The Phoenix Suns Will Play Out The Rest Of Their Season On Twitch
The Phoenix Suns decided not to rest on their laurels with the suspension of the NBA season. Instead, the Suns chief marketing and communications officer, Dean Stoyer, brought his team together to brainstorm. Subsequently, the Suns decided to simulate the rest of the season’s games on NBA2K, which will stream Twitch.
“[Social Media Senior Manager Allison Harissis] and the social team thought beyond traditional broadcast and what are other ways to give to fans,” stated Stoyer. “We knew the sports world would take a timeout and how do we give everyone a way to continue to enjoy sports the best way.”
The Suns decided to utilize the Twitch platform for the first time in two years as a way to continue to engage fans positively during uncertain times. The first game streamed on Friday night March 13th with the Suns taking on the Dallas Mavericks.
“We worked through the night, Friday morning, and continued to amplify it,”
stated Harissis. “I appreciate people coming together and rallying behind us.”
The first NBA2K game drew an estimated 221,000 views, including 126,000 unique viewers. Additionally, The Suns Twitch page went from a following of 0 on Friday to 4,867 as of this Tuesday, March 17th.
While Stoyer admits the team has been “95% focused” on the Twitch platform operation, he knows the organization needs to look at ways to engage all parts of the organization and continue to build their fanbase along the way.
“It’s difficult, a lot of the ideas go to concepts bringing people together, which is counterintuitive,” stated Stoyer. “We’re looking at ways with our partners of in-arena activations like a t-shirt toss, how do you execute that virtually? Extending to brands like Lyft and restaurants that are maybe challenged; trying to get creative not only around fans, but support the community in creative ways.”
Stoyer did acknowledge that Fox Sports Arizona has an abundance of time slots to fill losing both the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL’s Arizona Coyotes. Discussions are happening as to how to bring a variety of different programming to the network.
“The team’s got their brains working, how do we leverage all of the platforms,” stated Stoyer. “You find new ways to survive these moments and provide entertainment and distractions. If you look at it the right way, it shapes a new way of thinking.”
One idea is airing old broadcasts with commentary from various personalities for a “director’s cut-like highlight.” Uncertain times call for both creativity with the common goal of keeping life as normal as possible. The work being done by The Phoenix Suns is vital to the continued growth of the sporting world and its fanbase.
