Social Perception and Attitude Towards International Sporting Events of Local Residents

Abstract

Sporting events are central to the world of professional sports, making the acceptance and support of these events critical to their success. Our study aimed to analyse the relationship between opinion formation (support or opposition) and general attitudes toward sporting events in Hungary. And also to explore how attitudes towards sporting events differ from those who do not. To determine the connection and effects of the model, we use Covariance-based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM), while in order to analyse the differences of supporter types we concluded a Cluster analysis. The latent variables of the developed SEM model had high internal consistency and good reliability, while the model had good psychometric properties. The results indicate that attitude has a significantly positive effect on perceived positive impacts of sports events (=0.93), explaining 87% of its variance, while it also has a significantly negative effect on perceptions of negative impacts of sporting events (>=-0.42). In addition, there is a strong direct effect between positive attitudes towards sports events and their positive perception. Through cluster analysis, we identified four significantly distinct groups: "Opponents" (13.5%), "Indifferent" (28.6%), "Rational Supporters" (29.4%), and "Enthusiastic Supporters" (28.6%). Most of the respondents agreed that international sporting events can enhance the image of the host city, promote economic development, and stimulate the local economy. However, perceived negative effects were driven by political reasons, such as government support for sports and lack of information. Therefore, our findings suggest that education and the provision of accurate information can help increase support for similar sporting events.