The New Playbook

By Sly Peoples – Head of U.S. Sports & Entertainment ∙ Burson

When I was growing up in South Carolina, sports fandom was straightforward. You inherited your team loyalty from your family, watched the local broadcast on Saturday or Sunday, and that was that. Later, during my time at Nike and adidas, I saw firsthand how global brand engines operated on that very same playbook: secure high-visibility logo placements, buy prime linear broadcast spots, and trust that generational loyalty would handle the rest.

If that is still your brand’s playbook today, you are playing a game that no longer exists.

Throughout my career—from global footwear giants to leading strategic communications at agencies—I’ve had the privilege of tracking cultural shifts from courtside seats in North America to pitch-side tunnels across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. What I’m seeing right now isn’t just an evolution in U.S. sports; it’s a full-scale cultural revolution.

Linear viewership is consolidating, but sports culture is exploding across music, fashion, streaming, short-form digital content, and global lifestyle spaces.

The central thesis driving this shift is simple: Sports is no longer consumed as a top-down media product—it is experienced as a bottom-up cultural lifestyle. Fandom is no longer just about stats and who wins on the field; it is about how the game intersects with identity, community, and personal expression.

At the vanguard of this revolution are three powerhouse audiences: Female fans, Gen Z fans, and Hispanic fans.

Too often, brand strategists make the mistake of reducing these groups to traditional demographic checked boxes on a media plan—treating age, gender, or ethnicity as static targeting filters. But modern marketing requires looking past census data. Winning today means entering the distinct cultural playgrounds where these fans actually meet up, express themselves, and build community.

If your brand wants to win over the next decade, here is the ground truth on how these three forces are driving a single, unified shift in modern sports—and how we need to meet them.

1. The Female Fan: Expanding the Commercial & Cultural Boundary

How fandom moved beyond tokenism into mainstream cultural power.

For decades, the traditional agency world treated female fans as an afterthought, relying on lazy “shrink it and pink it” tactics. Today, women’s sports are a primary engine of commercial expansion and cultural relevance because modern audiences no longer view sports through a rigid, male-dominated lens.

In a single year, U.S. audiences consumed over 46 billion minutes of women’s sports content¹. Broadcast ads running during women’s sports events deliver 15% higher brand impact than standard primetime television². What’s more, the fan base is balanced—roughly 50% male and 50% female³. Modern fans don’t view women’s sports as a niche side event; they view it as elite sports entertainment, period.

• The Strategic Payoff: Moving beyond tokenism is mandatory. The brands winning today aren’t dropping one-off ads during Title IX anniversaries; they are locking in multi-year, equity-driven media buys, grassroots investments, and athlete-led storytelling that respects the true power of the athlete as a cultural icon on and off the field of play.

2. The Gen Z Fan: Decentralizing Fandom Through Lifestyle

How fandom shifted from passive broadcast viewing to active cultural participation.

Gen Z isn’t consuming sports less—they are consuming sports through culture. Growing up embedded in music, gaming, and digital communities, this generation doesn’t wait for a 3-hour broadcast to tell them what matters. They are accelerating the shift from franchise loyalty to creator and athlete loyalty.

Only 26% of Gen Z identify as traditional “die-hard” full-game viewers. Instead, 31% feel more connected to individual athletes than to entire franchises, and 49% entered a new sport through off-field style, memes, digital creators, or lifestyle content rather than live competition⁴. To Gen Z, an athlete’s tunnel walk fit, gaming setup, or playlist is just as compelling as their stat line.

• The Strategic Payoff: Stop treating Gen Z like a passive broadcast audience. Fandom for Gen Z is a participatory ecosystem. Brands must shift budget from static, one-way signage to interactive cultural activations. Winning means partnering across the full creator network—from athletes and digital hosts to gaming streamers and fashion tastemakers—while providing Gen Z with active tools to participate, whether through second-screen commentary, gamified experiences, or co-created culture drops on TikTok and Twitch.

3. The Hispanic Fan: Fueling the Economic Engine of Modern Culture

How cultural identity drives commercial return and brand affinity.

The Hispanic fan base represents the most undeniable growth trajectory in U.S. sports, proving that in-culture connection is the ultimate accelerator of economic impact. As our industry marches toward a projected $300B+ market size by 2035, Latino fans are set to drive one-third of that entire growth.

Hispanic fans spend 15% to 50% more on sports (tickets, merch, streaming) than non-Latino fans and show a 39% higher propensity for brand loyalty toward companies that sponsor the teams and sports they love. Yet across the industry, targeted ad spend toward Hispanic sports fans remains stuck under 4%⁵. That isn’t just a missed opportunity—it’s bad strategy.

• The Strategic Payoff: In-culture relevance beats in-language translation every single time. Simply translating an English voiceover into Spanish doesn’t cut it anymore. Culture is far more than language or demographic targeting—it is an engine of influence. Latino fandom redefines the matchday experience through music, fashion, regional pride, and vibrant stadium rituals. Brands must move beyond surface-level messaging and meet Hispanic fans where sports intersect with lifestyle, identity, and modern culture.

The Burson Bottom Line

These three shifts point to one overarching reality: the era of one-size-fits-all, broadcast-led sports marketing is over.

If your media strategy stops at demographic reach and frequency, you are missing the point entirely. Demographics tell you who bought a ticket; cultural playgrounds reveal why they care, how they express themselves, and who they share the moment with.

The brands that dominate the next decade won’t be the ones shouting the loudest on traditional television. They will be the brands that recognize sports as a cultural ecosystem—building long-term equity in women’s sports, co-creating with athletes at the intersection of music and lifestyle for Gen Z, and honoring the economic and cultural power of the Hispanic community.

The new fans aren’t just sitting in the stands anymore—they are calling the plays. The only question left for brand leaders is simple: Is your strategy ready to keep up?

Sources

1. Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen Sports Viewership Tracking & Women’s Sports Commercial Impact Report. 2026.
2. EDO. Women’s Sports TV Outcomes Report. 2026.
3. Nielsen. The Rise of Women’s Sports. 2018.
4. USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism & Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC). Gen Z Sports Fandom + The Mega-Moment. 2026.
5. McKinsey & Company, McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility. The U.S. Latino Sports Economy & Economic Mobility Study. 2025.