Discover what sports fandom can teach arts, culture, & in-person experience organisations about audience belonging and helping people feel part of a community.
Picture a sports fan setting off before sunrise for an away game. There’s travel to pay for, friends to meet, and no guarantee of a result worth celebrating on the journey home. For arts organisations exploring audience belonging, it’s worth asking what makes that day worthwhile beyond the match itself.
Rather than asking only how to persuade someone to book again, we can ask what would make them feel part of our organisation.
The aim isn’t to expect unconditional loyalty or convince people that practical barriers don’t matter. It’s to understand how a shared experience can become a meaningful relationship, both with an organisation and with other people. That begins with recognising that the same person may be looking for different things on each visit.
What sports fandom tells us about belonging
In 2025, a study of nearly 1,000 sports fans across the UK and US found an association between strong team identification and greater social wellbeing. Researcher Daniel Funk explained the distinction using the Philadelphia Eagles: “It’s not about your relationship with the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s about how you feel you belong with other Eagles fans, other group members.”
That distinction is useful for arts, culture, & in-person experience organisations. An audience engagement strategy can focus so closely on the relationship between an organisation and each individual that it leaves little room for the relationships between audience members.
Consider the difference between enjoying an event and looking forward to seeing familiar faces there. Both experiences have value, but the second gives someone an additional reason to return. The event is also a chance to spend time with people who share their interests.
This doesn’t mean artistic quality becomes less important, or that every visitor wants to join a community, but that social connection deserves attention alongside the programme itself. The question is how to make space for it without prescribing what belonging should look like.
Make the first visit feel like an invitation
We shouldn’t expect someone discovering an organisation to feel the same attachment as a longstanding supporter. The first task is to offer an experience they want and help them feel comfortable taking part.
Indigo’s Arts Audiences Now 2025/26 findings illustrate that distinction: While 27% of returning respondents selected “I love the organisation” as a motivation for attending, only 2% of first-time respondents said the same. The findings draw on more than 250,000 post-visit survey responses collected across over 50 UK performing arts organisations between April 2025 and March 2026.
For a first visit, start with the questions a regular may no longer need to ask:
- Where should I go when I arrive?
- Will I feel comfortable attending on my own?
- Who can help with an access requirement?
- Will I need to know anything about the event beforehand?
Answer these clearly in your pre-event communications, then make sure the welcome at the venue matches. Bring marketing, ticketing and sales, and front of house colleagues into that conversation, so the invitation and the experience feel connected.
Treat this as an invitation to enjoy the event, not an initiation into a club. Nobody should need specialist knowledge, a particular dress sense, or a history of attendance to feel they have a place.
Give people opportunities to connect
Think about the social moments around a sports game: Meeting beforehand, recognising the people nearby, or talking it over afterwards. For your organisation, the equivalent doesn’t need to be a large new programme or an expensive membership benefit.
Start with one manageable opportunity for people to spend time together around an event. Depending on your space and audience, that could be:
- An optional pre-event welcome: A clearly signposted meeting point with a host, particularly useful for people arriving alone.
- A regular conversation: A relaxed discussion after selected events, where people can share their take on the experience.
- A shared tradition: A recurring season-opening gathering or community celebration that gives people something familiar to look forward to.
Make the invitation specific. Explain where to meet, what will happen, whether there is a cost, and that taking part is optional. A message about “networking” may sound like work, whereas an invitation to meet other people who enjoyed the same event tells the reader why they might want to stay.
Build from what people already do, too. Ask front of house colleagues where conversations happen naturally and whether existing audience-led groups would welcome support. Your role can be to make connection easier, rather than organise every interaction.
It’s just as important to leave room for people who prefer a quieter visit. Feeling able to participate on your own terms should be part of belonging, not an exception to it.
Help people shape the story
The sports comparison prompts another useful question: What can people contribute, rather than simply consume? In an arts setting, that could mean sharing memories, taking part in creative activity, or helping an organisation understand its local community.
Wolverhampton Grand offers a practical example of this kind of theatre participation. For its 2022–23 pantomime, the outreach team worked with more than 30 community groups to create an “Aladdin’s Cave” of crafted objects in the foyers. The theatre reported that the project helped some groups develop the confidence and connection to visit independently, while targeted discounts helped others overcome price barriers.
The lesson isn’t that every organisation needs a foyer installation. It’s that people can have a meaningful role in a cultural space before they become regular ticket buyers, and that practical support can matter alongside that connection.
Look for opportunities that reflect your purpose and the interests of the people around you. Invite local contributors into an exhibition, make space for audience stories, or work with community groups to shape a participatory event. Be clear about what people can influence, recognise their contribution, and explain what happens next.
Visible expressions of support can also emerge from an existing relationship. At Theatre Royal Wakefield, members asked for supporter merchandise, leading the team to create badges and pens as part of its fundraising membership work.
The important detail is that members wanted a way to express their connection. Begin by listening for that desire, and shape your organisation’s membership programme around it, rather than relying solely on a badge or a membership label to create it.
Recognise the person beyond the purchase
Belonging shouldn’t become another fixed label in your database. Someone might attend comedy with friends, bring a child to a workshop, and support your community work through a donation, with a different motivation each time.
That’s why audience segmentation requires a connected view of the relationship. Attendance, membership, giving, and feedback can inform one another, helping your team ask better questions rather than treating each interaction as a separate transaction.
Theatre Royal Wakefield put this into practice by combining booking and donation history in its Spektrix system with the team’s personal knowledge of supporters to understand their different motivations. Some members valued priority booking for a particular act, while others wanted to support the theatre even when they rarely or never attended.
That distinction matters when deciding what to offer next. An invitation to another event may be welcome to one person, while an update about the work their support makes possible may be more meaningful to another.
The Theatre Royal Wakefield team also used personal touches, including welcome letters placed on members‘ chairs with an extra ice-cream voucher, to help people feel recognised. You don’t need to reproduce that gesture exactly; look for a moment when something your team knows could make the experience more thoughtful.
Spektrix is purpose-built for audience engagement, connecting attendance, memberships, donations, and marketing to help your team understand more of each relationship. Technology provides the foundation, while your team’s knowledge and conversations with audience members and donors help you decide how to act.
Remember, too, that a booking record doesn’t tell you about everyone in the group. Create optional opportunities for companions to share their own interests and hear from you, rather than assuming the ticket buyer represents everyone.
Build audience belonging without demanding loyalty
The useful lesson from sports fandom isn’t that devoted supporters will tolerate any cost or inconvenience. It’s that the value of an in-person experience can include the people, relationships, and shared identity around it.
Choose one part of the audience journey where you can strengthen that connection. Test a welcome, a conversation, or an invitation to contribute, then ask people how it felt. Look at return visits alongside their feedback, rather than assuming that more frequent attendance proves a stronger sense of belonging.
Above all, keep the individual in view. Someone can care deeply about your organisation without attending every season, buying a membership, or wanting to socialise after an event. The goal is to help each person find a relationship that matters to them.
Understand what brings your audience back
Belonging is one part of a wider picture of audience engagement. Our latest guide explores how people’s motivations, interests, and circumstances change, and how data, technology, and human insight can help you make each interaction more relevant.
