4 THEME 4: SPORTS FANS: UNDERSTAND THEM AND GET THEM

Learning Objectives

*Distinguish the differences and similarities between consumers as sports participants and spectators

*Understand the simplified model of general sports consumption behavior model

*Recognize and identify factors that influence the decision-making process

*Identify the basic fan motivation factors

*Understand the implications of fan identification model

*Compare the various basis for marketing segmentation

*Understand how to target the desired market and use positioning to achieve the goals

Understanding Consumers as Participants and Spectators

Sports marketers are concerned with consumers who participate in sports as well as those who attend and watch sporting events. The lucrative sports industry consists of numerous subsets of businesses such as leisure and recreational sports, sporting goods, advertising, sports gambling, concessions and licensed products sales, television and radio broadcasting, golf and ski resorts, sports medicine, government sponsored sports programs, non-profit sports, intercollegiate athletics, interscholastic athletics, youth sports, professional sports, and sports media and other products (i.e., magazines, books, and movies). There are more than 4.1 million Americans participating in many types of physical and recreational activities. However, the majority of American adults do not engage in many of the most common sports on a regular basis. The Surgeon General’s Report indicates that only 15% of adults exercise regularly and about 75% of people exercise less than 5 hours per week. On the other hand, about 3 out of 4 Americans are working more than 40 hours a week to sustain themselves. About 76.5% of Americans sleep less than the ideal amount of the daily recommended hours (eight hours per day). People may work excessive hours and not get adequate amounts of sleep, but they do spend more than an hour a day using social media (e.g., Twitter and Facebook) and internet related activities. Promoting participation in sports and physical activities can not only help build a healthy society, it also helps increase the growth of our nation’s sports industries, since the consumers’ engagement in sports and physical activities will boost spending.  Sports medicine and even spectatorship can all see a boost in revenue from this. For these reasons, we easily see sports marketers involved in organizing marathons and 5K runs, 3-on-3 basketball tournaments, equipment and apparel exhibitions, and outdoor festivities. The revenue in sporting goods and recreational sports and activities can easily account for one-fourth of the total annual value of the sports industry.

Table 1. Most Popular Sports/Recreational Activities (Courtesy of Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association & Sports and Fitness Industry Association; Fullerton, 2022)

FYI. Best Cities and Towns for Outdoor Sports Activities 

Here is a list of the best cities for outdoor adventurers in America. According to the Outdoor Magazine in 2016, these 16 towns/cities are the best places offering great events, activities, and facilities that accommodate active outdoor adventurers.

Duluth, MN; Provo, UT; Burlington, VM; Ithaca, NY; Montpelier, VM; Portland, ME; Charleston, SC; Asheville, NC; Louisville, KY; Nashville, TN; La Crosse, WI; Houghton, MI; Minneapolis, MN; Boulder, CO; Missoula, MT; and Anchorage, AK.

Spectators are another group of consumers of great importance to sports marketers. Although there is some overlap between the event spectators and actual physical activity participants, marketers usually treat them as separate and distinct markets. Due to the vicarious effect, consumers who play or engage in certain sporting activities may also attend and watch the sports that they have been involved. On the other hand, spectators of games may also decide to get physically involved in sports that they have watched. In general, most of the serious sports participants (a.k.a. “heavy users”) are likely to be male, better educated, a minority, and younger than general spectators (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). It is noted that sport betting, fantasy sports, and commercials related to those activities all have great influence on viewing interest of sport spectators. This is why Draft Kings were willing to spend millions on ads. Experts even believe that sooner or later, nearly all TV would be streaming. Fantasy sports participants will be key audiences to consume sport streaming contents. Studies had shown that daily fantasy games increased the engagement of NBA fans, who consumed 40% more sports content, across all media (Chen, 2019).

