No matter how you run the numbers, most of the players, teams and leagues in pro, semi-pro and college sports owe the glory of their jobs — in large part — to their fans. The fans watch, the fans approve — and the fans buy the tickets, subscriptions and merch that allow everyone to keep it all going.
When it comes to recognizing the fans who do the most for the sports they love, ESPN is selecting inductees to the Fan Hall of Fame for a second year in a row. The recognition provides a hat tip to the voices that help lift the lovers of these teams to whole new levels.
"We try to speak with the voice of the world's biggest sports fan," says Timothy Hubbell, associate director of social media and brand marketing for ESPN. "Knowing the indelible contributions that fans make to sports, we always felt like there was room for a permanent institution that celebrates and rewards excellence in fandom. It was kind of astounding to us that it didn't previously exist."
Image: ESPN on Instagram This year, the Hall of Fame admits its second trio of names to the record: Barbara Rust, Canaan Sandy and Pierce Wallace. All three have what it takes to walk point when it comes to their respective fan bases, and all three will now have their names added, on plaques, to vintage stadium seats at ESPN's campus in Bristol, Connecticut. There will be a ceremony in 2014 with celebrities, food and speeches.
Until then, let's take a look at what this year's inductees have done, and what the stats surrounding the contest can tell us about sports fans and the ways in which they are using technology to have their voices heard.
The applicants to this year's Fan Hall of Fame, in total, represent more than 120 professional sports teams and more than 100 organizations at the college and university level of play.
ESPN's newest inductees were picked from 10 finalists — the best of thousands of applicants. Submissions were up 41% from 2012 (though ESPN isn't parting with specific application totals for the two years).
The winners of 2013 garnered more than 85,000 votes apiece on the Hall of Fame website. Below is a brief explanation of each of the winners and why they were dubbed the ultimate display of fandom:
Image: ESPN on Instagram
Barbara Rust ("The Sign Lady"): Rust has been to every single Sacramento Kings game since she and her family moved to the team's namesake city in 1985. She has supported the basketball team vigorously, despite her current battle with breast cancer, and is described by fellow Kings fans as the “heart of our fan base.”
Image: ESPN on Instagram
Canaan Sandy ("CJ"): Sandy has been an Arkansas Razorbacks fan since he was two months old, when he first attended a football game. Since then, he's logged some 200 attendances, traveling as long as eight hours one-way to get to the team's games. Entered into the competition by his mother, Ginger, Sandy refers to himself as the “most dedicated fan the Hogs ever had.” He has the Razorbacks' schedule memorized, and has taught his entire church to “call the Hogs” — a traditional Razorbacks cheer.
Image: ESPN on Instagram
Pierce Wallace ("Georgia Joker"): A lifelong Georgia Bulldogs fan, and the youngest inductee at age 18, Wallace touts his recognizable bright-green wig and painted face at every single Bulldogs football game — and he's traveled up to six hours for an away game. Wallace is currently a freshman at the University of Georgia, and can be found among members of Spike Squad, a group of intense UGA fans, in section 109 at home games.
ESPN's panel of judges certainly played a role in selecting the new fan inductees for the Hall of Fame, but viewer and audience voting counted toward the final results, too. As it turns out, the way the public picked the top fans tells us something about how the network engages its audience.
The below stats provide a glimpse at how different platforms and devices figured into the process:
60% of all the Hall of Fame page visits were from mobile devices.
55% of all the page visits to the contest came from social media.
45% of all the page visits came from referrals, natural search and direct visits.
30% of the social media-based visits came from Facebook.
25% of the social media visits came from Twitter.
According to Hubbell, social is a big part of what helped the company run its contest without spending a dollar on media outside of the network and its own platforms. (ESPN did purchase billboard space in the finalists' three markets after the contest was over, congratulating fans.)
And social media is allowing efforts such as the Fan Hall of Fame to amplify the voices that the network wants to reach.
"We found that, this year even more than last year, social was the root of the groundswell, and then it moved from social to more traditional media platforms," says Hubbell. "It's allowing us to surface untold stories from smaller markets — informational stories of fandom. I think what we're able to do is use our scale — the 8 million followers we have on Twitter, and the 9-plus million we have on Facebook — to sort of start a waterfall effect with local communities."
Have you leveraged fan voting like ESPN did? Tell us about your experience in the comments.