In a previous article for JohnWallStreet, I examined how teams can target “secondary” fans to grow revenues. These fans can be defined as people who primarily root for a different team but might also support a “second” team. For example, transplants to a new city may primarily root for their hometown team but will secondarily root for the local team where they now live.
An extension of this concept is that teams should leverage secondary events to drive similar fan growth. Sports properties should look at secondary events as opportunities to generate revenue and fan engagement for their primary competitions.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games demonstrate this concept in action. The New Jersey Devils have seen a spike in ticket prices after center Jack Hughes scored the “golden goal” for Team USA in its gold medal victory over Team Canada. The Devils are promoting their “Jack in the Box” giveaway to help encourage ticket sales.
The Devils’ response highlights the importance of acting quickly on major moments that occur outside official league games. Capitalizing on a player’s standout performance on the world stage can immediately drive ticket sales, partnership opportunities, and fan engagement.
However, events on the scale of the Olympics do not happen often. The question becomes how sports properties can execute a secondary‑event strategy without relying solely on major global moments.
This is where platforms like our Smart District as a Service (SmartDaaS) become increasingly important. Aggregating multiple third‑party datasets and analyzing behavioral data can reveal secondary events that can be leveraged in targeted promotions.
ROAR examines clickstream (mobile and web traffic), credit‑card transactions, and foot‑traffic data to determine fan and audience consumption patterns. We then pair this data with topic and sentiment analysis to better understand what people care about. This includes uncovering secondary events that sports teams can use to promote ticket sales, events, merchandise, and hospitality.
The NHL provides another example of a successful secondary‑event strategy. The unexpected success of the show “Heated Rivalry” has created event‑viewing opportunities that have driven substantial interest in NHL games, players, and media. Multiple teams have used the show’s success to target fans to buy tickets.
Not every show will be a breakout hit like “Heated Rivalry”. However, analyzing content consumption via clickstream data or retail interest via foot‑traffic data enables teams to identify the secondary events fans care about and use them to promote products in near real time.
Secondary events can also help teams expand audiences and reach new fans. The NHL has used “Heated Rivalry” to increase engagement with women and the LGBTQ+ community.
As with targeting secondary fans, sports properties need to be careful to respect intellectual‑property considerations when referencing other events in promotional campaigns. All campaigns should ensure legal and appropriate use of external content.
The Winter Olympics and the Devils’ response offer recent examples of the secondary‑event strategy in action. It is important to recognize, however that many secondary events can resonate with a team’s target audiences even when not at the scale of large tentpole moments like the Olympics. Leveraging data‑driven solutions to identify secondary events and use them to better target new and existing fans is something all sports organizations should consider.