W&L Viewership Drops After FloSports Move

Washington and Lee Athletic Communications recorded a 67% decline in fall sports viewership since the Old Dominion Athletic Conference moved its broadcasts to FloSports earlier this year.

Fall sports that W&L broadcasts include men’s and women’s soccer, football, volleyball, and field hockey. So far, FloSports data has only been collected from these sports, as the winter seasons have just begun.

Athletics Broadcaster and Multimedia Creative Specialist Ryan Connell, who tracks viewership numbers for every home contest, said that despite a larger audience presence on FloSports, the view numbers don’t reflect that.

“You have to create an account. You have to pay for it. There’s more you have to do, whereas before, you just clicked on our website and the sport you want to watch, and it just pops up,” Connell said.

W&L broadcasted 50 home contests last year and 42 this year. Standardizing this season’s viewership with the previous year’s reveals 19,925 fewer total viewers for this fall season.

Each sport experienced significant declines in views, especially when comparing the most-viewed game from this year to last year. Most notably, volleyball’s most-viewed game this season had 93% fewer viewers than last year — a difference of 1,221 viewers.

Viviana Vasquez ’27, a defensive specialist on W&L’s volleyball team, said she wishes streaming had stayed on W&L’s athletics website.

“I’d rather people be able to watch me for free,” she said.

FloSports offers users several plan options, including an annual subscription that costs $8.99 per month and a monthly subscription that costs $19.99 per month, as stated on the FloSports website. Accounts with an email address ending in .edu receive a discount.

The switch to FloSports has been in the works for several years. Negotiations within the ODAC began around January 2023. A five-year media rights partnership was signed in June, with all conference teams opting in to the deal.

The university’s athletic director, Jan Hathorn, said that Washington and Lee was the only school in the conference to vote against switching to FloSports.

“We weren’t in support of it because the quality of our streams has always been top level,” Hathorn said. “But when it became clear that it was going to pass through league votes, we determined it was best for us to opt in to the process and the agreement so that we could get the benefit of the revenue and other incentives.”

The paywall model has provided each school, through a revenue share, with a five-figure payment at various points throughout the year to assist with production.

Vasquez’s father, Ramon Vasquez, said he understands the deal was made for financial incentives, but doesn’t see any difference with FloSports.

“We’re paying now, that’s the only difference. It’s the same video as before and the same announcers — nothing different,” he said.

Each school is responsible for production quality and uses its own software. FloSports is now just the destination where the streams are broadcast, with little production input on its end.

Connell said most schools’ streaming quality does not meet the price tag FloSports is charging.

“Sometimes you don’t even see the play or can’t tell who the people are on the field,” he said. “We can’t even do it right when it’s free. Now we’re going to make people pay for something that is not consistently good.”

FloSports provided the schools with ideas on how to increase production quality. Connell said that despite the suggestions and the stipend, production quality still can’t be met.

“Some schools are in the position where they can’t spend money to buy the equipment recommended or can’t dedicate time and energy into making it what it should be,” Connell said.

The switch to FloSports has mostly affected casual viewers. Connell described these viewers as individuals who check in to games sporadically for a few minutes.

Vasquez’s mother, Nelva Vasquez, said people who used to watch her daughter’s games no longer do.

“Family and friends who normally don’t watch sports and really don’t want to commit to a subscription cannot watch your live games,” she said.

Students at W&L and across the conference are also affected, despite the discount for emails ending in .edu. Nolan Rickett ’27 used to watch games frequently, but now he said he doesn’t see any reason to subscribe.

“I don’t really see the value in subscribing to FloSports because I wouldn’t use it for certain sports, and I feel like the price tag is too high for what it is,” Rickett said.

Viewership reflects the sentiments of family, friends, and students. The average viewership per fall sport game is down from 592 viewers last year to 194 this year.

Despite FloSports’  struggles with viewership early in the partnership, the ODAC and W&L remain committed to producing the best streams possible.

Director of Athletics Communication Sydney Anderson said that while W&L’s streams haven’t changed much, FloSports allows for continued improvement.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to use Flo funds to further enhance what is already a very strong product,” she said. “Ryan and our student staff consistently produce one of the best broadcasts in the ODAC, and this support will only elevate us further when compared to our peers.”

FloSports is also in the process of creating standardized production software for schools to use, according to ODAC Commissioner Brad Bankston.

“That would provide a little bit more of a robust delivery system and something they can actually manipulate on their end as opposed to communicating with somebody who’s actually on site,” Bankston said.

While the streaming service makes access to W&L and ODAC sports games more difficult, especially for casual fans, Hathorn said that FloSports is striving to create a product that can compete with other streaming services across the NCAA.

“They are trying to offer a product that is going to be just as satisfying as something like ESPN,” Hathorn said.