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Article
Publication date: 11 October 2011

Tim Benijts, Wim Lagae and Benedict Vanclooster

This study seeks to examine how a sport league, a unique feature of professional sport, influences the business‐to‐business marketing of teams participating in the sport league.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to examine how a sport league, a unique feature of professional sport, influences the business‐to‐business marketing of teams participating in the sport league.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a qualitative research design based on a single case study, the UCI ProTour in professional road cycling. The primary sources consist of 27 semi‐structured interviews complemented by written sources and controlled for construct validity, external validity and reliability.

Findings

From a theoretical point of view, a sport league is a marketing channel network (a specific type of an intentionally developed business network or IDBN). Theoretical analysis also reveals that the teams' business‐to‐business marketing is positively related to the network's value‐creating system. Empirically, it is argued that the introduction of a marketing channel network has a positive influence on the financial value of the teams' business‐to‐business market but does not result in a change in the business demographics of corporate sponsors.

Research limitations

The study has possible sport‐specific limitations.

Practical implications

Business‐to‐business marketers and sport league managers should pay attention to the characteristics of the sport league as these influence the teams' business‐to‐business market. This is especially valid for sports in which teams rely strongly on sport sponsoring and, to a lesser extend, on gate revenues, television rights and prize money.

Originality/value

For the first time, this study examines and provides data on the business‐to‐business environment of teams in professional road cycling. It contributes to the literature of international sport marketing and professional road cycling, a sport gaining momentum in various countries and which is understudied in comparison to other sports.

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2006

Daniel C. Funk, Makoto Nakazawa, Daniel F. Mahony and Robert Thrasher

This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the national sports lottery (toto) in 2001 and the 2002 FIFA World Cup for the Japan Professional Soccer League - J. League. In 2001 J. League attendances grew dramatically and were sustained in subsequent years, even though member clubs did not change many of their marketing strategies and chose to maintain a distance from toto. The evidence suggests that hosting the World Cup allowed the league to leverage the country's hosting of the event in order to generate long-term interest and attendance at J. League games. By contrast, toto appears to have had a short-term impact.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2009

Michael A. Levin

This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and…

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of competitive balance among teams in a league in predicting attendance at spectator sporting events. It also controls for the demographic and economic characteristics of the league's markets, and changes in the number of teams in the league. The research relies on a sample that includes 707 non-major professional team seasonal win-loss records (12,956 games) from five sports, aggregated into 75 seasons to develop a model consistent with extant literature. The authors find that competitive balance and average income in the league's markets are significant predictors of leaguewide attendance.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2001

Laura Cousens, Kathy Babiak and Trevor Slack

This paper explores the adoption of a relationship marketing paradigm by the National Basketball Association. A contextualist framework was used to explore the context, content…

Abstract

This paper explores the adoption of a relationship marketing paradigm by the National Basketball Association. A contextualist framework was used to explore the context, content and processes of this change that evolved over a 17-year time period. Personal interviews were conducted with leaders of this league and over 80 documents were reviewed and content analyzed. The results of this study provide insights into relationship marketing and organizational change for sport managers.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 September 2021

Adam Rugg

This chapter deconstructs the carefully crafted marketing rollout of the US-based Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997, which was presented as the biggest launch…

Abstract

This chapter deconstructs the carefully crafted marketing rollout of the US-based Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997, which was presented as the biggest launch in women's sports history. Through a textual and rhetorical analysis, this chapter argues that the WNBA and its corporate partners – through the bundling of distribution channels, sponsorships, and advertising strategies – created three distinct, and at times ideologically conflicting, images of the league: the WNBA as valid capitalistic enterprise, the WNBA as a masculine validation of female athleticism, and the WNBA as a symbolic moment in the political struggle of women for equality. Yet, while this initial, fractured marketing of the league provided a space for cultivating a challenge to dominant gender politics, this space was ultimately restricted to white, heterosexual conceptions of women as the league's array of marketing strategies were unified in reproducing regressive representations of race and sexuality that animate contemporary US sports. However, in institutionally maintaining this narrow, limited space for challenge and protest against inequality, the WNBA nonetheless sanctioned the league as one where players could still fight against injustice. Ultimately, this space would provide a platform for WNBA athletes to enact pioneering challenges against police brutality and racial injustice that would contradict the league's strategic aims.

