After just four years, Major League Baseball is shutting down the Fan Cave.
Once occupying the three story, 15,000 square foot space on the corner of Broadway and 4th Street in New York City, today, it stands empty, waiting for baseball to make their next move.
All league social media activities will now be consolidated under MLB Advanced Media and the MLB Network.
In an interview with SportsBusiness Journal, President of Business and Media for MLB, Bob Bowman, said, “We’re trying to be more coordinated in all of our social media efforts. This change in structure is helping all of us focus on the same goals, and by putting all of the social media together, we hope to have a more consistent and effective message.”
Your initial assumption may be that the Fan Cave is closing because it failed, but that would be wrong.
“It would be a shame if that’s the conclusion people come to,” Bowman told SBJ.
“Every asset needs to be reviewed and analyzed, and after four years, it was due for that kind of review. It was a very good idea to have a major presence like that in Manhattan and engage with players in new ways. I think what we’re doing is actually an attempt to extend its life instead of end it.”
Fan Cave was, essentially, a marketing platform designed to reach the 12-34 demographic and draw them closer to the game of baseball. The MLB has seen great success in a short time creating almost 11 billion impressions, worth around $193 million in paid advertising. Musical acts, player and celebrity interviews, art shows, and more have allowed the Fan Cave to capture a sizeable portion of the demographic they hoped to reach.
Other professional sports leagues have been intrigued by these results. ESPN’s Darren Rovell once called the Fan Cave: “Perhaps the craziest, most ambitious, yet perfect idea a sports league has ever come up with.”
Even more importantly, sponsors have been happy with the results as well.
Justin Toman, Director of Sports Marketing at PepsiCo, told AdWeek, “It’s a really interesting and evolving way for brands to get closer to fans and for fans to get closer to the game. We’re always looking at the younger demographic. No matter the league, we’d always be one of the first partners to raise our hand and say, ‘We’re in, let’s try this!’”
Just as every business desperately tries to reach the younger demographic, teams and leagues are constantly looking for a way to draw in the younger fans. It’s only a matter of time before other leagues attempt to recreate the short-lived success of the Fan Cave.