Venue Accessibility Issues Provide Opportunity for Meaningful Partnerships

Among the many reasons sports and entertainment partnerships are popular with product and brand marketers is that a single sponsorship can achieve multiple business objectives, including brand building, image enhancement, community relations and social responsibility, among others.

That said, it is not necessarily easy to create activation platforms that effectively connect all of those dots through a single effort. But ESPN’s just-released report on how MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and WNBA venues are accommodating the needs of fans with disabilities highlights one area where corporate partners could step up to close some significant gaps and earn credit for doing so.

The report’s authors conclude that although “professional sports teams have largely moved to accommodate the needs of fans with sensory issues…many venues still fall short when it comes to addressing a range of other needs for fans living with conditions known as invisible or nonapparent disabilities.

“Tens of millions of Americans live with conditions that are not immediately apparent but significantly impact their daily lives, including autism, brain injuries, autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, mental health conditions, and loss of hearing and vision.

Invisible disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that prohibits discrimination and requires stadiums, arenas and other venues to provide accommodations. But those efforts largely focus on physical accessibility features such as wheelchairs, ramps and elevators.”

Current and prospective partners of teams and venues that fit that description should see ESPN’s conclusions as a giant bat signal. By helping to fund accommodations such as dedicated entrances and elevator access or making concession-ordering easier—just to mention a few of many improvements that would be welcomed by disabled fans—sponsors could make a meaningful impact on the game-day experience for those supporters, raise critical awareness of issues that venue personnel and other fans are not aware of but should be, and earn contextual branding opportunities that provide higher value than standard signage.

Brands would also have the option to add a cause marketing promotion to raise funds for related nonprofits and deepen the connection between the sponsor, property and fans.

All of those benefits would be in addition to, not instead of, the traditional visibility, promotional, hospitality, sales and other benefits brands are already earning through their partnership agreements.

In the search for partnership activations that check all the boxes, it’s difficult to conceive of another partnership platform that can offer so many diverse advantages.