As professional sports venues in the busiest media capital in the world, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center might seem like competitors: both look to attract the attention - and spending power - of the city's 8 million residents with NBA and NHL games, concerts, and more. Add in massive events happening just steps from their gates - the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Fourth of July Fireworks - and the potential for competition seems even greater.
Moderated by Fox 5's Steve Lucy (far left), a panel comprising (from left on couch) Macy's Amy Kule, Madison Square Garden's Ron Skotarczak, and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment's Fred Mangione discussed putting on a live show.
But, according to Ron Skotarczak, EVP, marketing partnerships, The Madison Square Garden Co., that's not the case. I think, to the general public, when they think about our teams, our venues, they think we're competitors, he said during last week's NAB Show New York. Frankly, we lift each other, and the market is so big that, if anything, it's just creating more activity for events than necessarily taking away from each other.
The other thing is, he continued, we're partners to some extent as it relates to the teams that we both have the privilege of working for. The NBA and the NHL do great jobs of creating opportunities for us to learn from each other.
Attracting fans through the turnstiles is only the beginning. Once they're in the building, venue operators and teams must find new ways to entertain and engage with fans to keep them coming back. And an arena like Barclays Center, built just four years ago, must continually refresh its technology and fan-engagement strategies.
The consumer is just so savvy with what they want to do, and, as marketers, it's up to us to give them what they're looking for, said Fred Mangione, COO, Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment. The days of taking out ads in newspapers and sending out blanket e-mails has gone away, and you really want to dial into analytics of what the consumer is looking at.
We've been in the building now four years, he continued, and already the arena business has changed. We remember going to every building in the country saying, How are we going to be the best at what we do? Now there's a new building in Sacramento, and there's other buildings coming up, where we're now going back around saying, Hey, what's the best new way to [engage with fans?] With the technology of today, everyone wants to consume the experience differently.
Both MSG and Barclays stressed the need to focus on what they can control - the fan experience - rather than what they cannot: the product on the court or ice. And, although Macy's Parade and Entertainment Group VP Amy Kule can map the route, perfect the script, and ensure that the balloons and floats conform to the department-store giant's strict standards, she must contend with an additional element beyond her control: the weather.
It's outside, it's public, there's not a whole lot I can do, she pointed out. We have to be aware of elements we're facing and be prepared for anything. It's our 90th parade, and we've marched down the streets of New York in every kind of weather that you can imagine. And, on some days, it's been five different types of weather in those three hours.
However, even if it pours on the Fourth of July and snows on Thanksgiving Day or if the Knicks and Nets are at the bottom of the league, the three panelists agreed that the most important aspect of their jobs is ensuring that the fan has a positive, memorable experience and that the fan experience shapes every decision.
We care deeply, first and foremost, about our fans, and so everything that we think about is in the context of, Will this be better for the fan? said Skotarczak. It could be a concert at one of our venues, it could be a Knicks game, a Rangers game, but it's all about the fans. When we think about our marketing partners, the first thing we think about is what they can bring to the relationship.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
As professional sports venues in the busiest media capital in the world, Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center might seem like competitors: both look to attract the attention - and spending power - of the city's 8 million residents with NBA and NHL games, concerts, and more. Add in massive events happening just steps from their gates - the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Fourth of July Fireworks - and the potential for competition seems even greater.
