Today’s guest columnists are professors John Cairney and Rick Burton.

In sport, as in life, the idea of failure is often cast as a villain—something to be denied, delayed or danced around.

But the longer we work with sport industry leaders, the more we see that what separates elite leadership from the rest isn’t avoiding failure—it’s recognizing it quickly, learning from it deliberately and walking away strategically.

They know to “fish or cut bait,” or as the bard Kenny Rogers put it, “know when to fold ‘em.”

The popular tech-world mantra of “fail fast” has permeated the sport sector, too. Try a new fan engagement strategy. Launch a data product. Rebrand a team. Embrace AI.

If it doesn’t work? Pivot. One major problem is that “fail fast” often gets mistaken for “fail indiscriminately.” Smart leaders know failing fast only works if you fail right.

The Cost of Clinging to a Sinking Project

Whether it’s a league-backed app that underperforms, a long-term stadium deal that no longer serves a community, or an innovation hub that’s a nice idea on paper but lacks commercial viability, the signs of failure often come before the headlines do.

In sport’s rush to innovate, digital ventures haven’t always paid off.

FC Barcelona cut ties with NFT platform Ownix in 2021 just days after announcing the partnership, following a fraud scandal involving a key associate—a cautionary tale about vetting partners. NBA Top Shot, once a breakout success, saw monthly sales plunge to $1.9 million by May 2024—its lowest since 2020. Together, these cases spotlight two leadership essentials: Do your due diligence, and don’t confuse early hype with lasting value.

The point? Good leaders don’t confuse perseverance with progress. Sometimes, stepping away is the most forward-looking decision you can make.

Smart Failure vs. Preventable Mistakes

Harvard’s Amy Edmondson, one of the world’s leading voices on organizational learning, recently noted failure comes in many flavors. Not all are useful.

In her Harvard Business Review interview, she distinguished between “intelligent failure”—the kind that happens in the pursuit of innovation—and avoidable mistakes, which are rooted in sloppiness, misalignment or poor execution.

In sport, intelligent failures might include:

Piloting a new ticket pricing model that underperforms but reveals valuable fan behavior, as seen at the 2025 FA Cup Final, where dynamic VIP pricing triggered fan frustration but offered real-time insights into pricing elasticity.

Partnering with tech startups whose products don’t scale but spark new thinking—just ask clubs like Barcelona and Juventus, who dived into fan tokens with Socios.com. While the long-term gain is still uncertain, the data delivered on digital engagement was likely gold.

Launching a women’s sport broadcast package that struggles initially but lays the groundwork for long-term equity. Want an example? The NWSL’s 2023 media deal with Amazon, ESPN, CBS and Scripps. Early numbers haven’t blown anyone out of the water, but the infrastructure is in place for what comes next.

Contrast the above with avoidable mistakes:

Rolling out a major brand change without market testing—a recurring misstep, seen often enough from clunky kit redesigns to misfired team logo rebrands.

Overlooking community sentiment in stadium relocations, as the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs are learning with Arrowhead, and the Australian Football League’s head office with its conditions for a Tasmanian team.

Ignoring early analytics on engagement, hoping passion will fix poor strategy—a trap sprung on more than a few NFT platforms and Web3 experiments as the market cooled.

Failure isn’t the problem. How you fail and what you learn is what matters.

Create a Culture That Can Fail and Learn

Jason Wingard, writing for Forbes in his article “Don’t Fail Fast—Fail Smart” cautions against fetishizing speed over sense (common or informed).

It’s a trap sport often falls into, especially in the chase for younger audiences and tech-first revenue.

Too many projects fail because the architects never designed a quantifiable hypothesis. There’s no clear way to measure whether they “worked,” so they die quietly, and leaders move on without learning.

The alternative? Creating a culture where experimentation is encouraged, but always tied to specific, testable goals. This happens when failure is debriefed, not buried. Where junior staff feel safe to raise early concerns. Or, where “stopping” something is not seen as failure, but as adaptation.

“Innovation leaders often take a portfolio approach to innovation,” said Sean Branagan, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship in Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. “Failure isn’t just an option, it’s a major ingredient! That’s why VCs have portfolios. One big winner carries the fund, while generally nine others are duds or all-out failures. Many organizations should consider launching a convoy of innovations. Big, small, unusual, maybe even silly or counter-intuitive things together. This approach increases the likelihood of success and definitely increases overall learning.”

Look to the Metrics That Matter

For contemporary sport business leaders, the real challenge isn’t just spotting failure. It’s defining success up front and building feedback loops that make course correction possible.

When experimenting with new formats, platforms or revenue streams, the best leaders ask:

What were we testing—and did we define a clear hypothesis?

Did we build metrics that tracked learning, not just outcomes?

What did early user behavior signal, and did we act on it?

Is the idea flawed or just undercooked? Would a pivot reveal more?

Sometimes stopping is the smartest move. Sometimes it’s a tweak, a retest or a redeploy. But in all cases, the decision should be based on insight, not instinct—and framed not just as “what worked,” but what did we learn?

Fold, Learn, Lead

Sport has always celebrated resilience: the underdog comeback, the gritty overtime victory. But resilience is not about denying reality. It’s about responding to facts with clarity.

So yes, fail. But do so smartly. Fail with purpose. Fold when the cards aren’t right. And live to play another hand.

John Cairney is head of the University of Queensland’s School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences while also serving as deputy executive director for the Office of 2032 Games Engagement and Director of the Queensland Centre for Olympic and Paralympic Studies. Rick Burton is the David B. Falk Emeritus Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University, a consultant for Endava and Australian-based XV as well as co-author of The Rise of Major League Soccer (Lyons Press, 2025).