Sports Fans Research Articles

CAUSAS E PREVENÇÃO DE LESÕES ESPORTIVAS NO BASQUETEBOL JUVENIL

ABSTRACT Introduction: Basketball is a fast, intense sport requiring much reasoning and dexterity. It comprises running, jumping, throwing, and other injuries. Students and sports fans deeply love this sport. However, due to the characteristics of basketball, there are many risks of sports injuries in basketball. Objective: Investigate the causes of sports injuries in youth basketball training and evaluate preventive countermeasures. Methods: This paper analyzes basketball's injury mechanism, causes, and occurrence rules through survey questionnaires. Statistical analysis and recent literature research are performed to support a preventive protocol. Results: A protocol for injury prevention and mitigation in basketball was presented. Conclusion: To ensure normal training and competition in basketball, one must pay attention to the intrinsic characteristics of injuries in its players, considering the multiple variables that integrate the risks to the athletes' health. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

An empirical analysis of the influence of team success on Indian sports fans' purchase behaviour

An empirical analysis of the influence of team success on Indian sports fans' purchase behaviour

Socially responsible or financially exploitative Sports fans' views of the response by sportswear brands to athlete activism in the United States

Socially responsible or financially exploitative Sports fans' views of the response by sportswear brands to athlete activism in the United States

From Gearshifts to Gigabytes: An Analysis of How NASCAR Used iRacing to Engage Fans During the COVID-19 Shutdown

The sport industry is at an inflection point where all major professional sport leagues in North America are struggling to attract the same avid fans, once a staple within the industry. Furthermore, not only are the number of avid fans decreasing, the average age of avid sport fans is increasing. In other words, the current state of the sport industry indicates that fans are decreasing in number while simultaneously aging out of traditional professional sports. The current study aimed to investigate the ability of a traditional sport, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) in this case, to utilize an esport, iRacing, to attract new and more diverse fans. Through a partnership with Zoomph, Twitter content was analyzed and revealed the shift from traditional racing to iRacing by NASCAR. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it assisted them in attracting new, more diverse fans whose sentiment on Twitter was positive. Overall, the current study demonstrated that traditional sport properties may be well served by tapping into the esport space in an authentic way to enhance their core product(s).

Exploring the Relationship between Sports Fan Loyalty and the Personality and Brand of Favorite Teams

Exploring the Relationship between Sports Fan Loyalty and the Personality and Brand of Favorite Teams

Navigating a White, Male Space: The Lived Experiences of Black, Female Ice Hockey Fans

With few exceptions, researchers have seldom explored the experiences of any female sport fan who may be identified as a member of a racial minority. Given related calls for further research, an examination into the lived experiences of ice hockey fans who identify as Black and female was undertaken. Interviews with 18 such fans revealed that the sport and its fandom were akin to ‘White spaces’: therein, participants were keenly aware of their minoritized place; subject to racial and gender stereotyping and discrimination; and prone to experiencing exclusion and trepidation. Conversely, interactions with the Black Girl Hockey Club, an organization devoted to making ice hockey more diverse and accessible, provoked feelings of belongingness and validation; and afforded a means through which interviewees could deepen their engagement with the sport. The research participants’ lived experiences ultimately point to the need for organizations and managers to construct more inclusive spaces.

Missing Out, as Well: The Absence of Youth Sports and Its Effect on Parents During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic

In December of 2019, COVID-19 began spreading globally. As a result, many youth sport organizations were forced to halt programming. While unfortunate, this imposed disengagement from youth sport provided an opportunity to explore what youth sport means to parents, being that this was the first time many were without it. As such, researchers aimed to explore the attitudes and perceptions of youth sport parents regarding their child’s sport participation in its absence. Semistructured interviews were conducted to explore these perceptions, and three themes were constructed through thematic analysis. Findings suggest that sport parents miss their experiences as “live-in” sports fans of their child’s sport participation due to the absence of their spectator experiences, social opportunities, and feelings of success, which drive their motivation for continued involvement. Understanding parental motivations to support youth sport participation may lead future researchers to uncovering the influences of parental behavior in the youth sport context.

The Structural Relationships among the ESG Activities of Professional Sports Teams and the Team Recognition, Team Preference, Self-determination, and Voluntary Action Intention of Sports Fans

PURPOSE This study aimed to empirically investigate the influence relationships between the ESG activities of professional sports teams and sports fans’ team recognition, team preference, self-determination, and voluntary action intention. METHODS From March 1, 2022, to May 31, 2022, a survey was conducted online and offline to secure 253 copies of the final valid study samples. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, correlation analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation model analysis were performed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 18.0. RESULTS First, it was found that ESG activities in professional sports teams had a positive effect on sports fans’ team recognition, team preference, self-determination, and voluntary action intention. Second, the team recognition and team preference of sports fans of a given professional sports team had a positive effect on their self-determination and voluntary action intention. CONCLUSIONS The study results showed that ESG activities must be enjoyed not only by a given club’s sports fans but also by its stakeholders. The results suggest that gaining empathy regarding sports fans increases awareness and preference, which can lead to long-term and deeply positive effects on self-determination and voluntary action intentionl.

