In this paper, we aim to explain a phenomenon of “Sports Spectators’ Customers’ Experiences’ (SSCX) locations”, overview today locations of sports consumption experiences for sports fans, find the changes in these locations, and define the main drivers of shift. It provides a concept for studying the effects of new technologies on sports spectator experiences, with the intention of future research at the intersection of topics Customer Experience (CX), Sports Spectacle (SS), and Technology. The main novelties of this study imply a rapid technology uptake and appear of absolutely new ways of sports spectating and locations. The culture of sports consumption and fans’ habits are the subject of changes, accordingly, it impacts SSCX. This study draws on pieces of literature spanning from technology, Sport Spectacle, Stadia, CX, Optimization strategy and combines them with data collection and analysis in the spirit of grounded theory. Data was collected in semi-structured interviews (N=10) with professional sports managers or technologies specialists. The outcome is a new conceptual framework on Locations and Relocations of SSCX. This question is important in the framework of the study of technological impact on SSCX. It helps Sports Managers and Marketing Professionals to better understand the research target audience, outline technological trends, find links and interrelation and define their impact.

The new pandemic lifestyle advocates new rules for sport at all levels, from amateur to elite. Consequently, it has transformed the ways in which sports are performed and consumed, provoking demand for new technologies and/or the development of existing ones. This paper aims to identify, describe, and visualize the process of sport transformation as radical internal and external industry changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended to qualitatively explain the current ‘metamorphoses’ in the field and subsequently answer the question of how the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed all aspects of sports and physical culture. The literature and empirical dataset (qualitative open-ended written interviews, N = 147) were analysed in the spirit of grounded theory, referring to the holistic approach. The results demonstrated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on sports by touching on all aspects, levels, and stakeholders. The paper also outlines challenges and opportunities for the industry in these extraordinary times. The key dimensions of transformation are identified and explained. The findings of this research have significant implications for the understanding of how COVID-19 gave rise to the transformation of sports in different aspects. This study adds to the growing body of research on the positive and negative impacts of COVID-19 on sports, new technologies demand, and the transformation of sports.

The massive uptake of digital technologies has changed the way how fans and the sports service field communicate and interact. In the current paper, we would like to emphasize the role of technology holistically in sport spectators customer experiences (SSCX) as a "game-changer" marketing in sports and the digitalization of SSCX. In this paper, we aim to explore and qualitatively describe by interviewees verbatim how new technologies impact SSCX. It draws on the literature review, combined with the primary data collected on unstructured interviews with international sport management and technology experts (N=10). It brings sports marketing insights followed by examples from industry professionals. Iterative analysis of data combined with literature review let us achieve to outline the crucial points and trends of technological transformations in sports spectacle. We offer an updated perspective on the SSCX through the prism of the impact of digital technologies and reshaping sports consumption culture. To this end, we develop a conceptual model that captures the nature of modern SSCX influenced by digital technologies. Keywords: technological transformation, sports spectacle, customer experience, co-creation, connectivity

The rapid uptake of digital technologies is constantly transforming the modern culture of sports spectating; however, relatively little is known about the impact of digitalization on the changing face of global sports-consuming audiences, particularly from a qualitative perspective. In this article, the relationship between modern mass digital technologies (i.e., mobile applications and big data) and audiences of sports spectators is described and explained by taking a customer-centric approach to grounded theory using a literature review and in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews (N = 12) with sports marketing, management, and technology professionals. The qualitative approach permits the gathering of in-depth insights into a problem, generates new concepts through data synthesis and analysis, and captures changing attitudes within the sports industry. Moreover, the qualitative approach to research is not bound by the limitations of quantitative methods and focuses on the primary questions of “how” and “why” digital technology’s mass deployment and diffusion have transformed content consumption in the sports industry. The analysis first systematizes and codes the collected data. Second, all the materials are iteratively read and the key points are outlined. Using the iterative analysis, the theoretical and empirical insights and findings are synthesized in order to achieve the results. Finally, dimensions of the transformation of sports spectators’ consumption are identified and explained. The research implications highlight “how” and “why” modern digital technologies have changed the sports-consuming audience by making it more inclusive in terms of age, gender, demographics, social and health status. These findings are useful for sport managers to better understand their audiences and processes in an ever-changing global society.

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Over the centuries, in most countries of the world, stadiums have changed and evolved, and with it, the behaviour and ways of experience of their visitors and spectators have certainly transformed. With improvements in-home entertainment systems and internet connectivity occurring all the time, sports fans have a greater capacity to build themselves a viewing experience that fits their preferred specifications, right in the comfort wherever they are: airplane, hotel, office, or their own room. Subsequently, sports stadiums are in the process of challenge and technological evolution, including implementation of various innovations. It attempts to create smooth, strong impressive experience and appeals to attract spectators out of their mediatory watching and to bring them into the stadium, wherever it is situated. In the current paper we investigate and review the critical areas and identify the phenomena of transformations addresses to deliver a next-generation stadium experience that is affective enough to compete with the cost, comfort, impressions benefits of “mobile” spectatorship (Thomson, Potter, 2017). A multidimensional content analysis (Tharenou, 2010) of collected data let us outline the key area of stadium technological transformation, referring to the customer-centric approach (McAlexander et al., 2002; Zaky & Neely, 2018). We define and outline the key areas of changes in SSCX in order to better predict their nature, courses and impact, projecting future perspective research directions.