August 11: Gen Zers are less likely to identify as sports fans
US professional sports leagues are contending with a novel problem: attracting younger fan bases.
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Source: Huddle Up
Published: July 2021
Gen Zers are less likely to identify as sports fans
US professional sports leagues are contending with a novel problem: attracting younger fan bases.
Gen Z is less likely than the adult public to identify as sports fans. According to a 2020 Morning Consultant poll of 1,000 Gen Zers ages 13-23, almost 50% of respondents said they don't consider themselves fans at all.
Leagues are forging new strategies to capture a younger audience. The National Hockey League (NHL) recently appointed 19-year-old TikTok celebrity, Josh Richards, as a special advisor and “voice of the fans,” a controversial choice to die-hard NHL supporters.
It seems like this could be restated as "young people are less likely to identify as sports fans than adults." Well, there are probably lots of areas where young people differ from adults :-) Is this difference in sports fandom unique to Gen Z, or is sports fandom something that changes as a population ages? Is Gen Z's self-reported level of sports fandom any different from that of previous generations when those generations were between the ages of 13-23? That would be a more interesting question to ask, I think.