Measuring Sports Fans' Involvement: The Fan Behavior Questionnaire

Abstract

ports have become an increasingly important part of our society; in particular this country has seen a large increase in the popularity of spectator sports. This gain is evidenced by the increase in money spent on spectator sports, which jumped from $3.7 billion in 1970 to $4.9 billion in 1994 (U. S. Census Bureau, 1996). The increase in attendance at the four major spectator sports in the U. S., from 1985 to 1998, has significantly increased. Major League Baseball has seen the largest increase in the number of people attending games (24.2 million, which is a 50% increase), followed by professional basketball (10.3 million, an 89% increase), professional football (5.7 million, a 40% increase), and professional hockey (5.6 million, a 49% increase). College sporting events have also seen an increase in attendance during this period (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). In addition to the increase in attendance, more TV programming is being devoted to sporting events. ESPN, a network devoted entirely to sports, was introduced in 1979. It has become so popular that two additional sports-only channels have been introduced, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. In fact, ESPN was the fifth highest ranked television network in 2000, in terms of revenue, which was estimated to be $2.1 billion (McAvoy, 2000). With this increase in the popularity of spectator sports has come an increased interest in the sports fan. This interest partially originates in the avid or extreme sports fan. The avid sports fan is a well-recognized breed and a pervasive part of our culture (Lieberman, 1991). For many people, sports spectating represents of the most passionate and intense of human endeavors, utterly dominating affect and cognition for short periods of time (Roese & Maniar, 1997: 1245). Sports certainly have a great influence on the lives of many people in our culture, which is one reason for interest in the sports fan. Another reason for this interest in the sports fan is in terms of fans as consumers. How do companies market to the huge audience of sports fans? In order to determine market strategy, companies must first understand more about the behaviors of sports fans. Literature Review Sport spectator, or fan, behavior has been studied for many years, with a significant increase in the last 10 years in the amount of research conducted. Currently, numerous theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of sport spectator involvement. Several theorists describe the benefits of the sports fan role, including increased selfworth, escape from work and tedious aspects of life, excitement, entertainment, a sense of achievement, positive stress (referred to as eustress), group membership, and socialization (Sloan, 1979; Wann, Schrader, & Wilson, 1999). Zillman, Bryant, and Sapolsky (1979) believe involvement as a sports fan can produce many of the same benefits that have been associated with sports participation. However, several theorists focus on the negative aspects of being a sports fan. These theorists believe that watching sporting events appeals to man's baser instincts and leads to aggression and violence in the spectators (Smith, Patterson, Williams, & Hogg, 1981). In fact, much of the social science research on sports spectators has focused on spectator violence (Wann & Branscombe, 1993). Other authors have described the sports fan role as that of a pacifier for people who would otherwise be bored and unhappy with their lives (Nash & Hoch, as cited in Smith et al., 1981). Many authors have also discussed the emotional impact sport spectating can have on fans, and Sloan (1979) conducted a study that illustrated that watching sporting events does affect spectators' emotions, in terms of more positive emotions (happy, satisfied, pleased) when their teams won and negative emotions (angry, frustrated, discouraged, sad, upset) when their teams lost. Recently, several authors have investigated theories of fan behavior and/or developed instruments to measure aspects of fan participation (Dietz-Uhler Ed Murrell, 1999; Fisher & Wakefield, 1998; Laverie & Arnett, 2000; Shank 4 Beasley, 1998; Wann & Branscombe, 1993; Wann & Schrader, 2000; Wann et al. …