Ask someone to name the best thing they’ve ever bought. Many people will mention a car, watch, house, or other meaningful purchase. Then ask a different question: What is the greatest experience of your life? The answer almost always changes. People are smiling. Their energy changes. They start telling stories. They remember who they were with, where they were, and how they felt. Maybe they were watching the World Cup with their dad, taking their kids to their first Olympics, or celebrating a Super Bowl win with lifelong friends. Memory comes back in vivid detail because moments like these become part of our identity. Very few people describe something this way. This difference says a lot about how we define value.
For many years, the business engine for major sporting events has been straightforward: selling tickets, negotiating media rights, and securing sponsorship. Today, an increasing share of value is created through hospitality, premium access and curated experiences that extend beyond just a seat in the stadium. For organisers, teams and host cities, the experience itself is increasingly becoming the product.
This development reflects a broader shift in well-being. For decades, luxury has been measured by what people own. Now, it is increasingly defined by what people experience. McKinsey & Company last The study found that consumers in all income brackets overwhelmingly Prioritize luxury experiences As the ultimate indulgence. More people are choosing memories over possessions because experiences fulfill something that products cannot.
This consumer preference is reshaping revenue models across sports and entertainment. Premium hospitality packages, VIP experiences, behind-the-scenes access, and destination travel have become some of the fastest-growing, highest-margin segments of major events. Since traditional ticket inventory is inherently limited, organizers are creating new value by expanding what fans can experience rather than just where they can sit.
An expensive purchase may bring excitement for a while. An unforgettable experience increases in value over time. We tell the story again. We share it with others. We return to it years later and remember not only what happened, but also who we were when it happened. Memory becomes part of identity.
A championship match with clients can become the beginning of a relationship built on trust rather than transactions. A trip with lifelong friends becomes a story that will be retold for decades. Taking a child to their first major sporting event becomes part of family history. Years later, people rarely remember every play. They remember the feelings, the conversations, the feeling of being fully present together. The event provides the background. People create memory
That’s why experiments command a premium. The clock tells the time. The wonderful experience becomes part of your life. Great hospitality helps make those moments possible. Premium dining, exclusive lounges, curated itineraries and personalized service create experiences that command premium prices while fostering long-term loyalty among fans, partners and corporate customers.
It is not defined only by luxurious finishes or exclusive spaces. It is defined by how people feel. Great service eliminates friction, anticipates needs, and allows guests to be fully present. Food, design and amenities are important, but they’re rarely what people remember most. People remember the warmth of the welcome, the ease of the experience, and the feeling that everything simply worked. The human element is still the factor that ultimately distinguishes us.
Luxury itself is also becoming more personal. For many years, premium experiences have been about exclusivity. Today, it is about choice. Some guests want private lounges, exceptional dining, and behind-the-scenes access. Others simply want a more relaxed way to experience a major cultural or sporting moment. Both groups are looking for the same thing: a closer connection to the moment.
This shift is reshaping how experiences are designed. What matters is not separation from the audience, but immersion in it.
For years, sports executives have focused on monetizing media rights. The next frontier may be another equally valuable asset that could be called experience rights: premium access, hospitality, and immersive moments that can’t be broadcast, summarized, or created by AI broadcasters. They can distribute every game to millions of viewers, but they can’t replicate the feeling of walking onto the field, meeting the athletes, entertaining customers, or sharing a once-in-a-lifetime moment with family. These experiences remain rare in nature. As digital content becomes more abundant – increasingly created, personalized and summarized by artificial intelligence – physical experiences become relatively more valuable precisely because they cannot be replicated. The more infinite digital content becomes, the more valuable limited live moments become.
The next wave of global events reflects this change. The North American FIFA World Cup and the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games are shared cultural moments that bring millions of people into cities and communities in ways that feel immediate and unrestrained. These events are no longer measured solely by attendance, TV ratings or sponsorship revenue. Their commercial success depends on how effectively they monetize premium hospitality, travel, dining, local experiences and corporate entertainment across entire host cities. The stadium remains the main focus, but the economic opportunity now extends much further.
But the most lasting impact will be measured by how cities transform around the stadiums. For example, the Super Bowl temporarily reshapes a city into something bigger than itself. Streets become gathering points. Ordinary spaces take on meaning. The city begins to feel like a communal stage where strangers connect in the same moment. The NCAA Championships create a similar effect on a more intimate scale. Entire communities come alive. Team colors appear in every storefront and conversation. For a few days, the city itself becomes part of the experience.
This expansion is important because today’s sports economy reaches far beyond the stadium itself. Hotels, restaurants, transportation providers, retailers and cultural institutions become part of the products that fans purchase. The value created by major sporting events extends beyond the 90 minutes played on the pitch across an entire destination.
When people travel to these events, they don’t stay confined within the venues. They explore. They wander without plans. They eat where the locals eat. They discover parts of a city they never intended to visit. Most of all, they remember people.
This summer provided an early glimpse of what that looks like. Scottish supporters and Bostonians embraced each other with enthusiasm and curiosity, exchanging stories of the kindness of strangers they met along the way. The Norwegian fans turned Times Square into a spontaneous celebration, with cheers and spontaneous celebrations erupting from passersby. Across many cities, visitors and locals mingled in ways that seemed unscripted and all too human.
Those moments may never show up in official statistics, but they are often the ones that stick with people the longest. Not the end result, but the feeling of welcome. Not the event, but the feeling of belonging to an unfamiliar place. This may be the greatest value created by the experience economy.
In a world where so much of life is done through screens, shared experiences remind us why we travel, celebrate, and gather in the first place. They create stories that families pass down, friendships that deepen over time, and relationships that begin in moments of true connection.
As digital experiences become more sophisticated, physical experiences become more valuable. AI can personalize highlights, generate comments, and recommend exactly what each fan wants to watch. But it can’t recreate the collective anticipation before kickoff, the atmosphere inside a packed stadium, or the relationships built during the experience Those moments together. Digital abundance increases the relative scarcity of being there.
Consumers still value beautiful products and luxury goods. Increasingly, however, they want these purchases to create something that can’t sit on a shelf. They want memories. Years from now, most people will have a hard time remembering the best thing they ever bought. They will never forget the people they were with when they witnessed something extraordinary. Because in the end we don’t remember what we had. We remember what we lived.
As media become infinitely repeatable, lived experiences become one of the few remaining forms of scarcity. Organizations that learn how to design, monetize and deliver those moments will shape the next era of value creation across sports, hospitality and entertainment.
