We asked 1,669 fans how they spend their money

One of our goals is to give you independent research you can actually use, the kind most people can’t get without paying for it. So we surveyed fans nationwide and built the Sports & Co. Fan Index.

The American sports fan wants to spend. Over 78% plan to put money toward sports over the next 12 months. So the question for the year ahead isn’t whether fans are willing. It’s whether organizations understand what each group is asking for and build for it, instead of reaching for the two levers everyone goes to first: raise prices or cut them.

Here’s what stood out most from our findings:

1) When fans say “price,” they don’t only mean “charge me less.” Among the fans who say something can get them to spend more, price leads — 45% name it. But an improved product (a better in-venue experience, more player access, a better team) sits right behind at 36%, well ahead of streaming. And it’s the higher earners who name price most, from 31.2% of fans under $50K to 44.3% of those over $100K — not what you’d expect if this were really about who can afford a seat. What a lot of fans are describing is friction, the ticket tiers, the parking, the hassle of getting in, not a plea for a discount. That points at access and flexible plans, not an across-the-board cut that resets the price for everyone.

2) The couch is winning the oldest fans first, not the youngest. Everyone assumes the at-home shift is a young-fan story. It’s the opposite. The share who’d rather watch from home or a bar climbs with age, from 26% of under-30s to 44.9% of fans 60 and over. And among fans 60 and up, streaming has already passed tickets as the top budget category, 29.1% to 26.9%, while younger fans still put the live event first. The shift to the screen is being led from the top of the age range, not the bottom.

3) Fan loyalty runs deeper than the headlines suggest, and it grows with age. Asked to choose between staying with their team or following a departing star, fans overwhelmingly stay, and the older they get, the more decisively. Among fans under 30, 81% stay with the team; that climbs to 96% of fans 60 and up. The pull of the player is real for younger fans, but the team brand wins at every age. That’s a choice for any organization to make, whether to lean into star marketing or roster continuity, and the right answer differs by sport and by fan age.

4) The fans who show up regularly and the ones who’ve drifted away don’t want the same things. Among lapsed fans, the ones who say they used to attend more than they do now, price dominates as a barrier: 46.6% name cost first and 12.5% say nothing would bring them back at all. Active fans spread their answers across the in-venue experience, team performance, and streaming, which means there are several ways to earn more from them. One message won’t move both groups. The lapsed fan needs a reason on price; the active fan needs a better night out.

A few other numbers worth knowing (you can read our full summary on our website): The spending gap between occasional and dedicated fans is over 41 points, which makes optimizing supporters that a team already has worth more than almost any new-fan acquisition. Tickets and food at the venue are still the largest single pool of spending at 33.1%. And support for paying college athletes sits at 59.9%, but it thins by 27 points from the under-45 crowd to fans 60 and over, the donor-heavy end, where the argument is closest to even.

Along with the summary, we’ve put together a full deck that breaks down all the findings. We’re giving it to all of our subscribers for free. Fill out this one-minute survey and we’ll email you the deck right away.

And if you want a specific cut of the data, by region, by sport, or by fan segment, email me at [email protected] and we’ll put it together for you.

Yao Williams II → VP and Head of Global Partnerships, Los Angeles Lakers
Williams takes over the Lakers’ global partnership operation after co-leading the same function at Elevate Sports Ventures, with earlier runs at the NBA and Manchester City. He joins a wave of front-office additions under new owner Mark Walter, whose $10 billion purchase has the franchise investing across its business and basketball sides at once.

Sean Eggert → Senior Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer, NHL
Eggert arrives from Under Armour, where he spent seven years as SVP of global sports marketing, to lead all of the league’s centralized brand and marketing work. He steps in as Heidi Browning takes on a new chief digital officer role, part of a broader push behind the NHL’s international and digital growth.

Tia Washington → Director of Corporate Partnerships, Tepper Sports & Entertainment
Washington moves over from the Atlanta Hawks’ global partnerships group to lead corporate partnership sales across the Panthers, Charlotte FC, and Bank of America Stadium. She lands on the revenue side of a portfolio that spans an NFL club, an MLS club, and the building they share.

