How Will Sports Change Over the Next Few Years through the Influence of Gen-z?

By V. Hassun

There is no doubt that sports will change over the following decades, but we do not realize that Gen-Zs hugely influence this happening.
 
Gen-Z is growing up with constantly developing technologies and is highly dependent on all technological things like phones and computers. It could be argued that this new generation has started to lose interest in sports compared to Millennials and past generations.
 
Technology improves a lot of life’s aspects, and Gen-Z likes this. Whether it is video games or social media, blogging, or entertainment like films and tv shows, technology offers more reasons to stay at home rather than explore the outside world and exercise.
 
Some research has been done, and some are still developing; however, you can see a huge difference in past generations' relationship with sports. According to a report by Morning Consult, only 25% of Gen-Z watch sport at least once a week and nearly 40% watch none. This is highly detrimental to professional sports teams who need fan support, because as fewer Gen-Z watch sport, there will be fewer fans, affecting the audience for future generations. Furthermore, Morning Consult also states that only 53% of Zoomers (Gen-Z) consider themselves “fans” of sports.
 
With this, all professional teams will have to adapt in different ways, and their marketing teams will have to come up with ways to attract Gen-Z’s attention so that sport can continue to thrive in the future as it does now and did in the past.
 
What people think is that the Gen-Z do not have the patience to watch the game from start to finish, they might still be interested in games, especially if there is something extra to it like a gamble, but most Gen-Z are more likely to watch parts of the game in either Youtube or Tiktok, which is very different from Millennials attitudes towards games. Many leagues already started taking advantage of Tik Tok and YouTube, attracting Gen-Z attention to their teams.
 
Sports executives also realise they need to meet the Gen-Z crowd and are trying to find creative ways to use social media to accomplish that. Leagues and pro teams need to reach Gen-Z with what they like, either through social media or technology-related methods, but they still need to get them to move to a TV screen or a stadium; their future depends on it. The future of sports and teams depends on it. Many people might say it is primarily up to the marketing methods they will use to reach Gen-Zs and channel the inner sportsmanship every single one has inside them.
 
With the right ideas and determination, there is a huge possibility that this fear about Gen-Z changing sports popularity might be a phase and in reality, the leagues and teams just needed to adapt more and explore new horizons.