While mentioning the growth of participation of special activities, an amazing phenomenon that has caught everyone’s attention is the rise of eSports Each of top-10 teams on the Forbes ranking of most valuable eSports companies compete has a value over $100 million. Professional players at its highest levels in this league average $320,000 in annual salary (Blumenthal, 2019). In the following sections, the authors will introduce the theories and frameworks that examine the sports consumers’ behaviors and expectations. In addition, we will introduce and explain the differences between these distinctive groups.

Consumers as spectators are often categorized by terms such as avid fans, die-hard fans, or general spectators to reflect the level and frequencies of their consumption. These groups of consumers derive their benefit from the observation of the events and take great pride in the team or organization that they are rooting for. According to the Federal Highway Administration’s report (2008), the national annual revenues coming from personal spending for sporting events reached $40 billion. Both professional team sports and college sports generated about $18.4 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively. The National Basketball Association, one of the four major professional team sports in North America, has a huge Chinese market. Over 300 million people play basketball both recreationally and professionally throughout China (Li, 2012). According to the report in the SportsBusiness Journal, 83% of Chinese males whose age is between 15-24 said they were NBA fans. More than 40% of those individuals stated that basketball is their favorite sport to play, and four of their top five favorite athletes are NBA players. NBA games are televised and watched by more than 30 million viewers per week in China. The internet website, NBA.com/China, records an average of over three million viewers per day. NBA licensed merchandise is sold in more than 20,000 locations throughout the country (That’s Shanghai, 2017). With the size and the consumption ability of sport spectators, sport marketers certainly have great interest in knowing and learning about spectators’ expectations and needs. Since the focus of this book is about marketing in intercollegiate athletics, the authors will steer the theme toward to the consumers as spectators.

For the Big-four professional sports in North America, ticket sales revenues coming from onsite spectators were an important source that affected vitality and survival of the league. According to Kros, Moore, & Zemanek (2021), NBA, NFL, and NHL all had sold at least 90% of arena/stadium capacity in ticket sales since 2007 to present days. NFL often achieved the highest percentage of capacity sales despite the stadiums are larger. On the other hand, MLB had the lowest percentage of capacity sales (around 70%). This means that MLB probably has too many games. There is still potential for ticket sales growth for all teams.

The authors will first address a general sports consumption behavior model and further elaborate on the factors and reasons that influence game and event attendance.

The General Model of Sport Consumption Behavior

Whether the consumers are sports participants or spectators, they are all involved in the decision-making process of their consumption. The decision-making process is defined as actions performed when searching for, participating in, and evaluating the sports activities or events that consumers feel will satisfy their needs and desires (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). The authors use the acronym, SIDE, to introduce the General Model of Sports Consumption Behavior for illustrating sports consumers’ decision-making process in consuming sports products or services. This model contains four specific components: (1) Situational factors, (2) Internal factors, (3) Decision-making steps, and (4) External factors. The authors think it is very useful to use the acronym, SIDE, to illustrate the model, because the consumers are literally asked to pick one side or the other while making a decision. Diagram 1 displays the details and contents addressed in each one of the components of the model. The following paragraphs will examine various factors that affect the consumers’ consumption behaviors and understand how the purchasing decision is evaluated and made in the mind of consumers.

Diagram 1. The SIDE Model of Sports Consumption Behavior (adopted from Shank & Lyberger, 2015)

(a) Situational factors

Consumers’ perceptions and willingness for purchasing a sports product or service are easily impacted by the situation within which they occur. The most common situational factors are the time and physical surroundings (or physical places). The availability of time, weather, and traveling distance from the events are all elements that consumers often evaluate in making purchases or attending events. Consumers also refer to their past consumption experience (the antecedent states) to judge whether it is worth repeating the purchases or game attendance on an ongoing basis. Our impulse for attending the game can suddenly be triggered by our previous memorable game attending experiences. Social surrounding impacts one’s decision-making, since we have all experienced something called “peer pressure.” Obviously, if the events or games that we wish to attend are related to sports (or activities) we play, (or are our favorite sports), we will be more likely to attend.

