We exist as a part of an increasingly connected world. I don't need to get into it, because you probably know what I mean. Right now you can be connected to a global network on an Air Craft Carrier, in your car, in your bathroom, on a plane, walking down the street -- or even on the International Space Station. The sooner people adopt to this fact the sooner you can adapt and evolve with the newer technologies. I looked at the NBA teams and how 'connected' they are -- as seen by the factors of market size and twitter followers. The information from that investigation can be found here in full, or here in chart form with no analysis.
Well, I was recently introduced to something else that is very cool. Social media and connectivity goes both ways in the sports world. It's not just the mothership (the sports franchise) doing all the work -- it's also the fans sending information back as well. Tariq Ahmad (@tariq_ahmad ) and his brother Nabeel ( @nabeeloo ) developed SportsShadow.com -- a site that tracks, ranks, and presents data for ALL the major leagues around. How? I don't understand all of it, but they collect the info from Foursquare and Facebook "check ins" and API.
I don't know what API is, but whenever I'm in twitter jail tweetdeck gives me some jibber jabber about API calls or some tech stuff that's beyond my current abilities. (And since I'm in self-disclosure mode here -- the maximum proficiency of technology I've mastered is the ability to be headshot'd by my nephews and their friends online in Modern Warfare. I'm the fun uncle. Also known as "easy mode".)
Anyway, check out their site, it has some interesting data. The New York Knicks average the highest number of check-ins per home game. Second worst? Our Utah Jazz. The full NBA rankings are here. (And the playoff rankings here.)
My impression of Jazz fans are that they are a very tech savvy people -- but the raw data suggests that the fans who go to home games are falling behind other teams in check ins. I don't know how many fan check ins you need to get us some star calls in the playoffs -- but it looks like we'll need a lot more than what we're currently getting.