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This research work explores the perception of children's experiences as spectators of a sporting event. The study focusses on the 19th Mediterranean Games hosted by Oran in the summer of 2022 and aims to analyse the trace of emotions and memories that the event left in their minds. A qualitative survey was conducted with 22 resident children who attended the event as spectators. The results show that a child's experience at a sporting event is holistic, appearing in several dimensions: a cognitive dimension, referring to what the child learnt from the event, and an affective dimension, which is important for creating strong and meaningful experiences for children at sporting events.

The desire to spectate at traditional events and festivals in different countries is dying. From a marketing perspective, researchers and practitioners need to understand why people spectate at these conventional events and festivals. Data-driven marketing approaches can help event and festival marketing policymakers in attracting potential spectators. Drawing on attachment theory, the current study fills this void and explores fans' motivation and intentions to follow Kushti (i.e. traditional wrestling) events while developing a new event attachment scale (EAS).

Three comprehensive studies were conducted. First, an exploratory study where 12 retired wrestlers, considered hardcore fans of Kushti were interviewed. The collected data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Second, a pilot study (n = 204) was performed leading to a main survey (n = 365). The survey data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques.

Results revealed five types of attachments (i.e., ground attachment, game attachment, emotional attachment, cultural attachment and player attachment). An important intervention is the unique elements within each of these attachments, which may motivate fans to follow traditional gaming events. The new scale offers excellent psychometric properties.

Event and festival marketers should consider the role of tradition while marketing such events. The retired wrestlers can be used as influences/reference points to attract visitors to spectate at Kushti events. Furthermore, facilities such as smooth roads, approachable grounds and excellent service operations during these events can help policymakers to attract more spectators.

The study is unique in contextualizing Kushti and presenting a unique scale to measure fans' motivations and intentions to follow traditional gaming events.

This study aims to explore spectators' awareness of and attitudes toward sponsoring firms as well as to propose a model predicting their purchase and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions toward the sponsors of a major sporting event during a pandemic crisis.

A quantitative method was used to collect the data, with 1,259 questionnaires being effectively collected and analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data.

Factors such as sports involvement, sincerity, social media use, beliefs about sponsorship, sponsor's image, Covid-19 beliefs and emotions, awareness of and attitude toward sponsors were found to significantly predict spectators' purchase and WOM intentions.

The results support the structural equation model, providing a multidisciplinary conceptual framework that highlights the significance of comprehending the role of significant factors in sponsorship efficiency during the Covid-19 crisis. The proposed framework adds to the knowledge corpus of this field.

Arts practitioners have looked for ways to engage their audiences and sustain their interests and patronage of theatre shows amidst the coronavirus pandemic that kept patrons at home. This has led to digital engagement with audience members via social media. This research paper looks at digital audience engagement in Nigeria’s theatre using Segun Adefila’s production of Tosin Jobi-Tume’s Corona Palava which was performed on 4 August, 2020, at the Crown Arts Centre in Bariga, Lagos, Nigeria and later made available on Facebook on 22 December, 2020 and 21 December 21 2021.

This study is based on the “Arts Audience Experience Index” theory proposed by Radbourne et al. (2009). It employs netnography as its methodology. This entails observing and analysing users’ comments, communication style, frequency of engagement and dwell time while watching Corona Palava production on the researcher’s Facebook timeline “Tekena Gasper Mark” and on the Facebook group “Bolt Drivers in Port Harcourt”. Overall, 53 comments (39 from the researcher’s Facebook friends and 14 from members of the Facebook group “Bolt Drivers in Port Harcourt”) were sampled and analysed to provide insights into how the spectators experienced the Corona Palava production.

The text that accompanied the Facebook video provided viewers with information about the performance, helped them prepare for what to expect, reduced the likelihood that they would experience any unease while watching it and increased the likelihood that they would look for similar performances in the future. They were pleased with the performance; there were no functional risks, no economic risks and no psychological and social risks. Although they may have watched it at varying times, Facebook provided a space for them to engage with the performance as a group and share their thoughts in the post-performance comments.

One of the study’s limitations is that one cannot ascertain how many of the respondents are drivers. Also, the researcher believes that the length of the video may have discouraged participation in the study. In order to increase viewership and provide better findings, future studies and artistic endeavours could consider shorter pieces (about 3–5 min) and wider locations (transportation businesses) where a larger number of drivers with active social media presence, can participate in the research.

This study documents an innovative approach to reaching theatre audience via social media in Nigeria.

This research demonstrates that Nigerian theatre and arts practitioners are reinventing their approaches to play production by using the social media to reach their audiences in the post-COVID-19 era.

The study reveals that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Nigerian theatre artists have looked for ways to engage their audiences and sustain their interest and patronage of arts projects through social media.

Social factors, such as fellow spectators in a stadium or other fans sharing their experiences on online platforms, play a dominant role in spectator sport consumption. This conceptual article sets out to achieve three objectives: classify customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions in the sport fan context, develop a framework that links the classification of interactions to relevant outcomes and identify areas for related future research.