국내 프로구단의 유니폼 만족과 구단 이미지, 구단 애착, 미래행동 간의 관계

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data on the marketing strategy of the club in the future by analyzing the relationship between the uniform satisfaction of domestic professional clubs, club image, club attachment and future behavior, and to provide basic data to be strategically used for the revival of professional clubs.BR The subject of the study was sports fans who watched professional club games in 2021 and purchased club products, and snowball sampling was used among the non-probability sampling methods. A total of 250 copies were distributed to use 225 questionnaires in this study, excluding 25 that were deemed unfaithful or missing answers, and frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, structural equation and regression analysis resulted in the following conclusions:BR First, it was found that the satisfaction of the uniform of the professional club had a positive effect on the team

프로스포츠 팬의 혁신저항 영향요인에 관한 연구 : 스포츠 메타버스 서비스를 중심으로

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing innovation resistance to sports metaverse services of professional sports fans. Data were collected from 400 spectators who visited professional football stadiums, and 387 samples were used for final analysis. Statistical techniques for data analyses were frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis using SPSS 27.0. The results of this study weres follows: First, relative advantage had a negative effect on innovation resistance. Second, compatibility had a negative effect on innovation resistance. Third, complexity had a positive effect on innovation resistance. Fourth, self-efficacy had a negative effect on innovation resistance. Fifth, prior knowledge had no effect on innovation resistance. Sixth, innovativeness had a negative effect on innovation resistance.

A Study on the Influencing Factors of Addiction in Sports Betting Users based on Psychological Gambling Severity and Behavioral Gambling Severity in Korea

PURPOSE This study aimed to a) develop suitable screening tools for identifying gambling severity in Korea and b) explore factors that affect the gambling severity index in order to prevent Korean sports betting users from easily falling into gambling addiction, thus providing practical and useful guidelines in this regard. METHODS This study examined Korean sports fans who had experiences of participating in sports betting (Sports Toto), a legal sports betting system in Korea. Toward this end, an online survey was conducted from May 10 to June 25, 2022. A total of 214 questionnaire results, excluding 23 who gave insincere and/or incomplete answers, were analyzed for normal distribution through skewness and kurtosis, and subscale scores were calculated after performing exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis using Cronbach’s α. RESULTS A psychological gambling severity index and behavioral gambling severity index were developed based on a stepwise regression analysis, which was conducted using the demographic characteristics of domestic sports betting participants and their lifestyle habits (e.g., smoking and drinking, problem gambling severity index, self-control scale, and gambling expectation scale). CONCLUSIONS First, factors affecting the psychological gambling severity index were identified (having a job, job stability, and security) along with lifestyle habits (smoking and drinking). Second, gender, occupational characteristics, full-time employment, confidence in self-control, and desire for self-improvement were indicated as significant factors that influenced the behavioral gambling severity index.

Metaphorization of Emotions in German Football Fans’ Discourse

The article considers peculiarities of verbalization of emotions in German football fans’ discourse. Social, psychological, biological relevance of emotions in a person’s world view provides vivid interest of specialists, including linguists, in studying language means to objectify emotional concepts. Despite the fact that
 the range of the studied aspects is urgent and is thoroughly examined, certain communicative domains organized by sports fans remain insufficiently explored, although according to some scientists, it is their subculture that is characterized by distinctive emotional background, «emotionally tense» attitude to events, phenomena, facts, people being under their magnifying glass.
 The article provides cases of verbalization of emotions through metaphoric descriptions. The most active source domains are determined that represent emotional concepts (war, colour, nature, equipment, space, etc.), their direc-
 tion vectors are identified, as well s objects and situations inducing emotions in a fans’ community. It can be considered productive for the futher study to analyze
 linguistic (metaphoric) conceptualization of emotions in football fans’ discourse in different ethnic and language cultures to elicit national character in building metaphoric patterns of people’s emotional sphere. The article makes use of discourse, component and conceptual analysis, building metaphoric patterns, clas-
 sification, lexicographical and comparative methods.

Social Media Marketing of “Sports Fan Economy”

In the era with overall access to the Internet, the social media has provided sound conditions for marketing and development of sports fan economy. This paper summarizes the concept of sports fan economy, discusses the features of sports fan-related social media and demonstrates main marketing models and strategies of the sports fan economy. The paper also proposes a few possible marketing strategies based on sports fans’ consumption behaviors.

