Send us Fan Mail

Every team loses fans in the same three places — and most have no idea it's happening. In Part 2 of the Fan Journey series, Jeremy Neisser pinpoints the capture gap, the relevance gap, and the re-engagement gap: exactly where fans exit before they should and why the pattern repeats regardless of league, sport, or market size. You'll learn how these leaks compound season after season, and get a simple exercise to find your biggest one and start there. If you're spending marketing dollars to replace fans you already had, this episode shows you where the money is draining out.

ICYMI: Part 1 of Fan Journey Series

KEY TOPICS COVERED
- Why the same three fan leaks show up in every organization — from Triple-A to summer collegiate, in markets of 30,000 or 7 million
- The 85% problem: how many single-game buyers never return, and why that's a systems issue, not a product issue
- The capture gap — why the highest-value window with a new fan closes before most teams do anything with it
- What actually happens to a fan after they buy: receipt, survey, then dumped onto the general promo list
- The relevance gap — how generic email blasts quietly train fans to tune you out
- Turning the data you already own (surveys, purchase history, attendee records) into communication that feels personal
- The re-engagement gap — the most expensive and most common leak of the three
- Why a "buy tickets, opening day is coming" blast is not a re-engagement strategy
- The campaigns-vs-systems distinction: a campaign runs once, a system runs forever
- How all three leaks compound and shrink every stage downstream
- Why the teams that grow attendance have the fewest leaks, not the best product
- A step-by-step exercise to diagnose your single biggest leak this week

TIMESTAMPS
[00:00] – Why understanding where fans leak out matters more than any single tactic
[00:28] – The uncomfortable truth: fan drop-off patterns are identical across every sport and market size
[00:55] – Fans leak out of the journey in the same three predictable places
[01:37] – The fan journey is already happening — your job is to stop letting it happen by accident
[02:01] – External excuses vs. the real system problem behind fan loss
[02:30] – Why a significant share of drop-off comes down to irrelevant communication
[02:54] – The stat that reframes everything: 85% of single-game buyers don't return next year
[03:24] – Leak #1, the capture gap: failing to activate a fan right after they buy
[03:53] – What most teams send after a first game — and why it falls flat
[04:19] – Why the post-first-game window is the highest-value moment you'll ever have
[04:47] – Leak #2, the relevance gap: how generic emails train fans to ignore you
[05:07] – Using fan data you already have to make communication feel personal
[05:36] – Leak #3, the re-engagement gap: why lapsed fans need an automatic system
[06:05] – Building a system that reaches out to fans who've gone quiet
[06:29] – What a real re-engagement message sounds like vs. a promo blast
[07:16] – The cost of skipping re-engagement, and why systems beat campaigns
[07:44] – How the three leaks compound on each other season after season
[08:14] – The practical exercise: audit your database and post-first-game communication
[08:41] – Diagnose your specific leak before you try to fix anything
[09:11] – Moving from one-time campaigns to ongoing, repeatable processes
[09:37] – Why growing your base of loyal fans beats chasing new ones
[10:04] – How plugging your biggest leak moves attendance and revenue
[10:34] – Start small: find your single largest leak and begin there
[11:03] – Using data to see exactly what fans received after their first game
[11:32] – How to check whether your communication is actually landing
[11:57] – Systematizing re-engagement so fans keep returning
[12:25] – Final encouragement and an invitation to get help diagnosing your leaks
[12:53] – Wrap-up and a teaser for Part 3: how to actually plug the leaks

CALL TO ACTION
Diagnosing your biggest leak is this week's assignment. If you'd rather walk through it with someone, click the link in the show notes and schedule a call with Jeremy — he'll help you map your fan journey and find where you're losing the most buyers.

QUOTE PULLS
"85% of fans who bought a single game ticket last year don't come to next year. That's a systems problem, and systems problems have patterns." — Jeremy Neisser

"Fans don't leave because they stopped caring. They leave because you stopped communicating in a way that felt relevant to them." — Jeremy Neisser

"The window right after a fan's first game is the highest value window you'll ever have with that person — and most teams let it close without doing anything intentional." — Jeremy Neisser

"The fix isn't sending more emails. The fix is sending more relevant emails. And relevance comes from actually using the data you have." — Jeremy Neisser

"A campaign runs once. A system runs forever." — Jeremy Neisser

"The teams that grow their attendance year over year aren't the ones with the best product. They're the ones with the fewest leaks." — Jeremy Neisser

Revelocity Sports
Sports Marketing Machine on LinkedIn
Sports Marketing Machine on Instagram
Book a call with Jeremy from Sports Marketing Machine