How AI Is Rewriting the Playbook for Legacy Clubs

Decoding fan sentiment and revitalizing legacy properties

May 07, 2025

The best marketing plays in sports—delivered in under 1 minute.

This Season, We Partnered with Partick Thistle FC

A nearly 150-year-old, fan-owned football club. Fiercely loyal community. Rich tradition. Deep roots in Scottish football.

And now? A smarter digital engine powering it all.

Together, we launched Jags Club, their newly rebuilt newsletter, designed to reconnect with fans, grow their global audience, and drive real results.

The Results in Just One Month:

  • 20% boost in open rates

  • 250% jump in total email engagement

  • 200% increase in ticket link click-throughs

  • 50% in overall ticket revenue, thanks in a massive part to FanBaseClub

Fans didn’t just open emails—they clicked, bought tickets, and returned for more.

Legacy Isn’t Leverage—Until You Operationalize It

Most teams treat heritage like a tagline.

Partick Thistle FC turned it into a system.

They’ve been around since 1876. Their fans span generations. But even legacy clubs struggle with one thing: converting love into actionable engagement.

Each newsletter is now:

  • Contextualized with historic moments and milestones

  • Designed to reinforce loyalty while driving measurable commercial outcomes

  • Personalized based on fan sentiment on social media after each match, scanned in real time via our proprietary AI agent

New Tech for Partners

We can now track engagement and plot engagement maps based on all email and website published content using AI — a huge step forward in creating more fan-optimized content systems for partners.

Are you interested in learning more about how our AI agents can identify fan engagement trends?

Helping your team execute content faster and more intentionally

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

We also introduced gamification mechanics and sweepstakes-style promotions, turning site sessions into subscriber growth loops. Fans enter to win merch, tickets, and exclusive perks just by reading and sharing. It’s engagement that builds the list and deepens the funnel.

The Bigger Picture

Here’s what we’re finding:

First-party channels—especially email—are becoming the most reliable and measurable way to deepen fan relationships and drive revenue. Not just for short-term ROI, but for long-term sustainability.

It’s not about abandoning other platforms—it’s about complementing them with systems that you fully own, can personalize, and can measure.

In this case, combining heritage storytelling, sentiment-aware messaging, gamified incentives, and owned channel sequencing created real momentum.

And that’s the exciting part: we’re learning how legacy clubs can evolve their digital infrastructure without losing what makes them special.

To learn how you can improve your team or property’s marketing efforts:
→ Schedule a free 15-minute strategy audit with our team

Want to see what your owned media is worth?
→ Try our free EMV calculator

Keep Doing Big Things,

Team Athletiverse