(b) Internal/psychological factors

They are many individual and psychological elements that affect the perception, needs and wants of consumers. Our perceptions, attitudes, motivation, personality, self-esteem, excitement, and identification attachment with a star player, team, sport, brand, or sports organization all have shown to influence sports consumption behavior. Each sports consumers’ perceptions reflect the complex process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sports related stimuli. So we pay attention, make interpretations and retain information in our mind. Attitude reflects the strength of feelings toward something (in this case would be sports related products or games). The sports marketing effort is devoted to change the consumers’ perceptions about the products or games and create positive feelings toward them. Cognitively, we learn about various things regarding attending a sporting event. In general, the consumers learn about the information related to the products and games and begin to develop an affection toward them. From the behavioral aspect, the consumers decide to consume the products and games due to the fun and enjoyable experience. We weigh in on the developed affection and learn how to enjoy the events while interacting with others as well. If the enjoyable activities go well accordingly, then we will actively recreate the chance for engaging in this fun experience again. So attending games repeatedly becomes an outward behavior others can observe.

Motivation is the driving force behind one’s actions. In another words, it can be described as the desire and rationale for consuming the products or attending the events. The sports marketers’ primary job is to successfully identify the consumers’ motivation and design and promote the products and games to satisfy the consumers. Technically, the foundation of any strategic sports marketing process is to understand why spectators attend sporting events, which is known as the “fan motivation factors”. In Theme 1, we learned about the model of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to satisfy consumers’ physical and psychological needs. The authors would like to introduce another conceptual model, VALS (Values and Life Styles) to explain how certain consumption decisions are made based on the consumers’ personal principles, beliefs, and living patterns. Diagram 2 illustrates consumers of each of the eight different types of life stages, affinity for ideals, level of professional achievement, and self-expression which have their specific goals and needs. For individuals who decide to be involved in sports as participants or spectators, it usually means that they perceive great interest toward sports and value the importance of sports in their lives. In general, consumers with high involvement would attend more games, consume more sports through media such as newspapers, internet, magazines, and are more likely to identify the event sponsors (Shank & Lyberger, 2015).

Diagram 2. Conceptual Model of Values and Lifestyles (VALS)

To practically measure and understand motivation for game attendance, numerous types of scales and theories are developed to help sport marketers understand the events spectators are drawn to and find strategies to attract them. Dr. Daniel Wann’s eight basic motives for watching sports are considered the classic instrument for examining the sports fans’ attending motivation (Wann, 1995).  Later, the acronym SPEED (Socialization, Performance, Esteem, Excitement, and Diversion) is utilized to further simplify Dr. Wann’s fan motivation factors that influence game attendance. In Table 2, the authors will summarize a few renowned studies in the area of sports fan motivation and some personal studies focusing on topics related to intercollegiate athletic events.

Table 2 Various Factors Affecting Fans’ Motivation

The study of Pease and Zhang (2001) showed the proper use of The Spectator Motivation Scale (SMS) can help identify what deem to be important marketing elements for the professional basketball among different demographic groups. The personality of each sports consumer is outwardly shown as they respond to the environmental stimuli. Sport marketers often use the following common adjectives (terms) such as aggressive, orderly, dominant, nurturing, introvert, extrovert, and adventurous to address ones’ personality traits and predict their preferences in sports participation or spectatorship. For example, a Generation X young individual who engages in high-risk sports will also be likely to watch the X-Games competitions.

