Testing Models of Motives and Points of Attachment among Spectators in College Football

As the spectator sport market has become large and competition for consumers has increased, the need for understanding spectators' motives and points of attachment has become important for developing effective marketing strategies. The purpose of the study was to examine four different models that explain the relationships among motives and points of attachment and determine a model that explains the most variance in the referent variables. A total of 501 college students responded to the Motivation Scale for Sport Consumption (MSSC) and the Points of Attachment Index (PAI). The results showed that motives can be divided into fan motives and spectator motives, and these motives were related to different sets of points of attachment: organizational identification and sport identification. Testing Models of Motives and Points of Attachment among Spectators in College Football Sport spectating is a popular leisure activity in the United States. In fact, attendance and revenues for spectator sports have steadily increased for the past Boyun Woo is a PhD candidate in sport management at Ohio State University. Research interests include organizational behavior and consumer behavior. Galen, T. Trail, PhD, is an associate professor and the coordinator of the Master's of Sport Administration and Leadership program at Seattle University. His research focuses on sport consumer behavior. Hyungil Harry Kwoti, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Education at Chung-Ang University. Korea. His research interests include sport team licensed merchandise sales and sport consumers' psychological constructs such as team identification and sport fan commitment. Dean Anderson, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Iowa State University. His research focuses on sociology of sport. ". dividing the market into different segmentations and applying different strategies for each segment based on their characteristics and needs is crucial in order to come up with effective marketing plans. " decade. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2008), in 2005, it was estimated that revenue from spectator sports was approximately $24 billion, which is 3.5% higher than the previous year and 26.6% more than in 2000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). It was also estimated that people spent approximately $15.9 billion in 2005 for admission to professional and amateur athletic events. Attending college football games is certainly a substantial part of spectating at amateur athletic events activity as it was estimated that over 48 million people attended college football games in 2007 (NCAA, 2008). This is a 30% increase from 1990 and a 10% increase compared with 2005. As the spectator sport market has become large and competition for consumers has increased, sport marketers' interests in searching for more effective marketing strategies to increase attendance have also increased. In general, dividing the market into different segmentations and applying different strategies for each segment based on their characteristics and needs is crucial in order to come up with effective marketing plans. Traditionally, researchers have examined different demographic factors, such as gender, age, education level, and household income to determine whether segmenting the market based on these characteristics is beneficial (e.g., Dietz-Uhler, Harrick, End, & lacquemotte, 2002; Fink, Trail, & Anderson, 2002b; Kahle, Kambara, & Rose, 1996; Robinson, Trail, & Kwon, 2004; Swanson, Gwinner, Larson, SÍ Janda, 2003; Zhang et al, 2001 ). However, recently, researchers have studied other factors, such as social values (Kahle, Duncan, Vassilis, 8< Aiken, 2001 ), motivations (Kahle et al., 1996; Swanson et al., 2003), and brand associations (Ross, 2007) as ways to segment markets. 38 Volume 18 • Ntimber 1 • 2009 • Sport Marheting Quarterly Yet, the areas of spectators' motives and points of attachment need more attention as potential variables with which to segment consumers. Some researchers have investigated various motives as important factors ihat influence people's decisions to spectate at sports events (Trail, Anderson, & Fink, 2000; Trail, Fink, & Anderson, 2003; Trail & James, 2001; Wann, 1996; Won 8i Kitamura, 2007). Other researchers have suggested that there may be other factors that influence people's decisions concerning sport consumer behaviors. Kwon, Trail, and Anderson (2005) suggested that some people watch sports events because they have a strong social-psychological connection with a team, coach, player, university, community, level of sport, and/or tyjie of sport. They call these connections points of attachment. As the concepts of motives and points of attachment have become popular, researchers have been examining relationships among motives and points of attachment (Fink, Trail, & Anderson, 2002a; Robinson & Trail, 2005; Robinson, Trail, & Kwon, 2004; Trail, Robinson, Dick, & Gillentine, 