Rage against the machine: investigating conspiracy theories about the video assistant referee on Twitter during the 2018 FIFA World Cup

ABSTRACT Conspiracy theories arise during important societal and political events, with negative consequences. Yet, conspiracy theories remain to be investigated in the context of sporting tournaments, in spite of the importance of such events in contemporary societies. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, conspiracy theories alleging that the newly introduced video Assistant Referee (VAR) was used with malevolent motives gained popularity online. In this paper, we used a Twitter content analysis to explore VAR conspiracy theories during the World Cup (N = 2,768 tweets). Conspiracy tweets peaked after eliminations of some teams and were strongly associated with labels referring to self-categorization at the group-level, supporting the notion that conspiracy beliefs are triggered by contexts threatening one’s social identity. Conspiracy tweets were also correlated with tweets expressing skepticism or defiance against the VAR, suggesting that conspiracy beliefs might be related to sport fans’ other identity management strategies. Finally, we drew an intergroup typology of VAR conspiracy beliefs’ recurrent figures, highlighting that higher ordered categorization helped conspiracy narratives and content to adapt throughout the tournament. We discuss the identity management strategy status of sport fans’ conspiracy beliefs.

Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes: Fan Group Behavior and Rivalry in Sport and Athletic Footwear Brands

AbstractThe current study investigated how sport fans and those of popular athletic footwear brands Nike and Adidas perceived and behaved toward their favorite and relevant rival brands. First, sport fans were compared with fans of athletic footwear brands to determine if differences were present in their favorite and rival brand perceptions. Sport fans reported higher identity toward their favorite brand, and more derogation toward a rival team than fans of the Nike and Adidas athletic footwear brands. Analysis also revealed that identifying as a fan ofbothsport and athletic footwear was associated with more positive attitudes directed at the favored footwear brand, while fans of Nike and Adidas did not differ in how they viewed their favorite and rival athletic footwear brands. Discussion and implications for researchers and marketing professionals is included, along with avenues for future research.

Do Fans Care About the Activist Athlete? A Closer Look at Athlete Activism Effect on Brand Image

U.S. professional athletes increasingly have engaged in athlete activism. Such actions have elicited a wide range of responses from sport fans, calling into question whether an athlete’s activism can impact their brand image. This research explored whether attitudes toward athlete activism, activism message, activism communication style, or fan identification level affect an activist athlete’s brand image. This research utilized a 2 × 2 experimental design of activism type (safe vs. risky) and activism effort (high vs. low). A focus group determined both activism effort and activism type. Activism type did not significantly affect fans’ perception of athlete brand image, but perceived athlete attractiveness decreased when the athlete engaged in risky activism. Individuals’ attitudes toward athlete activism significantly influenced their perception of an activist athlete’s brand image. This paper fulfills an identified need to understand the effects of athlete activism on the athlete’s own brand.

Choreographed Fan Displays: The Case of Israeli Sports

Choreographed Fan Displays: The Case of Israeli Sports

Erratum. The Importance of an Organization’s Reputation: Application of the Rasch Model to the Organizational Reputation Questionnaire for Sports Fans

Erratum. The Importance of an Organization’s Reputation: Application of the Rasch Model to the Organizational Reputation Questionnaire for Sports Fans

Toward a Better Understanding of Fantasy Football and Dehumanization of Athletes: Is Fantasy Sport Gambling to Blame?

Abstract: A growing amount of attention has been paid to the topic of dehumanization of professional athletes. Fantasy sport has been explored as a driver of this phenomenon, but empirical evidence has yet to be provided. This research explores the role of gambling—that is, whether fantasy participants were more driven by money or entertainment/escape—in this phenomenon. Results of SEM analysis indicated that fantasy football participation motivated by gambling was positively associated with dehumanization, while participation for the purpose of entertainment/escape was negatively related. This suggests it is not fantasy sport in itself that is a predictor of dehumanization but rather participation motivated by gambling. In addition to extending the literature on dehumanization amongst fantasy participants, the research provides guidance for fantasy sport service providers’ game terminology while also informing the potential role of fantasy sport in proliferating the inability for sport fans to understand mental health struggles amongst athletes.

Unfair, Innocent, Flamed: Examining How the Chinese Public Perceived Sun Yang’s 8-Year Doping Sanction

International sport has always been associated with nationalism. The purpose of the study was to explore how Chinese media and the general public perceived the doping scandal of their national sports hero, Sun Yang. Through analyzing 11 Chinese media outlets’ coverage on Chinese social media Weibo, the results revealed that Chinese media covered Sun and his team’s reaction and perspectives on this issue more when compared with other news. The general public’s perceptions toward this scandal tended to be favorable toward Sun, with 55.5% of selected Weibo comments defending Sun after his 8-year ban for doping was handed down. The analysis of these social media comments posted by sports fans showed that the general public’s perceptions might have been impacted by their nationalism, international relations, and media coverage. In addition, the study revealed the Chinese public’s perceptions toward current antidoping regulations.