As we noted in part 2 of our series, the concept of a spoiler alert exists because of our ability to consume culture at our own time and pace. Combined with the power of algorithms, it’s impossible that one person consumes the same content at the same time in the same order as another one. But sports break that system.

“There's really nothing else that has that ability to bring every single person in the world together at the same time, except maybe breaking news,” said Kayla Knapp, Director of Marketing at COLLiDE Agency and formerly an employee of the Portland Thorns & Timbers, as well as Fox Sports. “I turn into a psychopath during the World Cup. If it's not in my time zone, I don't sleep. I'm up at 2 AM tweeting. I'm going to the bar at midnight. There's nothing else in the world that does that.”

Paul Webber, Senior Director of Global Brand Marketing for adidas Basketball, agrees. “The beauty of sports is that they’re completely unpredictable and you don't really know what's going to happen. And so much of it is still rooted in the live experience.”

Other events like awards shows or heavily covered red carpets bring a timely component to their cultural impact, but not nearly as often as sports. Plus, we watch sports generally with the knowledge and connection that we could be in those seats, but securing a seat at a fancy gala or award ceremony feels less attainable. It’s a classic “those folks in the stands look like me and therefore I feel more connected to it” feeling. The connection we lack in those moments is not one of timeliness, but one of access.

There are a few ways to view access when thinking about sport: the ability to be that person in the seats having the live experience, the amount of access we have to athletes today, and the sheer volume of content that exists related to sport in general.

“There are elements in our world and our culture that are so iconic that I don't care how technology evolves; you still cannot replace that feeling [of being there],” Jon Cohen told me. Jon is Co-Founder & CEO of music publication The Fader, as well as Owner and Co-CEO of Cornerstone, a creative agency that works with brands like Coca-Cola and sports leagues like MLS. “It's the live aspect that gives you that passion and love, and it's that live aspect that you take home with you that makes you feel so fanatical to still participate on your phone.”

Then, at home, access becomes about how much we can consume on our devices and what kind of things we are consuming. Kayla noted that a major shift in the content dynamic from teams & leagues to players came during the pandemic, when games weren’t happening but something needed to be posted. “I think the pandemic really forced people to completely change how they create content because I think we were in a direction of telling the players’ stories. But I think for a long time, since there weren't games, there wasn't actual sport activity to cover.”

Our access to players, which feels commonplace today, hasn’t existed for that long in the grand scheme of American sports. According to Jon, “there is something really amazing about this time where we can get closer.”

“Back in the day, call it the 80s, early 90s, there weren't as many avenues into the athlete,” said Paul. “So, the athletes relied on brands like adidas or Nike to help establish their positioning and market them. If you think about MJ, you remember the Nike x Jordan affiliation and you remember Gatorade. His brand was really kind of communicated through those things outside of the greatness on court. They didn't have Twitter, they didn't have Instagram, they didn't have YouTube. But I think now it's interesting because the athlete has more power.”

“The whole industry, whether it be teams, leagues, or marketing agencies, has thrived on being able to be in front of you everywhere you are,” said Nate Loucks, VP & General Manager of Boardroom, a media company cofounded by Kevin Durant. Being everywhere starts with TV and streaming, from literal networks run by the NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL, to always-on content hubs like MLS Season Pass on Apple TV or the new NWSL+.

When Nate worked for the WWE, he was surprised to discover that for some people their reality shows weren’t an extension of the brand but instead a way in. “I didn’t believe it at first, but the amount of folks that I spoke with while I worked at WWE who had become a WWE fan from watching Total Divas” was huge, he said.

Similar sensations drove Formula 1’s rise thanks to Drive to Survive, and made Wrexham the biggest team in Wales thanks to Welcome to Wrexham. In these scenarios, the long-form content is so well executed that it almost overshadows the games themselves. For example, I’ve seen posts from folks who love Welcome to Wrexham not wanting the real-time results of matches to be spoiled so they can watch the recap of the match on the show in 8 or 9 months time.

Broadcasting games or other long-form content isn’t the only point of access; in fact, for some leagues, clips may be even more important. “We know that at least within basketball, less and less kids are watching full games, and more of it's consumed via social and clips,” said Paul.