Elizabeth DeFeo → VP of Partnerships, Colorado Rapids
DeFeo joins from Octagon, bringing 15 years guiding brands through sports investments across the NFL, MLB, NHL, Formula 1, and global events like the World Cup and Olympics. She’ll lead sponsorship strategy and activation as the Rapids build out their commercial operation under CBO Haley Durmer, arriving alongside the club’s first-ever marketing SVP.

Nathan Castillo → Associate Athletic Director of Commercial Revenue, University of Illinois
Castillo comes to Illinois from Rice, where he ran business strategy, with earlier stops at Georgia Southern, UTSA, and Ball State. It’s a dedicated commercial-revenue seat in a Big Ten department, the kind of role multiplying across college athletics as departments build out the revenue side.

Travis Lamprecht → President of Business Operations, The Island FC
Lamprecht takes over commercial and business operations for the Long Island club ahead of its MLS NEXT Pro launch, owning revenue strategy, partnerships, and brand as it builds toward kickoff. A Queens native, he came up through San Diego FC, San Diego Loyal, Memphis 901 FC, and the USL. A pre-launch club installing a business-ops president this early shows how seriously the lower divisions now take the build.

Assistant Athletic Director, Internal Operations — Texas A&M (College Station, TX): Runs the day-to-day of the athletics business office for a 20-sport SEC department, serving as primary approver on financial documents and exercising spending authority when needed. The work spans camp financials, EADA and NCAA reporting, and budget development — the financial machinery that keeps a major program running. Asks for four-plus years in athletics administration with a finance background. Learn more and apply here.

Senior Vice President, Business Development — PGA Tour (Ponte Vedra Beach): Leads the Tour’s enterprise-wide new-business strategy, cultivating C-suite relationships at Fortune 500s and negotiating the multi-year partnerships that drive long-term revenue. Works across Corporate Strategy, Media, and Legal to bring deals to market. Fifteen-plus years and a deep network across the sports-media world, at the top of the league-office commercial org. Learn more and apply here.

Director, Communications — Phoenix Mercury & Valley Suns (Phoenix): Owns integrated communications for a WNBA franchise and its G League sibling under the Player 15 Group umbrella, from player-transaction messaging to game-day media ops, and travels with the Mercury on the road. It’s a single comms lead across two leagues at once, the kind of cross-property role that comes with sitting inside a larger ownership group. Asks for seven-plus years, ideally with a team or league. Learn more and apply here.

General Manager — Learfield / University of Louisiana (Lafayette, LA): Leads the Sports Properties team and serves as Learfield's primary liaison to the Ragin’ Cajuns’ athletics department, owning the multimedia rights agreement and the corporate partner platform end to end. Equal parts revenue leader and relationship steward, running sponsorship sales while building a long-term campus partnership. Asks for eight-plus years in sponsorship sales or B2B revenue, ideally around college athletics. Learn more and apply here.

“One judge in one county can override the NCAA on a gambling case that should have been open-and-shut. That tells you our enforcement system needs real power behind it. Maybe Sorsby is what finally gets everyone moving.”

— A Power Four football GM

“We’re going through our rookies’ college deals one by one to see if there are brands we can turn into team partners. Turns out a sponsor that loved a kid in college isn’t always ready to sign with their new team. Or isn’t willing to pay us as much, at least.”

— A partnership manager with an NFL team

“We sweated season ticket renewal numbers all winter because they started slower than usual. But we ended up closing up over last year. I’ve stopped trying to predict it. I’m not sure if people love the ballpark again, the rule changes worked, or this is still the post-COVID need for live events.”

— A communications executive with an MLB team

1) We’re building a resume bank to help teams and programs hire great people more efficiently. Submit your resume if you want to be included (we’ll never share any of your information without asking first).

2) Didn’t grab the full Fan Index deck above? Fill out this one-minute survey and we’ll email it to you.

3) A lot of you have already been sending us intel for Industry Moves and What You’re Saying. Keep it coming! (Reply to this newsletter or send to [email protected])

See you next Wednesday.