Why the Best Sports Organizations Treat Fan Experience as an Operating Strategy: Insights from Jim Small, Former President of the World Baseball Classic

For sports organizations, the economics of fan engagement are being shaped by operational experience.

How quickly fans enter a stadium, how seamlessly they purchase concessions, how personalized the experience feels, and how often they return are becoming direct drivers of retention, spend, and long-term enterprise value.

After decades overseeing MLB’s international business and helping grow the World Baseball Classic, Jim Small believes the organizations separating themselves are the ones using technology to remove friction from the fan experience—not overwhelm it.

Technology Is Reshaping the Economics of Sports

As sports organizations continue investing in AI, biometrics, mobile platforms, and digital engagement tools, leadership teams are increasingly confronting the same question: does technology deepen the fan relationship or complicate it?

Small believes the answer depends entirely on execution.

Technology continues to enhance the fan experience…it can’t detract from the fan experience or get in the way of the fan experience.

Fan Experience Is Becoming a Revenue Driver

Fans today expect personalization, convenience, speed, and seamless interaction across every touchpoint. For organizations managing 81 home dates, millions of tickets, and short attention spans, those expectations carry direct commercial implications.

They don’t need you to come once, they need you to come multiple times.

That shift is changing how sports organizations allocate operating and technology investment.

Historically, most technology investment in sports was centered around media and distribution. Today, the focus is increasingly operational: reducing lag, improving retention, increasing repeat attendance, and deepening lifetime fan value.

Small points to MLB’s investment in facial recognition entry systems as a practical example.

It would take a family of five, five or seven minutes to get into the stadium…that goes down to about a minute with face recognition.

On the surface, that sounds operational, but it is a customer retention and revenue strategy.

The more seamless the experience becomes, the more likely fans are to return and deepen their connection to the organization over time. That dynamic becomes even more important in baseball, where repeat attendance drives the business model.

Technology Must Enhance, Not Replace, Emotional Connection

At the same time, Small cautions against overengineering the live experience.

Baseball’s DNA is intentionally slower. You can have a conversation and then watch a little baseball.

That nuance is important as sports organizations navigate the balance between digital engagement and emotional authenticity.

Direct Fan Understanding Is a Leadership Capability

Small also emphasized the importance of direct fan understanding.

Despite MLB’s access to extensive research and fan data, some of the World Baseball Classic’s most impactful decisions came from fan conversations. In one case, Small reached out directly to administrators of a popular World Baseball Classic Facebook group.

I had all the research in front of me, but I needed to talk to those four guys and just listen to them about why they love the game.

Those conversations led to tangible changes, including the redesign of the World Baseball Classic logo.

The broader lesson is that fan engagement is no longer confined to marketing, and has become an operational priority across the enterprise.

In sports, technology alone is rarely the differentiator. The advantage comes from leadership teams that know how to use technology to strengthen the fan experience.