Almost 1/4 of Americans say they watch sports highlights on TV or online at least weekly, including 44% of self-described sports fans (GWI). Many of those clips are viewed on social media, where sports people and teams are the fifth most favorite social accounts Americans like to follow. 11% of people go so far as to say that watching/following sports is one of the top 3 reasons they use social media at all. Accessing the sport, teams, players, and leagues from all these angles “satiates” the hardcore fans (to use Nate’s words) and also provides plenty of points of entry for casuals.

Having so much access makes it easier for us as individuals to find the parts of the storyline we like, which is where personalization comes in. We choose how deep to go and where we are consuming, and then the algorithm takes us into a bubble filled with a story that goes for as long as we want it to. To illustrate the point, Nate referred to America’s current favorite couple: “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, their story does not end. It goes from his podcast to the pregame show, to the tunnel fits, to Taylor in the stands… And the same goes for even the fans of other teams or players, they now have a myriad of podcasts or player-specific shows that they can just continue to consume.”

The personalized nature of what we consume is even driving product conversations. “We were just talking about this the other day: we have five signature shoes. Is that too much?,” asked Paul. “Are we lacking focus? But then we started talking about how the algorithm, if I'm an Anthony Edwards fan, it's just serving me in a way that I may not even see the Donovan Mitchell content to the same degree. And so I do think that there's still a level of Soloculture within sports based on the team you follow, the sport you follow, the athlete you follow.”

Sports betting has also increased our personal interest in ways that may not have existed in the past. “Gambling is completely changing the sports equation,” said Jon. “If we had this conversation five or ten years ago, gambling in sports was so taboo. Now it’s completely changed a lot of the mentality around sports and it's made it gamified and fun.”

“You can curate your entire football Sunday based on the decisions you've made that have nothing to do with how the game is being presented to you,” said Nate. “I'm going to get the NFL Sunday Ticket or Red Zone or whatever so I can watch my fantasy team, or I'm going to put a ten player parlay in Fanduel and hope for the best because they've marketed it to me that it's a fun experience, that it's just got a little piece of skin in the game to make it more appetizing.”

Sports create the space for connections that brands can usually only dream of. Their communities are vibrant and passionate, unlike many of the brand-led communities we see today. In fact, according to GWI, sports fans are more likely to say social media helps them feel more connected to people than the average American.

“I noticed this a lot in Portland with the Timbers and the Thorns - a lot of those fans that are die-hard community members and supporters of the teams didn't start out as soccer fans,” said Kayla. “They're people that were looking for community, and this is something they built a community around.”

Nate highlighted how the emotional fulfillment of sports communities can carry far past the pitch: “The aspect of community, of how can I find someone like-minded or someone who shares my emotional connection to a certain thing? To me, that always either comes back to sports or perhaps music, but more so sports. It’s one of those last things that you can experience together physically and also all the way down to social platforms in your own web of the Internet, on TikTok or Twitch or Roblox.”

Paul relayed a story of how successful these communities can be when done right. “I was speaking with the head of marketing for an MLS team, who told me their supporters group has a WhatsApp group. If the team is about to announce a trade, they text that group first and say, “Hey, FYI, this is about to happen” so that they don't catch it from the news first. What they’ve found is that [the info] never leaked from that group. And in fact, once it's announced, because they were told first, even if folks disagreed with it, they would defend the point of view because they heard it from the executive team first.”

That type of community can’t be faked or bought, it needs to feel real. As more brands recognize the power of sports in culture, the danger becomes over-extending their connection to the sport itself.

“Everyone wants to borrow the influence from sports, and so every brand is trying to play in that space,” said Paul. “But I think there's a lot of brands that play in sports without necessarily having a true understanding and authentic understanding of who these athletes are and what they care about and what's authentic within the sport itself.”

The danger of inauthenticity can also apply to the way athletes tell their stories as well, where focusing too much on building up community around superstars could be seen as shortsighted: “I think the curse is sometimes [superstars] get so big they overshadow the team and they overshadow the league,” said Jon. “I think there has to be a careful balance of the way leagues are portrayed and marketed versus pushing the superstar perspective. The narrative is great, but the problem is eventually those icons retire and they move on and if you build too much around one individual, versus building around the game, it’s really tricky to regain that audience.”