2003). These researchers claimed that certain spectators' motives may lead to strengthening certain points of attachment. "A better understanding of why people attend sports events can greatly help sport marketers develop more effective marketing strategies . " However, studies on the relationships among different motives and points of attachment are still limited. Although many researchers use different motives when examining spectators' consumption behaviors, most researchers have only focused on team identification when discussing points of attachment (e.g., James & Ross. 2002; Trail & James, 2001; Fink et al., 2002a). Also, research that deals with multiple motives and multiple points of attachments has shown conflicting lesults. Therefore, it appears important to extend previous research that examines the relationships among motives and points of attachment. In addition, with exception of Trail, Robinson, et al.'s (2003) study, most studies do not make distinctions between spectators and fans. This distinction may be valuable when studying sport consumer behavior. According to Sloan ( 1989), two different types of sport spectators may exist in a game: observers and fans. Those who attend the games as observers do not have a strong social-psychological attachment to team entities, such as the team, the player(s), or the coach, while fans are more likely to be highly attached to one or more of these potential connections. For our purposes, observers will be referred to as spectators. According to Trail, Robinson, et al. (2003), spectators and fans may have different motives, and these motives may lead to different points of attachment. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to extend Trail, Robinson, et al.'s (2003) study on the relationships among motives and points of attachment while making a distinction between fan and spectator motives in the context of college football. We propose four models that examine possible relationships among the variables in order to find a model that explains the most variance. A better understanding of why people attend sports events can greatly help sport marketers develop more effective marketing strategies that can enhance spectators' and fans' level of satisfaction with the sport consumer experience. As a result, sport marketers would be able to increase game attendance, media consumption, and merchandise consumption as suggested in the previous literature (e.g., Andrew & Todd, 2007; Fisher & Wakefield, 1998; Swanson et al., 2003; Trail & James, 2001 ). For example. Fisher and Wakefield (1998) discovered that group identification, which was motivated by domain involvement, perceived group performance, and group member attractiveness, was a significant predictor of attendance and the purchase of licensed products. In addition, Swanson et al. demonstrated that team identification, eustress, group affiliation, and self-esteem enhancement were closely related to game attendance. Motives Understanding sport consumer behavior such as event attendance is important for the financial success of sport. According to Trail et al. (2000), at least nine different motives may exist among sport spectators. These individual motives include vicarious achievement, acquisition of knowledge, aesthetic qualities of the game/sport, social interaction, drama, escape, family, physical attractiveness, and appreciation of physical skills. Previous studies have shown that these motives are highly correlated with each other indicating that they can be grouped into one category representing the same factor 'motive' (Robinson & Trail, 2005; Trail, Fink, et al., 2003; Trail & James, 2001 ). Other researchers suggested that these motives should be categorized into different groups (Robinson 8i Trail, 2005; Trail, Robinson, et al., 2003). Trail, Robinson, et al. (2003) grouped motives based on whether an individual is a fan or a spectator as suggested by Sloan ( 1989). They suggested that the reasons fans attend games and the reasons spectators attend games may be quite different, although some of the motives are applicable to both fans and spectators. They categorized vicarious achievement as a motive for fans of successful teams, and physical skill, aesthetic, drama, and knowledge as motives for fans of unsucVolunie 18 • Number 1 • 2009 • Sport Mariieting Quarteriy 39 cessful teams and for spectators. In addition, social and escape motives were classified as overarching motives that could be applied to both groups. "Six points of attachment were included in this study: team, coach, player, university, sport, and level of sport. " Points of Attachments Although motives and points of attachment are closely related constructs, researchers have made a clear distinction between these two constructs. Motives are thought to be related to basic human "needs" (McDonald, Milne, & Hong, 2002; Robinson & Trail, 2005), whereas points of attachment refiect a "psychological connection" toward a certain entity (Kwon & Armstrong, 2004). Traditi