Self-esteem is a specific form of motivation that drives one’s spectating behavior. Marketing scholars believe that being a fan of a sports team (or organization) can enhance one’s self-esteem (Parkhouse et al., 2012). An interesting phenomenon is observed, when a fans’ team wins, they extend the victory and achievement to themselves. This phenomenon is described as BIRGing (basking in reflected glory) (Cialdini, Borden, Thorne, Walker, Freeman, & Sloan, 1976). Fans will easily associate themselves as part of the winning team, and “jump on the bandwagon” to celebrate. On the contrary, when the team is not performing well, fans tend to distance themselves from losses or even cut off their support to the team. This tendency is called CORFing, (cutting off reflected failure). These two concepts clearly point out how important for an individual to maintain one’s self-concept and how the team performance can affect the spectators’ willingness for attending games. Eustress (positive stress) is addressed by Dr. Daniel Wann (1995) as one of the eight basic motives for watching sports. This form of excitement is a feeling of thrill and needed psychological arousal that everyone intends to seek to stimulate our senses. Watching competitive sporting events becomes an enjoyable activity when our feelings and senses are excited.

Fan identification is an extremely important variable that predicts the spectating behavior. It is defined as the personal commitment and emotional involvement that customers have with a sports team or organization (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). Level of fan identification (also known as team identity) can be cultivated and increased as a rising escalator. Fans with low identification may just attend the game for the social reasons. Once a spectator’s identification is increased, he/she will put much attention in focusing on the organization’s news and performance and is vested with great interest in attending live events. A fan who is highly identified with his/her favorite sports team or organization, he/she will support the team fervently and place less importance on the team’s performance and overall records (Heere & Katz, 2014). The highly identified fans will display a strong sense of loyalty to the program and are not likely to demonstrate alienating behaviors portrayed as CORFing. For this reason, the sports marketers are very concerned with fostering fans’ level of identification because, when the fans’ identification is high, it leads to greater attendance and decreased price and performance-outcome sensitivity. Sports teams and organizations strive to enhance fans’ identification by heavily promoting to spectators and offering memorable game experiences.

Furthermore, the level of one’s team identification is related to one’s experience of sports involvement. In other words, those who play basketball a lot may also enjoy watching the basketball games live or on television.

(c) Decision-making steps

Regardless of the number of reasons and factors that may impact one’s consumption decision, there are certain basic steps that an individual must process when finalizing the decision. Obviously, the decision process starts with problem recognition and realizing what needs to be purchased.

Our mind will cognitively filter the obtained information and evaluate both internal and external related factors. Then we organize and prioritize all the choices (or selections) and evaluate any potential alternatives. According to the marketing experts, consumers usually adopt three types of problem- solving strategies in making decisions: (1) habitual problem solving (literally no alternative), (2) limited problem solving (some alternative), and (3) extensive problem solving (much information for choosing). Finally, we decide to consume the products or services based on our final decision. A post-consumption evaluation is triggered. If satisfaction is met, we will remember that experience and attempt to repeat the consumption. Cognitive dissonance may arise, if the consumed products and services do not provide expected levels of satisfaction.

(d) External (Sociological) factors

The sociological or external factors are those outside factors that influence the consumers’ decision-making process. These factors often interact with each other and influence all aspects of our society and daily life. Shank and Lyberger (2015) specifically highlight culture, social class, family, and references as the most crucial external factors.

Participation in sports is one of the most long-standing cultural traditions in civilization. As human beings, we all learn how to socialize through obtaining skills, language, and attitudes. Thus, socialization has become a necessary learning process for participating in sports activities or events. Many different social agents (such as friends, family, parents, teachers, coaches, media, and others) influence us directly and indirectly by shaping our values and beliefs through cognitive and social learning mechanisms. As s sports participant or spectator, we immerse ourselves into a sports culture that is shared by many others and has lasted for generations. In America, sports play an incredibly strong cultural role in our society. We are a nation that loves sports (with a slightly less fervor in soccer) and are willing to spend more money on stadium construction and coaches’ salaries rather than on academics and scholarships for student-athletes.

