Discover what sports fandom can teach arts, culture, & in-person experience organizations about audience belonging and helping people feel part of a community.
Picture this: your favorite (American) football team is facing its divisional nemesis at home. You don your Zubaz, grab your D-fence sign, and set off to the stadium to begin the requisite four hours of tailgating, complete with jumping through a folding table or two.
Now let’s say the good guys (for the unindoctrinated, the “good guys” in question are the Buffalo Bills), lay an egg and lose the game. Fans are now literally out thousands of dollars, often covered in condiments, and taking shade from the opposing teams’ fans while they sit in gridlock traffic to exit the stadium.
And yet, fans will happily subject themselves to that experience eight times a year, not including play-offs or home games. Why?
For arts organizations exploring audience belonging, it’s worth asking what makes that experience worthwhile beyond the game itself – and how they can take a page out of the sports playbook.
Rather than asking only how to persuade someone to book again, we can – and should – ask what would make them feel part of our organization?
The aim isn’t to expect unconditional loyalty or convince people that practical barriers like costs and accessibility don’t matter. It’s to understand how a shared experience can become a meaningful relationship, both with an organization and with other people – how, as in the case of Bills Mafia, being an audience member can become core to audience identity. It begins with recognizing 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 US and UK found an association between strong team identification and greater social wellbeing. Bills Mafia Del Reid said it best: “I’ve always equated football with community. It’s something that is shared. It’s not something you just sit in your BarcaLounger and watch by yourself. You share it with other people.”
That distinction is useful for arts, culture, & in-person experience organizations. An audience engagement strategy can focus so closely on the relationship between an organization 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. At a moment when people are desperately seeking connection, the opportunity to come together may be as important as what brings us together in the first place.
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 program 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 organization 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.
For some prospective audiences, there’s an earlier hurdle: believing the experience is meant for them at all. In Culture Track’s US research, 46% of people who didn’t visit art and design museums said “it’s not for someone like me” was a barrier to participation; 28% of non-theatergoers said the same about non-musical theater. Before someone can belong, they have to believe the space is for them in the first place.
Indigo’s Arts Audiences Now survey in the UK further illustrates that distinction: While 27% of returning respondents selected “I love the organization” 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 organizations 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?
- What is the recommended attire?
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, recognizing the people nearby, smoking cuts of meat in a parking lot, or dissecting Josh Allen’s performance afterwards. For your organization, the equivalent doesn’t need to be a large new program 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 and “mingle with” folks 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 organize 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 might not mean loudly booing a ref’s call or an opposing team’s turnover recovery. It could mean sharing memories, taking part in creative activity, or helping an organization understand its local community.
Wolverhampton Grand offers a practical example of this kind of theatre participation. For its 2022-23 holiday show, 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.
Every organization may not have space for a foyer installation, but the lesson is 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. I bought a Bills jersey before I got a Bills tattoo – it’s all about baby steps.
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, recognize their contribution, and explain what happens next.
Visible expressions of support can also emerge from an existing relationship. In another Buffalo sports analogy, the Buffalo Sabres have released merchandise like Sabres-branded beer sword drinking glasses, gravy boats, and butter dishes, allowing fans to have a Sabres-themed Thanksgiving table. 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 organization’s membership program around it, rather than relying solely on a badge or a membership label to create it.
Recognize 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 recognized. 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 organization without attending every season, buying a membership, or wanting to socialize 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.