The authors integrate conceptual and empirical contributions on C2C interactions in the service, marketing and sport management literature.

The article proposes classifying C2C interactions into synchronous multi- and uni-directional interactions as well as asynchronous multi- and uni-directional interactions. The C2C interaction framework (C2CIF) proposes that such C2C interactions have hedonic, social, symbolic and utilitarian value outcomes. It further suggests that physiological, psychological and social processes underlie the co-creation or co-destruction of value and identifies contingencies at both the fan and the brand level.

Based on the C2CIF, we identify relevant topics for future research, in particular relating to technology-supported and virtual interactions among fans, fan-to-fan interactions across different countries and cultural backgrounds and fan-to-fan interactions as a way to reduce societal concerns.

This study investigates how virtual reality (VR) travel attributes (e.g. sense and quality of information) influence spectators' flow experience, how emotion and past experience affect enjoyment and examines the impact of flow experience and enjoyment on satisfaction and booking or visiting intention.

The VR tour stimuli were fabricated using scenic views from the National Aquarium in the USA. Participants were equipped with Matterport VR and audio headsets and started their virtual travel. Once the participants completed their VR tours, they were asked to complete the questionnaire. Using the stimulus-organism-response theory, 303 valid responses were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results showed that the sense and quality of information in VR travel positively and significantly impacted the flow experience. Moreover, emotions and past experiences positively and significantly influenced the enjoyment of VR travel. Similarly, flow experience and enjoyment positively and significantly affect satisfaction. However, satisfaction with VR-related tourism experiences negatively affects users' bookings and visiting intentions.

This study concludes that, from Thai tourists' perspectives, virtual travel should be used as a solution only during the pandemic because, in the long term it can cause a loss to the business chain in the tourism industry.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no prior research has examined the influence of past experiences and emotions on satisfaction with VR travel.

Sport organizations increasingly emphasize their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) inclusion by promoting a perfect score on the Athlete Ally Equality Index, partnering with nonprofits to increase awareness of LGBTQ individuals in sport (e.g. Rainbow Laces campaign), or hosting a pride night for LGBTQ fans. Despite these and similar efforts, LGBTQ fans historically have felt unwelcome in sport settings, thereby signaling the need for inclusive fan codes of conduct. The purpose of this study was to examine both the prevalence and antecedents of such policies.

Using publicly available data sources, the authors focused on 350 Division 1 college athletic departments in the USA.

Results illustrate factors at both the macro (i.e. institution) and meso- (i.e. athletic department) levels interact to explain whether a school will possess a fan code of conduct. Specifically, research-intensive institutions with strong gender equity are more likely to possess a code of conduct than schools that are not research oriented and have weak gender equity. This project extends the understanding of LBGTQ inclusion in the sports industry.

The current study is the first to examine the prevalence and predictors of LGBTQ-inclusive fan codes of conduct. Understanding these dynamics can help athletic programs that want to create safe and inclusive sport spaces for LGBTQ fans and spectators.

Insights into how fan experience can be used to cultivate football (soccer) fan loyalty are limited. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) paradigm, this study develops and tests a theoretical model investigating the effects of football-game socialisation, team interest, football interest and transaction satisfaction (stimuli) on fanship and cumulative satisfaction (organism), and subsequently, attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty (response). National culture was a moderator.

A self-administered online survey collected data from a convenience sample of 762 football fans from Brazil, China and Germany.

The PLS-SEM results support the S-O-R based model, indicating that football fan-loyalty behaviours are determined by fanship and cumulative satisfaction with the team. Fan experiences, in turn, are also found to be influenced by fan perceptions relating to socialisation, team interest, football interest and transaction satisfaction—elements over which the football team's management may exert some degree of control. Some national cultural differences were found, with three of the model's 12 structural paths significantly different for Germany vis-à-vis Brazil.

This study advances the authors’ understanding of the significance of socialisation and fan-interest factors for football, providing evidence supporting the role of the fan experience and service-consumption stimuli related to those game experiences as significant drivers (stimuli) of the fan's affective (fanship) and cognitive states (cumulative satisfaction). This study enriches the limited body of evidence on fanship's role as a driver of attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. Finally, the multi-country study partially supports the moderation effect of national culture.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the interrelationships among the dimensions of sport event experience, event satisfaction and event behavioral intentions.

The sample was comprised of 186 individuals who actively participated in a mass participation sport event. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the relationships among the latent constructs.

The results indicated that the dimensions of sport event experience predicted 55% of the variance of event satisfaction and 63% of the variance of event behavioral intentions was predicted by sport event experience dimensions and event satisfaction. Specifically, the sensory, affective and relational dimensions of experience sought to have a statistically significant and positive association with event satisfaction, while event satisfaction and the relational dimension of experience were found to have a statistically significant and positive correlation with event behavioral intentions. In addition, event satisfaction was found to mediate the relationships between sensory, affective and relational experiences and event behavioral intentions.

The present study is one of the first that explores the relationships among sport event experience’s dimensions, event satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions in the context of sport event participation.