Social classes are hierarchically categorized societal groups based on similarly economic status, occupation, educational background, and ethnicity. People within the homogeneous social class share similar values, lifestyles, and behaviors.  So it is likely the individuals within a social class will consume and act similarly. Sport marketers are interested in social class as a predictor of ones’ consumption behaviors. Past studies showed that socio-motivational factors affected spectator attendance at professional basketball games. Examples of those factors included fan identification, team image, salubrious attraction, and entertainment value (Pease & Zhang, 2001).

Reference groups are individuals who influence information, attitudes, and behaviors of other people. In general, these groups can be classified as primary and secondary. Many of the primary reference group members are those who frequently interact with us in social life (such as, coworkers, friends, teachers, and coaches), so they exert powerful influence on our consumption decisions. In addition to those who are close to us, celebrity athletes who we have seen in advertisements or on the court are considered as secondary reference groups that impact our consumption choices. Obviously, family members such as parents and siblings are the most influential primary reference groups who play the most considerable role in our lives. Traditionally, dads have the greatest impact on their children’s sports participation and sports spectating experience.

Question 1. According to the SGMA’s report, which sport and recreational activity has the highest number of participation?

• (a) Football
• (b) Basketball
• (c) Bowling
• (d) Walking

Question 2. The elements of the foundation of sport consumption behavior model include:

• (a) internal factors
• (b) decision-making process
• (c) situational factors
• (d) all of the above

Question 3. Personality, motivation, learning, and perception are some of the basic _____ or _____ factors that will be unique to each individual and guide sports participation decisions.

(a) psychological; external

(b) psychological; esteem

(c) psychological; internal

(d) psychological; self-actualization

(e) none of the above

FYI. Practical Strategies for Serving and Connecting Sports Fans and Consumers

According to Tanisky & Xu (2019), younger broadcasting viewers are more likely to watch the quality of the local team is good, but they are not necessarily drawn to the playoff run. This finding presents some ambiguity with respect to applying conventional wisdom on the dynamics of age, time horizon, and positivity in the sport context.

Parks and recreation (P&R) agencies may promote team sports as a means of encouraging older women to remain physically active. According to Wet et. al. (2019), six themes emerged related to ways P&R professionals can facilitate sport participation for older women: 1) tailored rules, 2) team organization and development, 3) player recruitment, 4) promotion outlets, 5) facilities and resources available, and 6) community and organizational support. Additionally, P&R professionals can provide opportunities for seniors to engage in competitive team sports by hosting meetings, socials or off-season and foul-weather practices. They can also provide instructional classes to teach teams how to set up their own social media sites, or how to incorporate team info into departmental social media sites, such as Facebook groups, or how to increase web traffic.

Ways of Reaching out to the Spectators—The STP model (Segmentation, Target, and Position)

After studying different approaches of understanding consumers as either participants or spectators, the following sections will address how to target the desired markets, segment different markets with specific functional needs, and reach out to different groups through the positioning concepts.

Segmentation

Segmentation is defined as grouping consumers together with common needs (Shank & Lyberger, 20015). In general, there are four traditional basis for segmenting the consumers. Demographic segmentation often includes variables such as gender, age, ethnic background, marital status, and other socioeconomic information (i.e., incomes, occupations, and educational background). These are the most widespread and easiest variables used for classifying different consumers. According to Tainsky and Xu (2019), different aged spectators responded to winning performance (team quality and playoff probability) in different manners.  Adult spectators seemed to care much about the team’s playoff probability, and specifically during the stretch run.

Psychographic segmentation is described as grouping consumers based on a common lifestyle preference and personality. In an earlier section, the authors introduced the VALS model that explains how ones’ lifestyles and values are among the internal psychological factors that affect ones’ consumption decisions. Psychographic segmentation is considered to be more comprehensive than other types of segmentation, because it helps the marketers to understand why consumers participate in activities or attend games. The AIO dimensions are further utilized to help understand the consumers’ lifestyles. These three dimensions of statements describe Activities, Interests, and Opinions of consumers’ direct and indirect involvement in sports. An even more sophisticated model, Family Life Cycle, was developed back in the 1960s to describe how individuals progress through different life stages with different needs and patterns of consumption of goods and services. Diagram 3 showed many different life stages typical individuals may have gone through. Sport marketers can estimate the potential activities and interests that individuals at a specific life stage may desire and pursue.

