Over the course of my life my main consumption of sports has been live sport, in person or on television. At my core I am a traditional sports fan, nothing beats watching a game as it happens especially at a sports bar. There is nothing more entertaining than the engaging in banter with other sports fan. I used to only consumer sports to be entertained but as my interest in sports and sports marketing grew so did by consumption. As life has become busier ESPN and YouTube have become my best friends. Being able to catch game highlights and commentary when ever it is convenient for me has changed my sports consumption but not drastically. I watch football all day every Sunday (given the chance) regardless if my team is playing. If there is a baseball game being televised it is likely I will put it on the TV over a sitcom. Outside of watching live sports I follow teams and players on Twitter and Instagram. I would say social media has changed how everyone consumes sports. Can’t watch a game? No worries some intern is live tweeting every play of the game. Social media has allowed sports fans to interact directly with the teams and players. I think that has changed how people think when they watch sports. They feel a greater sense of connection with the team as they watch which enhances their experience and they are more likely to keep watching game after game.

Once the Olympics come around my sports consumption specifically on social media sky rockets. With the Games being held in different countries with different time zones it increasingly hard to watch every event or sport. Once again shoutout to the intern live tweeting without them I would be lost during the Olympics. Social media has allowed me and others to follow every player and every team though their Olympic journey in just a few taps. It’s incredible to me the abundance of sports we are able to consume just on our smart phones. Twitter has become the one stop shop for sports. You can watch highlights, watch ESPN clips, read commentary, find sports related articles and contribute your own commentary and have people interact with you.

In the last five years social media has add another layer to sports consumption and communication. Perviously it was watch the game and watch the post game broadcast and then maybe go talk to your close friends about the games. Now Twitter and other social media outlets allow you to talk with people while the game is happening. It allows you to keep up to date with every game that is going on. Social media has given birth to a forever growing form of sports communication. It has created so many jobs and money making opportunities as well. Streaming services have also changed the way we consume sports. One can easily go back and watch a past game. One big change with sports and streaming services is now Thursday Night football is now only live streamed on Amazon Prime Video and not on cable television. This is HUGE. The biggest football fans are likely to create an amazon account if they didn’t perviously have one to be able to watch the Thursday night games. This was clearly a business and monetarily motivated move. This limits who can watch the game but it also forces people to pay for Amazon Prime. I think in the next 5 years more and more sporting events will be put on steaming series. Viewership of live sports on cable is decreasing so networks are going to resort to streaming services to better fill the cable TV slot with shows that will gain more viewers. They already had the majority of the past summer Olympics on Peacock instead of cable TV because viewership over the years has decreased. If I had a magic wand to change this I would.

I have a great appreciation for being able to watch sports for free on television. I feel more connected to the teams and it provides a better experience for me. Going back and watching an event after its happened is not the same. This is also where social media has its faults; because of Twitter it is likely I will already know the outcome of the game or event before I’d have the chance to go back at watch it. I wish there was more hesitation with social media posts when it comes to sport as to avoid “spoilers”. But these days information travels so extremely fast it can be difficult to keep up. If I could slow down the speed at which sports information travels I would. But I am also guilty of almost instantly posting when the Chiefs win a game because I am simply too excited. I guess there would be a bit of a give and take with that change if I could make it happen.