The Sports Industrys Gen Z Problem: Fewer Fans, Lower Viewership

Browning said the NHL is investing in educating its players about how to effectively use social media to engage fans and grow their profiles based on feedback from the NHL Power Players, an advisory council of young fans the league formed in 2019.

“One of the things they shared with us is that hockey athletes are so quiet off the ice,” Browning said. “They're amazing and the best athletes on ice, but when they're off ice, they're not present on social media, they're quiet, fans don't know much about them. There's this desire to know everything about their lives: their wives and girlfriends, their dogs, their babies and all that kind of stuff."

An online presence is all but required for athletes looking to capture Gen Z fans. Users on Gen Z’s app of choice, TikTok, like to see athletes in the “raw and authentic, full-screen, vertical style” that the platform is known for, a TikTok spokesperson said.

College athletes are seeing strong growth on the platform, TikTok said, which could be partially due to the fact that most of these athletes are members of Gen Z themselves. However, most of Gen Z’s “favorites” are pros: Collegiate players made up less than 1 percent of favorite sports figure responses in the poll.

Leonsis and Browning also said esports are an effective way for traditional sports properties to reach young fans, something the NHL has done through the NHL Gaming World Championship.

“The NHL is slowly but surely making its own footprint in the esports world to hopefully bridge the gap with young fans who maybe don't live near an ice rink, but play the NHL video game and get to know different teams and different players that way,” Leonsis said.

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