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In this paper, we examined how brand environments and pre-existing attachments create brand awareness of a new sport team. Using a two-wave panel design, this study used a new sport team in the US as a natural experiment to examine the changes in awareness before and after the team's debut. We collected data from a sample of 190 representative city residents. Our results showed that brand awareness increased by 39.2% after the team played the inaugural game. We attributed the driving forces behind this change to a preseason branding campaign and individuals' existing connections with sport-based objects. Consistent with our hypotheses, the findings also revealed that (a) individuals who were repeatedly exposed to brand information had a higher rate of change in brand awareness and (b) brand environments and brand awareness represented two mediation pathways through which pre-existing attachments exerted positive influences on consumption behaviors. Keywords: brand awareness, brand environment, pre-existing attachments, brand consumption, ecological psychology, wo-wave design, Introduction While sport franchises benefit from strong brands, new sport teams have different challenges compared to established teams because they must first raise awareness of their brand. New teams in [...]

Professional sporting events attract millions of fans to urban areas each year as they cheer on their favorite teams. While benefits, such as increased tax revenues and economic development, are often cited as reasons to host a professional sports franchise, the public and private costs receive much less attention. This paper uses air quality readings from the Environmental Protection Agency and Major League Baseball schedules to estimate the impact of Major League Baseball games on local air pollution. The results suggest that attendance at a Major League Baseball game has a statistically significant but negligible impact on local air pollution. (JEL Q53, R11), I. INTRODUCTION Despite the dramatic reduction of air pollution over the past few decades, many households still suffer from health consequences that are a direct result of air pollution (Neidell [...]

For the last half-century professional sports have been held up as a model of racial equality, as black athletes have competed relatively freely with whites. More recently, some observers have wondered whether the success of the black athlete has steered black youth away from more rewarding pursuits. In this paper, I show that when athletic opportunities become available before opportunities in the labor market as a whole, youths have an incentive to invest in an unprofitable form of human capital. This perpetuates racial disparities in the fact of equal opportunity legislation.

To overcome the negative stigma due to their association with ticket fraud and price inflation, research has suggested secondary ticket market companies partner with professional sport leagues and teams. Moreover, such a partnership can increase revenues of the ticket market companies. However, additional research is needed to explore how official partnerships influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions. Relevant findings clarify the mechanism through which official partnerships affect secondary ticket providers' financial success and provide insight into consumers' attitudes toward the ticket resale industry while informing the literature on the effectiveness of sponsorships. Thus, utilizing a multi-study design, the current research examines consumers' perceptions of official partnerships and assesses their impact on purchase intentions. Also, given historical negative perceptions of the secondary ticket market, the current study investigates the mediating effects of perceived risk and the moderating effects of ticket price. Keywords: secondary market, sport ticket, official partnership, ticket price, purchase intentions, perceived risk, sponsorship, ticket price, The secondary ticket market (i.e., the ticket resale market) has grown considerably thanks to the emergence of many internet-based platforms that enable interested ticket buyers and sellers to engage in [...]

The purpose of this study was to identify segments within the social media networks of major professional sport organizations. Relational data were collected from the Twitter accounts of four major professional sport organizations based in Toronto, Canada. Users within these networks were subsequently parsed based upon their Twitter behavior (e.g., likes, retweets, and follows) and their demographic information using an automated cluster analysis. After revealing characteristics of each segment, the findings highlight both sport focused (e.g., hockey, basketball) and non-sport focused (e.g., mothers, music lovers) subgroups which, in some cases, appear in multiple professional sport team networks. The findings provide the antecedents to social media interaction and suggest managers within professional sport organizations consider this information before forging new or enhanced relationship marketing activities as well as cross-promotional campaigns with additional brands. Keywords: Twitter, relationship marketing, social networking, big data, Canadian sport http://doi.org/10.32731/SMQ.284.122019.04, In the social media space, engaging with fans and other stakeholders (e.g., facilities, governments) can be challenging for a sport organization. Multiple conversations on several social platforms occur simultaneously, which [...]

Smartphones are playing pivotal roles in sports fans' media consumption journey. However, what motivates sports fans to use smartphones for sports; what are some of the behavioral factors that influence sports consumption on smartphones; how smartphone use for sports is related to other media usage; and how fandom interacts with motivational and behavioral factors still remains unclear to academic scholars. An online survey (n = 646) was conducted to uncover the factors influencing sports consumption on smartphones. The results revealed that the motivator of acquiring information related to the sports, the behaviors of basking in reflected glory (BIRGing), as well as social sports participation, and the usage of websites, streaming videos, social media, radio, newspaper, and fantasy sports are factors that influence the consumption of sports on smartphones. Keywords: sport consumption, media consumption, social sports participation, smartphone use http://doi.org/10.32731/SMQ.284.122019.01, Smartphones have reshaped how consumers consume information and entertainment, functioning as portable computing devices that allow consumers to work, play, and communicate with others through various mobile applications anytime and [...]

Like many other elite athletes, National Football League ('NFL ') players typically have a short playing career, often leaving the league due to injury or lack of interest from teams before they have been able to prepare sufficiently for life after the league. This qualitative study examines the experiences of NFL players related to preparing for the transition out of professional sports. We completed interviews with a total of 25 players including both current and former players, as well as 27 family members of former and current players. Factors that affected their career preparation included features of the NFL work environment which necessitated an emphasis on football over other interests, identity foreclosure that made it difficult to consider other career options, limited exposure to other professions, and challenges with financial planning. Social contacts had both positive and negative effects on players 'preparation but family, particularly wives, provided important support. Our findings point to policies that might guide players in their preparation for life as former players including instituting mandatory training and counseling concerning these issues, beginning in a player's rookie year, and continuing throughout players 'tenures in the league., The game always leaves the player before the player is ready to leave it. Very few people actually leave the game on their own terms.... Typically, there's a better, faster, [...]

Histories of the Philadelphia Phillies portray the club's admission to the National League (NL) as a straightforward and swift process. Late in 1882, League president Abraham G. Mills informed former [...]

While nostalgic features are shown to be prevalent at modern baseball ballparks, research had yet to examine their impact on spectators. Therefore, the current study sought to investigate the impact of nostalgic features on sport spectator emotional and behavioral responses. A sample of578 Minor League Baseball spectators at two ballparks were surveyed to determine the impact of ballpark nostalgic features. Results showed the positive impact of nostalgia at the two ballparks with differences displayed according to setting. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided., Attracting fans to events continues to be a major challenge for the sport industry (Dellenger, 2017; Fisher, 2017). Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), and college football [...]