The game of football is changing.  Not so much on the pitch but most certainly off it.

30 years ago, heading to the stadium on a Saturday afternoon was the only way in which you as a football fan could get to see your heroes play.  Back then there was limited coverage on TV as the powers that be kept our national game game to themselves in the fear of crowds disappearing from the terraces if they didn’t.

At the start of the 1990’s, along came BskyB who changed the landscape forever.  They have made sure that no matter where you are you are able to catch a live game almost 7 days a week from anywhere in the world.  TV broadcasters have fundamentally altered the way in which we watch football from home, but little has changed for those fans that loyally go to every game.  Still paying fortunes for season tickets, over expensive pies and beer out of plastic glasses.

Thankfully things have started to move in the right direction.  We see new partnerships with social media channels, such as the Football League’s with YouTube, and sponsorship deals with tech companies almost on a weekly basis.

Clubs such as Celtic, Manchester City, Liverpool, Rangers and others have realised that things need to change and are installing wifi as it becomes more of an expectation from their fans.  Using your mobile phone anywhere at anytime has almost become a human right!

In the US they have always been several steps in front of us on this.  Back in the summer of 2012, they proudly announced that all 31 NFL team stadiums would have wifi installed in a boost to could help boost ticket sales from fans who could use mobile to listen to players using microphones.

But one year on and fewer than half the teams have achieved this aim and the league has shelved it current plans saying

“We are working on it as hard as we can. But the technology just isn’t where it needs to be to deliver what we want to deliver,”

–       Brian Lafemina, NFL VP of Club Business Development

The NFL suffers from one problem the Premier League, and Football League to an extent, has managed to avoid.  That of declining attendances.

The pressure is on them to make the reason for heading to a game even more compelling than that of saying at home.  US fans are big on Fantasy Football and stats that to take this away when going to watch a game is detrimental to the fans and what they crave.

As the UK audience becomes more tech savvy and their levels of expectation grow then clubs and federations are going to have to step up to the plate.  But in an industry where so much of club’s resource is ploughed into player transfer fees and wages, will they be able and willing to take the plunge?

Much of the emphasis when it comes to social media by clubs is still targeted around non-game games and towards those fans who cannot make the game; Game updates, press conference live-streams, funny training ground videos, etc.  Fans are getting accustomed to this approach now and are demanding more and more.

The guys at Huggity today wrote about the Burberry live streaming (http://blog.huggity.com/2013/09/real-time-sports-on-twitter) of their catwalk show at London Fashion Week and how this could, and maybe should, be making its way into sports.  But are we getting ahead of ourselves?

The innovative clubs see others copying their initiatives (the greatest form of flattery right?) and are increasingly looking to other sports for inspiration.

But what about those fans who are at the games?  There is a fine line here between adding to the experience and taking it away from what really matters, what is happening on the pitch in front of them.  Duane Roft from Teamtrackr summed it up really well in his guest article on here only a couple of months ago (https://digitalsport.co/the-fine-line-between-engagement-and-distraction).

Mark Bradley of the Fan Experience Company said in the article.

“It’s a sign of the changing times.  The nature of fans is changing – especially younger generations who have a bigger need to interact – and there’s a danger that if we go too far down the line it could finish off the traditional atmosphere of a game.  Our research always pinpoints ‘atmosphere’ as a big driver of fan engagement, so clubs would need to get the balance right. Otherwise we may damage one of the core elements of the UK football experience.”

So what can be done within stadiums to engage with fans and, importantly for clubs, encourage them to spend more money with them?

What we have seen more often from the US is the rise of the Social Media Command Centre as an example.  This started out as something that was hidden away in a room somewhere at a brand or HQ.  Now it’s a much more fan facing feature that helps gives those interested an overview of what is happening on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc around the game.  Giving them the opportunity to interact, see their name on the screens and be part of a bigger conversation.

Check out the GIANT @tweetdeck touch-screen at the @sfgiants new social media cafe in AT&T Park. http://t.co/OdbpbV68B7

— Jeff Elder (@JeffElder) June 19, 2013

This is open to all fans at the stadium and includes not only the screens but also purchase opportunities within it’s Café.   It’s a great idea to engage with tech savvy fans and making them feel part of a bigger experience.

But would this catch on in the UK?  Well, it already has started to happen.  Birmingham City recently launched its new ‘Bar 8’ fanzone in partnership with brewing giant Fosters.  So why have they done this?

Head of Media & Comms, Andy Walker, recently told Digital-Football.com;

“The idea behind the concept is to allow a selection of fans privileged access to an event at the club and encourage them to share their live thoughts via social media with the ultimate aim being that this conversation reaches a far wider and more influential audience. We’ll flag up the Twitter handles of those chosen accounts via the club’s official feed beforehand to encourage fans to join their debate thus further adding to that ‘VIP experience’.  Fans sharing thoughts with fellow fans has the potential to be far more influential than the standard club message. In simple terms, we want supporters to replicate the sort of conversation they’d have over a pint in the pub via social media.”

We’re at the start of a new journey for football.  Can it still survive on TV money alone, at the detriment to the fans or will they need to bring them closer than ever before?

With the size of the new BskyB and BT Sport deals there is little sign of the reliance on TV money changing for a while to come.  The number of fans at the turnstile is rising but once this changes, which it will, then it may be too late for the administrators to turn it round.

At the recent IC Tomorrow event where I was lucky enough to be a judge.  One of the areas being looked at was fan engagement in stadia and there were three ideas that made it through to the panel.  There were some great ideas but it did more to show that there is still a lot of room for improvement and also highlighted the limitations of the fundamental technologies that will allow for more creative thinking.

It’s an open playing field at the moment, ready for an explosion of activity to happen.  Once it does, the landscape will be changed beyond our dreams.  But will the sport be ready?

At next month’s Digital Sport London event, we’re going to be discussing this very topic.  How is sport changing with the ever-greater impact of digital media and technology?  For this we’ve brought together top speakers from SkySports, Arsenal, Opta, Squawka, Pulse Live and many more.

Tickets are available here > https://digitalsportlive.eventbrite.co.uk