Sport as spectacle: A future between staging and marketing
British-American Tobacco presents new sports study from the Leisure Research Institute
The future of sports is playing out between showmanship, sponsors, and spectacle. One in two Germans (52%) expects the commercialization of sports to increase further in the future. And 44 percent of the population even fear that elite sports will devolve into mere mass spectacle and staged TV events. This is according to a recent representative survey conducted by the Leisure Research Institute of British-American Tobacco, in which 3,000 Germans aged 14 and over were asked about their own sporting habits and their assessment of the future of sports.
Anyone wanting to profit from the public's interest in sports can no longer leave viewership to chance. "Sport is being staged as a dramatic experience," says Prof. Dr. Horst W. Opaschowski, head of the B·A·T Institute. "Lots of showmanship, fun, and entertainment—and a little bit of sport in between. Television will always be the driving force: spectator sports are becoming tele-sports."„
Even today, the fun and entertainment aspect of a sporting event is more important to spectators (38%) than their interest in the club (31%). And the need to be among interesting people is more significant (27%) than directly experiencing the victors and winners (16%). Like-minded spectators are just as fascinating (18%) as the sports stars themselves (14%). And neither local patriotism nor national pride (9%) draws crowds to the stadiums. What's more important is being able to experience the enthusiasm of other spectators up close (15%). What's in demand is excitement and thrills (19%) – the hope of witnessing a mega-event. A winner here, a loser there – a bit of gladiatorial combat.
There are notable differences between male and female spectator behavior, which also explains why three times as many men (181) as women (61) regularly attend sporting events: Almost half of all women (471) have never been to a sporting event. More women could only be attracted as spectators if sports were taken less seriously and attending were more fun. Fun and entertainment are the most important motivations for women attending. The atmosphere can sometimes be more appealing than the athletic performance. When men do attend sporting events, they consistently have high expectations regarding the sporting aspect. They identify more strongly with the sporting program. Their specific interest in the club is twice as high (421) as that of female attendees (211), and their expectations for excitement and thrills are also twice as high (231 – women 101).
The sports club of the future: More of a fun and leisure club than a community of solidarity.
The grace period for sports clubs is almost over: At the age of 18, many young people leave sports clubs because their leisure interests change. What the younger generation is looking for is "lots of fun, little club involvement": Only about one in five 18- to 29-year-olds thinks of club sports when it comes to their own sporting activities (22%). Around one in three (31%) would prefer to do sports without the obligation of membership. The sports club of the future must therefore offer more individualization than organization. Even today, one in four athletes envisions leisure sports as self-organized activities that allow for spontaneity and grant participants sufficient freedom.
Germans have very specific ideas about what sports and sports clubs of the future should look like. One in two Germans (51%) answers the question by stating that sports offerings are becoming increasingly diverse and limitless. Nearly a third of the population (29%) believes that volunteer work in sports clubs will noticeably decline in the future. One in five Germans (22%) is firmly convinced that the social group experience will hardly matter in the sports of the future. The sense of social obligation in sports clubs is increasingly being lost. Sports clubs are ceasing to be communities of solidarity. Instead, they are transforming into commercial service providers, believes a quarter of the population (25%). And one in ten Germans imagines the coach of the future as a leisure activity leader.
The sports club of the future will no longer be a club of idealists. Even more than the decline in membership, the crisis of volunteerism will burden the German Sports Federation. The younger generation, in particular, is dropping out. A significant aging, if not outright senescence, of members is to be feared for the future. Only four percent of young people aged 14 to 29 are currently involved in volunteer work in sports clubs. In contrast, the proportion of seniors aged 55 to 69 among sports officials is more than five times higher (22%). Professor Opaschowski: "This indicates generational conflicts, which also explain why young people over 18 are turning their backs on clubs en masse. Who will want to commit themselves in the future when non-committal consumption is what's in demand?"„
Clubs in large cities are feeling the effects of the crisis in volunteerism particularly acutely. While in rural areas one in eight club members takes on a voluntary role (13%), this is true for only one in twenty members in large cities and metropolitan areas (5%). Sports clubs in large cities are especially suffering from the wide range of offerings in the rest of the consumer and leisure sector.
Understandably, clubs blame themselves, attributing the instability of their members to the lack of appeal of their offerings. In reality, club members have developed a new, consumer-oriented understanding of sports and leisure (here today, gone tomorrow!). The formerly organized athletes have become free-roaming sports hoppers, acting and trying things out entirely on their own whim. With this fluctuating trend toward individualization, it is becoming almost impossible for sports clubs to retain their members in the long term.
The athlete of the future: outdoor enthusiast and short-term hero
In recent years, the range of attractive sports activities has exploded. In the 1960s, there were around 30 sports; today, there are over 240. For one in four Germans, recreational sports are now synonymous with fun sports (26%) or adventure sports (22%). This sets a precedent for the future. Will clubs in the future have their own fun and adventure sports sections, open to everyone after work, on weekends, or during holidays – without mandatory membership and offering courses similar to those at adult education centers or holiday clubs?
The athlete of tomorrow is sometimes a fan, sometimes a fanatic, sometimes an all-rounder or outdoor enthusiast, very trend- and fashion-conscious, and always with the right feeling for fun and adventure, thrills and excitement. For them, sporting activity is an expression of a movement-oriented experiential culture that has only one goal – to move away from the passivity of the body and the "full coverage" mentality of modern affluent life. Professor Opaschowski: "Thus, the athlete of tomorrow is more like a fish-bird-kangaroo creature that can perform leaps in water, air, and on land that actually exceed human capabilities: snorkeling and deep-sea diving, hang gliding and skydiving, skysurfing and bungee jumping." Human imagination is increasingly venturing into audacious dreams, but in sports, it doesn't just settle for dreams; it makes them a reality.
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