The Secret to Engaging Young Fans

Most fans decide which team to follow before they turn 18, often through a single small moment — making early engagement one of the highest-value investments a team can make, given the average fan's lifetime value sits around $13,000 AUD.

Why youth engagement has stalled

Despite investment in youth-focused partnerships — Sorare's digital trading cards with the Premier League, the NHL's Roblox experience — the share of "avid" youth fans has actually fallen from 42% to 34%, suggesting many of these campaigns raise awareness without converting curiosity into lasting interest.

What actually works

Partnerships built around genuine shared audiences, like Burnley's shirt deal with YouTube group Dude Perfect, tend to outperform generic metaverse activations, as do docuseries like Drive to Survive — credited with a 10% rise in US F1 fans — which give new audiences a story to follow rather than just a highlight reel.

Once a young fan is interested, keeping them requires genuinely engaging content, broken into digestible moments rather than assuming short attention spans mean only TikTok-length clips will do — and, just as importantly, real-world community touchpoints, like a school visit or a photo with a player, that no digital strategy can fully replace.