The 2022 football season for the Oklahoma Sooners was a season of firsts. It was the first season of the Brent Venables era, the first season with Dillon Gabriel as QB1, and the first losing season for the Sooners since 1998. While posing a losing season with abysmal defensive and offensive performances, Sooner fans stayed loyal to the team. OU recorded a sellout for each home game of the 2022 season, even after the 49-0 blowout to Texas in Dallas.
But how? How does a team that goes 6-7 keep a loyal fanbase? Is it community outreach, fan engagement on social media, or is it the existence of a seemingly personal connection between a team and a fan? Yes to all of those. All three aspects are intertwined when it comes to fan loyalty. You can’t have an idea of fan loyalty if not all three of these aspects are present.
OU football has a set of traditions for every home game. One of those is known as the “Walk of Champions”, where the idea of a personal connection is executed. Fans line the street and intersection of Asp and Jenkins to welcome the football team before every home game. Players and coaches shake hands, take photos, and sign autographs for excited fans. Some players and coaches even stop to chat with impressionable young fans. Experiencing this is an unforgettable memory (speaking from personal experience) that many fans talk about for years to come.
So how does the personal connection I just mentioned help with fan engagement on social media? Photos and videos of players and coaches stopping to interact with fans can go viral instantly. The power and speed of social media and how quickly news travels has helped with brand identity, and overall fan engagement on social media. Additionally, the media and fans see beyond an athlete. They see a person with morals and values that come before their job as an athlete.
Now we have ⅔ of our necessary elements to increase and improve fan loyalty. Well, how does community outreach fit in with fan engagement on social media and personal connections? Community outreach is one of the key ingredients of a successful team. For example, during the OU football team’s bye week, head coach Brent Venables and the rest of the team participated in a community outreach where they helped build homes, paint fences, and improved the surrounding Norman community. This service day showed the human side of the team along with the values Brent Venables has incorporated in the locker room. The existence of a personal connection was made obvious when the social media posts showed OU football players personally impacting the Norman community with their good deeds.
All in all, fan loyalty rests on the shoulders of many aspects of a club. However, how a club brings in and incorporates all of these aspects is essential to the fan experience and therefore, the fan loyalty.
