Darren Young MBA
Field of Dreams
I’ve worked in sport for almost ten years now.
I reckon it’s as close to a dream job as it gets. My Dad says I’d do it even if people didn’t pay me, which probably tells you everything. I wouldn’t do that though, in case you’re wondering. The bills don’t take care of themselves.
My daughter tells everyone I ‘get paid to watch football’, so some people think it’s even better than a dream job but that’s not accurate either. There’s a lot of things that no one sees, and that are far less glamorous. I actually attend fewer games than anyone imagines. Not enough time, unfortunately.
I’ve been lucky enough to combine my previous life with this one. My working background – for twenty-plus years – was in customer service (both delivering excellence and helping organisations to do so) and that grounding has been so helpful. Customer service has certain principles, and also uses a philosophy (Net Promoter), that have helped me to simplify and articulate what fans want, and how it should be delivered. We might not describe fans as customers, but they want almost all of the same things, and their attitudes and behaviours are similar. The only thing a fan won’t do is move to a rival in the way a customer will, but they will still show their displeasure in other ways. There are plenty of other sports and leisure pursuits they can go to instead.
The FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar. It doesn’t get much better than doing something you love on a world stage.
“Yes, we want to win, but we can’t all win and not all of the time (unless we support the Harlem Globetrotters). But we can all have a great time. ”
Before moving into sport, I worked at some great places, and also studied for an MBA that involved spending time in the United States (including at Disney) to see how it was done there. Part of my dissertation focused on the differences between the US and the UK when it comes to service delivery. I was, as a consultant, able to help many organisations to improve in areas like customer feedback, staff development and complaint resolution. In sport, the aspects that need most focus aren’t so different. People will always be the best and most impactful asset a club has, and they need to seek feedback and resolve issues all the time.
I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity given to me by The Fan Experience Company to do what I do in a field I love. I’ve been heavily invested in sport from the moment I had to move on from dinosaurs and Star Wars, although I never left either of them entirely. I played sport – football, cricket, tennis, you name it - for virtually every spare minute of the daylight hours, and when I wasn’t playing, I was watching it on TV, or in stadiums. I was an addict when it came to data, knowledge and just the sheer spectacle of it.
It's taken me around the world; to two World Cups (Germany and Qatar), a European Championship In Portugal, Formula One races, NFL games, Wimbledon (several times), countless cup finals in several sports, an amazing basketball game at Maddison Square Garden and various test matches plus lots of other big (and some small) events. The highlight was Super Saturday at London 2012, when I was in the stands that Saturday night. I know millions of people say they were too, and the Olympic Stadium only held 80,000, but unlike many of them, I have the pictures to prove it.
That night showed me what it was to be a sports fan.
After watching Mo Farah run around the track twenty-odd times, and shouting ‘C’mon Mo!’ for about the same number, the emotion when he crossed the line was not something I’ll ever forget. Hugging complete strangers – while not totally new to me – was also symbolic of the experience. I didn’t know these people, and might not ever see them again, but we shared a common dream that night. We wanted our guy – like we want our team – to do well and on this occasion Mo did. It wasn’t just for the sake of winning either because we can’t always win, but because of the way it made us feel; if only for a few seconds, minutes or hours.
I didn’t want to leave the stadium that night and had to be almost dragged out by two very understanding stewards. The reason was because, no matter what happens, I knew deep down that I’d never quite feel the same way again. And I was right. Most fans – unless they are ‘lucky’ to follow a team who wins a lot - realise that the moments like the one described above are not only fleeting but what we actually live for. It’s possibly their scarcity that makes them all that more special.
Yes, we want to win, but we can't all win and not all of the time (unless we support the Harlem Globetrotters).
But we can all have a great time.
We want - and should expect - the overall experience to be the best that it could be. We accept that we might not get what we want on the field of play, because that’s the way sport goes, but we should still expect to be very well looked after regardless, and then the result becomes a bonus. If it feels like we’re at Disney the rest of the time, then the venue and its owner aren’t doing too much wrong.
Not everyone is fortunate to be world class on the field. But they can be world class off it. That’s where I hopefully come in.