Kickin’ It with the Family: Motivations and Constraints of Parents’ Game Attendance at Sporting Events

Sport fandom, particularly game attendance, offers an opportunity for social interaction. However, actual attendance at sport events is unrealistic for many individuals. In an attempt to foster a sense of community among such fans, sport marketers have begun to create additional consumption sites by televising live games in central locations, such as in a movie theater. This study examines the motives and experiences of fans who attend a cinema to view live baseball games. Data were collected through participant observation, a survey distributed to event attendees (n = 188), and focus groups. Results suggest that the sense of community and social environment created at the cinema were key factors in the viewing experience. The cinema provided individuals a collective viewing experience with likeminded fans, which helped create a stadium-like environment. This atmosphere, which affords the opportunity to focus on the game (compared with viewing at home or in pubs), allows fans to feel more connected to the team as they believe the cinema offers an authentic environment. Thus, providing sites for fans to view the game with likeminded fans outside of the stadium can be used as a means of creating social ties that could lead to increased fan loyalty. For some individuals, the cinema experience was preferred over that of the ballpark.

The ability to draw attendees to performances is vital to the success of a sport organization. As a result, sport managers and academics attempt to investigate motivations that drive decisions to attend events. In order to make predictions, academic demands have lead to the proliferation of instruments and constructs to capture a wide variety of motives, but these tools have limited ability to explain game attendance; and practitioners demand shorter scales to increase efficiency. The purpose of this research is to provide a parsimonious measuring tool of motives to explain sport event attendance. A 10-item scale was distributed to sport spectators and the general population (N = 2,831) to measure five facets of motivation: Socialization, Performance, Excitement, Esteem, and Diversion (SPEED). Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the psychometric properties of the SPEED scale. MANOVA results indicate the five SPEED motives are able to differentiate prior game attendance behavior. Multiple linear regression results indicate three facets explain 30% of the variance in the frequency of game attendance. The SPEED scale also demonstrated the ability to explain 75% of the variance in team commitment. Suggestions are made for further application and employment of the SPEED scale, along with the marketing of Excitement, Performance, and Esteem.

Managing co-creation in professional sports: The antecedents and consequences of ritualized spectator behavior

The determinants of attendance at professional sporting events come from a variety of team- specific, game-specific, and stadium-specific factors. Using data from the 2,431 major league baseball games played during the 2005 season, this study employs a multivariate regression model to determine the effect that the previously mentioned factors have on game attendance. The focus of the study is on the effect that promotions, such as product giveaways, have on attendance. The findings of this study indicate that having a promotion at a game increases attendance by about 1,532 fans. The findings also indicate that both the timing of a promotion and the type of promotion is important. Specifically, promotions held on weekends have a much smaller impact on attendance than promotions held during the week, with promotions held on Friday or Sunday having a particularly small effect. In terms of the type of promotion, this study finds that bobblehead giveaways have by far the largest impact on attendance and that several types of giveaways actually have no effect on attendance.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of star power on game attendance. The essential aspect of demand for sport events is fan interest, which can be shown through match attendance, watching contests, buying team-related products, and following a team on media. To conduct this study, all attendance data from the 2015, 2016, and 2017 seasons of the Chinese Super League were used to understand which factors impacted spectator attendance. Results of this study found that high profile teams, traditional rivalries or derbies, and famous foreign players can positively impact attendance at both home and away games, while members of the Chinese National Team had a negative impact on attendance. These results will give team owners a better understanding of Chinese soccer fans’ interests, ultimately leading to maximizing profit generation in ticket and merchandise sales. Implications for both sport managers and scholars are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the four-factor sport service quality model on future game attendance associated with Major League Baseball (MLB) spectators. Based on the extensive review of literature, four factors of sport event quality model was developed, which included: (a) ticket services, (b) game amenities, (c) venue services, and (d) venue accessibility. Data (N = 266) were collected from spectators of a MLB team. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were utilized to estimate the measurement model and the hypotheses. The SEM revealed that ticket services, venue services, and venue accessibility were found to have positive effects on future game attendance of MLB. Unexpectedly, the game amenities variable was not found to be a predictor of future game attendance.

