Sports leagues race to capture Gen Z and Gen Alpha with AI, influencers and Italian brainrot
CHICAGO -- Trevor McOmber and his 14-year-old son, Tye, share a love for the Chicago Blackhawks.When Trevor was his son's age, he watched the Blackhawks on TV, caught highlights on ESPN and read about the team in the newspaper.It's a much different experience for Tye.“I go to YouTube with Snapchat, or Google something if I just have an idea that I want to know,” Tye McOmber said while sitting next to his father at a recent Blackhawks game.Tye McOmber is on the border of Generation Z, born roughly between 1997 to 2012, and Generation Alpha, approximately 2012 to 2024 — a sprawling group of people with unique media habits and diverse attitudes on where sports fit into their lives.Together, they form — potentially, at least — the next generation of sports fans, an almost constant topic of conversation in the offices of every major sports organization.
And they have proven to be a tricky target.According to a Morning Consult poll, 20% of Gen-Z adults identify as avid sports fans, compared to 33% of Millennials and 27% of Generation X.One-third of the Gen-Z respondents said they do not follow sports at all.
Even among those who are fans, the touchpoints for teams and leagues are changing constantly."Something that we might have done two or three years ago to capture this audience is changing based on how they consume, the way they consume, the way that content is packaged to them as well,” said Uzma Rawn Dowler, the chief marketing officer for Major League Baseball.“And so we’re always constantly keeping up with the trends and of how we can continue to resonate with this audience in the right way.”Mark Beal, a communication professor at Rutgers University, shows an image of a Zamboni during his presentations on Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
He asks his audience what the Zamboni is, and after a while, he provides his perspective.“That is a Gen-Z dream right there,” he says.“You put a Gen Z-er in that between period one and two of a game.
By the time the...