Whose Jersey Is That, Anyway?

You probably know someone who owns a jersey for a team they don’t actively root for. Maybe you are that person. Turns out you’re not alone — one in ten US sports fans has bought merch for a team they don’t support, because of a single athlete, according to Emarketer’s recent report “From Fan to Cart.” 

That’s fandom built around a person, not a franchise. And if someone will cross team loyalty lines to buy a jersey because of who’s wearing it, is the purchase of a ticket to see them live that far out of reach?

The primary focus of the report explores how retail companies are learning to treat contemporary shifts in fandom as a direct path to purchase. But as someone who spends their day thinking about how to get people off their couches and into live events, I couldn’t help but think that if retail continues to identify ways to read fandom as a path to purchase, what are we doing with the same signals to drive attendance?

The shopper is already a fan. And if you’re in the business of selling tickets or driving attendance, that fan is already telling you something about where they are in their relationship with your brand, whether you’re listening or not.

We saw this play out working with the New York Knicks and Rangers. Fans buying gear during a winning streak or the playoffs were signaling heightened excitement, so clearly the teams were on their minds. That didn’t automatically make them a ticket buyer, but it signaled active fandom and showed they were worth getting in front of in a way more authentic than our standard remarketing pool.

Holiday merch purchases told a different story. Someone buying gear in December is probably buying it for someone else – which means the signal isn’t just about the buyer, but about the fan in their life. And if you’re already thinking about that fan enough to buy them a jersey, why wouldn’t a ticket be the next conversation?

Looking at our first party retail data allowed us not only to identify who to reach, but what to say, and which games and inventory to push them toward. The data didn’t replace the strategy — it just made the strategy more direct.

When someone engages with a brand’s content or stops on creative featuring someone or something specific, it can be an expression of fandom, not awareness-level engagement. They’re telling you something that someone who saw a pre-roll and clicked past has not. 

The EMARKETER report suggests to “Treat sports fans as shoppers, not just viewers.” For those of us in live and experiential entertainment, I think we can consider treating shoppers and engagers as fans, not just leads.

Leaning into purchase histories, behaviors, social engagement, and seasonal patterns enables us to fill seats while others may still be focusing too much on prospecting.

Signs of fandom can be found in many ways — the real question is whether we’re set up to read and answer them when uncovered.