Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Global trends organisers must consider

Barely three months into the new year, the headlines in sport business are filled with new leagues and fresh formats, write John Cairney and Rick Burton.

Dearica Hamby of the Vinyl goes up for a shot against Brittney Sykes of Rose during an Unrivaled game in Florida on Tuesday. Picture: Rich Storry/Getty Images

With the 100-day review on the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics due out shortly, we were wondering if political leaders and the Games organising committee were losing sleep over how to maximise revenue and grow Brisbane 2032’s stature?

Or are they more concerned with pushing the boundaries, leveraging new technology, developing new products, and introducing fresh spectator engagement innovations?

Today’s leaders don’t have the luxury of focusing on just one area. They – like their organisations – must be ambidextrous, balancing exploration and exploitation, as Stanford and Harvard academics O’Reilly and Tushman described in their influential research on organisational strategy.

It’s easier said than done.

There are examples of organisations throughout the sports industry attempting to do just that. Barely three months into the new year, the headlines in sport business are filled with new leagues, fresh formats and bold attempts to expand the reach of popular sports through gamification and modifications aimed at making the experience faster and more engaging/accessible to modern audiences.

Take Unrivaled, a new three-on-three US women’s basketball league, for example. This embryonic entity had its debut just a few weeks ago. The format? Innovative and intimate – a single small-scale stadium for all teams, creating a unique game-day atmosphere with a heavy emphasis on social media and digital engagement.

Unrivaled is a prime example of exploration and is breaking new ground in women’s sports by offering an alternative to traditional leagues.

But it’s also about exploitation in the best sense of the word. The corporate backing behind Unrivaled includes investors like the NBA’s Kevin Durant and the WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart. It suggests big money sees a growing trend worth capitalising on.

Queenslander Adam Scott playing for Boston Common Golf in the TGL in January

Women’s sports are booming, with Nielsen reporting a 131 per cent increase in global viewership from 2021-23. If brands aren’t thinking about how to engage with this growth, they’re missing out.

Then there’s TGL, Tiger Woods’s and Rory McIlroy’s tech-driven golf league that blends traditional golf with e-sports-style presentation.

The exploration? A brand-new way to consume golf – fast-paced, team-based, and set in a hi-tech stadium-style venue.

The exploitation? Leveraging the massive rise in e-sports and gaming culture to make golf more relevant to younger audiences.

According to Statista, the global e-sports market is projected to surpass $1.87bn in revenue by 2025, with a young, engaged audience that traditional sports leagues are eager (or failing) to capture.

TGL recognises the future of sport isn’t just about what’s happening on the course, rather it’s about how the next generation wants to watch and engage with their version of the game.

These examples illustrate the balancing act that today’s sport business leaders must master.

The key takeaway? It’s not about choosing between exploration and exploitation, it’s about doing both and doing them well.

Those who get it right will be the ones shaping the future of the industry. Those who don’t might find themselves losing a lot more than sleep.

So, what’s keeping Brisbane 2032 administrators up at night? Our guess is simple: it’s the enormity of pulling off a world-class mega event the globe will consume in one fashion or another.

But while they’re up, they should think also about doing the unexpected, the counterintuitive and the bold.

Professor John Cairney is deputy executive director for the Office of 2032 Games Engagement and director of the Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies | Professor Rick Burton is former chief marketing officer for the US Olympic Committee