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This paper aims to develop a scale for stadium atmosphere in the Indian context. This is considered as a key area for sports managers, as stadium attendance contributes toward the teams revenues. Moreover, while the importance of environment is well-established in the marketing literature, stadium atmosphere has received limited attention.

Through qualitative and quantitative studies in five different phases, a 14-item four-dimension stadium atmosphere scale was developed that included physical layout, facility aesthetics, entertainment experience and social interaction.

The stadium atmosphere scale developed in this study demonstrates sound psychometric properties based on various reliability and validity tests as well as scale replications using different samples.

The stadium atmosphere scale developed will be of particular use for sports marketers and management. It could be inferred that the stadium managers could expect high spectator attendance and satisfaction by focusing on stadium atmosphere factors such as the accessibility of seats and allocation of seat spaces, stadium architecture, the game characteristics and the attitudes and behaviors of stadium employees during live games.

The present study addresses a key gap identified in the sports marketing and management area. The study adds to the conceptual understanding of the stadium atmosphere construct and empirically demonstrates the measurement scale for the construct.

This study seeks to examine the moderating role of team identification regarding the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among spectators of professional sports.

Quantitative data are collected from a questionnaire survey of 257 spectators attending a professional soccer game in Greece. Multiple regression analyses are used to assess the relationships among the constructs of service quality, repurchase intentions, and team identification.

Team identification is shown to moderate the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among spectators at this professional sports event. Both overall service quality and two specific service‐quality dimensions (“responsiveness” and “reliability”) are found to be positively associated with repurchase intentions only among respondents with low and medium team identification. No relationship is found between service quality and repurchase intentions among those with high team identification.

Managers of professional sports events who wish to increase attendances by improvements in service quality should first segment their customers according to degree of team affiliation. They should then design their service offerings specifically to meet the service‐quality expectations of sports fans with medium or low team identification.

The study provides valuable empirical evidence of the moderating role of team identification with regard to the relationship between service quality and repurchase intentions among consumers of professional sports events.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between event quality and fan satisfaction and consequent fan attendance of soccer matches in Iran. Data on game quality, augmented service, interaction, outcome, environment, fan satisfaction and attendance were gathered from 260 spectators attending an Iranian premier league soccer match by means of a survey. The results show that, except for interaction, all dimensions of event quality have a significant relationship with fan satisfaction. Moreover, the effect of game quality on fan satisfaction is stronger than other dimensions. The results also confirm the significant relationship between fan satisfaction and attendance. Fan satisfaction is shown to be partially mediating the relationship between event quality and game attendance. Practical implications for facility managers and sports marketers are discussed.

There are few studies examining the marketing characteristics of intercollegiate women's volleyball spectators. The purpose of this paper is to examine intercollegiate women's volleyball spectators from the perspectives of sociodemographics, market demand and consumption. Spectators (N=265) from seven intercollegiate women's volleyball games at three National Collegiate Athlete Association Division-I universities participated in the study. The findings indicate that there is a need to emphasise the market demand factors when marketing intercollegiate women's volleyball games.

This study compared the motives and media consumption behaviours of American and South Korean spectators of Mixed Martial Arts. Significant cross-national differences were noted in sport interest, vicarious achievement, aesthetics, national pride and violence. Backward regression analyses indicated that sport interest, fighter interest and drama predicted media consumption at the American event, while sport interest, drama and adoration were significant predictors at the Korean event.

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate sport spectators’ attitudes, specifically team loyalty and attitude towards spectating behaviour by investigating the reliability and validity of the proposed model, and the influence of the attitudinal factors on intention to re-attend sporting events.

In this quantitative study, data were longitudinally collected from five professional soccer teams of the Japanese professional soccer league official surveys of 2008. The study was analysed in two phases by first examining the reliability and validity of the measurements and then the appropriateness of the model. Finally, a multiple group analysis was conducted to examine the applicability across the aforementioned five teams.

Team loyalty conceptually and empirically differed from attitudes towards spectating behaviour. The proposed model indicated how attitudes have impacts on spectators’ future attendance at professional sports events, but the model significantly changed when parameters of the model were progressively constrained, suggesting that each team's uniqueness may influence spectators’ intention to attend future games.

Sport spectators’ attitudes play a significant role in the decision-making process of deciding to attend an event, and an understanding of how spectators’ attitudes influence their intention to re-attend events could be of value to both scholars and sports team managers. Spectators of each team have their own characteristics and although this makes it difficult to generalise the results, this study contributes to an understanding of spectators’ attitudes.

Esports (electronic sports) are watched by hundreds of millions of people every year and many esports have overtaken large traditional sports in spectator numbers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate spectating differences between online spectating of esports and live attendance of esports events. This is done in order to further understand attendance behaviour for a cultural phenomenon that is primarily mediated through internet technologies, and to be able to predict behavioural patterns.

This study employs the Motivation Scale for Sports Consumption to investigate the gratifications spectators derive from esports, both from attending tournaments physically and spectating online, in order to explore which factors may explain the esports spectating behaviour. The authors investigate how these gratifications lead into continued spectatorship online and offline, as well as the likelihood of recommending esports to others. The authors employ two data sets, one collected from online spectators (n=888), the other from live attendees (n=221).

The results indicate that online spectators rate drama, acquisition of knowledge, appreciation of skill, novelty, aesthetics and enjoyment of aggression higher than live attendees. Correspondingly, social interaction and physical attractiveness were rated higher by live attendees. Vicarious achievement and physical attractiveness positively predicted intention to attend live sports events while vicarious achievement and novelty positively predicted future online consumption of esports. Finally, vicarious achievement and novelty positively predicted recommending esports to others.

During the past years, esports has emerged as a new form of culture and entertainment, that is unique in comparison to other forms of entertainment, as it is almost fully reliant on computer-human interaction and the internet. This study offers one of the first attempts to compare online spectating and live attendance, in order to better understand the phenomenon and the consumers involved. As the growth of esports is predicted to continue in the coming years, further understanding of this phenomenon is pivotal for multiple stakeholder groups.

Sports organisations must continuously assess how better to meet or exceed consumer expectations and perceptions of their experience in order to maintain and increase the number of spectators and loyal fans attending their sporting events. This study aims to enhance our understanding of which characteristics of a service attribute will best define its quality and impact on spectator behaviour by understanding the causal relationship between perceived service quality (PSQ) and satisfaction.