Attendance of Brazilian soccer games: the role of constraints and team identification

Abstract

Research question The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the structural relationships between constraints and intentions to attend soccer games in Brazil. Considering the well-established importance of team identification for sport consumer behaviors, we tested the role of this construct on those structural relationships. This investigation started with the following research question: Can constraints explain some variance in attendance intentions above and beyond that explained by team identification? Research methods To answer this question, we proposed a model with team identification as the exogenous construct, constraints as the mediator, and attendance intentions as the endogenous construct. We first conducted a pilot test (n = 675) via confirmatory factor analysis to investigate the psychometric properties of the constraint scale. Then, we applied structural equation modeling to test the measurement model and the proposed structural model using a second sample of fans (n = 583). Results and findings Results showed that the indirect effect of team identification on attendance through perceptions of barriers was small, mainly because of the small relationship between team identification and constraints. A direct effects model was deemed to be a better structural representation of the relationships between constraints and intentions to attend, controlling for team identification. Implications Managing and removing barriers might increase attendance intentions above and beyond the parcel associated with team identification. Not highly identified fans can be attracted to stadiums not only by becoming more identified (the traditional view), but also by perceiving less barriers (the alternative view)

Sport Tourists’ Team Identification and Revisit Intention: Looking at the Relationship through a Nostalgic Lens

“…To begin with, the results confirmed positive relationships between team identification and revisit intention (i.e., Hypothesis 1 0 ) and between sport nostalgia and revisit intention (i.e., Hypothesis 3 0 ). The findings are consistent with previous studies connecting team identification and revisit intention (Kwon et al, 2007; Matsuoka et al, 2003; Rocha & Fleury, 2017) as well as research linking nostalgia to revisit intention (Ali, 2015; Chen & Chen, 2010; Phau et al, 2016). Examining the path coefficients, sport nostalgia (β = .357) was a better predictor of revisit intention among sport tourists than team identification (β = .317).…”

“…As for the path from team identification to revisit intention, the size of path coefficient in this study is comparable to what others have reported with respect to the team identification-behavioral intention link (e.g., 0.364 from Kwon et al, 2007 or .342 from Matsuoka et al, 2003). Rocha and Fleury (2017) provided a substantially higher value (.537) for the path between team identification and attendance intention, but they considered a negative mediator (i.e., constraint) which was not the case in Kwon et al’s (2007), Matsuoka et al’s (2003), or this study. Unlike team identification, there is no previous research that can be referenced for sport nostalgia.…”

“…Particularly relevant to this study are findings related to sporting event attendance and spectatorship. Individuals with high team attachment are more likely to enjoy the games onsite or on media (Matsuoka et al, 2003; Rocha & Fleury, 2017). This positive relationship is not affected even if individuals have witnessed previous losses of their team (Sutton et al, 1997).…”

Factors influencing attendance at stadiums and arenas

“…According to Trail et al (2005), the more viewers build self-esteem through BIRGing, or at least maintain self-esteem through CORFing, it is more likely that they will watch future games. One of the main reasons for the sporting consumer to attend the stadium is their identification with their clubs (Rocha and Fleury, 2017;Kim and Trail, 2010). The social identity theory suggests that organizations with highly identified clients should experience positive results as a result of this identification (Van Leeuwen et al, 2002).…”

Sport attendance behavior spectrum: motivators, constraints and context

“…Attendance constraints in sport were adapted from the leisure realm (Godbey et al , 2010; Mayer et al , 2017), and much of the work has focused on premiere sport via American college football (Simmons et al , 2017, 2018; Trail et al , 2008) and basketball (Havard and Dwyer, 2012). Also, the upper professional level via North American hockey (Casper et al , 2009), Brazilian soccer (Rocha and Fleury, 2017) and Australian football and rugby (McDonald, 2010; McDonald and Stavros, 2007) have been explored. A few that have considered non-premier sport focused on American college sports in Division I volleyball (Mayer et al , 2017) and Division III men's sports (Perrault, 2016), semi-professional Australian soccer (Lock and Filo, 2012) and J2 League soccer in Japan (Yamashita, 2015).…”