Details

The Professionalisation of Women’s Sport
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-196-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2002

John Forster and Nigel K. Ll. Pope

Sport leagues are subject to the potential market entry of new leagues playing essentially the same sport. The economic analysis of market entry and exit is used to interpret two…

Abstract

Sport leagues are subject to the potential market entry of new leagues playing essentially the same sport. The economic analysis of market entry and exit is used to interpret two Australian cases of new league entry. These new entrants were World Series Cricket (cricket) and Super League (rugby league). The role of the media in the creation of both new leagues was crucial, providing commercial rationale, seed-funding and organizational capabilities. In addition, strategic input competition for venues and players helped weaken the incumbent league. The two cases analyzed provide a template for intending sport league entrants.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2021

Markus Buser, Herbert Woratschek and B. David Ridpath

In this paper, Fantasy Sports (Hereafter FS) is conceptually classified as a concept of gamification for professional sport leagues. From a sporting perspective, FS is often…

Abstract

Purpose

In this paper, Fantasy Sports (Hereafter FS) is conceptually classified as a concept of gamification for professional sport leagues. From a sporting perspective, FS is often criticized because such online activities may be at the expense of physical activities. Otherwise, gamification can ultimately lead to economic advantages for sport leagues. To further empirically analyse this supposed juxtaposition, an empirical study is presented.

Design/methodology/approach

In the empirical study, participation and non-participation in a sport league-related FS league are analysed and the study uses a divided sample (N = 319) for a one-factor Welch-ANOVA. FS effects on sport practice (engaging in doing sport) and usage (engaging with sport) of FS players as well as on gaining and retaining fans are investigated.

Findings

Results demonstrate that participating in gamified FS experiences increases sport usage while not harming general sport practice. Furthermore, FS participation increases consumption capital as well as sport fans' loyalty and word of mouth (WOM) towards the league brand. Building on the results, league brands should foster gamified FS applications to retain their fan base and acquire new fans.

Originality/value

The authors’ theoretical contribution indicates the importance of FS as a gamified application and essential marketing tool for professional sport leagues. By introducing the terms sport practice and usage, the authors bridge the traditional logic of sport consumption with innovative approaches around engagement in and with sports. The results refute the prejudice that FS leads to less physical activity due to time substitution or displacement.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 11 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2019

Bridget Satinover Nichols, Joe Cobbs and B. David Tyler

The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing.

Design/methodology/approach

The research comprises three experiments. Study 1 employs CRSM advertising to test fans’ responses when rival or hometown team imagery is featured by Major League Baseball (MLB). Studies 2 and 3 utilize a press release to activate a cause partnership in MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and assess the potential influence of team involvement and schadenfreude toward the rival team.

Findings

Contrary to previous research, results demonstrate that rival team presence in league-wide activation can reduce intentions to support the cause effort across both leagues, but not in all circumstances. The influence of rival team exposure on perceived sincerity is moderated by team involvement with the cause in MLB, but not the NBA. However, sincerity consistently enhances cause support across all studies. While conditional effects of schadenfreude are noted, it is not a significant moderator of cause support.

Research limitations/implications

This research exposes the nuance of league-wide CRSM activations. Specifically, the rival team effect on perceived sincerity seems to be league dependent, and subject to team involvement with the cause. Moreover, these results are limited to the leagues studied.

Practical implications

League administrators and their cause-related partners should exercise due diligence when promoting their affiliation using specific teams and levels of involvement with the cause.

Originality/value

These studies produce results that differ from the limited prior research within the domain of league-wide CRSM, and therefore advance the conversation regarding how best to activate such campaigns.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 January 2010

Heath McDonald, Adam J. Karg and Daniel Lock

It is not uncommon for sports fans to follow multiple sports teams across different sports and even several teams across different leagues of the same sport. Whereas this might be…

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Abstract

Purpose

It is not uncommon for sports fans to follow multiple sports teams across different sports and even several teams across different leagues of the same sport. Whereas this might be considered a competitive situation, the purpose of this paper is to examine how interest in overseas football (soccer) leagues played a symbiotic role in the successful development of an Australian national soccer league.

Design/methodology/approach

Results of survey data are presented from two clubs in Australia's newly formed A‐League. Three surveys were conducted over a two year period with over 3,700 season ticket holders. Specific attention is paid to fans' previous interest and exposure to football, which is then related to attitudes and behaviour associated with the new clubs.

Findings

Interest in overseas clubs and leagues is found to be a major antecedent of interest in the Australian league. Those who follow teams in overseas leagues are more likely to be heavy consumers of the new local league than those who follow local leagues or had no prior experience. They also exhibit stronger attitudinal and behavioural loyalty, such as higher attendance and renewal rates of season tickets.

Practical implications

Recognising fan interest in multiple teams/leagues as positive involves a shift in management thinking away from a competitive to a collaborative stance. In this case, rapid adoption of new teams is encouraged by capitalising on strong interest in overseas leagues. This requires careful structuring and branding of the competition that mimicks familiar foreign leagues, while minimising unfavourable comparisons in areas like quality of play.

Originality/value

This study capitalises on the rare opportunity to examine foundation teams in a new national league. The findings highlight the importance and value of taking a “global” perspective to the marketing of sports, and of carefully leveraging the interest in other elite competitions to build interest in new leagues.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

Keywords

Abstract

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 33 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

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