub, you can even find tickets to sold out sporting events very easily. Luckily, my Atlanta Braves in the 1980s weren't very good, so we could get tickets to most any game we wanted to see.  Technological advances have made it possible for almost anyone who wants to see a particular sporting event to be able to see that event if they're willing to pay the price.  If Joe Smith wanted to see the Super Bowl he could buy tickets to the game.  That was something that was unheard of only 20 years ago. 

                                      
The technological advances have changed the way every single business industry functions.  Sport is not immune to those changes.  In an interesting article in the Sport Journal, by Dr. Rosandich he believes that society has moved from an Age of Industry into an Age of Information and technological advances are the reason for it.  Information Technology is the engine that is driving this change. 

For example, if we look at the sports world databases are compiled to provide information to sport organizations about every aspect of their consumer.  Information is easily compiled and sorted so that it can be analyzed to either help determine marketing strategies, organizational policies or goals, recruitment of athletes, how athletes train, and even help event planners run large events.  Being able to access this information affects every aspect of a sport organization.  Having this access to information has made a sport organization's job much easier.  Let's be honest, what rules the sports industry is money.  Databases now allow the tracking of donor's information more easily, so that fund raising for organizations is much simpler and easier to complete.  Every aspect of running a business has been helped by being able to sort and accumulate large amounts of information easily. 

Fans watching an NHL game on their phone

The article also talks about how the Internet has changed marketing and commerce rules for industry, sports included.  Every major sports team has a website, and through this website they are able to offer a product to their fans and consumers.  Not only is the team a product to be consumed, but also there are untolds amounts of merchandise that teams can offer to sell to their fans.  The Internet has also changed the way fans consume their product. I'll give you a personal example.  I live in Ohio, and there are basically no Braves games televised unless it's a national broadcast, but if I wanted to I could see the Atlanta Braves play every single game this year through the MLB website.  This access keeps fans connected to their team, and willing to follow their team and consume the team's product.  Without this access I would have to rely on highlights and the newspaper to tell me what was going on with my team. And this doesn't even scratch the surface, because I'm only a domestic example, there are fans throughout the world that can follow any team they want. This opens up avenues to commerce abroad for sport organizations that were unconceivable only 15 years ago.

Perhaps most interesting to me is thinking about how technology will advance even further in the next couple decades and how it will change the industry.  What once was unthinkable 15 years ago is now very much thinkable and realistic.  In order to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their revenues sport organizations will have  to find ways to use information technology to sustain their business in order for their organizations and teams to continue to thrive and grow.

For a full text of Dr. Rosandich's article please go to:
http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/information-technology-sports-management