Diagram 3. Model of the Modern Family Life Cycle (Courtesy by Shank and Lyberger, 2015)

http://www.indiainfoline.com/bisc/jbmk02.html

Behavioral segmentation is based on two objectives related to ones’ product usage: (1) how often do they consume or purchase, and (2) how much do they consume. For these reasons, it is not difficult to observe the survey question that intends to find out how often an individual attends the games.

Benefits segmentation focuses on the appeal of a product or service. So, product benefits will be the attractive selling point that lure the consumers to continuously consume the product or service. The excellent product benefits will build and enhance the loyalty of the consumers. Shoe, apparel and equipment manufacturers (i.e., Nike, Under Armour, and Titleist) will emphasize how their new products can provide competitive advantages, fashionable design, and consistent quality for their consumers. Sports teams will stress their games offer great entertainment value and concession services in order to differentiate themselves from other business competitors.

In addition to the four traditional segmentation basis, other methods such as geographic and geodemographic segmentation are also popular in the marketing fields. Rooney and Pillsbury (1992) proposed a sports cultural map of our nation based on the climate and geography (see Diagram 4). The authors work at an institution that is located in the region of the American Heartland. This is a region where residents love basketball as much as football (which surpasses baseball as the most favorite professional sport in America). Readers will have no trouble realizing why the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is so dominant in football. Powerful football institutions such as Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M are all located in the Pig Skin Cult region. Geodemographic segmentation is a way that groups consumers by combining geographic and demographic characteristics. A practical example that we can observe regarding this method is at the checkout counters of retail sales or sporting goods stores. When clerks ask the consumers about their zip codes (e.g., the use of PRIZM system) or telephone numbers, the consumers’ information has been keyed in to an analytical database for future segmenting purpose.

Diagram 4. Sports Participation based on Climate and Geography (Courtesy by Shank & Lyberger, 2015)

Targeting Desired Markets

Target marketing refers to evaluating the various segments and selecting the ideal one to market and conduct the business. These market groups will promise the best return on investment (ROI) and allow the sports teams or organizations to effectively and efficiently reach. Therefore, the ideal target markets will exhibit characteristics such as: (1) having a manageable size (perhaps a market niche), (2) being measurable with clear identity and sustainability, and (3) being reachable through simple accessibilities (i.e. traditional promotional tools, online technology, or social media). The authors (2005) use the acronym, AIR principle (Accessibility, Identification, and Responsiveness) as a standard practice to test the viability of a desirable target market. In terms of collegiate athletics, an institution may identify some of the following common target markets. They are community fans, alumni and donors, family of the players, student body, and faculty and staff. Each of the aforementioned groups may demonstrate behavioral variations based on their values, attitudes, and lifestyles. Based on the authors’ personal marketing experience. In order to market to them successfully, the sport marketers must learn about each group’s unique identification, the best accessible communication means to reach them, and their responsiveness to the designed strategies.

Positioning Your Products or Services

Positioning is about finding a way to fix your product in the minds of consumers (Shank & Lyberger, 2015). It is an important task that all sports teams or organizations must execute based on the needs and wants that are identified by the specific target markets. So the sports marketers need to carefully craft all the promotional messages or the product features that will be introduced to the consumers. Experts suggest six dimensions of sports attributes that need to be focused on to effectively position one’s sports products or services. These attributes help individuals construct a perceptual map for understanding the nature of certain sports and selecting their preferable sports participation or activities. Perceptual Map for Sports was shown in Theme 1. Here are the summary of those six dimensions: (1) addressing strength, speed or methodical, precise movements, (2) narrowing in on the appropriate participants (i.e., athletes, recreational players, or everyone), (3) addressing skill emphasis on impact with an object or body movement, (4) engaging or practicing with others or alone, (5) targeting the appropriate age groups (younger participants or a wide age range of participants), (6) emphasizing in masculine or not. To better respond to the different segments or target markets, the usual practices include creating different new products that demonstrate benefits or attempting to serve new target groups with specific products (services) or strategies. After the adjustment is made for the segments and target markets, the sport marketers must reengage in “repositioning” to change the image or perception of the sports entity in the minds of target consumers.

