NBA commissioner Adam Silver spends a lot of his time focused on trying to better understand emerging technology. When teams build new arenas or rethink the game-day experience, he wants them to realize that trying to get fans to disconnect from their smartphones is foolhardy.
“You want people to be fully engaged, but there also has to be a recognition that for those digital natives—as we’re calling them—it’s virtually impossible,” Silver said this week at the VenuesNow Conference in New York City. “It’s part and parcel of who they are, and I think we have to find ways to incorporate that digital existence into our league and recognize that, at the end of the day, what these leagues have become are social platforms unto themselves.