Revolutionizing Fan Engagement: Stadium’s Quest to Put Fans at the Heart of the Action
Author: Marshall V. King
Jason Coyle – CEO of Stadium
Enhancing Fan Engagement
Jason Coyle is working to put the fans in the middle of the games.
The president of Stadium wants to bring fans together with content that isn’t just games or highlights, but what the fans themselves create.
“Every media company needs to figure out how to drive your own audience and capture your own data and interact with your own viewers and customers,” he said.
ND Sports Analytics students in the Master of Science in Business Administration program at Mendoza College of Business met with Coyle in December at the United Center, where Stadium has its offices. He’s a 1993 graduate of the University of Notre Dame. “I pretty much would do anything for the school. I believe in our mission and values and the kind of people who come through the place,” he said.
From Vision to Reality
Chicago White Sox Logo
Coyle graduated from Notre Dame and then Harvard Law School, and after earning those degrees, learned the programming side and the business side, as well as production, content, and making deals. In 2008, he co-founded Silver Chalice Ventures with Brooks Boyer, another Notre Dame grad, under the direction of Jerry Reinsdorf and other co-owners of the Chicago White Sox. The goal was to create a sports media company for the digital generation.
The first version of that was 120 Sports, a live, interactive, and mobile-only sports network produced at Harpo Studios, Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago product hub. It won awards, including Apple naming it one of the top 25 apps across all categories.
Stadium is an expansion of 120 Sports into a 24-hour, multi-platform sports network that brings together exclusive live game and event coverage, extensive highlights, classic games, original programming, and daily live studio programming.
Coyle and those he works with are relaunching the company to utilize data and the content of those engaging the platform.
Shaping the Future of Media
He points to ESPN, perhaps the most successful cable network in history, having to navigate the same questions of how to make a profit in a changing landscape of streaming and distribution. Buzzfeed, Vice, and other companies were worth billions and ended up failing. “It’s a cautionary tale that everyone has to understand,” he said. “They did not own their audience. They were either relying on algorithms or this distributed model, constantly getting someone else. They never really connected and owned their audience.”
Driving your own audience and creating a relationship — as opposed to relying primarily on third-party distributors who generate revenue but retain the viewer data and relationship — will become a mandatory part of staying in business, said Coyle. “I think that’s the opportunity for the next media company. I hope that’s us.”
Stadium plans to reward creators with gamification and even offer jobs. Being rewarded with a free subscription if you are a consumer evangelist is rare in sports and Coyle hopes Stadium will do that. They hope to modernize radio call-in shows. “We want to actually incentivize people to come into the experience and then once they’re there, it’s our job to make it a great one that they want to come back to,” he said. “By incentivizing fans and content creators to interact live with Stadium’s professional talent, we can all create something truly original.”
Engaging customers will mean analyzing the data they create. He told the MSBA students that he’ll need folks like them to make this leap in his business. Rather than being data-starved, he wants to be data-rich and harness the power of the data to create a different kind of sports network. “We’re hiring our first data analyst in January. We’re going to need a whole team,” he said.
