Yesterday, I wrote about how the Rays are trying to understand their fanbase and how they are committed to building relationships in the community. The same day I heard one of their vice presidents speak, manager Joe Maddon was also discussing his theories on fan creation and relationship building.
According to ESPN.com, technology is the key to involving young fans into baseball and specifically the Rays.
"I believe you need to really focus on getting the kids more involved based on what kids are digging these days, and that's technology, their devices," Maddon said.
"I think Skyping and getting kids to connect with players in an organization during the course of a school year primarily could really draw young people to an organization or a bunch of players," Maddon said. "Even one guy per week Skyped a classroom from each team, just think of the impact that would make. I think once a kid has been touched by an athlete, I don't care what sport it's in, he's going to become a fan of that player and that team."
"Somebody needs to sit down and really come up with an interactive kind of a situation in the ballpark or at home that engages youngsters, that's what I'm looking at," he said. "Be more creative. Get us in touch with them, get players touching kids more technologically and you're going to get more fans."
These are all great ideas. I've often said the Rays need to do more in social media, whether that's using hashtags such as #TropTrip or doing contests for the best fan-created videos. Fans want to interact.
In regards to Maddon's tech ideas, I think the Rays could do them in the ballpark as well as online. In the past year, I have advocated redesigning the TBT Party Deck. The creation of the Center Porch has made the Party Deck obsolete. I also advocated turning the Party Deck into a kids corner, taking the miscellaneous games and entertainment kiosks from the bottom level and putting them in the Party Deck. If they did this, the Rays could then turn each of the kiosks on the bottom level into tech centers, where fans can experiment with videos games, virtual reality, graphic design, photography, and maybe even player interaction.
Personally, I think a kiosk where you can watch the game live from different camera angles with the ability to zoom in and out would be fantastic - a "film your own inning" kiosk, if you will. Then you could add your own graphics and email your creation to yourself or post it immediately on YouTube or Facebook. (Yes, if you want to make an all Kevin Kiermaier video, you could do that.)
If the Rays had personalized fan videos playing on the scoreboard between innings and fans creating their own media or interacting with technology in the lower level during the game, technology and the fan bond would be omnipresent.
Fans also love seeing their names and pictures on scoreboards. The Rays social media team could scour twitter and Facebook for check-ins prior to the game and feature some of the check-ins on the scoreboard during the game with a graphic that said "Welcome!".
The social media team could also find people who posted pictures at the game and thank them for coming to the game. Or have select players tweet a few fans after the game.
This ideas, along with the players directly interacting with schools, fans, etc in their off-time, will further build and solidify the bond between the team and the fans. Joe Maddon has a great point. Let's hope the front office was listening.