An important consideration for sport practitioners is the design of training environments that facilitate skill learning. This study presented a method to determine individual (age, games played, height, mass, and position), environmental (activity type) and task (pressure and possession time) constraint interaction to evaluate player training behaviour. Skill actions (n = 7301) were recorded during training activities (n = 209) at a single professional Australian Football club and four measures of player behaviour were determined: disposal frequency, kick percentage, pressure, and possession time. K-means clustering assigned training activities into four groups, with regression trees used to determine the interaction between constraints and their influence on disposal frequency and type. For most regression trees, only the environmental constraint was included. This showed all players adapted similarly to the constraints of each training activity. In one exception, a critical value of 60 games experience was identified as an individual constraint which interacted with activity type one to influence disposal frequency. Practically, this individual constraint value could be used to guide training design by grouping players of similar experience together. This study is presented as a practical tool for sport practitioners, which considers constraint interaction, to evaluate player behaviour and inform training design.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to explore a new sport attendance behavior spectrum framework where sport consumer behavior is not derived from just a dichotomy of a motivator positively impacting attendance or a constraint negatively impacting attendance. Rather, when accounting for the context of the setting (e.g. sport, playing level, locality, patron type, etc.), some areas belong on a spectrum that fluctuates between positive and negative impacts on attendance that are dependent on the context of the given environment.Design/methodology/approachThrough factor analysis and structural equation modeling, the proposed model attempted to explain relationships between five second-order factors and game attendance, which expanded to include the new internal contextual and external contextual factors, and ultimately team fandom.FindingsThe results indicated three significant main effects where internal contextual exhibited a positive relationship with attendance, while constraints and external contextual demonstrated a negative relationship. Internal and external motives were not significant. Further, the moderating effect of high and low sport interest groupings largely indicated no significant spectator differences. The model explained 24% of the variance in attendance, and attendance accounted for 41% of the variance in team fandom.Originality/valueAttendance is intricate, and this study highlighted the importance of considering and adapting to the sporting context as some factors exist on a sport attendance behavior spectrum and differently impact spectators positively or negatively, given the context of the setting. Further, in this lower-level sport setting, consumers viewed minor league hockey more as a leisure commodity than a premier sport contest.

This book offers new insight into International Sports Events (ISEs), examining the relationship between sport, tourism and events. It assesses sports events through the lens of both sports participants and spectators, based on three primary themes: impacts, experiences and identities. The first section of the book contributes to the future development of knowledge by analyzing the impact of sport events and their legacies from economic, environmental, social, sporting, political and cultural perspectives – an understanding of the impacts and potential legacies of sports events is fundamental to their future development. In the second section of the book, the focus moves from impact and legacy issues towards exploring consumer behaviour and participant experiences at a diverse selection of International Sports Events. The emphasis within this section is grounded within the tourism dimension of sports events. Section three of the book highlights the dominant role of identity at a diverse selection of sports events, and demonstrates how that identity is displayed whilst either watching or participating in sport and leisure. The book provides an international analysis drawing on emerging empirical research conducted across a diverse range of sport and leisure activities and contrasting locations. Linked to the three underlying themes of the book, a future research agenda for International Sports Events is provided which is centred on four key pillars: impact, identity, internationalization and interdisciplinary research. This timely book will be of interest to students, researchers and academics studying Event Management, Sport Management and Sport Tourism.

The application of branding techniques has emerged as a strategy to identify, position, and differentiate destinations. Brand extensions primarily focus on leveraging a single common brand, which avoids the need for customers to be familiar with another partnered brand. One way DMOs and destination marketers use brand extensions is through the use of sport events. This study used the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, AZ (PMA) as a research site to investigate the process of destination branding by examining sport events as destination brand extensions. A qualitative case study approach was employed, with interviews with key stakeholders. Results suggest that the PMA’s overall destination brand relates to the outdoors, with four individual brand extensions identified: (a) weather; (b) resorts; (c) recreation and leisure activities; and (d) sport/sport events. Major professional sports team events did not fit as congruently as other types of events when serving as destination brand extensions, relative to the Valley’s outdoor parent brand. Results are discussed in terms of sport events’ role as part of greater destination brand range, relationship to other destination brand extensions, and using sport event brand extensions to enrich the destination brand. This study revealed that sport events in the PMA do serve as a prominent asset and selling point that influences the PMA’s overall destination brand. However, sport events are not seen as the area’s primary destination branding strategy, and local DMOs and tourism stakeholders in the PMA must create and maintain a broader and more comprehensive destination brand that showcases other notable attractions.

We analyze the relationship between attendance, outcome uncertainty, and team quality in the National Hockey League (NHL). Based on the results from a reduced form model of attendance at 6,054 regular season NHL games from 2005-2006 to 2009-2010, we find evidence that attendance increases when fans expect the home team to win, but holding this constant, attendance falls for games expected to be close. An asymmetric relationship exists between expected game outcomes and attendance, suggesting the need for an expanded definition of the Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis that includes aspects of consumer decision making under uncertainty.

Sport spectating is a popular leisure activity in the United States; however, the study of sport spectator consumption behavior has been limited. The current study examines the differences that exist between genders and between spectators at men's and women's intercollegiate basketball games regarding several categories of dependent variables. The three categories were (a) environmental factors associated with game attendance (ticket pricing, friends, family, and promotions), (b) present behavior of spectators (merchandise consumption, media consumption, and wearing of team paraphernalia), and (c) future behavior of fans (continued loyalty, future attendance, and future merchandise consumption). Data were collected from spectators at two men's ( n = 531) and two women's ( n = 751) intercollegiate home basketball games. Multivariate analysis of variance results for the main effects of team gender and spectator gender were significant, while the interaction effect was not. Fewer gender differences were found (5 of 12) compared to the number of gen-der-of-team differences (10 of 12) when univariate results were examined. Results are discussed in detail, and implications for practice and for future research are suggested.

