Arena Adventures
About the Project
Arena Adventures is an interactive stadium experience that connects children to NWSL women's soccer teams through a personalized stadium passport with collectible stamps. This initiative captures children's engagement before, during, and after each match, attracting new fans and boosting revenue.
Despite the growth in women's soccer viewership and increased international investment, women's teams still face inequality in access to facilities, funding, and media coverage. Additionally, the rise of digital engagement platforms necessitates improved in-stadium initiatives to draw crowds back to the physical experience. By expanding initiatives to include all children, live attendance and equity in women's soccer can be boosted. Inclusive stadium activities encourage families to interact with vendors, purchase merchandise, and return for future matches.
My Role
Solo Project
Time Frame
15 Weeks
Spring 2024
Tools Used
Figma
Figjam
After Effects
Illustrator
Coda.io
Design Process
Industry Research
Stakeholder & Ecosystem Analysis
Identifying Opportunity Space
In-depth Interviews & Survey
Auto-Ethnography & Non-Participant Observation
Affinity Mapping
Ideation & Competitive Research
Prototyping & User-Testing
Future State Mapping
Refining Business Model
Solution Developement
Product Roadmap
The Opportunity
Why Now?
Since the 1999 Women's World Cup there have been three attempts of women’s professional soccer leagues in the U.S. The first two attempts only lasted three years each.
As the longest-standing professional women's soccer league, the NWSL has experienced significant growth in recent years, reflecting promising projections for the continued expansion of the women's soccer industry.
Why Stadiums?
The number of digital viewers of live sports in the U.S. was projected to reach 57.5 million in 2021 and is expected to exceed 90 million by 2025, marking a substantial 26% increase. (Think with Google, 2024)
With the rise of digital engagement platforms, there is a need for improved in-stadium initiatives in order to drive crowds back to the physical experience.
Target Audience:
Children Aged 6-16
The current feedback loop often focuses initiatives exclusively on young girls, reinforcing gender stereotypes. This leaves an opportunity to break the cycle, focusing on inclusivity for all young children, regardless of gender.
Arena Adventures gives the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) an opportunity to expand its reach beyond young females to all children,
thereby boosting live attendance and promoting equity in women’s soccer.
Ethical Research Methods
To understand the children's ideal experience best, I conducted interviews with their parents, asked teenagers to reflect on their experiences as children, and lastly used non-participant observation at live sports games.
Designing the Ideal Children’s Stadium Experience
Primary research led to a framework representing key emotions, benefits, and features of a child's ideal stadium experience. The approach followed the Lextant Design Research methods.
From Framework to Ideation
The Lextant framework and the research that went into it laid the foundation for generating "how might we" questions. These ideas aim to help children feel included in the stadium experience.
Inspiration: Who is successfully engaging the youngest generation?
During the ideation process, I analyzed two notable examples of the sports industry successfully engaging children, which helped in broadening their audience reach. First, I analyzed the Savannah Bananas' business model using the 10 Types of Innovation framework, which encompasses configuration, offering, and experience.
Concurrently, during my research, Nickelodeon aired the Super Bowl, attracting a significant number of viewers. Specifically, the Nickelodeon simulcast, which featured a SpongeBob-themed feed, averaged about 1.2 million viewers (By comparison, in 2023, Nickelodeon averaged 190,000 viewers in primetime) (Forbes, 2024).
Possible Solutions & Initial Prototype:
All of these solutions were shared and received positive feedback. The passport concept emerged as the best option, as it allowed for the incorporation of the other two ideas—the in-game activities and the player card element—into the book.
Mapping the Future State User Journey
Before vs. After: User-Testing
🏟️ Finalized name & developed branding
✅ Confirmed projected future state flow
📒 Made passport team/stadium specific
📍Added map, further developed reward system
🖥️ Confirmed desirability of certain digital features
Introducing Arena Adventures: Behind the Name
Arena Adventures is not only an interactive passport book where children collect stamps in the stadium, but also an entire stadium system designed to elevate the sports experience for children and families.
Arena Adventures can shape the beginning of many children's journeys as sports fans.
Business Model:
Arena Adventures charges NWSL teams a subscription fee to set up the service at their stadiums. Passports are distributed free of charge to young fans at the stadium entrance.
Strategic Partnerships: ESPN x Arena Adventures
By partnering with ESPN, Arena Adventures has to chance to expand to other sports leagues in the United States in the future.
ESPN Promotional Video
This 20 second promo video is a possible rebranding of ESPN to honor the NSWL spring and summer season in partnership with Arena Adventure.
(Developed in After Effects)
Launch Date: March 2025
Once complete with future optimizations, Arena Adventures is set to launch pilot testing at the end of the 2024 season, with the goal of launching the full service in March 2025, covering half of the NWSL teams.
