The Future of Sports |1

The Future of Sports

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Introduction:

From the social media to other parts of our lives, the technology has shaped the lives of

people in ways which are unprecedented. And this is true for the world of sports as well. With

the use of the technology in every aspect of the world of sports including the athletes, and their

athleticism, the fans and the viewers as well; everything is changing in remarkable ways. The

technology is expected to make the sports more advanced, competitive and accessible to the

viewers. The use of the data collection tools and tracking devices have now enabled the athletes

to gather data related to their hydration levels, their height of jumps, their heart rates, their

overtraining, their muscle activations, their sleep patterns and what not. This enables them to

know their weaknesses and then easily work on these making them more athletic than ever. Not

only the bar for the competitive sports is expected to rise higher in the future, the treatment and

the prevention of the injuries are also expected to become better in future as well. Technology is

aiding sports in becoming safer as well. Similarly, the Referees are also expected to witness a

boost in hiring technological assistance. Other than this, the athletes, fans and the protégés are all

expected to interact in ways which will aid in building of unprecedented relationships between

them with the use of technology. Most importantly, the experience of the viewers is going to

transform as well. More and more offerings of the augmented and virtual reality experiences are

going to be increased with time offering the fans a way to interact and become a part of the

sporting event.

The Future of Sports Fan:

Since the early periods, the sports have been considered as a vital part of the culture for

any region. And till date this fact remains true. For the billions of people around the world, sports

make up the very fabric of the daily routines of everyone’s lives. People use sports to project
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their identities, hold conversations and consume entertainment. Fans have a powerful emotional

connection with the sports, teams and its players. The sport is also a big business and contributes

around $600-$700 Billion to the global world GDP. With the infusion of the technology, the

changes are not witnessed only in the sporting world but also in the fans as well. With the

changing technologies, the world is witnessing a rapidly evolving media landscape, changing

demographics and increased globalization of the sporting events and its fans. The research on the

influence of the technology on the sporting fans has shown that the fan base in future will

become more inclusive and diverse with the use of technology. With technology, fans will

become more influential and active and will enjoy sports everywhere or anywhere. Augmented

or Virtual viewing will become a normal thing which would lead the fans to be more immersive

and personalized (Performance Communications, 2019).

As per the report on the Future of the Sports, the new technologies are going to bring the

games and the fans even more close. The game experience is going to become better with time.

As per the analysts, the fans are however going to expect to get more than just a view.

Empowered by the social media and other ways of getting the information the fans are now in

relationship with their leagues and teams like they never were before. They are now expecting to

have all access passes to the front office, locker rooms and to the field of play. The fans are now

expecting to have a seat in the decision making table. More importantly, their role in the

creation, distribution, and marketing of the sports content has become more important and active

(Futureof.org, 2016).

Athlete:

In terms of the athletes, the future athletes are expected to become stronger and faster

than they have ever been. The world of sports is breaking all records each year set on the
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previous years. The evolution of the sports with time and with the infusion of the technology has

made it “more”. The more knowledge of the genetics, and biomechanics and the development of

the better technologies would lead the athletes to improve their abilities and cross the limits that

were unimaginable decades ago. Every generation feels like it has gone past the furtherest or it

has developed the best technology or that it cannot get any better than this, however, it always

get better. However, it is still unknown if human would reach that pinnacle where the technology

and training would max out the human capabilities and its maximum limits. Still, human body

has its limitations and it will reach its limit (Haake, 2009). But with the use of the technology

like the three dimensional Xbox Kinetic systems, the coaches have now developed training

programs for their athletes by identifying the weaknesses that they were not able to see in the

past. The athlete body and all the data related to his or her body is now accessible by the trainers

which give them a huge competitive benefit. Furthermore, the more knowledge of the genes of

individual athlete’s would also lead to transforming of the sports. It is expected that in future,

genetic counselors are also going to become part of the trainer’s team. The knowledge on the

gene traits and on the muscle fibers and how they get affected would certainly help the trainers in

identifying and developing better programs for their athletes (OMOREGIE).

In terms of the athletes, it is expected that the human body is going to be regulated in

sports like stock cars regulated currently. The Professional and scholastic sports would

eventually become like NASCAR. The ability of developing and improving the genetic makeup

would become mainstream in future because of the use of the gene editing technologies like

CRISPR. Drugs which would increase the physiological factors would be used and consumed

safely and made legal. The amounts of these drugs intake would be pre determined which will

provide a level playing field for all the players (Neptune, McGowan, & Fiandt, 2009). The
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success of the athletes would be dependent on the strategy, character, teamwork and the mental

competitiveness. The use of the Pill like the AICAR induces the muscles to be used like they

have in training for their whole lives. These pills would eventually be consumed by majority for

preventing diabetes and obesity. The cheap and widespread genetic techniques of engineering are

going to make the individuals more knowledgeable. The internet allows the individuals to access

any data or download any software (Rosandich, 2008) to help them in conducting experiments

on themselves. The use of the converting of the skin cells into stem cells and then into re-grown

ears, and organs, the future of injury recovery for the athletes is also very transformative. The

athletes would be allowed the use of the generic enhancements for safety and prevention

purposes, however, the benefits of these new treatments will be enjoyed by both professionals

and the patients (CSIRO, 2013). This would lead to finally allowing the professional

sportspersons to use the enhancers at a safe and allowed level. This will turn the humans into

Super athletes. The trainers would then develop the fitness and nutrition protocols personalized

with each of the player gene codes, and genetic profiles.