Video Clip: (Market Segmentation for Sport Participation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0v92-JfpW8

Video Clip: (An example of growing target market: Hispanic Americans)

Question 4. The foundation of any strategic sports marketing process is understanding why spectators attend sporting events or _____.

• (a) environmental factors
• (b) fan motivation factors
• (c) sociological factors
• (d) psychological factors
• (e) none of the above

Question 5. The fan motivation factor that is based on the notion that fans like to attend games because they are exciting to the senses is called _____.

• (a) diversionary
• (b) aesthetics
• (c) eustress
• (d) need for affiliation
• (e) both a and b

Question 6. Perception is defined as the complex process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting small stimuli, such as sports. True    False

Question 7, In psychographics, AIO stands for _____.

• (a) area, income, occupation
• (b) advertising, images online
• (c) attitudes, internal search, outreach
• (d) activities, interests, opinions
• (e) advertising, interest, occupation

Question 8. According to the text, the definition of positioning is _____.

• (a) placement of a product on a page
• (b) where a sports product appears on a page
• (c) placing sports products in movies
• (d) fixing the sports product in the minds of the target market
• (e) none of the above

Question 9._____ is changing the image or perception of the sports entity in the minds of consumers in the target market.

• (a) Positioning
• (b) Segmentation
• (c) Targeting
• (d) Repositioning
• (e) None of the above

Conclusions—About College Sport Fans

Many new college-specific broadcasting channels, like the Big 10 Network, the Longhorn Channel, and SEC Network have sprung up within the decade. The popular discussions for the need of a college national championship also made the Bowl Championship series become a flourish reality. Despite the successes of those newly launched networks and numerous bowl games, it is evident that the overall attendance of college football and intercollegiate athletics are continuously shrinking. Attendance at college football games has remained flat since 2009. Student attendance dropped nearly 7.1% on average from 2009-2017. In order to understand why the student bodies do not attend the games anymore, a study has been done by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators at 65 schools with responses from 18,876 respondents (Editor, 2015; Cohen, 2014). The attempt is to discover what motivates students to attend a game and stay for the entire event. Apparently, the two most important motives that draw students to the games are their interest for the sports and the times of the game. Both T-shirt giveaways (73%) and discounted concessions (40%) are the most important reasons that cause students to stay the entire game (Editor, 2015).

Diagram 5. Reasons for Students Attending Football Games on Campus

It is not just the major colleges or universities that are losing their fan bases. Small colleges and universities are constantly battling with the issue of low attendance. Most of the time, the student body’s attendance and comments are often ignored, because they have brought in the lowest amount of income among various segments of the collegiate sports market (Chen & Teater, 2011). Although the faculty and staff are the individuals who have the financial ability and time to consume the products and attend events more frequently, they are the group with the lowest interest and identification (Chen & Mak, 2010; Chen, Salazar, & Fitzgerald, 2011; Mak & Chen, 2012).With the decrease of general funds to support the athletic programs, the pressure for collegiate marketing administers to generate more sales revenues is enormous. Despite a great passion for sports, the millennial generation college students seem to consume sports differently from other cohorts that the marketers are accustomed to dealing with (Deitsch & Wertheim, 2017). There should be an urgent need for the collegiate athletic programs to reposition the products and images and try to effectively accommodate the desired target markets.

