Key Takeaways:
- Consistent off-season engagement fosters deeper loyalty, builds stronger connections, and drives higher spending when competition resumes.
- Non-live content like behind-the-scenes stories, cultural moments, and archive content helps keep audiences invested when games aren’t being played.
- AI-powered content creation tech enables always-on storytelling at scale and allows organizations to sustain fan interest between seasons.
It happened gradually. As the news cycle evolved into a perpetual marathon and interest levels in what happens when no official games are played continued to rise, you could hear it across broadcasts, podcasts, and social media: the lines between “season” and “off-season” have been blurred; the NBA is now a 12-month league.
Think about it: The finals lead straight into the draft, followed by free agency. As the first wave of free agency begins to wind down, the Las Vegas Summer League kicks off. By the time the dust settles there, international play typically fills the gap. And before you know it, training camps and the preseason are already underway.
The NBA is not the only league to provide a nonstop stream of storylines; the NFL has long been called a 365-day-a-year sport, college football has mirrored the trend, and the NHL has adopted this cadence as well. The reason is simple. Advanced sports properties today understand that creating a year-round content machine is not only the best way to stay connected with their fans, but also to maximize customer lifetime value.
The Value of Staying Connected
Research supports this idea. A recent Deloitte report, based on a survey of more than 15,000 respondents asked about the relative importance of key attributes of fan engagement, confirmed that the more engaged fans are year-round, the more likely they are to spend on tickets and merchandise during the season. Key findings include:
- 95% of fans have some form of interaction with their favorite team or league in the off-season.
- 65% of fans said they want some form of content at least monthly during the off-season.
- In-depth content consumption was associated with 20% higher spend than general news consumption.
- More than 60% of fans say a great year-round experience would make them more likely to be more engaged with the team in the coming season, and 55% say it would make them more likely to purchase a ticket in the future.
- Across all fan types (casual fans, fans that love the game, and absolute fanatics), those who engage with their favorite team or league at least once a month in the off-season spend 40% more than fans who do not engage in the off-season.
“During the season, live game action is the most important content that teams can offer fans. But in the off-season, teams need to be creative with the media and content they produce,” note the report’s authors. “Although the organic content faucet is turned off in the off-season, this reset can present an opportunity for teams to differentiate themselves through customized off-season experiences.”
Keeping the Story Going
Some rights holders have already embraced this approach. J.League, Japan’s top professional football league, focuses on serving its fans behind-the-scenes content during the off-season. Other organizations, such as Manchester City, the Chicago Bulls, and the New York Liberty, turn to crossovers with other sports and pop culture tie-ins to engage their fans.
“I want to make sure that the Liberty is at the forefront (during the off-season); that you’re not going to forget about us,” said Charlie DeSadier, social media coordinator for the New York Liberty. “We’re still going to give you that grade-A content that we’re going to give you in the regular season.”
For streamers, the picture is more complex. Nielsen revealed that sports programming on major streaming platforms has increased 52% year-over-year, underscoring the importance of sports content to audience engagement. Yet the cost of sports rights is extremely high – streamers will spend $14.2 billion on sports rights in 2026 – and unlike leagues and teams, platforms don’t have fans, making them much more susceptible to churn in the off-season.
The solution, say industry leaders, lies in non-live content. “As more sports migrate to streaming, platforms should focus on programming that nudges viewers into adjacent content related to their favorite players, teams and leagues,” said Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at data and audience tracking firm Greenlight Analytics. “Long-term, streamers need to build content libraries that maximize retention well into the off-season.”
Scaling the Always-On Era
The broader trend across sports points in the same direction: In an era of social feeds, podcasts, and streaming platforms, fans expect a continuous relationship with the teams, leagues, and athletes they care about. This reality means rights holders need to build an always-on content ecosystem that goes beyond live competition and keeps fans connected through stories, personalities, and experiences all year long.
Delivering these experiences consistently requires the right tech. AI-powered content creation platforms enable rights holders to instantly turn match footage into highlights, behind-the-scenes stories, archive clips, and other assets tailored for every platform and audience. By making storytelling scalable, these tools help organizations stay relevant long after the season ends, bringing them closer to the ideal of becoming a true 12-month sport.
Actionable Insights:
- Use the off-season to tell stories live games can’t: player journeys, cultural crossovers, behind-the-scenes access, and community initiatives.
- Establish an off-season publishing rhythm, so fans know when to expect new content, even when games are not being played.
- Use AI-powered content tools to turn match footage into highlights, stories, and platform-specific assets faster and at greater scale.