Viewership and Ticketing:

Virtual and Augmented reality is also expected to have a big role in the future sports as

well. Basketball has already started using the VR driven game in terms of the perspective of the

fan. The game is now coming up with ways in order to let the fans to see what’s actually

happening on the field transforming the viewership and experience of the game completely. The

universities are also utilizing the VR in order to recruit the players by letting them to experience

a day in the life of the sports game (Fuss, Subic, & Ujihashi, 2007).

The use of the augmented reality is further going to be advanced in the future. The

augmented reality would be used in the future for communicating the information live to the
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players on the field while they are playing. The players could get a series of next expected plays

on the screens of their helmets while they are playing. A more farfetched and advanced

implication of this would be using the past data of the opponents plays and techniques to predict

their probable schemes and plays and convey it to the players while they are playing (Loria,

2015). In terms of the viewership of the sporting events, the priced out of the live sporting events

will make the fans to turn to the third avenues or the venues using augmented reality,

holographic relays, or the 3-D displays in the family friendly versions of the bars for sports. The

use of the crypto currencies is going to be also involved in online betting and enabling the online

viewers to bet easily online without licensing (Li, Jin, Jiang, & Park, 2013). Furthermore, with

the use of the driverless cars, the use and consumption of the alcohol is expected to increase

exponentially as well. The use of the augmented reality will enable the world to become an

infinite display allowing the fans and team to use all forms of the visual data during the games

and practice. The use of the in-stadium panoramic systems of camera enables the immersive

sensations for the fans and the viewers for watching the full virtual reality (Brady, 2016).

The block chain industry is expected to change the ways the contracts were made

between the players, teams and the sponsors of the games. The block chain technology allows

fluid contracts which are not possible with the banking industry. The use of the block chain for

the management of the digital rights is going to make sure that the original holder of the rights

get paid for every reuse and also enabling the fan producers who popularize or remix the content

to share the wealth as well (Futureof.org, 2016).

Stadiums

A report on the future of the sports has envisioned that the stadiums are going to develop

into Mega venues which would be able to handle around 250,000 fans and will have a
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revolutionized game experience. The use of the outdoor screen technology will help in creating

mega displays. The use of the self driving vehicles would eliminate the inconvenience of parking

at the stadiums. Similarly, the use of the smart ticketing technology will have the data on the

social graphs of the fans and will use it to pull for live events connecting the fans during and

before the events. The use of the hyper loop transportation is expected to increase the radius in

which the trips would be made feasible. The future experience of the games is expected to be

combination of Phoenix Open, Disneyland, Coachella Music Festival and Kentucky Derby

(Futureof.org, 2016).

Conclusion:

Technology has changed the ways of living in every aspect. This is true for sports as well. The

essay shows how the sports have changed in every as well. From ticketing, gaming experience,

to viewership, fan’s expectations and the athletes physical training, technology has changed

everything. The essay explains how the infusion of the technology is going to revolutionize the

gaming experience. However, it is not going to go in ways some might think it would. Even

though, e-gaming and virtual games has led the youngsters to spend hours indoors; the outdoor

gaming experience will not perish. The stadiums are going to offer more than just games and

offer a whole new experience which would be a combination of Coachella Musical festival,

sports game and Disneyland. The use of the data gathering, simulations, and trackers will enable

the trainers and coaches to develop the programs and diets which are specifically personalized

for their players and athletes. The genetic reengineering will enable the players to use

enhancements making them Super-athletes. The enhancements will make the games safer and

injury prevention and treatment will revolutionize. The use of the block chain technology will

enable the use of better contracts among the sponsors, teams and players. The use of the
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driverless cars will enable the stadium to use less space for the parking. All in all, the athletes

would become successful based not on their physical capabilities but on their strategies,

character and teamwork.

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Reference List

Brady, E. (2016, January 26). What could the world of sports look like in 25 years? Retrieved

September 11, 2019, from USAtoday: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2016/01/26/future-

of-sports-athlete-stadium-broadcasting-e-sports-fans/79325114/

CSIRO. (2013). The Future of Australian sport. Retrieved September 11, 2019, from CSIRO.

Fuss, F. K., Subic, A., & Ujihashi, S. (2007). The Impact of Technology on Sport II. CRC Press.

Futureof.org. (2016). The Future of Sports. Retrieved September 11, 2019, from Futureof.org:

https://futureof.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Future-of-Sports-2016-Report.pdf

Haake, S. J. (2009). The impact of technology on sporting performance in Olympic sports.

Journal of Sports Sciences , 27 (13), 1421-1431.

Li, S., Jin, Q., Jiang, X., & Park, J. J. (2013). Frontier and Future Development of Information

Technology in Medicine and Education: ITME 2013. Springer Science & Business Media.

Loria, K. (2015, August 11). Science is creating super-athletes — and making sports

unrecognizable to previous generations. Retrieved September 11, 2019, from businessinsider:

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-science-and-technology-are-changing-sports-2015-8

Neptune, R. R., McGowan, C. P., & Fiandt, a. J. (2009). The Influence of Muscle Physiology

and Advanced Technology on Sports Performance. Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering ,

11, 81-107.

OMOREGIE, P. O. THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON SPORT PERFORMANCE.

Proceedings of INCEDI 2016 Conference (pp. 896-905). INCEDI.

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Performance Communications. (2019). The Future of the Sports Fan. Retrieved September 11,

2019, from Performance Communications: https://www.fotball.no/globalassets/dommer/the-

future-sports-fan_spilleregler_english.pdf

Rosandich, T. (2008). Sports Equipment and Technology. The Sports journal , 21 (February).