FYI. Authors’ research studies related to fan attendance for the sports events

Chen, S., Duncan, T., Street, E., & Hesterburg, B. L. (2016). Differences in official athletic website coverage and social media use between men’s and women’s basketball teams. The Sport Journal. http://thesportjournal.org/article/differences-in-official-athletic-website-coverage-and-social-media-use-between-mens-and-womens-basketball-teams/

Smart, R., Chen, S., & Henderson, K. (2015). Characteristics and motivations of die-hard sport fans. Journal of Applied Marketing Theory, 6(1), 60-65.

Chen, S., Henderson, K., Smith, C. D., & Mason, N. (2014). Is dynamic pricing viable for small market collegiate athletics? Journal of Applied Marketing Theory, 5(2), 26-35.

Chen, S., Henderson, K., Worrell, E., & Salazar, W. (2012). Collegiate sports fans’ perceptions and expectations of personal seat license programs. Southern Business Journal, 27(2), 1-13.

Chen, S., Teater, S. A., & Whitaker, B. (2012). Perceptions of students, faculty, and administrators about pregame tailgate parties at a Kentucky regional university. International Journal of Developmental Sport Management, 1(2),  http://www.internationaljournalofdevelopmentalsportmanagement.com/resources/Steve%20S%20Chen%20Second%20article%20for%20April%20Publisihing.pdf

Mak, J., & Chen, S. (2012). Factors influencing men’s basketball season ticket purchase. KAHPERD Journal, 49(2), 32-40.  http://www.kahperd.com/userfiles/Spring%2012.pdf

Chen, S., & Teater, S. A. (2011). Student fans’ motives for attending athletic events and perceptions on the establishment of a student incentive program. International Journal of Developmental Sport Management, 1(1), http://www.internationaljournalofdevelopmentalsportmanagement.com

Chen, S., Salazar, W., & Fitzgerald, L. (2011). Factors affecting collegiate sports season-ticket holders’ satisfaction and renewal intention. ASAHPERD Journal, 31(2), 18-21.

Chen, S., & Mak, J. (2010). Collegiate basketball season-ticket holders’ purchasing motivation and interests. Journal of Applied Marketing Theory, 1(2), 1-7.

Chen, S., Teng, P. C., & Dongfang, C. D. (2008). Perceived service quality and satisfaction of onsite spectators of Super Basketball League in Taiwan. KAHPERD Journal, 44(2), 11-14.

Zhang, M., Chen, S., & Dick, R. (2008). Fan satisfaction analysis of NBA spectators: A practical example of strategic marketing. KAHPERD Journal, 44(1), 22.

Huang, Y. C., & Chen, S. (2006). The psychological attachment to the athletic program and intention to purchase athletic products by small-college athletic spectators. In B. G. Pitts (Ed.). Sport Marketing in the New Millennium: Selected Papers from the Third Annual Conference of the Sport Marketing Association, Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.

Brainstorming Activities

After going over the last paragraph of the conclusions, try to evaluate the current situation and attendance patterns of your institution. Use the following exercise to identify the different segments and target markets that your institution might reach. Can you think of any messages or ideas that you would like to implement to reposition your program in the minds of community fans and student body??

FYI: A list of useful websites and organizations that help us learn about the consumers as sports participants and spectators

https://nsga.org /

Home

https://www.sfia.org/reports/sample.php?id=277

http://www.missouri.edu/~ohhy/Course/TAM288/lifestyle.ppt

http://nova.umuc.edu/~black/umax000.html

http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/

http://www.ntcresearch.org/pdf-rpts/Bref0604/S02-AC23-04e.pdf

http://lcb.uoregon.edu/departments/mktg/research.html

http://www.warsawcenter.com/academics/lkahle.htm

http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327663jcp1401&2_7?cookieSet=1

http://www.hicbusiness.org/biz2003proceedings/Kevin%20Ann%20Kelsmark.pdf

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