What's In It for the Fan?

You can spend hundreds of millions of dollars improving a stadium and still miss what matters most to fans.

Alchemer recently released its 2026 Stadium Scorecard, analyzing more than 6,200 fan reviews across 20 MLB and NFL venues.

PNC Park in Pittsburgh finished No. 1 among the venues studied, with value and parking among its recognized strengths.

But the bigger takeaway for me isn't who finished first.

It's what fans actually value.

We spend a lot of time in sports talking about new stadiums, renovations, premium spaces and technology. Those investments matter, but the investment itself isn't what creates value.

It's what that investment delivers.

Did fans enjoy themselves? Was it easy to get around? Could they get food without missing half the game? Was there energy in the building?

When we assess fan experiences at CUENTO (opens the CUENTO site in a new tab), we're ultimately trying to do two things:

Maximize enjoyment. Minimize friction.

And this becomes even more important as the cost of attending games continues to rise.

I've said it before: The more money you ask people to spend, the more they're going to expect in return.

It's a big part of what I explored in my recent article about the changing expectations around college football and the live sports experience: The Game Isn't Enough Anymore.

New buildings and technology can be incredible.

But the real measure of success is whether fans walk away feeling like the experience was worth their time and money.