It's mid-June 2026 in New York City. The Knicks are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and fans are buying tickets to away games in San Antonio just to follow the team. The MTA has swapped out its subway globe lights for basketball-shaped ones.
And oh, by the way, the FIFA World Cup just kicked off, with MetLife Stadium hosting eight matches, including the Final. Five official fan zones, one in each borough, are packed with visitors from every corner of the planet.
In other words, New York City is currently the global epicenter of sports fandom.
So here's my question for every museum professional in the region: "Where are all those fans?"
I've asked some version of this question before. Most recently, about Super Bowl Sunday, when I pointed out that game day is a great time to visit your local museum because it will be "even quieter than usual." The joke lands because it's true, and it shouldn't be.
The difference between a sports fan and a casual museum visitor isn't curiosity or intelligence. It's investment. Fans wear the gear. They know the stats. They travel to road games. They feel something when their team wins or loses. Passion isn't a personality type; it's something that gets cultivated through repeated, meaningful experiences that reward engagement.
Some museums are actually getting this right. Right now, the American Museum of Natural History has launched "World Cup, World Cultures," featuring match-watch parties in its galleries, an all-ages Goal Zone soccer play space, and a Global Sports Pavilion. The Intrepid Museum is running free watch parties for more than 50 World Cup matches on the pier.
These aren't gimmicks. They're a playbook.
The AMNH didn't suddenly stop being a natural history museum by putting up a big screen for Brazil vs. Morocco. What they did was remove the activation energy barrier — that invisible wall that keeps people who aren't "museum people" from walking through the door in the first place. They said: the thing you already care about? It lives here too.
The Knicks marketing team understands something that many museum marketers still don't: you can convert a bandwagon fan into a real one, but you have to catch them while they're excited. Right now, there are people in New York wearing Jalen Brunson jerseys who have never been to a game before. Some of them will become Knicks fans for life. The question is whether anyone is offering them an equivalent on-ramp into your institution.
What would that look like? Here are a few things to chew on:
The story IS the exhibit. Millions of World Cup visitors will be in New York through July 19. Most of them love history, culture, and spectacle. They didn't come to Manhattan to stare at a wall panel with 8-point type. Give them something they can feel, touch, cheer about.
Fan-worthy requires a lower barrier to entry, not a higher one. The Knicks don't make you pass a quiz before you can root for them. Your admissions procedure, your signage, your hours — do they say "welcome" or "here are the rules"?
Repeat visits are what turn visitors into fans. Sports teams don't try to make every game the same experience. Neither should you. What brings someone back to your museum a second time, a third time, until one day they're the person telling strangers on the subway how great your place is?
The World Cup Final is at MetLife on July 19. The city will be electric between now and then. Millions of visitors, billions of eyeballs, and a huge percentage of them are people who have never set foot in your museum.
That's not a threat. That's an opportunity.
GO MUSEUMS! (And, yes — go KNICKS!)
What are you doing at your museum to tap into the World Cup energy? And are there other sports-fan-to-museum-fan conversion stories you've seen work? Share your ideas in the COMMENTS section below!
Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!
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