"Developing Sports Fan Avidity for Increased Revenue Generation"

Open Access
- Author:
- Wendkos, Max S.
- Area of Honors:
- Marketing
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Johann Baumgartner, Thesis Supervisor
Johann Baumgartner, Thesis Supervisor
Jennifer Chang Coupland, Thesis Honors Advisor
Wayne Desarbo, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- fan avidity
fan development
sports marketing
identity formation
motivation - Abstract:
- The sports industry is thriving all over the world; in just the United States alone, it generated $414 billion in revenue in 2010. Nearly every aspect of this success can be traced back to sports fans, so sports franchises’ ability to capitalize on this lucrative market depends on the development of their fan bases. Previous research has shown that avid fans invest considerably more money into their sports fandom than casual fans, which highlights the importance of developing fan avidity to a franchise’s success. The franchises that arm themselves with an understanding of the psychology that motivates fan interest, passion, loyalty, and involvement will be able to outperform the competition and increase their revenue generation. Social identity theory, identity theory, and self-determination theory each present a framework for motivating permanent avid fan behaviors that can be applied to a franchise’s marketing practices. The identity theories offer techniques through which sports franchises can increase their fans’ identification with team-related social groups and their individual sports fan roles in different social contexts, while self-determination theory explores methods for facilitating intrinsically motivated avid fan behaviors and encouraging the internalization of extrinsically motivated avid fan behaviors. The objective of this study is to uncover the psychological drivers of sports fan avidity and their managerial implications that will drive additional revenue for sports franchises.