Over the past decade, especially the last 5 years, the sports media landscape has changed dramatically and with this so have my viewing habits when it comes to sports media. To preface this entire blog, I am a die hard hockey fan and a huge fan of the New York Rangers, so if I’m sitting down to watch sports it’s likely a Rangers game (sadly). When I first got into the game, I remember just watching national broadcast games that would be NBCSN with Doc Emirick and not really having a focus on what team nor an understanding of when the teams played. I remember just sifting through the channels before I knew there were schedules available and seeing the Rangers were playing and thinking to myself “oh man, I gotta tune in and watch them play”.

Additionally, at this point in my life, I didn’t know the depth of sports media, so all I would do was watch the games and then that would be it. No discussion online, no ranting to other super fans, no doom posting when we lose, nothing. All because I didn’t know of the possibility of what I could do with sport-related media. Fast forward to now and it is a world of difference. I have fully embraced the changes and advances that have been made in communication and sport-related media. During game days, I’ll lurk in the Rangers’ subreddit and carefully keep an eye on it to see the reactions of my fellow fans (especially on occasions where I can’t watch the game) and chat with them too. I have also taken to other social media such as Instagram and have begun following pages that are all things Rangers and hockey so I can stay in the loop with my favorite game. 

Outside of communicative outlets, I’ve also adopted streaming games when I am unable to watch the national broadcast as the Rangers are an out of market team for us in Norfolk. If I hadn’t done this, I would have to wait for them to either be on a national broadcast or for them to play the caps in a local broadcast, but now I can watch any of their games (provided that there isn’t a blackout on the game). With streaming in mind, I think in the next 5 years we will see sports make much heavier transitions into that realm almost as if your subscriptions are like a digital ticket to every game.

Lastly, if I could magically change something in the sport communication landscape I would wish for people to be more open to discussion and understanding of differing perspectives relating to the game. I can’t count how many times I’ve been ostracized for my comments on the Rangers poor play by other fans and I wish people would be willing to actually discuss the game calmly, rather than grab their pitchforks when it comes to hot takes.