At Shnarped we are striving to better understand the dynamics between the fans, the players, and the organization (the team). We have a unique ability to engage players and fans on our iOS application, but in order to really start to grow our user-base effectively we realize we will need to present the teams with a strong value proposition. If we can help them line their pockets by using our application our customer acquisition will be much easier. 
Since the first aeroplan and frequent flyer programs saw such success 20 years ago, loyalty programs have sprung up across all sorts of industries. The advent of geo-locating on smart phones provides an excellent opportunity for fans to demonstrate their loyalty and for businesses to gain data from their customers. FourSquare is essentially a mobile-loyalty program that small businesses can use to not only identify and reward return customers, but to also lure new customers away from competitors.
We have been thinking about allowing fans to check-in to games in order to earn some sort of ‘fan loyalty badges’ for a while now. It turns out FourSquare has been allowing time-specific event check-ins for over a year now, but to date it doesn’t appear any professional sports teams have really taken to turning this into a formalized loyalty program. This Coyle Media report entitled Sports Fans are Not Created Equal highlights some very interesting statistics about fans of the NHL. It turns out NHL fans are much more likely to own smart phones and have a higher propensity for checking-in to sports events than fans of other sports. Coyle also suggests that while most organizations are racing to apply the newest social media tools, email still outperforms all other tools in terms of actual ROI.
This offers some interesting opportunities to anyone (like us) that is looking to improve fan loyalty and drive ticket sales for teams. Fans are PROUD to be going to the event. It’s not like going next door for coffee and checking-in via FourSquare in order to get your tenth coffee free. Attending games is a ritual; it’s an event fans want to broadcast to the world. They want to check-in, tweet opinions, post pics on instagram, and get tagged with images on Facebook. 
Teams desperately want and need their fans to be sharing all of these things, and would love to be able to reward those that do so the most. Right now the rewards mainly occur via twitter and facebook contests, neither of which have great ROI metrics built-in that one can confidently say actually drive profitability. Somewhere in this space lies an opportunity for a business to build a loyalty program that excites fans and makes teams money.
If you are sitting there with any ideas about how to do this, please send them our way!
dustin@shnarped.com