This study applies the Motivation - Opportunity – Ability model on social networking platforms to study tourists’ selection of green hotels for their participation in sports events. The study analyzed the intention to choose green hotels of 324 Vietnamese tourists staying at 4- and 5-star hotels with green labels in Vietnam. The research results show that the Motivations, Opportunity, and Ability factors in using social networks have a positive impact on the belief in green hotels, thereby promoting the intention to choose green hotels when tourists participate in sports events in Vietnam. This study also provides some practical implications for green hotels in using social networks to enhance the trust and intention to choose a hotel of tourists participating in sports events. At the same time, the study also proposes some suggestions for directing human resources training towards the organization of tourism-integrated sports events to create responsible tourism products.

This paper aims to advance the understanding of the experience-satisfaction relationship and the impact of the event context on such a relationship. In particular, there is an interplay between four dimensions of experience (i.e. affective, cognitive, physical, and novel) and satisfaction. The current study builds upon a primary dataset consisting of 1599 responses obtained from visitors attending two leisure activities, namely, a sport event and a music festival in Norway. The results show that the four experience dimensions’ direct effects on satisfaction differ between the two types of activities. The impact of affective engagement on satisfaction is significantly higher at the music festival than at the sport event, and the impact of cognitive engagement on satisfaction is significant at the sport event but not at the music festival. This paper highlights the importance of carefully managing events and festival engagement profiles to improve visitor satisfaction. Furthermore, it contributes to the literature by showing that the values assigned by respondents to cognitive, physical, and novel engagement differ significantly between sport events and music festivals and are contextually dependent.

PurposePurpose of the study is to further expand insights into how weather impacts attendance at sporting events. With the NFL having only eight home games a year per team, it is more of an event than other North American sports. We explore this in terms of how sensitive fans are to weather, by not only looking at traditional factors, but also other weather variables available through Accuweather. In addition, the authors explore team success, outcome uncertainty and other factors as determinants of demand.Design/methodology/approachThe method includes Tobit model of attendance in terms of percent of capacity in the National Football League. Model includes factors such as outcome uncertainty, team success, etc. but mainly focuses on weather. Weather factors studied include traditional variables such as temperature and precipitation, and also includes cloud cover, barometric pressure, wind speed and humidity. Different model specifications are included to explore results. Key findings allow for differences between games played outdoors versus indoors.FindingsIn terms of control variables, team success, new stadiums and stadium age play a significant role in attendance in terms of percentage of capacity. Outcome uncertainty does not appear to be important, and fans desire the opposite when the home team is an underdog. The main results concern the weather. When only traditional weather variables are included, precipitation plays a key role. With further expansion of the weather variables, it appears that cloud cover offers some additional information beyond precipitation. In addition, barometric pressure plays a minor, but statistically significant role as it relates to attendance in terms of capacity.Research limitations/implicationsIncluding deeper and richer weather data helps to further explain attendance at sporting events. With the NFL, this may be limited by it being such as event due to the scarcity of games in a season. In addition, the weather variables are not truly independent, although they are not as correlated as may be anticipated on the surface. Use of different types of weather variables in models of attendance may help to deepen our understanding of factors influencing consumer decisions. These factors may play larger roles in sports with wider variance in attendance during the season.Practical implicationsThe practical implications are that other weather-related variables besides temperature and precipitation may offer insight into consumer decisions related to attendance at sporting events. Cloud cover gives insights into anticipated poor weather in addition to it directly leading to less of a sunny day to be outdoors at an event. Barometric pressure has been shown to influence headaches and joint pain and may also influence consumer decisions to venture out to sporting events.Social implicationsAs data becomes more widely available in general, it's possible to add additional insights into factors influencing various forms of decision-making. In this study, we show that more information on weather can shed insights into consumer decisions as it relates to attending events such as sports. These decisions likely differ based upon whether the event is held outdoors or indoors. With more entertainment choices as substitutes, it is important to identify key factors which influence consumer decisions to help better structure events in the future.Originality/valueWeather variables beyond temperature and precipitation are included in a Tobit model for NFL attendance using percentage of capacity as the dependent variable. These weather variables are cloud cover, wind speed, humidity, and barometric pressure. Cloud cover and barometric pressure were found to have some significant effects on percentage of capacity. When included, precipitation itself is no longer found to be significant, but precipitation interacted with games played in domes retains statistical significance as there are key differences between games held outdoors versus indoors.